Applying the Science of Organizational Change to Police Organizations: What Police Executives Can Learn from the Research

Sunday, October 20, 2024

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM ET

Location: 257AB

Submitter and Speaker(s)

Libbi Palmer, Psy.D.

Psychologist
Palmer and Associates LLC
Lakewood, Colorado, United States

Speaker(s)

Eric Sonstegard

Chief of Police
Edgewater (CO) Police Department
Edgewater, Colorado, United States
Abigail Tucker, PsyD, Psy.D.

Psychologist
SHE Consulting
Edgewater, Colorado, United States

“The only constant in life is change.” —Heraclitus. Police organizations are required to be flexible, and police executives responsible for leading change face obstacles and barriers to their efforts. There is more than 50 years of research on what does and does not work in organizational change management, but this research does not always flow to police leaders in a way that allows them to make the most of the information. This workshop will summarize the top evidence-based components as well as some recent studies related to effective change management, including the Lippitt-Knoster model for managing complex change and the more recent work of Sutton and Rao. The panelists will discuss how these lessons have been applied to real-life situations and the results of those applications.