Six patterns of successful change management
D. Murali
Chennai: We know that successful change leadership is central to the present global age. But, worryingly, it seems doubtful whether our leaders know how to go about change management, as a new book on leadership observes.
Most leaders approach change initiatives with the classical tools they learned from the discipline of project management, says Timothy R. Clark in ‘EPIC Change’ (www.josseybass.com). That approach doesn’t help, he laments. Because, change, as a rule, is ‘dynamic, messy, iterative, unpredictable, and fraught with ambiguities.’
Clark delves into ‘more than 50 cases of large-scale change’ and isolates ‘six remarkably consistent patterns’ of success. The first is that change demands leaders and organisations to perform more work and absorb more stress.
It is when leaders are blind to this fundamental principle that they resort to subterfuges. Such as, trying to muscle change through by sheer force of will, or making change a covert action that is smuggled into the organisation and kept a secret.
“Still others, in an attempt to allay people’s fear and forestall their resistance, pretend that change really isn’t change, that it’s simply an extension of the status quo.” These are all efforts in vain, rues Clark.
The second pattern that he finds in successful change processes is the presence of ‘four common stages,’ captured in EPIC, an acronym for evaluation, preparation, implementation, and consolidation.
“Evaluate with agility,” Clark urges. Agility is a state of initial change readiness, docility, and preparation, he explains. “It’s the stored energy that exists within the organisation.”
Prepare with urgency, exhorts another chapter. “The initial task of urgency is to help move the organisation from thinking to doing… Without urgency, people may believe that change isn’t necessary.”
Urgency is a state or condition requiring immediate action or attention, says Clark. “It’s the raw emotion that motivates people to move away from something because of risk, fear, or pain, or to move toward something due to potential reward.”
Recommended as an urgent pick!
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