Constrained Change – Unconstrained Results

History teaches that to get lasting results from a change program, it is vital to begin with a vision of the future and create incentives that motivate people to achieve those ends.

Editor’s Note: focuses on the “Conflict of Visions” view of economist Thomas Sowell (Unconstrained vs. Constrained View)

Breakaway Speed!: Strategies for Creating a Faster, More Empowered Workforce

There is an old African proverb: When the sun comes up, the gazelle wakes up knowing that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be eaten. The lion knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. So it doesn’t matter if you are a gazelle or a lion, when the sun comes up, you had better be running. … [ Read more ]

Leading Enterprise-Wide Change Initiatives

What can top management teams do to ensure successful large-scale transformations efforts? Early analysis of data from a major research study – the Developing Global Organizational Capability project – along with interviews with CEOs who have led successful transformation efforts suggest that top teams should implement two linked approaches simultaneously:

  1. Take the 10 steps that will bring about successful transformation.
  2. Align the 5-M’s™: meaning, mindset, mobilization,

[ Read more ]

Thomas Sowell

The prudent reformer, according to [Adam] Smith, will respect ‘the confirmed habits and prejudices of the people,’ and when he cannot establish what is right, ‘he will not disdain to ameliorate the wrong.’ His goal is not to create the ideal, but to ‘establish the best that the people can bear.’

Joe Sails: A Story in Progress

This humorous Socratic style book helps individuals and organizations change their core business behaviors through a fictitious story. With its solid story line and smooth read the book is an excellent catalyst for change. By being light and engaging readers associate easily with the characters.

Organisational Change: Open Your Eyes, Use a Wide Angle Lens

A study of the vast structural and cultural change at the Belgian telcoms operator Belgacom illustrates the importance of seeing the ‘big picture’ and learning to adapt while on the move.

Editor’s Note: offers an excellent review of five different models of organisational change

The Lord Simon of Highbury (former Chairman of Bri

What actually drives the organization to change – irrespective of what a so-called leader or change leader does, in my view – is its pride in performance. You see change in many, many companies. It can come through fear. It can come through stimulation. It can come through the need to turn failure into success. But to my mind the most continuously effective way of … [ Read more ]

Change Agents at Work

Change, change, change. Management is constantly seeking change, yet most companies fail to convert these efforts into real value-creating results. Professor Phil Dover reviews the change agent program at Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI) to identify useful learning points.

When Reorganization Works

Even a corporate revamping inspired by state-of-the-art design principles won’t succeed if not driven by a powerful, well-timed business idea adapted to social realities.

Untangling Underperformance

Don’t try to fix problems before you understand the complex relationships among them-and their causes.

The Enduring Skills of Change Leaders

The most important things a leader can bring to a changing organization are passion, conviction, and confidence in others. Too often executives announce a plan, launch a task force, and then simply hope that people find the answers — instead of offering a dream, stretching their horizons, and encouraging people to do the same. That is why we say, “leaders go first.”

However, given that passion, … [ Read more ]

Getting Reorganization Right: How Bruce Chizen Drove Change and Innovation at Adobe Systems

Five years ago, when the technology sector was booming, Adobe Systems was in trouble. The company was respected for its technical prowess and popular products, but Wall Street was skeptical; Japan, a major market, was tanking; and Quark, Adobe’s rival, launched a hostile takeover attempt. Forced to swim or sink, Adobe Systems launched a massive turnaround effort spearheaded by executive vice president Bruce Chizen, who … [ Read more ]

Winning at Change

John P. Kotter offers up eight critical stages involved in the change process as well as four mistakes that are the source of most failures and three key tasks for change leaders.

Creating Temporary Organizations for Lasting Change

Faced with a rapidly evolving competitive marketplace, the chief executives of many of today’s leading companies have embarked on major change initiatives. The goal is twofold: to challenge the existing ways of conducting business and to drive step-level improvements in operating performance. The method is two-pronged as well: cut costs significantly and build capabilities to better serve the marketplace. These initiatives, then, often involve the … [ Read more ]

The Six Habits of Highly Effective Change Managers

In years of tracking and analysing the evolution of public and private companies, we’ve observed that a minority of managers are more adept than others at bringing about change. The skills and tools they draw on have surprisingly less to do with style, charisma or instinct. The bottom line is that effective change management is more a science than an art.

Fast Forward: Organizational Change in 100 Days

This pair of Canadian b-school profs detail a change process utilizing 10 “Winning Conditions” to create shared understanding, speed, and critical mass. They also show how to apply the process to five common organizational challenges: acquisition integration; new venture launches; IT roll-outs; organizational turnarounds; and culture changes.

Leading With The Heart

Appealing to employees’ emotions, as well as their minds, is the key to managing change.

The Psychology of Change Management

Companies can transform the attitudes and behavior of their employees by applying psychological breakthroughs that explain why people think and act as they do.

Gary Hamel

Orthodoxy is the enemy of renewal. The future gets created by heretics. And every organization must continuously work to redefine itself in ways that ensure that it does not get held hostage to its own moribund business model.