Managing Change:

Organizational Change

Organizational Transformation

Total Systemwide Cultural Transformation of Your Organization

"Change is not a process for the impatient."  

– Confucius

9 Signs of a Losing Organization

1. Fuzzy Vision: corporate vision and mission don't inspire people; lack of strategic alignment; people don't know where the organization is going and what it is trying to achieve in the future... More

MegaChange – a New Capability-based Approach

MegaChange³ is a total systemwide cultural transformation of your organization. It means designing and transforming organizations based on assumptions of human capability rather than limitations using the tools of the modern resource-based management model.

Strategies for Leading Breakthroughs

So what separates extraordinary leaders from proponents of the status quo? They break the rules. Except, not in an arbitrary or capricious way. When you look at examples of extraordinary leadership, like the Founding Fathers of the United States or Jack Welch of GE, certain practices or principles become apparent. To start, there is a declaration of what the future will be. There is also a purpose, something to stand for. And finally, there is a clearly articulated commitment... More

8 Common Errors in Organizational Change Efforts

By: John Kotter

• Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture... More

Entrepreneurial Leadership of Transformational Change

One of the most striking attributes of leaders of successful transformational change efforts is their entrepreneurial spirit and behavior. These individuals think and act like heads of their own businesses and are able to inspire and direct others to act in the same manner.  Entrepreneurial leaders are part visionary, part role model for the new values and behaviors and part crusader. They frequently emerge from lower levels of the organization, from the business, or from other organizations.

 Case in Point  General Electric¹

Today, General Electric succeeds in dozens of diverse businesses, and is continuously at the vanguard of change. Some years ago however, in locations throughout GE, local managers were operating in an insulated environment with walls separating them, both horizontally and vertically, from other departments and their workforce. Employee questions, initiatives, and feedback were discouraged.

Determined to harness the collective power of GE employees, create a free flow of ideas, and redefine relationships between boss and subordinates, Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric, created a new corporate culture. It's key elements are:

• Redesigning the role of the leader in the new economy: creating followers through communicating a vision, and establishing open, caring relations with every employee

• Creating an open, collaborative workplace where everyone's opinion is welcome

• Empowering senior executives to run far-flung businesses in entrepreneurial fashion

• Liberating the workforce; making everybody a participant through improving vertical communication and employee empowerment.

Systems Thinking – Understanding Interactions between Parts

You should master systems thinking if you wish to  succeed in your extremely challenging organizational transformation effort. Systems thinking "focuses on the whole, not the parts, of a complex system. It concentrates on the interfaces and boundaries of components, on their connections and arrangement, on the potential for holistic systems to achieve results that are greater than the sum of the parts. Mastering systems thinking means overcoming the major obstacles to building the process-managed enterprise - for every business process is a whole system."²... More

Cultural Transformation

Granted, managing change is important. Competent management is required to keep change efforts on track. But for most organizations, the much bigger challenge is leading change. Only leadership can blast through the many sources of corporate inertia. Only leadership can motivate the actions needed to alter behavior in any significant way. Only leadership can get change to stick, by anchoring it in the very culture of the organization.