Chapter 3: Change Management

Overview

What stops organizations doing what they want?

Everyone is aware of the often yawning chasm between strategy on paper and implementation in practice. There is no easy or single solution to the complex issues involved in gaining employee commitment to a new idea or to changing long-standing behaviour and values. Indeed, some would say that such things cannot be changed, that new people with different attitudes have to be brought in. Others would argue that the problem is primarily one of scale. While you cannot tell an organization en masse to change, individuals can be coached to do things differently and become role models for their colleagues. But the impact of even the most evangelical managers rarely goes beyond their immediate teams, its broader acceptance blunted by cynicism.

The three case studies in this chapter demonstrate that it is possible, not only to change people's behaviour, but to change it on a substantial scale.