Exploring Change Capacity
Change capacity, broadly defined as an organizationโs ability to effectively initiate, manage, and sustain change, is considered a critical element of long-term organizational success. It incorporates both the structural and cultural capabilities that enable an organization to navigate uncertainty and maintain operational continuity during disruptive transformations. Unlike the more reactive nature of change management, in […]
Is the Primacy of Individual Change Simply Folklore?
In โADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Communityโ (2006), Jeffrey Hiatt suggests that successful change is rooted in facilitating change ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ถ๐ข๐ญ. According to Hiatt, the five elements of his model — ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐, ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ, ๐ธ๐ป๐ผ๐๐น๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ด๐ฒ, ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐, and ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ — are all necessary for an individual to realize change. When all […]
Change Sponsorship in Perspective
โ๐๐ฅ๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐ค๐ง๐จ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐๐ #1 ๐ ๐๐ฎ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐๐ช๐ฉ๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐จ๐ช๐๐๐๐จ๐จ.โ This is apparently the consistent ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ณ of a few hundred practitioners of varying levels of experience, most likely due to their own heavily inculcated confirmation bias. In other words, it is an interesting opinion but it has no probative value. One organization has offered a psychometrically […]
The Power of Intentional Influence
While it is generally acknowledged that stakeholder engagement differs from stakeholder management, some ambiguity remains in the literature, leading to the synonymous use of these terms. Unlike the reciprocal nature of stakeholder engagement, however, stakeholder management tends to be one-sided. When organizations engage in traditional stakeholder management, they primarily act to protect themselves from stakeholders’ […]
Readiness and Resistance: Coexisting Forces
While past organizational change management literature viewed resistance and readiness as opposite poles on a continuum, more recently this perspective has evolved. More contemporary research conceptualizes resistance and readiness as orthogonal concepts, meaning they can exist simultaneously and independently of each other. This shift acknowledges that individuals can experience both positive and negative emotions, beliefs, […]
Integrating Planned & Emergent Change
In much of the recent debate regarding planned and emergent change, it is presented as a dichotomy, an either/or proposition. What if there was room for both, together, in this debate? Planned and emergent change have been discussed in a previous post. Briefly, planned change focuses on improving the effectiveness of an organization’s human side […]
Reframing “Resistance to Change”
โResistance to change is normal and expected.โ โActively manage resistance to minimize the impacts.โ Weโve heard it for decades. So much so that these notions have been comfortably ingrained in our thought process regarding resistance, indoctrinated deep into our confirmation biases. But what if what weโve been fed by the commercial purveyors of change management […]
A Case for Evidence-based Organizational Change
Many popular change models, like Kotter’s eight-stage process and Prosciโs ADKAR, lack robust empirical testing and validation. For example, Kotter’s eight-stage process, while widely praised and applied, has limited direct empirical support. Most of the evidence for this model comes from Kotter himself, and it is frequently used as a post-hoc framework to explain case […]
Evaluating Informal Networks: Part 2
Previously, we have only addressed engaging influencers assumed to be more positively disposed toward a change. In this segment, we will discuss potentially negative influencers and strategies for gaining their alignment. Negative influencers, such as gatekeepers, fence-sitters, and open challengers, can significantly impact change initiatives. While they present challenges, identifying and strategically engaging these individuals […]
Evaluating Informal Networks: Part 1
Leveraging informal influencers using ONA allows change agents to adopt a more responsive and resilient change strategy. Once identified, informal influencers can be enlisted as “change champions” or advocates who promote the change message in their respective networks. By involving them in the early stages of planning and decision-making, change agents can leverage their natural […]
Identifying the Informal Influencers in Organizations
In my last installment, I discussed research supporting the importance of leveraging informal influencers during change. Before we can engage and leverage informal influencers, we must first identify who and where they are. The traditional method is to ask managers to nominate these individuals, in much the same worn-out way we too typically use to […]
Unleashing Hidden Influence: Leveraging Informal Networks in Change
In recent studies on the ability of informal influencers to drive organizational change, evidence reinforces the critical role these informal networks play in the success of change initiatives. Research employing Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) has illustrated that informal influencers, although sometimes lacking formal authority, are often well-connected within an organization. This connectivity allows them to […]