Project Management

What Do the Great Thinkers Say About Change Management?

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“There is nothing permanent except change.”

So goes the popular quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. What do you think about the paradoxical nature of this statement?

Change may be a constant, but our reaction to it shouldn’t be—that’s according to Michael Jarrett, PhD. He makes that case in his oft-referenced article, The Seven Myths of Change Management.

He says that fear and survival are often the roots of resistance to change. Such resistance does not occur only in the work environment, but within different areas of the society, "to protect social systems from painful experiences of loss, distress, chaos and the emotions associated with change."

Peter Senge, the author of “The Fifth Discipline,” throws further light on this by stating that, "People don’t resist change. They resist being changed." While change is not easy, it is necessary for growth.

As noted by the former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welsh, in an annual report, "When the rate of change inside an institution becomes slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight."

Peter Drucker, one of the most influential management thinkers, supports this with his assertion that, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” This goes to confirm the saying that although change is difficult, not changing is fatal.

According to a 2018 McKinsey & Company survey, only 16 percent of respondents say their organizations’ digital transformations have successfully improved performance and also equipped them to sustain changes in the long term. 

To drill down further, Lakecia Carter, PMP, warns that effective change management is not possible without communication and training, but training and communication aren’t possible without change management. This is especially important in the case of acquisitions, mergers and any other basic changes that occur within the organization. There have been numerous accounts of corporate mergers that have unfortunately ended due to ineffective change management.

This might make you wonder: If change is as critical as noted above, why is there such a huge failure rate? Some of the common reasons identified are ineffective top-down communication, lack of space and support, unclear objectives from management, lack of effective performance measures and last but not least, the underestimation of the emotions of those being impacted by the change.

In order to successfully drive organizational change, leaders need to engage individuals at all stages of the change process. This can be implemented using the change equation by Richard Beckhard and David Gleicher, among others, that can be written as D x  V  x  F  >  R, where D = Dissatisfaction, V = Vision,  F = First Steps, R = Resistance.

The equation means that in order for change to occur successfully, dissatisfaction with the status quo, a clear vision and first steps toward the vision must be greater than the resistance to change. Some of the popular change management models that can assist with this implementation are the Prosci ADKAR Model, the Kurt Lewin model and the 8-Step Process for Leading Change developed by John Kotter.

In conclusion, although change management is generally encountered throughout the overall corporate environment, it also has a specific application within project management. Within this setting, Carter advises that change management must begin at the project initiation phase—not the execution phase. She adds that change management should continue beyond the project life cycle, to enable the project manager to ensure that unapproved changes do not suddenly resurface as enhancements or requirements.

What have you learned from great thinkers on change management? Please share your experiences below.

Posted by Linda Agyapong on: April 03, 2019 01:59 PM | Permalink

Comments (18)

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Michael Delaney Partner| Delaney Management LLC West Chester, Pa, USA
Interesting article. I enjoyed the quotes and am curious about what else the McKinsey study showed.

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Ganesh Kumar Program Manager Bangalore., Karnataka, India
Interesting, thanks for sharing.

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Linda Agyapong PMP| PMP Trainer Middletown, De, USA
Michael - I know those statistics are quite interesting, because in 2017 they also reported that 70% of all change transformations fail

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Ronan O Rourke Retired Executive Manager, Water & Drainage Operations| Retired Bray, Ireland
Thanks for this article. Some very interesting insights that are applicable, as you have said, to Change Management at an organisational level as well as within a Project environment

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Al Taylor I.T. Contractor| Independent Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
I think this "change management must begin at the project initiation phase" is a given in many firms...at least based on my observations. Is it possible that McKinsey's view is not totally subjective?.....16% seems very low and for many firms it is still very early in in the journey. I work in IT and while I can't make the claim that we are the greatest thinkers many of us do deal with change quite well...some of us started writing Cobol code with pencil and paper.....some of my older friends anyway.

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Linda Agyapong PMP| PMP Trainer Middletown, De, USA
AI - you may be right regarding the subjectivity, and let's also remember the demographics of the participants could have also played a role in the final results.
That being said, hopefully this has awaken all of us to a potential reality.

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Riyadh Salih Saskatchewan, Canada
Thanks for sharing this is really is ongoing requirements for PM to be more involved with it

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Girija Ramakrishnan Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
Good post, Linda. Thanks for sharing !

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Eduin Fernando Valdes Alvarado Project Manager| F y F Fabricamos Futuro Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia
Very interesting, thanks for sharing

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Alok Priyadarshi Project Manager| Tata Consulting Engineers Limited Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India
Wonderful article giving perspectives of leaders on change management. As there are many challenges in Implementation of any change, I found showing clarity of outcomes or end result of implementation of any change is very important factor. If you are able to see end result clearly you will put your best efforts undoubtedly.
It reminds me a quote of Mr. Joel A. Barker

" Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."

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REZA MOKARRAM AYDENLOU Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Thank you very much for your efforts.it's very good Topic.

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Anuj Sharma Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Nice article and very interesting thoughts and facts on change management

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Jeff Hubert Project Manager| Ameresco Alberta, Canada
The formula D X V X F R gave me pause. What needs fixing? What value will change bring? How will we do it?

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Liliya Sablukova, MBA, PMP Sarasota, Fl, USA
Interesting. Thank you.

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Alfred Horton CEO & President| AOC Connect, LLC Lovettsville, Va, USA
Very interesting. I would be interested in reviewing the details of the McKinsey survey. Do you have the survey name or a link where it can be found?

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Talisha Reyes Manager - Client Support Unit| Maritime Life (Caribbean) Limited Barataria, Trinidad and Tobago
Very interesting article. I am definitely taking note of that change equation!
Thanks

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Aditya Lal Program Director| Sita Corp Belle Mead, Nj, USA
Thank You Linda for posting this blog on one of my favorite topics. Throughout my career, I have noticed the resistance to change and is always bigger than the value that the product of the project will bring. It's an interesting equation and, believe me, I did some rough calculations based on the provided equation and noticed that the resistance dissipated once we communicated the value, took the first step to improve the satisfaction. I never knew that until I read this article. Simply AWESOME!!!!

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Syed Arshad Ali Ahmed General Systems Analyst| SCC Hyderabad, Telengana, India
Resistance to change is the norm but once the friction at inception is polished & everybody start to realize the benefits that the game changer !
SAAA.

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