Transcript Chapter 2

Reframing Organizations, 3rd ed.
Chapter 18
Reframing Change: Training,
Realigning, Negotiating and Grieving
Reframing Change: Training,
Realigning, Negotiating and Grieving
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A Common Change Scenario: DDB Bank
Reframing Organizational Change
Change and Training
Change and Realignment
Change and Conflict
Change and Loss
Change Strategy
Team Zebra: The Rest of the Story
A Common Change Scenario: Thomas
Lo at DDB Bank
 Profitable bank faced changing environment
 Thomas Lo recruited to improve service and innovate
 Lo introduced many changes, but six months later
nothing was different
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Lo encountered lip service, passive resistance, but no
overt conflict
 Familiar story: hopeful beginning, muddle middle,
disappointing ending
 Change strategies that rely on only one or two frames
usually fail
Table 18.1(a)
Reframing Organizational Change
Frame
Barriers to
Change
Essential
Strategies
Structural
Loss of direction,
Communicating,
clarity and stability; realigning, and
confusion, chaos
renegotiating formal
patterns and
policies
Human
Resource
Anxiety,
uncertainty
People feel
incompetent and
needy
Training to develop
new skills;
Participation &
involvement;
Psychological
support
Table 18.1(b)
Reframing Organizational Change
Frame
Barriers to Change Essential
Strategies
Political
Disempowerment
Conflict between
winners & losers
Symbolic
Loss of meaning
and purpose;
clinging to the past
Create arenas for
negotiating issues,
forming new
coalitions
Transition rituals;
mourn past,
celebrate future
Change and Training
 Change initiatives often fail because
employees lack knowledge and skills
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People resist what they don’t understand,
don’t know how to do, or don’t believe in
Training, participation and support can
increase understanding of why change is
needed, as well as skills and confidence
needed to implement
Change and Realignment
 Structural change undermines existing
patterns, creating ambiguity, confusion and
resistance
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People don’t know how to get things done or
who’s supposed to do what
 Change efforts need to anticipate structural
issues, realign roles and relationships
Change and Conflict
 Change creates winners and losers
 Winners support the change and fight for its
implementation
 Losers resist, try to block change effort (and
often succeed)
 Conflicts often are buried, where they smolder
and become more unmanageable
 Successful change requires framing issues,
building coalitions, and creating arenas where
conflict can be surfaced and agreements
negotiated
Change and Loss
 Loss of a cherished symbol produces loss –
akin to losing a job or a loved one
 Change produces conflicting impulses: replay
the past vs. plunge into the future
 Cultures create transition rituals to ease loss
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Ritual and ceremony are essential to
successful change: celebrate or mourn the
past and envision the future
Kotter: Stages of Effective Change
 Create sense of urgency
 Pull together guiding team with need skills, credibility
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and connections
Create uplifting vision and strategy
Communicate vision and strategy through words,
deeds, symbols
Remove obstacles, empower people to move
Create visible progress: early wins
Persist when things get tough
Nurture and shape new culture to support new ways
Reframing Kotter’s Change Model
Kotter
stage
Structural
Sense of
urgency
Build
guiding
team
Coordination
strategy
Uplifting
vision,
strategy
Implementation plan
Human
resource
Political
Symbolic
Involve,
solicit input
Network
Tell
with key
compelling
players
story
Build power
base
Team
building
Stack team
with key
players
Put CEO on
team
Map
political
terrain
Create
vision
rooted in
past
Reframing Kotter’s Change Model
Kotter
stage
Structural
Human
resource
Political
Symbolic
Communicate
through
words,
deeds,
symbols
Build
structures
to support
change
process
Meetings to
communicate, get
feedback
Create
arenas
Build
alliances
Kickoff
ceremonies
Visible
leadership
Remove
obstacles,
empower
Change old
structures
Training,
support,
resources
Early wins
Plan for
short-term
victories
Public
hangings
Do what it
Celebrate
takes to get early
wins
progress
Reframing Kotter’s Change Model
Kotter
stage
Structural
Human
resource
Political
Symbolic
Keep going Keep
when going people on
gets tough plan
Revival
meetings
New culture to
support
new ways
Mourn past
Celebrate
heroes
Share
stories
Align
Create
structure to “culture”
new culture team
Broad
involvement
in creating
new culture
Team Zebra: The Rest of the Story
 Top-down, Bottom-up Structural Design
 Learning and Training
 Areas for Venting Conflict
 Occasions for Letting Go and Celebrating
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Core values
Encouraging rituals
Anchoring vision
 Inventing ceremonies to keep spirit high
Conclusion
 Major organizational change inevitably generates four
categories of issues
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Affects individuals’ ability to feel effective
 They need training, participation, support
Change disrupts existing patterns
 Structure needs to be realigned
Change creates conflict
 Need arenas to negotiate conflict, reach agreements
Change creates loss of meaning for recipients
 Need transition rituals to mourn past and celebrate
future