The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change [Paperback]

Ann Salerno (Author), Lillie Brock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008

However necessary, organizational change is likely to be angst ridden and frustrating to the workforce. The Change Cycle will help readers to more resourcefully cope with change at work by helping them understand and predict their behavior and the behavior of others. Authors Salerno and Brock teach readers about six predictable and sequential stages that accompany any sort of change. This model is firmly grounded in recent discoveries in social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, but is presented in a straightforward, conversational style peppered with humor. Salerno and Brock describe how we think, feel and act during each stage, utilizing stories of common work/life transitions and how organizations have successfully dealt with the challenges accompanying the stages. They offer tools and success strategies needed for individuals at all levels, helping them understand what they ought to expect, from themselves and others, as they move through each stage of The Change Cycle.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ann Salerno and Lillie Brock are cofounders of The Change Cycle Series. CCMC Inc. is an international training and development company in Washington, DC and Durban, South Africa and is home to The Change Cycle Series. Their clients include: the CIA, Homeland Security, GM, AARP, the Canadian Federal Government, Honeywell, Nestle Amgen, Disney, the NCAA and SONY. Ms. Salerno lives in Wilmington, NC. Ms. Brock lives in Dallas, TX.

Product Details

• Paperback: 199 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576754987
• ISBN-13: 978-1576754986
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple and Profound, June 17, 2008

By 

CPS "Tall Feeling" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change (Paperback)

I love it when I find a book that is both easy to understand as well as profound. Salerno and Brock have offered an easy to understand model to help navigate through the sometimes not so friendly waters of change!

Even though this book is geared towards business, I have found it helpful in all areas of my life...I highly recommend this book to anyone exploring ways to deal with and understand change.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Resource Guide, June 17, 2008

By 

OutdoorVases - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change (Paperback)

What a great read! This book has enough science to make the case for their 6 stage Change Cycle, and plenty of stories and illustrations to make it user-friendly. Their content combination of what to notice and consider vs what to do and when and how -- make for a powerful resource guide for those of us in the middle of workplace change after change.

I appreciated Salerno and Brock's guidance about thoughts, feelings and behaviors to watch for in each stage and how to interpret their meaning and intentions. I need all the 'how-to' help I can get, and this book laid out for me a sequence of good management and communication strategies in a way that I can understand and now begin to implement to help others.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cycling Through The Change Cycle, August 14, 2009

By 

David A. Schmaltz - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Change Cycle: How People Can Survive and Thrive in Organizational Change (Paperback)

If you're anything like me, you approach every new business book skeptically. It might take you a while to pick up the thing, and a long time to get through the first chapter or two. Why? Because, perhaps like you, I don't want to be changed. My world view has gotten me this far, thank yew very much, and I am not in the market for some shattering revelation. Not even a minor insight.

This is the first business book I've ever read that encouraged me to read like I read, which means it encouraged me not to read it at first. Perfectly normal response, even a wise one. The first step of any change is a red light. Stop and poke around a while. Do some milling around. Progress at this stage is dangerous and perhaps delusional.

When the time is right, and you'll know when it's right, you can start poking a little stick out there, and perhaps learn that nothing seriously life-threatening lurks. Go ahead, read another chapter. Start to get to know these folks. Reacquaint yourself with yourself.

No, they aren't know-it-alls (Thank heavens!), and they've been just as lost, confused, angry, and dismayed as you feel. They suggest that we are all this way, sometimes. Now isn't that more reassuring than a library filled with all-ya-gotta-do exhortations?

Okay, I crept through this book. I liked creeping through it. It confirmed some stuff I already knew and reassured me about some stuff I always suspected, and generally left me feeling as if I were a member in reasonably good standing of the human race. When was the last time you read a business book and you didn't feel inspired to become someone you will never realistically become or discouraged that you'll really never be the sort of proto-human described in there? Read this one. Keep it handy. It will have a long, and useful shelf-life. A wise counselor. Someone handy with a reassuring phrase. Someone as ready as you are to step into the change you're procrastinating stepping into.

Oh, yea, that's wisdom holding my feet here, not anything but a deep and curious wisdom. Don't expect that the people you loan this book to will return it right away. Once you've read it, you'll understand why. And anticipate the languid response. Once they get around to poking their way through, they'll understand, too. Later, when the book is back on your shelf, you'll occasionally notice it sitting there and quickly cycle back through your latest change cycle. And recall, fondly I suspect, what used to be the status quo and just won't be anymore. And also reflect that this new, still a little stiff status quo will soon enough slip into fond memory, too.