Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) [Paperback]

Harvard Business School Press (Compiler)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1422102807 | ISBN-13: 978-1422102800 | Publication Date: October 1, 2006 | Edition: First Trade Paper Edition

Seventy percent of all change initiatives fail. Yours won't have to--when you apply the practices provided in HBR on Leading Through Change. In this vital new resource, today's leading thinkers offer suggestions for articulating a compelling vision of an organization's future, overcoming employee resistance to change, and surmounting other challenges that come with leading change.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Press; First Trade Paper Edition edition (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422102807
• ISBN-13: 978-1422102800
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why some change initiatives succeed...and others fail, June 1, 2007

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) (Paperback)

This is one in a series of several dozen volumes that comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business School Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. Each volume has been carefully edited. Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section that usually includes suggestions of other sources that some readers may wish to explore.

In this volume, the reader is provided with eight articles whose authors provide a variety of perspectives on how to lead an organization through a process of significant change while minimizing fear, frustration, and resistance. All of the articles first appeared in the HBR over an extended period of time, from March-April, 1992, to October, 2005; some but remarkably little of the material is dated. Here are some of the important business issues to which four contributors direct their (and our) attention:


Which seem to be the most common mistakes made by executives? ("Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," John P. Kotter)
Comment: Kotter identifies eight and suggests how to avoid or repair them.

How to focus only on what is most important? ("Tipping Point Leadership," W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne)
Comment: The co-authors of Blue Ocean Strategy explain how "tipping points" can result in fundamental changes when a sufficient number of people embrace and support a powerful idea. They examine how a newly appointed police commissioner, in less than two years, turned New York into the safest large city in the nation by following a four-step process to bring about rapid, dramatic, and lasting change with limited resources.

Why is follow-through "the DNA of decisive cultures"? ("Conquering a Culture of Indecision," Ram Charan)
Comment: In all of his various books and articles, Charan stresses the importance of making correct decision and then taking effective action to achieve desired results, whatever they may be. To change a culture of decision, he insists, leaders must ask hard questions such as "How robust and effective are our social operating mechanisms?" GE has forged a system of ten tightly linked operating mechanisms that, Charan suggests, comprise its "secret weapon."

Why are leaders sometimes "on" and other times Not? (""Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership," Robert E. Quinn)
Comment: Quinn identifies four "awareness-raising questions" which leaders must ask and then answer honestly so that they can challenge themselves to have a positive impact on their own lives and on those around them. These questions "often lead to high-performance outcomes, and repetition of high-performance outcomes can eventually create a high-performance culture."

Which factors correlate with the success or failure of change initiatives? ("The Hard Side of Change Management," Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, and Alan Jackson)
Comment: Based on their research on change initiatives at 225 companies, the co-authors of this article concluded that it is possible to predict the probable results of such initiatives by considering what they characterize as four "DICE factors" within a diagnostic framework. Once the evaluation has been completed, the executives involved can then "shine a spotlight on the interventions that would improve their chances of success."

As I indicated earlier, at least some of the material in this volume is dated. However, the insights shared in these articles as well as in the other remain relevant. Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out the recently published Harvard Business Review on Making Smarter Decisions as well as other series titles in the Harvard Business Review Paperback Series such as those Effective Communication, the Innovative Enterprise, Leadership at the Top, and Measuring Corporate Performance.

Also Michael George's Authentic Leadership and True North, Jack Welch and Suzy Welch's Winning, Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Ram Charan's Know-How, and Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman's X-Teams, Richard Ogle's Smart World, and James O'Toole's The Executive's Compass.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended for Executives Leading Organizations Through Change, March 24, 2007

By 

Nataly Kelly "Author, Telephone Interpreting;... (Boston , MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) (Paperback)

I picked this book up at an airport to have something to read on my flight, and I was not disappointed in the least. It provides excellent information and insight on leading organizations during times of change.

In Kotter's essay, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail", he analyzes common errors of leading through change, and converts them into 8 steps for transforming an organization: (1) establishing a sense of urgency, (2) forming a powerful guiding coalition, (3) creating a vision, (4) communicating the vision, (5) empowering others to act on the vision, (6) planning for and creating short-term wins, (7) consolidating improvements and creating still more changes, and (8) institutionalizing new approaches. Kotter shows how these 8 principles can lead to either the downfall or the success of an organization.

I also found Ram Charan's essay, "Conquering a Culture of Indecision", to be extremely helpful. He outlines the steps for creating greater communication, turning that into action, and providing follow-through and feedback.

Also of great interest to me was Eric Abrahamson's "Change Without Pain". He defines the difference between "tinkering" and "kludging" (tinkering with a college education). He also offers helpful operating guidelines that make quite a bit of sense.

Different essays will be more relevant for different individuals, but all in all, this compilation of essays provides excellent insight, and should be required reading for executive teams in the midst of major periods of change.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Starts strong and ends weak and then some, February 18, 2009

By 

G. E. Kugler "Ed Kugler - nomoreBS - Author o... (Big Arm, Montana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harvard Business Review on Leading Through Change (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) (Paperback)

This book has some good stuff. I've been leading change in large organizations for a couple decades myself. It starts with an excellent article by John Kotter. It is right on. The second article 'Tipping point leadership' I found to be pretty good and actionable. Then it started slipping for me into theory more than the real deal. The rest of the articles were average advice and more theory than practicality.