Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) [Hardcover]

James O'Toole (Author)

Book Description

Series: J-B US non-Franchise Leadership | Publication Date: March 20, 1995

In Leading Change, James O'Toole argues that outdated Machiavellian dictates of situational leadership are ultimately ineffective--and demonstrates instead that successful leadership is rooted in high moral purpose and consistent respect for followers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

O'Toole's book is stronger in its parts than in its sum. The author, vice president of the Aspen Institute, offers some practical wisdom about leadership, derived in large part from the lessons to be learned from the lives of the figures carved on Mt. Rushmore; other, more recent "corporate Rushmoreans"; and the writings of such thinkers as management guru Peter Drucker, British industrialist Robert Owen, and English philosopher John Stuart Mill. But these are simply insights scattered throughout the pages for the reader to glean rather than elements of a strong, clear, readily identifiable thesis. Some valuable things are said, but the premises tend to be generalizations about generalizations, often specific in illustration but vague in pattern. Interesting in places but not essential.?A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Held up as exemplary in a decade that's desperately seeking a new order for business, in case history after case history of corporations and their executives, are usually names like Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's, Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, and even Jack Welch of GE. But those models just won't work anymore, says professor, consultant, and award-winning author O'Toole. Instead, he uses examples from art, history, philosophy, and, yes, occasionally business to probe the answers to three questions: Why do organizations resist change? How can leaders effect change? What should the leadership philosophy be to most effectively (and morally) induce organizational change? He concludes that a values-based leadership is the only way to pull (not push) change; that change challenges the psychological comfort of the powerful--hence, the basis for resistance; and that imposing new values and new visions will work only if leaders create followers. A thoughtful essay, not a how-to manual, that will most likely spark discomfort among legions of American managers. Barbara Jacobs

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (March 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555426085
• ISBN-13: 978-1555426088
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,301,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strategies for Challenging the Status Quo, November 13, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) (Hardcover)

It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change, he explains why. Organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities; they must transform themselves effectively. According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment....Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book."

Leading Change is divided into two parts within which O'Toole addresses three separate but related questions:

1. What are the causes of resistance to change?

2. How can leaders effectively and morally overcome that resistance?

3. Why is the dominant philosophy of leadership, based on contingency theory, neither an effective nor a moral guide for people who wish to lead change?

For O'Toole, values-based leadership is provided by those he calls "Rushmoreans": They possess courage, authenticity, integrity, vision, passion, conviction, and persistence. To vary degrees, "Rushmoreans" listen to others, encourage dissenting opinion among their closest advisers, grant ample authority to their subordinates, and lead by example rather than by fiat, manipulation, or coercion. Granted, history produces very few Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts. Nonetheless, according to O'Toole, there is much of value to learned from them by those who struggle with "an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment...."

In Part One, O'Toole explains why values-based leadership is more effective than any other, notably "tough" or "amoral" leadership which is frequently (and inaccurately) characterized as being "realistic." For O'Toole, democratic leadership "is not about voting; it is about the democratic value of inclusion. There is nothing oxymoronic, chaotic, or ineffective about leadership based on that moral principle."

In Part Two, O'Toole shifts his attention to followers inorder to discover why we all resist change that would be in our self-interest to embrace, and, why followers so often resist the leadership they claim to crave. For O'Toole, Shakespeare had it right when explaining resistance to change: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves." In Chapter 7, O'Toole briefly examines 33 of the most popular hypotheses concerning the root causes of resistance. They include the usual suspects: homeostasis (i.e. change is unnatural), stare decisis (i.e. status quo is preferable), inertia (i.e. difficulty of altering course), self-interest (i.e. What's in it for me?), and fear (i.e. of unknown). Of course, there are exceptions to each of the 33; also, all are never present in the same situation; moreover, no single one can fully account for all forms of resistance to change.

Peter Drucker asks a very important question: "What is the environment ready for? One has to do it [i.e. seek change] at the right time." Hence the importance of timing as well as of having all of the Rushmorean values. But together, they are still insufficient if (for whatever reasons) there are no followers. In Chapter 9, O'Toole discusses J. Edwards Deming inorder to illustrate this "curious and troubling" aspect of human behavior: "...reasonable men and women often resist acting on social knowledge which will advance their collective self-interest." How ironic that Deming's managerial principles and methods which were so effective in helping the U.S. and its Allies to defeat the Japanese during World War II were then rejected by American industry but refined and and employed by the Japanese to dominate world markets. Then and only then were Deming and his managerial methods embraced by American industry in desperation to learn the "secrets of Japanese management."

In Chapter 10, O'Toole shifts his attention to Robert Owen (1771-1858) whose "paternalistic" treatment of his own employees earned an immense personal fortune for him. Meanwhile, however, he was widely reviled for mollycoddling the workforce (and thus not creating even greater profits) or for being a manipulative capitalist "in the government's pay." Alas, as O'Toole notes, "Owen never learned how to overcome the deeply rooted resistance to change, a skill that is a prime characteristic of great moral leadership." As a result, "humanity suffered for nearly a century from that singularly consequential flaw of one of history's gentlest souls."

In the final two chapters of Leading Change, O'Toole examines what he calls "the despotism of custom" and "the ideology of comfort." Anyone in any organization (regardless of size or nature) who has attempted to be a change leader is already familiar with both. The question remains, how to overcome them? Everything which precedes these two final chapters creates a frame-of-reference within which O'Toole correlates and galvanizes his key points. Obviously, he fully understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he fully understands why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. He concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars weLEAD Book Review by the Editor of leadingtoday.org, February 12, 2002

By 

Greg L. Thomas (Litchfield, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) (Hardcover)

Author James O'Toole is definitely not afraid of creating controversy. His book is a refreshing approach to leadership in many ways. Stylistically and philosophically, Leading Change is a different kind of book about leaders and the natural resistance of the change process. O'Toole left a comfortable 20 year university chair in academia to begin working with the Aspen Institute. This experience was a major inspiration in writing this enterprising book.

Perhaps the most daring aspect of Leading Change is O'Toole's clear repudiation of the contingency theories so prevalent today in leadership research and coaching programs. He obviously did not come to this conclusion frivolously. This work includes his observations and experience from over two decades of working with both corporate leaders and with respected mentors such as Bennis, Drucker, Gardner, DePree and others! O'Toole loudly proclaims that the contingency theories so revered today simply don't work in the long run. He maintains that by their very design they typically destroy trust between leaders and followers. He then offers a values-based alternative, which is a primary focus of the book.

Leading Change begins with O'Toole drawing a number of deep analogies from a painting by James Ensor. He immediately draws you into the books theme by probing a number of profound leadership questions and scenarios analogous to paintings theme. As an author, he seeks to answer three related questions:

1. What are the major causes of resistance to change?

2. How can leaders effectively and morally overcome that resistance?

3. Why is the dominant philosophy of leadership, based on contingency theory, neither an effective nor a moral guide for people who wish to lead change?

To answer these questions O'Toole divides the book into two halves. The first half deals with leaders and the second half with followers. The main theme of his work is to seriously question the validity of contingency theory and propose the alternative of value-based leadership behavior. O'Toole writes, "Instead, values-based leadership is an attitude about people, philosophy, and process. To overcome the resistance to change, one must be willing, for starters, to change oneself. In essence, then, values-based leadership is "unnatural.""

If you want to read and digest a book that will challenge both you and much present thinking about leadership, this book is definitely for you!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Why aren't they following me?"ÿ, January 6, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership (Paperback)

It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change O'Toole explains the causes oif resistance. Only by understanding those causes can a leader overcome them. O'Toole insists that organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities. To do so would merely be expediency. Also, such accommodation could create other (perhaps even more painful) new realities Organizatiopns must transform themselves constantly and effectively while, and here is a key point, sustaining certain non-negotiable core values.

According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment...Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book."

After many years of active involvement with all manner of organizations, O'Toole obviously understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he knows why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. However the magnificence of a given vision, only effective leadership can ensure that such a vision has a sustainable, enduring impact.

O'Toole concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit."

Those who admire this book as much as I do are encouraged to read the recently published Leadership A to Z in which O'Toole provides a "guide for the appropriately ambitious." It is a stunning intellectual achievement. Also, with the O'Toole wit in top form, it is also a joy to read.