Customer Reviews

Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change Management

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book would be useful if you do not practice as a manager. It provides an elementary overview. If you are a practitioner, I'd recommend Kotter, Beitler, or Bridges.

Authors Esther Cameron and Mike Green provide a short, reasonably accessible introduction to the nature of change and the methods and techniques for managing it. The introductory chapters summarize the most important points from the literature on change and change management, with a brief detour to discuss the development of psychology during the latter half of the twentieth century. Then, the authors dig right into the details of team building, team management and other nuts-and-bolts issues in organizational adaptation, giving readers enough information to hold their own in a discussion of the subject. We recommend this to anyone charged with managing organizational change, or even surviving it. The implicit promise of the title is that the authors will help readers make sense of change management. They keep that promise.

If you are a practitioner you will not find this book very helpful. It has a number of interesting ideas, but they randomly presented. If you are looking for a more systematic or strategic approach, I'd recommend Beitler's Strategic Organizational Change or Kotter's Leading Change.

I'm not sure it made that much sense. I was looking for a more practical book on how to do it - how to design an organization based on the needs.

Esther Cameron and Mike Green's objective is to help their reader understand "why change happens, how change happens, and what needs to be done to make change a more welcoming concept" by carefully reviewing a wealth of resources that provide models, tools, and techniques of organizational change. Their purpose is not to explain how to plan and then implement a change initiative program. Those in need of guidance to do that should seek it elsewhere. (My suggestions would include James O'Toole's Leading Change and John Kotter's book of the same title as well as William Bridges' two books, Transitions and Managing Transitions.) Presumably Cameron and Green would be among the first to agree that it would be a fool's errand for a reader to adopt all of the information and counsel provided in this book when formulating and then implementing any change initiatives. Rather, each reader would be well-advised to absorb and digest the material and then select only what is most relevant to her or his own organization's specific needs, interests, objectives, and resources.

The material in this volume is carefully organized within two Parts:

The Underpinning Theory (Chapters 1-4): "Individual change is at the heart of everything that is achieved in organizations. Once individuals have the motivation to do something different, the whole world can begin to change...[Individuals] are to some extent governed by the norms of the groups they belong to, and groups are bound together in a whole system of groups of people that interconnect in various habitual ways. So the story is not always that simple. Individuals, teams, and organizations all play a part in the process of change, and leaders have a particularly onerous responsibility: that is, making all this happen."

The Applications (Chapters 5-8): In this Part, having looked at change and change management from three different perspectives (i.e. individual, team, and organization) and the roles, styles, and skills needed to become a successful leader of change, Cameron and Green apply this learning to specific types of change. "We have identified four generic change scenarios, and we look at the particular management challenges involved in initiating and implementing each type of change." These change scenarios are structural, mergers and acquisitions, cultural, and IT-based process.

One of Cameron and Green's most valuable devices is a graphic consolidation of key points that is inserted throughout their narrative. Each facilitates, indeed expedites frequent review later. For example:

Theory X and Theory Y Assumptions (Table 1.2, Page 19)
Myers Briggs Type Indicator types or MBTI (Table1.5, Page 45)
Teams going through change (Table 2.6, Pages 80-81)
Our conclusions about each model of change (Table 3.3, Pages 119-120)

Note: This last Table summarizes key points re that include Kurt Lewin (three-step model), R.J. Bullock and D. Batten (planned change), John Kotter (eight steps), R.F. Beckhard and R.T. Harris (change formula), David Nadler and B. Tushman (congruence model), William Bridges (managing the transition), Colin Carnall (change management model), and Peter Senge (systemic model).

Addressing team change during restructuring (Table 5.4, Pages 190-191)

Note: This "Forming" and "Storming" graphic correlates task (orientation), people (dependency), task (organizational), and people (conflict) within these categories: team purpose, team roles, team processes, tem relations, inter-term relations, MBTI, Key Belbin roles, and organizational focus.

In the concluding chapter, Cameron and Green share two "significant messages" that were ringing in their ears as the ink begins to dry on this book. "The first message we want to convey is about the importance of leaders being awake and aware. The notion of peripheral vision is a key one to keep in mind. Leaders need to wake up to what is going on around them. This means noticing the more than the obvious, the loud or directly visible. It means having an awareness of what is going on at the edges, and being observant about motion and change. Whichever assumptions a leader employs about the nature of change (machine, political system, organism or flux and transformation) there is a need to be extremely observant about what is going on in and around the organization...The second message is about the importance of reflection time. Leaders benefit greatly from taking regular, focused time to reflect on what is going on around them (the fruits of their peripheral vision), what is happening right now, what the options are and they are personally in all this. Their organizations benefit too because leadership action is considered, rather than knee-jerk."

Earlier, I suggested that Cameron and Green's objective is to help their reader understand "why change happens, how change happens, and what needs to be done to make change a more welcoming concept" by carefully reviewing a wealth of resources that provide models, tools, and techniques of organizational change. That is, theirs is a "what to think about" book, not a "how to do it" book. They focus their reader's attention on a wealth of options (e.g. theories and models), resources (e.g. MBTI), focal points (i.e. individual change, team change, organizational change or a combination thereof), and references (Pages 270-275) to consider. Those who absorb and digest the material with appropriate care will also receive at least some assistance from Cameron and Green when designing and then launching change initiatives that are most appropriate to the needs, interest, resources, and objectives of their own organization.

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Those who share my regard for this book are urged to check out the aforementioned books of the same title (Leading Change) by O'Toole and Kotter as well as Edgar H. Schein's Organizational Culture and Leadership, and Michael Beitler's Strategic Organizational Change, (Second Edition). Also Sarah Cook's The Essential Guide to Employee Engagement: Better Business Performance through Staff Satisfaction, Richard H. Axelrod's Terms of Engagement: Changing the Way We Change Organizations, Michael L. Stallard's Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

After reading some of the previous reviews, I feel that they under represent what the authors have tried to do for us. Yes, there's a lot of theory here but if you take a look at what the back of the book says - that is exactly what it was supposed to be. This book is a wonderful compendium of various models, tools, and techniques for organizational change. It is presented in an easy-to-understand structure: Individual, Team, and Organizational change. There are also extremely useful sections on Leading change, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and cultural change. Because the book provides a wonderful overview of all these theories - it is a great starting point. For those unfamiliar with change it offers a springboard. It is not an advanced, practical book. But it is a wonderful reference - one that I keep close when designing learning programs on change or to dip back into a topic after some time away.

If you are in the field of change management - - this is a must read. It provides the theory and background necessary to fully understand what has become such a popular field of organizational developement.

This book lack proof big time. Most of what the authors say in this book are fallacies or opinions where we have to ask ourselves, "Is this really true?" or "Ahhh, this makes sense only because it is common sense." Without any knowledge of change management skills, half of the book is common sense.

The book is way too superficial and it seems to be more on a psychological aspect and reaction of change towards human and the dynamic of response from it...

Basically cause and effect reaction and resistance force from a human point of view...

This is one of the most useful, accessible and instantly applicable books on change management out there!

It collates quite a few well-published theorems and methodologies in one place, demonstrates the pros and cons of each without going into too much detail, but leaves it to the reader to decide which is appropriate in a given situation and, as a whole, the authors provides you with an unsurpassed collection of tools and models to apply in any given change scenario.

You will find yourself referring back to this again and again.