Managing Business Change for Dummies (Paperback)

by Beth L. Evard (Author), Craig A. Gipple (Author) "No matter how hard you try, eventually your shiny, new car always gets a few nicks and scratches on it, or even an ugly dent..." (more)
Key Phrases: planning your change, change losers, change winners, Over Two-Thirds of Changes Fail, Escaping Trap, Jack Welch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Packed with sound, practical guidance on how to understand, lead, and mange change. It cuts to the essence of change management and offers plenty of on-point lessons for today's manager."

Product Description
Managing Business Change For Dummies gives you practical step-by-step advice for evaluating your organization's change effort from start to finish. This friendly guide brings you specific techniques and tools for each step of the change process -- from how to pinpoint potential problems and resolve them quickly, to how to help employees respond to change with more flexible and positive attitudes.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764553321
• ISBN-13: 978-0764553325
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #377,894 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BOOK OF CHANGE IN THE WORLD OF IMPERMANENCIES, July 21, 2001

By A Customer

As I was reading this book, at every page I wish that managers in the organization I work read it too. This book is definitely on the top of my gift list for many people I know. This book, in summary, is not just for folks in business, but for everyone, at every stage of life, since we all experiencing changes all the time. When I began reading this book, I was working on a project with short deadline. But I could not put the book down. I am glad. It helped me to think better about what I was doing.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of Specific Advice and Easy to Read, June 18, 2001

By A Customer

Finally a book about change that isn't written for university professors.You get the Dummies, easy-to-read writing, as well as practical, in-depth information that you can use on the job. (I wish I had this book when we were trying to implement TQM - we would have been more successful.) What made this book so interesting for me was reading about how other managers have struggled with their changes - and why some succeeded and many others failed. Also, I particularly liked the three questionnaires that let me evaluate how change-smart my organization is (not as much as I would like). I guarantee that this book won't sit on a shelf - you'll constantly use it like I am.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book for a company leader/manager to read so she's ready for "change" when it hits her organization, July 23, 2006

By	Jeff Lippincott "www.Jlippin.com" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Change," whether it's personal growth or failure, or a business going through evolution, is inevitable. Maybe not at this moment, but at some time "change" must occur. And when it does the status quo will resist it. And the people affected by it will probably incur increased stress levels. Apparently the authors of this book have written it for people who have to deal with "change" or live through it. And I think such people will benefit greatly by reading this book.

In a way this book is a new slant on an old topic. Leaders and managers have to have leadership skills. They have to have people skills, and they have to be somewhat patient. And they have to be able to deal with resistance to change. How do they do this? Well, the authors say by:

1. Managing resistance
2. Managing stress (both theirs and their subordinates'), and
3. Keeping the information flowing

The authors say that most "changes" fail. They point out how important it is to strategize and plan how to create change or deal with change. Did we really need the authors to tell us to strategize and plan? I think not, but by reminding some people of this they fully cover the subject of dealing with "change."

I loved that each chapter had a bulleted summary list of what was included therein. The content of the book was so dense that I especially welcomed seeing those summary lists. There are a total of 24 chapters in this book, so you can see why those summary lists are important. Without them it would be difficult seeing how the whole book ties together.

I would have liked the book better if its overall purpose for existing had been clearer at the beginning of the book. When I finished reading the book I was glad I had read it, but I had (and still have) a problem clearly describing the book in a sentence or two. All in all, I give this book 5 stars.