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HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” ) QUOTES

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” ) QUOTES

1 " How to make change stick? Conduct a four-stage persuasion campaign: 1) Prepare your organization’s cultural “soil” months before setting your turnaround plan in concrete—by convincing employees that your company can survive only through radical change. 2) Present your plan—explaining in detail its purpose and expected impact. 3) After executing the plan, manage employees’ emotions by acknowledging the pain of change—while keeping people focused on the hard work ahead. 4) As the turnaround starts generating results, reinforce desired behavioral changes to prevent backsliding. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

2 " we’ve developed a three-stage process to help organizations figure out what’s getting in the way of change. First, managers guide employees through a set of questions designed to uncover competing commitments. Next, employees examine these commitments to determine the underlying assumptions at their core. And finally, employees start the process of changing their behavior. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

3 " It’s tempting to go it alone when leading a change initiative. There’s no one to dilute your ideas or share the glory, and it’s often just plain exciting. It’s also foolish. You need to recruit partners, people who can help protect you from attacks and who can point out potentially fatal flaws in your strategy or initiative. Moreover, you are far less vulnerable when you are out on the point with a bunch of folks rather than alone. You also need to keep the opposition close. Knowing what your opponents are thinking can help you challenge them more effectively and thwart their attempts to upset your agenda—or allow you to borrow ideas that will improve your initiative. Have coffee once a week with the person most dedicated to seeing you fail. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

4 " Managing conflict is one of the greatest challenges a leader of organizational change faces. The conflict may involve resistance to change, or it may involve clashing viewpoints about how the change should be carried out. Often, it will be latent rather than palpable. That’s because most organizations are allergic to conflict, seeing it primarily as a source of danger, which it certainly can be. But conflict is a necessary part of the change process and, if handled properly, can serve as the engine of progress. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

5 " Because major change requires people across an entire organization to adapt, you as a leader need to resist the reflex reaction of providing people with the answers. Instead, force yourself to transfer, as Roosevelt did, much of the work and problem solving to others. If you don’t, real and sustainable change won’t occur. In addition, it’s risky on a personal level to continue to hold on to the work that should be done by others. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

6 " Transformations often begin, and begin well, when an organization has a new head who is a good leader and who sees the need for a major change. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

7 " helping people overcome their limitations to become more successful at work is at the very heart of effective management. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

8 " When is the urgency rate high enough? From what I have seen, the answer is when about 75% of a company’s management is honestly convinced that business as usual is totally unacceptable. Anything less can produce very serious problems later on in the process. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

9 " In both small and large organizations, a successful guiding team may consist of only three to five people during the first year of a renewal effort. But in big companies, the coalition needs to grow to the 20 to 50 range before much progress can be made in phase three and beyond. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

10 " In one midsize European company, the first pass at a vision contained two-thirds of the basic ideas that were in the final product. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

11 " A useful rule of thumb: If you can’t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are not yet done "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

12 " This fourth phase is particularly challenging if the short-term sacrifices include job losses. Gaining understanding and support is tough when downsizing is a part of the vision. For this reason, successful visions usually include new growth possibilities and the commitment to treat fairly anyone who is laid off. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )

13 " Without short-term wins, too many people give up or actively join the ranks of those people who have been resisting change. "

― Harvard Business School Press , HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management (including featured article “Leading Change” )