DePena-LDRS800-Analysis Harvard Business Review on Change 11/30/13

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Book Synopsis and Authors Thesis & Basis:

Harvard Business Review on Change presents a compilation of eight articles by renowned
experts who provide a series of very intuitive perspectives on organizational change toward
victory. Authors James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras have compiled these findings, which cover
a publication period from 1992 to 1998. Each article presents different types of conclusions
based on both research and experience, which I summarize below, by author:
1. John P. Kotter: In Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail?, the authors
thesis is that many organizations commit eight typical errors that cause them to fail in
their transformation effort, from not establishing a significant sense of urgency to not
anchoring changes in the corporate culture. Reversing those errors constitutes a solution
for turning around organizations.
The basis for that is the authors observation of more than 100 companies over the years,
many of which have failed because they did not plan and follow through on a series of
steps that usually take long time to produce transformational change; when organizations
do create transformational steps, they commit the mistake of skipping some of them to
create an illusion of speed, which leads to disaster (Collins and Porras, pp. 1-20).
2. James C. Collins and Jerry Porras: In Building Your Company Vision, the authors
contend that successful companies should focus on a clear and rigorous prescriptive
framework that would include core ideology and envisioned future; they also present the
concept of Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), a bold, energizing, audacious 10-30
year organization vision toward success.
The authors base the above thesis on the fact that many organizations have a prevalent
vague and fuzzy vision that is usually conducive to failure (pp. 21-54).
3. Jeanie Daniel Duck: In Managing Change: The Art of Balancing, the authors thesis is
that change requires balance throughout the organization. That change emphasizes the
most important aspects for transformation. In other words, she contends that the focus
should be on how to manage the dynamic, not the pieces of the process and work smarter,
not harder. By doing that, the ultimate goal is to teach everyone in the organization how
to think strategically by recognizing patterns, and problem anticipation and opportunity
way before they happen. How can this be accomplished? One way she proposes is the
creation of Transition Management Teams (TMT), who will focus in overseeing the
change efforts by a series of tasks, such as: Setting a vision and guidance process, align
projects, effective communication, among others.
The basis for her conclusion is that, through her research and experience, working in
isolated change constructs will not yield the expected organizational transformation as it
requires balance to ensure trust. Change does not occur overnight and it requires that
everyone is involved in the process (pp.55-81).
4. Tracy Goss, Richard Pascale, and Anthony Athos: The Reinvention Roller Coaster:
Risking the Present for a Powerful Future- The authors thesis is that in order for
organizations to change, they ought to challenge the status quo. What does that mean?
Fundamentally, doing is not as important as being. In other words, if organizations

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want to experience true transformation, the solution is not changing what currently exists,
but actually creating what does not. That would require the assembling of a group of key
players that will be able to embrace and succeed in the monumental task of managing the
present from the future. These key stakeholders need to start with an organizational
audit, and then creating a sense of urgency that would include discussing the
undiscussable, even confronting its most life-threatening problems, among other action
plans.
As with the basis for their thesis, the authors argue that every organizational leader
basically knows how to create teams, fix problems, redesign business processes to lower
cost and improve performance. Nonetheless, very often, all these activities only yield
incremental change. For true sustainable organizational change, these leaders do not need
to focus on self-improvement, rather in reinventing themselves (pp. 83-112).
5. Roger Martin: In Changing the Mind of the Corporation, the author contends that
organizational transformation requires breaking with the rigid pattern of a four-stage
syndrome that caused them to be in crisis. The way out of this syndrome is not by
blaming others; instead, change will happen through a candid reexamination of
conflictive processes involving the founders vision (strategy or steering mechanism) and
the strategy the organization enacts, such as actual behavioral patterns toward its
customers and competitors.
This thesis is based upon the authors 13 years of experience seeing big companies in
trouble for doing the same things that once made them big while ignoring the new trends
in the economic environment. Business as usual is a recipe for disaster and every
employee needs to understand and being involved in the process through ongoing,
effective two-way communication. The steering mechanism becomes rigid over the years
and changing leaders need to look back to the organizations mission or mind and align
the changes to that mission. Ultimately, the change will come by looking inside, not
outside (pp. 113-138).
6. Paul Strebel: Why Do Employees Resist Change?- The authors thesis revolves around
the idea that in order for employees to embrace change, organizations need to instill trust
by clearly defining personal compacts, the mutual obligations and commitments
between employees and the organization. All three universally accepted dimensions of
these compacts: formal, psychological, and social need to be mutually aligned and
understood between the players. The basis for that is that many times change efforts fail
because management and employees see change from different perspectives. Managers
often see change as good thing for business and for career advancement while employees
see this as disruptive and intrusive. Effective change agents tend to put themselves in the
employees shoes to gain their trust and commitment (pp. 139-157).
7. Norman A. Augustine: Reshaping an Industry: Lockheed Martins Survival Story
The author contends that organizational change requires a full awareness about its future
and how to face and adapt to challenges and, as a result, maximize opportunities to
ensure long-term victory. The author substantiates this thesis through his vast experience
in the corporate world, particularly during his tenure as CEO of Martin Marietta and
Lockheed Martin. By witnessing the closing of so many military suppliers after the end

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of the cold war gave, he started to explore creative ways toward victory. He concludes
that organizations in difficult economic downturns need road maps, even if there arent
any roads. Ultimately, there are two types of organizations: those that are changing, and
those that are going out of business (pp. 159-187).
8. Robert H. Schaffer and Harvey A. Thomson: Successful Change Programs Begin with
Results- The authors contend that to ensure transformation, change agents need to shift
away from activity centered programs to results driven programs. The basis for that is
that so many change efforts throughout organizational history have failed because they
waste a lot of time and resources in programs that yield very little results as they focus
more in the process than the actual outcomes. As a matter of fact, they assert that that
most corporate improvement programs only have negligible impact from an operational
and financial perspective because of managements focus on activities instead of results.
Instead, they should pursue programs that are focused on specific achievement that is
measurable within a few months.
Implications for leaders and students of leadership
For current leaders, this book is a wake-up call. They need to consider the ideas presented to be
able to understand the risks and opportunities that come with change and implement those
accordingly to help their organizations to become or continue to stay competitive in the current
global economy.
For students of leadership, it is a great opportunity to build upon the presented ideas, and even
develop new ones, especially since many things have happened across the world since the last
edition of this book.
Positive and negative aspects:
The book has been very intuitive overall. Reading it was a lot of fun as well. I particularly
enjoyed the first article by Kotter, especially since his change ideas are also presented by Bolman
and Deal (2008, p. 394). I also found Strebels article (Why Do Employees Resist Change?)
very interesting for a couple of situations currently happening at work. Last, Augustines article
on Lockheed Martins survival story was very insightful.
As with negative aspects, the book has an error on page 194, which lists the differences between.
Results-Driven vs. Activity-Driven programs. These details are backwards. I was getting
confused until I decided to do a Google search and found the original article without the mistake.
See page 83 of this link:
http://www.business.unr.edu/faculty/kuechler/788/successfulChangeProgramsBeginWithResults.
pdf

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References:
Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Collins, J., & Porras, J. (1998). Harvard business review on change. Boston, MA: Harvard
Business School Publishing