Shows how the old change management model actually discourages engagement.
Outlines four core principles and three practices that enable leaders to build strong employee commitment to change efforts
Shows how the old change management model actually discourages engagement
Includes new interviews and new material on encouraging engagement through everyday interactions and work design
Building engagement is crucial for every organization-Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost the economy more than 300 billion dollars a year-and is particularly vital when it comes to change efforts. But the old change management paradigm actually discourages engagement. Change is strictly a top down affair. Fear is often recommended as a way to motivate-leaders are urged to "light a fire" under their employees. The result is rank-and-file cynicism, resistance and resentment.
Terms of Engagement offers a better way. Richard Axelrod first destroys six common change management myths and then shows leaders how to involve everyone in an organization-not just select committees or working groups--in designing change efforts. He offers strategies for creating connections between people at all levels and building communities within the organization enthusiastically engaged in fostering change. Undergirding all these efforts, he insists, must be a fundamental and transparent commitment to fairness in planning, implementation and outcome.
This revised edition features many new interviews-everyone from the Vice President for Global Citizenship at Cirque de Soleil to a check out clerk at Best Buy-and three new chapters. It includes a summary of recent findings in neuroscience that support Axelrod's change model, and advice on how you can encourage engagement through everyday conversations, staff meetings, and work design.
Organizations must change often and nimbly in today's business climate. Every leader now faces what Axelrod calls the eternal question: "How do I engage people in the purpose of the enterprise?" Terms of Engagement has the answer.
Orders of 10+ copies shipping to one address receive free ground shipping
within the U.S. Shipping to separate individual addresses via USPS media mail will be applied a handling fee:
Book Details
Overview
Shows how the old change management model actually discourages engagement.
Outlines four core principles and three practices that enable leaders to build strong employee commitment to change efforts
Shows how the old change management model actually discourages engagement
Includes new interviews and new material on encouraging engagement through everyday interactions and work design
Building engagement is crucial for every organization-Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost the economy more than 300 billion dollars a year-and is particularly vital when it comes to change efforts. But the old change management paradigm actually discourages engagement. Change is strictly a top down affair. Fear is often recommended as a way to motivate-leaders are urged to "light a fire" under their employees. The result is rank-and-file cynicism, resistance and resentment.
Terms of Engagement offers a better way. Richard Axelrod first destroys six common change management myths and then shows leaders how to involve everyone in an organization-not just select committees or working groups--in designing change efforts. He offers strategies for creating connections between people at all levels and building communities within the organization enthusiastically engaged in fostering change. Undergirding all these efforts, he insists, must be a fundamental and transparent commitment to fairness in planning, implementation and outcome.
This revised edition features many new interviews-everyone from the Vice President for Global Citizenship at Cirque de Soleil to a check out clerk at Best Buy-and three new chapters. It includes a summary of recent findings in neuroscience that support Axelrod's change model, and advice on how you can encourage engagement through everyday conversations, staff meetings, and work design.
Organizations must change often and nimbly in today's business climate. Every leader now faces what Axelrod calls the eternal question: "How do I engage people in the purpose of the enterprise?" Terms of Engagement has the answer.
About the Author
Dick Axelrod (Author)
Dick Axelrod co-founded The Axelrod Group, Inc., a consulting firm that pioneered the use of employee involvement to effect large-scale organizational change. He now brings more than thirty-five years of consulting and teaching experience to his work, with clients including Boeing, Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett-Packard, and the NHS. Dick is faculty in Columbia University's Professional Program in Organization Development and the University of Chicago's Leadership Arts Program. He alaso serves on the board of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Dick authored Terms of Engagement: Changing the Way We Change Organizations, and co-authored You Don't Have to Do It Alone: How to Involve Others to Get Things Done, which the New York Times called ""the best of the current crop of books on this subject."" His latest e-book is How to Get People to Care About What You Find Important.
Endorsements
“Over 70 percent of organization change efforts fail. Clearly, change management needs an overhaul. Just as clearly, Dick Axelrod has provided the tools for reformation. Engaging people may seem obvious, but how to do it is not. This highly useful book provides enlightenment for the not-so-obvious.” —Warner Burke, PhD, Edward Lee Thorndike Professor of Psychology and Education and Chair, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University “Why is Terms of Engagement an enduring classic? Because its insights are rooted in a deep understanding of how people in organizations actually think and work. Timeless wisdom in a profoundly engaging form.” —Sally Helgerson, coauthor of The Female Vision and author of The Female Advantage and The Web of Inclusion “A manual on closing the gap between how an organization's people need to change and how they can and want to change.” —Art Kleiner, Editor-in-Chief, Strategy+Business “Brings together solid neuroscience research with simple, clear frameworks and tells a great story to make it all easy to digest.” —David Rock, founder, Results Coaching Systems; cofounder, The NeuroLeadership Institute; and author of Your Brain at Work
“Dick is a wizard. This book is important. Few people in the world of transformation have Dick's insights, concrete thinking, and methods for making change stick.” —Peter Block, author of Stewardship, Flawless Consulting, and Community “Terms of Engagement is a manual on closing the gap between how an organization's people need to change, and how they can and want to change.” —Art Kleiner, Editor-in-Chief, strategy+business “Terms of Engagement makes it clear that change management is an oxymoron. Real change requires engagement rather than engineering. Axelrod sets forth the art and science of how.” —Sally Helgesen, author of The Female Vision, The Female Advantage, and The Web of Inclusion “Over seventy percent of organization change efforts fail. Clearly change management needs an overhaul. Just as clearly Dick Axelrod has provided the tools for reformation..” —Warner Burke, Edward Lee Thorndike Professor of Psychology and Education and Chair, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University “By implementing Dick Axelrod's change principles and practices, our engineering team has a renewed vision for working together and a real hope for a brighter future. His engagement model is now a fundamental part of our people plan and the way we address significant change.” —Hank Queen, Vice President, Engineering and Manufacturing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes “‘Engagement' is to organizational performance what 'cloud computing' is to improved computational performance. Axelrod's model links the power of people in the pursuit of excellence. It is both an architecture and a process for responding quickly to changing business conditions.” —Michael J. Freeman, Worldwide Training Manager, Agilent Technologies “Dick Axelrod is one of our longest serving and most successful instructors. Terms of Engagement makes what he teaches in the classroom available to all. In an age when too many of us position technology and leaders at the center of our analysis, Axelrod does something profoundly important by redirecting our attention to the role of community and interaction in accomplishing change and achieving innovation.” —Steve Laymon, PhD, Associate Dean for Business and Professional Programs, Graham School of General Studies, University of Chicago “I have seen these ideas in action. This is the fieldbook of change tools and techniques!” —Charlotte Roberts, coauthor of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change “Over the years, I've learned a great deal from Dick Axelrod about how to truly engage people in creating real organizational change. The learnings in this book are essential for us to understand in these times of relentless change.” —Margaret J. Wheatley, author of Leadership and The New Science and Turning to One Another “Dick Axelrod is among the best there is when it comes to bringing people together from across silos and hierarchies so they can make significant organizational contributions. If you want your business strategy to be more than words on paper, heed this book's lessons.” —Peter Koestenbaum, author of Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness and The Philosophic Consultant “I experienced Dick's change process firsthand and saw amazing results! To attempt successful change without this book in hand is like entering a strange city without a GPS.” —Sharon Jordan-Evans, coauthor of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em “Axelrod provides the reader an opportunity to become an active participant in a different kind of change: the change that will energize an organization to new levels of performance and satisfaction.” —Richard Teerlink, former Chairman, Harley-Davidson “If you are interested in change management, Dick Axelrod has written the book for you. The first edition contained a lot of good material, but this edition goes way beyond those ideas. I am going to use it with all of my organization design clients to ensure implementation.” —Jay Galbraith, President, Galbraith Management Consultants Ltd. “My clients gobbled up the first edition of Terms of Engagement. Just wait until they get their hands on the second edition. Dick widened his own circle of involvement for this new edition through background interviews, correlations with the latest brain research, and new stories from healthcare, utilities, cities, and airlines—proof positive he is the real deal. This new change management stuff really works.” —Christine Whitney Sanchez, President, Collaborative Wisdom & Strategy “In this new edition of what is already a classic, Dick Axelrod shares even more honest insights and actual examples. You will come away from reading this book with a greater confidence in the case for, and the how-to of, embracing the power of true engagement.” —Amy Kates, coauthor of Designing Dynamic Organizations “The first edition of Terms of Engagement's pragmatic, principled ideas and methods ensured it would become a must-read classic for executives and change consultants alike. In the second edition, these ideas have been updated and additional materials added to each chapter to help people apply these now-proven principles and practices. And, of course, it is still a must-read classic.” —Robert J. Marshak, Scholar in Residence, School of Public Affairs, American University, and author of Covert Processes at Work “Engagement is the ‘new organizational form' and key to the success of organizations and communities around the world. In describing engagement as a new model of change and as a way of working, Dick puts forth its principles and practices and tells us how to make it happen.” —Diana Whitney, coauthor of Appreciative Leadership and The Power of Appreciative Inquiry “I've experienced firsthand some of Dick's techniques for engaging people. Following his change principles has helped me tremendously. The first edition of Terms of Engagement is the most-worn volume on my book shelf; I'm sure the second edition will take over first place in no time. The new material on job design and brain science adds great insights.” —Annette Freund, Vice President, Corporate HR and Support, Navistar, Inc. “What struck me when I read this book was the extraordinary combination—in one place—of pragmatic theory, real-life accounts, and practical advice for those wishing to implement major organizational change. Dick's well-researched, pragmatic principles provide solid foundations for engaging people to accomplish great things.” —Tom Devane, author of Integrating Lean Six Sigma and High-Performance Organizations and coauthor of The Change Handbook “Terms of Engagement is an inspiring journey of engagement—combining a landscape of practice and principles, scientific insight, and compassionate wisdom. It will be an indispensable guide to anyone serious about improving the way we bring people together for noble and sustainable work.” —Mila N. Baker, Senior Consultant, The World Bank Group “Terms of Engagement is all about the why, the what, and the how of employee engagement and makes the case better than anything else out there.” —Matt Minihan, Partner, Sapience Organizational Consulting “This new edition of Terms of Engagement creates an even more compelling case for a new, different, and potentially more effective way to go about organizational change. If you're looking for current step-by-step help on change management, this is for you.” —Sara Hakanson, Vice President of Organizational Development and HRD, Otto Bock Healthcare “This new version of Terms of Engagement is terrific. I love the distinction Dick makes between old change management practices and new. In keeping with this new thinking, he writes the book in a way so that you can lead change on your own.” —Rick Maurer, author of Beyond the Wall of Resistance “This revision holds new and updated material that is essential to rectifying the current crisis of leadership and provides practical ways to assist changes in organizations that are not only needed but sustainable.” —Angeles Arrien, cultural anthropologist and award-winning author of The Second Half of Life “Axelrod has been watching, studying, managing, and engaging in change for most of his life. Learn from this master.” —Geoff Bellman, coauthor of Extraordinary Groups “In many corporations, people are fed up with change management. Dick shows how you can change organizations with people, not in spite of them. Use his insights and benefit from his practical experience. I promise you it will work because I experienced it myself.” —Manfred Höefler, Managing Director, Integrated Consulting Group, Austria “The Axelrod team has succeeded in making a good product better. I confess that the phrase ‘change management' leaves me cringing as only a good oxymoron can do—but all that aside, this book goes well beyond the superficial phrase down to the hardcore realities of organizations and how to make them fully functional. It is all about people, engaged people—and this book will get you there.” —Harrison Owen, author and creator of Open Space Technology “In the search for simple ways to address the complex challenges facing organizations, Dick Axelrod provides welcome insights. The powerful principles and practices he names are key to change that works. The stories he tells bring the ideas to life. Bravo!” —Peggy Holman, author of Engaging Emergence and The Change Handbook “To say that the new and expanded version of Richard Axelrod's Terms of Engagement is important reading for managers and consultants is a significant understatement. It is required reading for anyone interested in and involved in organizational change. Richard Axelrod is acknowledged as one of our major contributors to the field of organization development. This work continues to reinforce his reputation.” —Peter Sorensen, PhD, Director of PhD/MOB Programs, Benedictine University “We know a lot about engaging brains and brawn in the workplace, but we are just beginning to understand what it means to engage the whole person—brains, brawn, imagination, spirit, and common sense. Dick Axelrod's personal story and practical insights take us to a deeper place. Thank you for your tremendous contribution.” —Sandra Janoff, PhD, codirector, Future Search Network, and coauthor of Future Search and Don't Just Do Something, Stand There “Sometimes wisdom is made accessible to all. A great book for those serious about improving their organization, regardless of your definition of ‘improvement.'” —Barry Johnson, author of Polarity Management “A timely and essential review for leaders wanting to enhance their capacity to motivate their workforces to achieve breakthrough business and organizational value.” —David Isaacs and Juanita Brown, cofounders, The World Café Community “The new ‘engagement paradigm' that Axelrod challenges us to embrace is effectively demonstrated in numerous real-life examples enhanced by guiding principles, graphics, and summaries at the end of each chapter. This is a ‘must book' for anyone leading organizational change.” —Billie T. Alban and Barbara Benedict Bunker, coauthors of Large Group Interventions and The Handbook of Large Group Interventions
Table of Contents
Foreword by Peter Block
Preface
Introduction: Engagement Makes a Difference
Chapter 1: Why Change Management Needs Changing
Chapter 2: Engagement Is the New Change Management
Chapter 3: Six Change Management Myths
Chapter 4: Lead with an Engagement Edge
Chapter 5: Leadership Conversations That Foster Engagement
Chapter 6: Widen the Circle of Involvement
Chapter 7: Connect People to Each Other
Chapter 8: Create Communities for Action
Chapter 9: Promote Fairness
Chapter 10: When Engagement Disengages: Some Words of Caution Before You Begin
Chapter 11: Design Work with Engagement Built In
Chapter 12: How to Start Where You Are
Chapter Reviews
Resources
Works Cited
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Axelrod Group
About the Author
Excerpt
Terms of Engagement
CHAPTER 1 Why Change Management Needs Changing
That. didn’t work. Let’s do it again.”
In organizations around the world, this is how change happens. You, the organization’s leader, identify a problem and hire an expert consulting organization to create the solution. The consultants bring in their legions and you get your answer. Next, you try to sell the plan to the rest of the organization. But instead of excitement, you’re met with indifference and resistance. Getting people on board becomes a full-time obsession. Your elegant solution, wrapped in a handsome binder, sits in silence on your bookshelf, an expensive reminder of what might have been.
“That still didn’t work. Let’s tweak the model.”
This cycle has repeated often. To deal with the apathy and resistance that accompanies many change processes, consultants developed a change management structure to ensure buy-in. This structure consists of a sponsor group, a steering committee, and design teams representing a cross section of the organization. This streamlined organization strives to reduce the barriers to change that exist within the wider organization. But these groups and teams often fall into the same trap that exists when consultants work solely with leaders. They go on to create the solution, and then, after making all of the key decisions, they seek to create buy-in from the rest of the organization.
Whether you are developing a strategic plan, improving a process, or redesigning an organization, the process is the same. This way of working is so ingrained that few question it.
THE DETROIT EDISON STORY, PART 1—WHAT NOT TO DO
For over a year, Detroit Edison managers had been working to improve their supply-chain process. They were following the acknowledged best change management practice, complete with a sponsoring group, a steering committee, and a set of commodity teams, along with an army of expert consultants from one of the big four consulting firms. Despite the hard work of many people from inside and outside the organization, they had little to show for it: lots of good ideas, none of them implemented. The lack of progress frustrated the sponsors, the steering committee, and the commodity teams—they just could not understand why they could not get the organization to support the changes they were proposing.
In spite of its critical importance to the organization, most people greeted the supply-chain improvement process with yawns. The only ones who seemed to care were members of the various committees—and even they were starting to show signs of disillusionment.
Fortunately, this story has a successful conclusion. The next installment—in chapter 2—describes how Detroit Edison abandoned the old change management approach to supply-chain improvement in favor of the new change management with dramatic results.
Four beliefs are at the core of the old change management:
• The few decide for the many. The change process works best when a select few—that is, leaders, consultants, and members of the sponsor team, steering committee, and design teams—decide what should be done. Populating these groups with the best and the brightest ensures success. This multilevel, cross-functional structure puts all key decision makers in the room. As a result, people within the organization will feel represented.
• Solutions first, people second. Because getting the right answer is crucial, developing the plan becomes everyone’s focus. The groups work hard, often in isolation because they don’t want to be distracted from the task at hand, to develop strategies, redesign organizations, and develop new cultures. While giving a nod to participation, they believe the best approach is to focus on the solution first and people second. The prudent course is to make the important decisions first and then move to widespread participation.
• Fear builds urgency. The best way to motivate people is to alarm them. A sense of urgency occurs when you light a fire under people, thereby creating a “burning platform.” When people are concerned about their jobs or their future, they take action. Nothing of consequence ever happens without a burning platform.
• Inequality is the norm and life isn’t fair. At an early age we learned life isn’t fair and not to expect equity in our dealings with others. The title of Harold Kushner’s book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. says it all. Because life is capricious, we must constantly be on guard. It’s a mean world out there; do not expect equity or to be treated fairly. As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.
THE ENGAGEMENT GAP
These four beliefs combine to increase the engagement gap that naturally occurs in any change process. Any change initiative necessarily begins with a group of people who initially grasp the need for change. At this point, an engagement gap opens between those who want change to occur and the rest of the organization.
The old change management seeks to address this problem by creating sponsor groups, steering committees, and design teams. The problem is that as these groups immerse themselves in their work, the engagement gap widens between those who are part of the instigating groups and everyone else. Increasingly, these groups tend to objectify those not involved in the process as resisters and isolate themselves from the rest of the organization, fearing that time spent away from their work will cause delays.
As the engagement gap widens, resistance increases. This engagement gap, first identified by Peter Senge and others (1999), is an inescapable part of organizational change. No change effort can succeed for long in the face of an everwidening engagement gap. Consequently, success depends on narrowing, rather than widening, the engagement gap. Why, under current change management practices, does the engagement gap widen?
Your Voice Doesn’t Count
Whenever a change initiative is structured around a small group (representative or not) that designs and develops the overall change process, there is a risk of widening the engagement gap. The smaller the group and the less open the members are to soliciting input from the larger system, the greater the risk. When the gap widens, people come to believe that their voices do not count.
In such cases, people commonly resist plans in which they weren’t included and, as a result, don’t feel any real ownership. Or they have concerns about the decisions reached but feel blamed if they raise their concerns. Or they feel they have no choice but to accept the inevitable.
Excluded from the planning process, the “opportunity” occurs to decide how to implement plans. This typically does not feel like an opportunity at all but more like a manipulation. Is it any wonder that this process increases resistance rather than reduces it? When people are excluded from the planning process, the only opportunity they have is to implement the plans.
You Are Isolated from Key People, Events, and Processes
The old change management committee structure isolates leaders and organization members from one another, thus further increasing the engagement gap. The top of the organization has one view of the world, the middle levels another, and the lower levels a still different view. And customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders add another dimension. Instead of working together to bring their combined knowledge to bear on an issue, these groups work separately on their own discrete parts.
Here is a scenario I have witnessed repeatedly that demonstrates the problems of isolating leaders and organization members from each other. The design team works feverishly to develop a set of proposals. It then spends as much time preparing for their presentation to the steering committee as it did developing its proposals because the team knows how important it is to present the ideas well. At the steering committee meeting, the committee members put design team members on the hot seat. Soon everyone becomes defensive. Steering committee members, usually midlevel managers and union officials, feel that they are raising legitimate concerns based on their understanding of the organization.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LEASH THE LEADERS?
Relegating leaders to the role of sponsors is a significant flaw. In this role, leaders are frequently isolated. This prevents them from contributing valuable knowledge, expertise, and insights to the design teams that make up the parallel organization. The only time they can contribute is when they review plans for approval.
On the other hand, design team members begin to believe that the steering committee has already determined the answer it wants. The design team goes back and tries to give the steering committee what it wants while staying true to its own beliefs. The steering committee waits for the next report, not quite understanding why the design team members are so defensive. After a number of iterations of this process, the steering committee arrives at a decision it can support. Then the process repeats itself when the steering committee members review the proposed changes with the sponsor group.
You Are Fearful, Withdraw, and Close Down
The inability to develop critical support for necessary changes results from the decision to use fear as a motivator. We have all seen what occurs when widespread organizational fear takes over. People shut down. They stop working. Instead of focusing on improving the organization, they focus on self-preservation.
HOW TO STRUCTURE FAILURE WITHIN AN HOUR: AN EXERCISE
Fear has roots in a lack of information. To demonstrate this, divide your participants into two teams. Call the first team the “planners,” and call the second team the “doers.” Charge the planners with developing a plan for how the doers are to put together a puzzle. (Choose a puzzle that can be put together in fifteen minutes.) Tell the doers that they will execute the plan.
Typically, the planners send the doers out into the hall while the planners develop their plan. While the doers are in the hall, the separation and lack of information produce negative feelings among the doers toward the planners. Some doer groups manage their fear by figuring out how to sabotage the work of the planners.
Once they develop their plan, the planners summon the doers and give them instructions. When the two groups operate in this fashion, they rarely complete the exercise within the prescribed one-hour time frame. But occasionally, the planners invite the doers into their deliberations and they develop and execute the plan together. When this occurs, the participants usually complete the task within fifteen minutes.
The old change management thinking is behind the scenes in the first method. It involves relatively few people in the development of the plan for change; then once important decision are made, it shifts its emphasis to implementation and buy-in only.
You Don’t Trust the Institution and Its Leaders
When leaders believe inequality is the norm and life isn’t fair, their actions often produce a lack of trust. Because people in the organization come to believe that fairness is not present, they distrust leadership’s motives, and any change process the leaders initiate is doomed before it starts.
TELEPHONE COMPANY’S BREAKTHROUGH FAILS TO BREAK THROUGH: WHY?
Consider a telephone company’s recent experience. The change management committees created a brilliant design for a new organization aligned with its customer base: they replaced the previous organizational silos with integrated business units. Both the sponsors and the committee members believed that they had created a breakthrough for this stodgy old organization.
Yet paralysis gripped the organization. Why? For more than a year, the design group had made decisions behind closed doors. Although the design group actively solicited opinions, not all departments and levels of people felt included in the process. When the time came to roll out the new organization, there had been so many rumors that people were negatively disposed toward it.
In the end, the design group could not bridge the gap to the new organization, with its greater responsiveness to customers and increased collaboration and teamwork. From the very beginning, people believed that fairness was absent. So they rejected ideas that would benefit them and the organization.
A NEUROSCIENCE VIEW OF THE OLD CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Neuroscience helps explain how the old change management actually works against creative problem solving. Simply put, there are two human responses: we move away from threats and we move toward rewards. When the threat response in the brain kicks in, creativity and innovation decrease. When the reward response in the brain kicks in, creativity and innovation increase.
According to David Rock, author of Your Brain at Work, “Engagement is a strong reward state . . . Rewards activate the reward circuitry of the brain that increases dopamine levels in your pre-frontal cortex, decreases cortisone levels. It literally makes it easier to make connections, makes it easier to learn, makes you more optimistic, helps you see solutions, helps you find alternatives for action . . . So when you get an increase of dopamine in your pre-frontal region, you have essentially much better decision-making and problem solving, emotional regulation, collaboration, and learning” (D. Rock, pers. comm., December 22, 2009).
TABLE 1.1 HOW THE OLD CHANGE MANAGEMENT PRODUCES ENGAGEMENT GAPS
Rock (2009) has developed the SCARF (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness) model to identify those factors that influence the reward response. When you apply the SCARF model to the old change management, it is easy to see how
• Status fades away when the few decide for the many. Status is about your relative importance to others. It’s difficult to feel important when you know your voice doesn’t count.
• Certainty diminishes when you are isolated from key people, events, and processes. You just don’t know what is going on and you end up feeling more threatened.
• Autonomy shrinks when you don’t feel you can influence your own situation. A feeling of helplessness sets in, fear takes over, and you withdraw and close down.
• Relatedness decreases as leaders and organizational members become isolated from each other at the very time you need connections between people.
• Fairness lessens when the change process appears to ignore evenhandedness. Self-interest takes over when you need people to look out for the good of the whole.
KEY POINTS
The old change management works against innovation and creativity.
When people do not have a voice in change that affects them, they will resist even if the change benefits them.
Engagement gaps increase when
• You believe that your voice does not count.
• You are isolated from key people, events, and processes.
• You are fearful.
• You don’t trust the institution and its leaders.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
What are your own beliefs about organizational change?
To what extent do a lack of voice, isolation, fear, and low trust exist in your organization? What are the causes?
What are the upsides and downsides for you and your organization to continue using the old change management?
The old change management works against innovation and creativity.
