Change Management

Organization Behavior II

MBA-IBC

By,
Rakesh G.R
Mrudula Savadasari
Alagar Sridhar
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Resistance 4
Change as a novelty 5
Initial Steps to initiate Change 6
Identifying Change Agents 6
Implementing Change 7
Kuebler-Ross Model of Change 8
Conclusions 11
References 12

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Introduction
A recent article1 stated “The top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004”.
“Universities are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist”. We are living in
exponential times & Change is inevitable

So what is Change: How to describe it?

Change is something that presses us out of our comfort zone. Change is for the better or for the
worst, depending on where you view it. Change has an adjustment period which varies on the
individual.

Nature of Change: Why Change has become important

"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s
logic." Peter Drucker

According to Aakerman-Anderson2, an organization is initially born out of a new idea that serves
the needs of its environment. It grows and matures until it reaches a status quo or plateau of
growth. Due to competition, during this stage, it demands changes in the environment. But if it
continues to function in this holding pattern, it begins to experience failure, productivity drops,
loss of control. It moves into a period of struggle between chaotic shifts within and without and
attempts to maintain some semblance of order and control. The disturbance level increases until
finally something snaps- the organization either goes out of business or institutes some entirely
new direction. The old way of operating must end or die, for the realization of the new to emerge
from its remains.
The Phoenix effect is a decent analogy here. The transformed organization rises out of the
ashes of its old form to take on a new direction to raise its performance capability to a much
greater level of functioning, sophistication and responsiveness. The death and rebirth process
occurs over an extended period of time.

Thus, for businesses today, change is imperative. Darwinian as it may seem, it is the survival of
the fittest, whether in the IT business or traditional businesses like banking.

This is where Change management comes into role. Thus, Change management is a
structured approach to shift individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a
desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at empowering employees to accept
and embrace changes in their current business environment.3

But still why people are reluctant to change?

"People don't resist change. They resist being changed!" Peter Senge

Peter F Drucker says “Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that
still implies that change is like death and taxes it should be postponed as long as possible and
1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZjRJeWfVtY&feature=related
2
Linda S Aakerman-Anderson, Development, transition or transformation, OD Practitioner, 1996, 28(4), 5-16
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_management

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no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are
living in, change is the norm." 

Resistance – An immediate consequence of change

Be it now or back to centuries ago, people have always resisted change & always changing
people belief is difficult. When Galileo proposed heliocentrism - which tells all planets revolve
around the sun, the church condemned him for ’vehement suspicion of heresy’ and sentenced
to death. Time has rolled & even in the modern management, change is always difficult & even
when faced with the prospect of death, many people will not give up their unhealthy habits.

According to Myron Tribus4, Humans are the most complex creatures on earth and our
minds are so well tuned for the practices we learnt from our teachers, mentors and fellow
practitioners. Our mind does not so easily accept to follow the new theories and leave behind
the practices which we learnt long ago and practiced for years with a sense of being accurate.

Tribus, in his article ‘Germ theory of Management’, gives an analogy where doctors in
mid of 19th century were killing their patients did not have any idea of germs, sterilization & they
by transferring germs from one patients to another with their ignorance.

In the 19th century, doctors were killing more people than they cured. In spite of these
disastrous outcomes, many doctors were placed on the crest of the society. After the discovery
of theory of infection and the causative organisms called germs, it was hard for the doctors to
accept that what they believed and practiced so far proved to be wrong. If they accepted the
theory of germs, it would impinge on their esteem they had earned till now.

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to get people to alter the ways they do things. According
to Koch5, resistance to change manifests itself in a different way or in different setting- a refusal
to throw away that old slide rule, or to dance at weddings. We all refuse to change our ways for
reasons that are often hard to articulate. He feels this is because, change hurts. Any changes
cause actual physical and psychological discomfort. This is due to way the inside of brain works.
From a neurological perspective, our response to change is predictable and universal and we all
respond to change in the same way: we avoid it!

Philip Crosby gives an explanation “Slowness to change usually means fear of the new”
It takes a lot of efforts for the people to change. As in germ theory, sometimes it may be
required to unlearn everything what they had learnt until now & start from the beginning.

Loss of control
Major change occurs when people feel they have lost control over some important aspect of
their lives or environment.
Dealing with Resistance - Meet the Beast6:

4
Germ theory of Management by Myron Tribus
5
Christopher Koch, in an article New Science of Hange, Real CIO World, Nov2006
6
Daryl Conner, Managing at speed of Change

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According to Daryl6, any patterns, principles or rules are difficult to explain change behavior.
The implications of an unanticipated change can torment you from early childhood experiences
of moving nomadically from state to state, to job loss or loss of a loved one. Instead of being
victims of change, we must learn to work with change.

Human transformation is too complex to be described by set of rigid laws. Change is not
discreet events that occur by linear progression. Rather it unfolds on many different levels
simultaneously. Human lives are most effective and efficient when they are moving at speed
that allows them to appropriately assimilate the change they face.

Types of change: According to Daryl, there are 3 kinds of change

1. Micro change: which affects us, family or close friends / relatives

2. Organizational changes: which occur at work or any institution affecting our life, like
church or union.
3. Macro changes which affects a part of a constituency or region.

Paradoxically, macro changes affect an individual’s life the least. The ozone layer depletion or
the destruction of the Amazon may be considered a macro environmental problem but because
we as people do not fully understand or see tangible effects in our day-to-day lives, then these
problems seem far removed.

For example, a war or earth quake in a distant part of the world will not affect us directly unless
a close friend or relative being sent off to that war.

Change as a novelty
According to Peters7, Change is a pain. Human beings need constancy in their lives. Many
psychological researches say that humans need stability and equally need stimulations. In many
tiny ways, and in much bigger ways like job searches or new project, people seek stimulation,
while they also value stability. He says to realize change as normal as breathing and that we
want lots of it, along with lots of constancy.

According to Adams8, any change has the potential to create distress and a desire to cling to
status quo to the extent that it creates novelty (surprise, unfamiliarity, uncertainty). In order to be
most effective in implementing change, it must be done in ways which minimize surprises, and
develop mechanisms for clarifying and familiarizing employees with the new ways of operating.
Support for novelty management needs to come in four areas:-
a. information needed to adjust to change
b. skills needed to adjust to the change
c. attitudes and values which must be developed to support the change
d. reward mechanisms for adopting the change.

Initial Steps to initiate Change

The conventional wisdom in psychology, in fact, is that our brains have two independent
systems at work at all times. First, there's what we call the emotional side. It's the part of us that
7
Tom Peters, op. cit., pg 82
8
John D. Adams, Creating Critical mass to support change, pp 148-149

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is instinctive, that feels pain and pleasure. Second, there's the rational side, also known as the
reflective or conscious system. It's the part of you that deliberates and analyzes and looks into
the future.
The Heaths9 in his ‘How to Change Things When Change Is Hard’ starts with the analogy set
out in The Happiness Hypothesis by Haidt & he says that our emotional side is an Elephant and
our rational side is its Rider. Perched atop the Elephant, the Rider holds the reins and seems to
be the leader. But the Rider’s control is precarious because the Rider is so small relative to the
Elephant. Anytime the six-ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the
Rider is going to lose. So, It’s a challenge for any change agent to appeal to both.

In any change program, first steps should be small and initial visions that focus effectively to
address immediate problems. It is important to help people come to their own resolution
regarding the need for change. Leaders have to paint a broad picture of change and resist the
urge to fill in all the gaps for people. The people have to fill these gaps in on their own. If the
leaders get too detailed, it prevents people from making the connections on their own. Thus
having patience is very important. Once people have had the initial insight that change is
necessary, they need to repeat the experience in order to reinforce it and to experience the
potential pleasure that can be derived from it. Moreover leaders need to make change,
personally relevant story to the affected people10.

The pre-requisites
According to Conner11, two prerequisites for successful organization change
i. Pain: A critical mass of information that justifies breaking from status quo.
ii. Remedy: Desirable accessible actions that will solve the problem or take advantage of the
opportunity afforded by current situation.
For prolonged change both elements must work together. Orchestrating pain messages
throughout the organization is the first step in developing organization commitment to change.

Identifying Change Agents

According to Adams12, finding out who in the organization, regardless of formal role, are solidly
in support of an intended change and bringing them together can be one of the most important
factors in successful change implementation. Their shared interest in the change virtually leads
to some highly innovative ways to enroll the early adaptors, As a result a critical mass favoring
the change is generated rather quickly, and with little forcing. This network of solid supporters is
the choir, which will generate lots of good ideas for gradually bringing in new choir members
from early adaptors.
The main consideration relative to the hard core resistors is to encourage them to stay tuned
and to avoid any confrontations which may cause the skeptics to throw their support to the
underdogs.

As explained earlier, coming to the analogy by Heath13, of Elephant & rider, where the rational
side is the rider & emotional side is the elephant, he explains that the weakness of the Elephant,
i.e our emotional and instinctive side, is clear: It is lazy and skittish, often looking for the quick

9
How to Change Things When Change Is Hard,2010 by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
10
Tom Peter, :Pursuit of Wow pg 82
11
Daryl Conner, op. cit., pg 99
12
John D. Adams, Creating Critical mass to support change, pp 148-149
13
How to Change Things When Change Is Hard,2010 by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

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payoff over the long-term payoff . When change efforts fail, it's usually the Elephant's fault, since
the kinds of change we want typically involve short-term sacrifices for long-term payoffs.
Changes often fail because the Rider simply can't keep the Elephant on the road long enough to
reach the destination.

The Elephant's weakness--the hunger for short-term _payoffs--is the mirror image of the Rider's
strength, which is the ability to think long-term, to plan, to think beyond the moment.

Just as important, the Elephant is the one who gets things done. To make progress towards a
goal, whether it's noble or crass, requires the energy and drive of the Elephant. This strength is
the mirror image of the Rider's great weakness: spinning his wheels. The Rider tends to over-
analyze and over think things.

The challenge of a change agent is to appeal to both. If change agents reach the Riders but
not the Elephants, they'll have understanding without motivation. If change agents reach the
Elephants but not their Riders, they'll have passion without direction. In both cases, their flaws
can be paralyzing--a reluctant Elephant and a wheel-spinning Rider can both ensure that
nothing changes. But when they are moving together, change can come easily.

It's not easy to achieve balance between the Rider and the Elephant, because change creates
tension between them. When we change, we abandon behaviors that are comfortable and
automatic in favor of new behaviors that are less familiar. Because they are less familiar, they
require careful supervision by the Rider, who must lead the Elephant down an unfamiliar trail.
Think of how we feel "on guard" when meeting new people, as compared with our effortless
interactions with old friends. One set of behaviors is conscious and the other is natural,
unconscious. When we change, we replace unconscious behaviors with conscious ones, and
that can be exhausting.

Implementing Change 13
In short, the Heaths’ hypothesis is: to bring about change, we have to: Direct the Rider; Motivate
the Elephant; Shape the Path. 
.
To Direct the rider, he says to ‘follow the bright spots’. He explains to investigate what is
working & clone to it rather than starting from scratch. Next, he says to ‘script the critical moves’
where he tells to think in terms of specific behavior rather than thinking of the big picture. For
example, if any people advices to ‘Go Vegetarian’, no one changes at once by reading it. Rather
we should give people specific steps so that they can take to start on the path of change like
skipping meat on several days in a week or avoiding eating chicken or pigs etc. The last point
he says is to ‘point to the destination’. He explains that change is easier when we know where
we are going & why is it worth going there.

To Motivate the Elephant, we should tackle the emotional side i.e Heath says that we have to
find the feeling & make people feel it. He says that knowing something isn’t enough to cause
change. He argues that statistics filled intellect argument will not enough to cause people to
change – the Rider has very less control over the elephant.

Further, he says to ‘Shrink the change’- “Break down the change until it no longer spooks the
Elephant.” Lastly, he says to ‘Grow your people by Cultivating a sense of identity and instilling
the growth mindset.” In this chapter, they talk about how to capture people’s pre-existing

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inclinations and get them to start thinking that change really is possible. The way to make the
possibility of change real is by getting them to make a small change – then they think of
themselves as someone who can change, not someone limited by habit, peer pressure, etc.

To Shape the path, he says to ‘Build habits’ & that Our habits are essentially stitched into our
environment.

He concludes Change isn’t an event; it’s a process. The more you’re exposed to something, the
more you like it. People don’t like to act in one way and think in another. So once a small step
has been taken, and people have begun to act in a new way, it will be increasingly difficult for
them to dislike the way they’re acting. Similarly, as people begin to act differently, they’ll start to
think of themselves differently, and as their identity evolves, it will reinforce the new way of
doing things.

Big changes can start with very small steps. Small changes tend to snowball.

Kuebler-Ross Model of Change (7 stages)

One more theory which explains change process is ‘Kuebler-Ross Model of Change’. To
implement effectively such process, we need to understand seven stages of change as
described by Kuber Ross.
Here, the steps to be taken by management during change process is taken as a scenario.

Overview of stages of a change process and corresponding emotional efforts

Nature of the phase: The first reaction to any change would be Shock /surprise. This emotion
would rise due to the difference between the expectations & the reality. The reason could also
be due to the lack of capability to adopt.

Approaches: The first step at this stage would be to communicate openly & actively thereby
reducing rumors. Also, rescue the healthy parts of the organization by giving them the feeling of
being able to make a change through their contribution. As a future perspective, a climate of
learning can be established.

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Change processes need a sufficient dynamic that is steered by a well closed conflict potential
and an intended behaviour of cooperation

Dynamic of change in accordance to cooperation and conflict potential

Nature of the phase: The second phase in the change curve is Negation. This emotion arises
due to the wrong feeling of security & overestimating own competence. Reasons may be
management underestimates the need of explanation and repetition of the inevitable change
towards their employees as they have already understood the risks and try to go forward
towards solution.

Approaches: The persons with intensive feelings have to be taken seriously; otherwise a
sentiment of rejection extends the phase of negation. The dialogue between management and
affected persons has to explain the required change intensively and on a repeated basis

Nature of the phase: The next phase in the change curve is Understanding. First
understanding of necessity of change comes up. Uncertainty about real change & approaches
to it becomes obvious. A restricted “tunnel sight” based on strong feelings hinders to look at
reality. Disappointments of the past reduce the acceptance of explanations. Even good
reformers loose the will to adapt themselves.. The lost of trust provokes a self referencing
behavior which should not be mistaken for egoism or defiance

Approaches: Very strong feelings arise in a crisis. They are an expression of the underlying
suppressed emotions. Possible solutions could be

A) Creation of a trustful climate:

 Encourage an open discussion about the fears of the past.
 Exchange the and initiate a view of what options the management has in the
situation according to the limits and constraints
B) Move the view from a problem discussion to a development of solutions
C) The self-esteem and active development of options is stabilized by the reintegration of the
behavior in the logical levels

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Nature of the phase: Acceptance is the next phase in the change curve where a new situation
is accepted as a reality. In this phase, new habits are not yet existing & old ones are no longer
of use. There’s a vacuum of action created.
Reasons: A contradiction to decisions is often based on emotional patterns showing criticism
without reasoning. Management is watched closely. People are scared to jump on a new train, if
it leads them into the wrong direction & the opposite movement could damage them.

Approaches: Once acceptance is reached, the problem solving process regains a constructive
level but is still in danger. The power of the movement is important and should not collapse;
otherwise the process is hard to be restarted. Management to find early movers and to produce
encouragement

Nature of the phase: Experimentation- Changes can hardly be designed in one go only:
Experiments are part of the quality control as well as a basis for establishing new ways. New
ways are searched and an intensive learning takes place. As failures malfunctioning comes up
frustration or trouble and arises. Possible reasons for this phase could be that concepts are only
constructed & written down by third parties without testing them in real life.

Approaches: Encourage learning by “organizational theatre” and set up simulations. Help the
management to produce good attitudes by giving credits to “early wins”

Nature of the phase: Insight – Here, in this phase, new procedures are found to be successful.
The change in the new direction may become stable or slow down.
Reasons could be too many or too complex approaches are hindering each other due to a loss
of overview. Team building does not reach a performance level. Or teams have different
mentalities towards change

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Approaches: The commitment has to be reached by clearly defining the objectives and
controlling them. Encourage the wills (e.g. believe in strength) and skills (e.g. team building,
learning) to establish smart solutions.

A) Establish stop-criteria for experiments and control them

B) “Keep-it-simple” approach: Prefer intelligent solutions and reserve time for the reducing
complexity
C) Perfectionism is out of fashion: Look for the 20/80 rule and decide even if not everything
is checked to the end

Nature of the phase: Integration - The new behavior and processes have been established.
After a while the insights of a crisis may be forgotten and the system is endangered even more

Approaches: Establish quality systems and techniques of good managing practice.

Demonstrate the end of old habits

Conclusions
Actions of change are started due to the feeling that there is a risk to lose something. Change
management is successful when it enables learning by experiencing and multi-level learning.

In most of the cases the estimated risk of changing something is seen higher than the risk of no
adaptation / no action. This is called the phenomenon of ‘asymmetric risk assessment’. It blocks
the adaptation to new situations.
If the gap of adaptation to the current or future situation has a significant degree the
phenomenon of asymmetric risk assessment has probably blocked the system.

Change agents should keep in mind:

 Not the diagnosis of a certain point in time is relevant, but the description of time cycles,
the speed of developments and changes as well as estimations of favorable time
corridors for certain interventions.
 The consultants should get an idea of how intensive and how often the interventions in
the system should take place ( one heavy change, many little movements)

Change agents cannot use the same concept of a change process for every client
because the dimension of time varies in every system

 Every social system has its own dimension of time. In living dynamic systems the
question of time has a critical importance
 Changes take time to be implemented: This process is influenced in particular by the
o Flexibility (capability to adapt), the resources, the extend of free management power,
the frequency of changes
o The speed in which the system processes a) information internally and b) the
relations to the environment limits changes

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 o The will and interest to absorb new ideas and information influences the capability to
implement change

Lastly, If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow,

we aren't really living.

References

 Conner, D.R. , Managing at Speed of Change.

 Heath, Ch., Heath, D. (2010): Switch: How to change things when the change is hard.
 Frank Schneegans: Seven steps to control changes
 Making Dinosaurs Dance: Organisational change in Government by
Abdul Rahim and Radharamanan Panicker

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