The Nature of Planned Change

Theories of Planned Change

General Model of Planned Change
Different Types of Planned Change

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 Theories of Planned Change
• Lewin’s Change Model
• Action Research Model
– The action research cycle
• Contemporary adaptations to the action
research model
– The Positive Model
• Comparison of planned change models

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 Two Approaches: Systems Theory and
Social Construction

• Fundamentally different assumptions about how

organizations work and change
• Systems theory examines relationships between
components of organization.
• Social construction approaches question those
“components” as outcomes of our own language and
meaning.

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 Lewin’s Change Model
• Change; for Lewin, is the result of forces that strive to
maintain the status quo and forces that push for change
• An early model of change developed by Lewin
described change as three-stage process:
– The first stage he called ‘unfreezing’. It involve overcoming
inertia and dismantling the existing ‘mind set’.
– In the second stage the change occurs. This is typically a
period of confusion and transition.
– The third and final stage he called ‘freezing’. This is often
now called ‘refreezing’ (see Lewin K., 1947, Frontiers in
Group Dynamics)

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 Lewin’s Change Model

Unfreezing

Movement

Refreezing

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 Classic “Ice Cube” Model:
Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze
• Unfreezing: Creating motivation and readiness to
change
– Create disconfirmation: “burning platform,” dissatisfaction
with the way things are (quality below standards, costs too
high, team relationships poor, direction is unclear).
– Induction of anxiety: Establish a gap between what is
current but not working well and some future goal that
would make things better.
– Creation of psychological safety: People must feel safe, not
punished or humiliated for admitting that something is
wrong.

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Classic “Ice Cube” Model:
Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze

• Changing
– “Cognitive restructuring:” Begin to
see another point of view; helping
people to see the alternative and the
way forward.
– Take steps (interventions) to help
things move; design an alternative.
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Classic “Ice Cube” Model:
Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze
• Refreeze
– Helping clients integrate the changes
– “Personal refreezing:” taking the new, changed way of
doing things and making it fit; trying it out, making
adjustments
– “Relational refreezing:” In a system, engaging with others
about the new way of doing things; spread the changes
throughout the system
What do you think is wrong with the
Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model?

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 Action Research Model
• This model is very popular in OD as a way of
planning and implementing a change
• In this model, the planned change is seen as a
cyclical process where action is guided by
preliminary research about the development
needs of the organization
• Feedback loops allow it to be an iterative
process between gathering information, making
changes and then gathering more information
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 Action Research Model
Problem Identification
Joint diagnosis

Consultation with a
behavioral scientist Joint action planning

Data gathering & Action

preliminary diagnosis

Data gathering after

Feedback to Client action

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 Contemporary Adaptations to Action
Research
• Moving from smaller sub-units to total
systems and communities: more complex and
multiple stakeholders.
• Being applied internationally: needing to find
its ‘cultural fit’.
• Being applied to achieve positive social
change: community development and global
social change movements

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 The Positive Model
• Fundamentally different to Lewin’s theory of
change and the action research model
• Rather than focus on what is NOT working, it
focuses on what IS working
• Uses an approach known as Appreciative Inquiry
(AI)
• Everyone is involved in creating the ‘positive
vision’ and so is more motivated to be
committed to making the change happen
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 The Positive Model
1. Initiate the Inquiry

2. Inquire into Best Practices

3. Discover the Themes

4. Envision a Preferred Future

5. Design and Deliver Ways

to Create the Future
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 Systems Theory Models of Change

• Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

• Burke-Litwin
• Weisbord
• Nadler-Tushman
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Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

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Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model

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Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational
Performance and Change

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Weisbord’s Six Box Model

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Comparison of Planned Change Models
• Similarities
– Change is preceded by diagnosis or preparation
– Apply behavioral science knowledge
– All involve organization members in the change
process
– All have an evaluation at the end of each process
• Differences
– The role of the OD Specialist
– Fixing problems vs. building on strengths approaches

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 Social Construction Models of Change

• Not “models” in the same sense

– Argue against the idea in systems theory that terms
such as environment, organization, culture have an
equivalent in an objective reality.
– Concepts are created and infused with meaning by
organizational members through communication.
– Roles are developed and performed, not just titles or
job descriptions; hierarchy doesn’t just “exist,” it’s
created.
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 Social Construction
Models of Change
• Ford: Organizational change as
“shifting conversations”
• Kegan & Lahey: Language shifts
• “Change occurs when one way of
talking replaces another way of
talking”
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 General Model of Planned Change

Planning Evaluating
Entering and and
and Diagnosing Implementing Institutionalizing
Contracting Change Change

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 Typical Sequence of Planned Change
• Entering, contracting and diagnosing
– The problem, issue or strength is identified
– Organization makes commitment of time and resources
– Role of OD practitioner is clarified
– Data is gathered
• Planning and implementing
– Agreeing on an approach to the agreed change
– Planning the process
– Motivating and sustaining the process to achieve the change
• Evaluating and institutionalizing
– Determining success and limitations of the change
– Embedding change through feedback, training, and rewards
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 Entering, Information
Designing,
contracting gathering,
implementing
& diagnosing processing
& evaluating
& giving
feedback

Figure 2.5: General model of planned change (Waddell, Cummings & Worley; 2011)

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 Entry
• Getting in, getting started, learning the client
• Types of clients:
• Contact clients: Contact clients are the initial
points of communication in the client
organization.
• Intermediate clients: Intermediate clients
are those that are included in meetings or
from whom data is gathered during the
course of the engagement.

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 Entry
• Primary clients: Primary clients have responsibility for the
problem the consultant is working to address. Primary
clients generally are the ones paying for the consultant’s
services.
• Unwitting clients: Unwitting clients will be affected by the
engagement or intervention but may not know of the
engagement activity or that it will concern them.
• Indirect clients: Indirect clients are not known to the
consultant but are conscious that they are stakeholders in
the outcome.
• Ultimate clients: Ultimate clients consist of the larger
system or organization, “or any other group that the
consultant cares about and whose welfare must be
considered.” (Schein, 1997, p. 203)

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 Contracting
• The process of “coming to agreement” on
what the OD project will do
–Can be written or verbal
• Understand the client’s perception of the
situation or problem
• Elicit mutual “wants” and expectations
• Defines success
• Not a one-time event

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Some Questions to Answer

• What does the client want?

• What do you need from the
client in order to accomplish
this?
• What will you do/deliver?

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 Some Questions to Answer

• What will your role be? The client’s

role?
• What’s the time schedule?
• What about confidentiality?
• How/When will you give
feedback?
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 Our Responsibility in Contracting

• Behave authentically.
• Say no or postpone a project that has a less
than 50/50 chance of success.
• You can’t contract with someone who isn’t in
the room (the client’s boss, subordinates,
another department).
• Avoid collusion: being complicit with the client
rather than independent or objective.
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 The Contracting Meeting
• Ask, Listen, Paraphrase/Feedback
– “So it sounds like you’re having difficulty
with coordination between the marketing
and sales departments?”
• Clarify the problem
– “What do you mean by X?” “How often
does X happen?”
• Give support
– “I appreciate your willingness to talk to me
about this difficult problem.”

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 The Contracting Meeting
• Communicate understanding of the problem
– “It’s common for groups to feel
competitive in this manner, but the time
pressure placed on both groups makes
this situation unique.”
• Be explicit
– “I want to be clear– I don’t think we will
solve this problem with one workshop.”
• End with feedback

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 Two Paths...
Engagements are more Engagements are
likely to fail when there is more likely to
• Lack of client succeed when
involvement
• Everyone involved
• Unclear or unrealistic
outcomes desired
has agreed on the
• Defining a project by
purpose and
the consultant's skill or objectives for the
offering rather than the project.
organization's • The organization is
objectives ready for change.
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 Two Paths...
Engagements are more Engagements are more
likely to fail when there likely to succeed when
is • Consultant and client
• Lack of consultant- explore and agree on
client partnership mutual needs:
• Lack of motivation relationship, time,
• Lack of time milestones, etc.
• Unwillingness to tackle • We deal with the real
the tough “real” issues problem.

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 10 Questions to More Successful
Consulting Engagements
1. What is the problem or need?
2. Where did the problem come
from, and how is it being
managed?
3. What is the history and
context?
4. What are the consequences if
the problem is not fixed?
5. Who is the client?
6. How motivated are the
client and organization to
change?
7. What outcome is
desired?
8. What would you like a
consultant to do?
9. Who will be involved in
the project?
10. What is the timeline?
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 1. What is the problem or need?
Tells us
• How much data we have gathered about the
problem
• How clear the problem is to the organization
• Whether we're solving symptoms or problems
• How many problems there may be
• Whether the problem is technical, personal, or
both (hint: it's both!)

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 2. Where did the problem come from, and how is it
being managed?

Tells us
• How long the problem has existed and who is
involved
• How much “duct tape” is involved
• What additional problems may have been
caused by the previous “fixes”
• How much frustration or desperation there may
be
• What solutions can be avoided because they've
already been tried
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3. What is the history and context?

Tells us
• More about the problem's
complexity
• What the organizational culture is
like: degree of pain in general, how
engaged employees are, past
successes, or areas of frustration
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4. What are the consequences if
the problem is not fixed?
Tells us
• How important the problem may
be to leaders and employees
• How ready the organization may
be to change

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 5. Who is the client?
Tells us
• How many people are involved in the
engagement
• What perspective the client may have on the
problem
• Leadership's relationship to the problem and to
the engagement
• Who are the intermediate clients, day to day
clients, end clients, peripheral clients....

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 6. How motivated are the client and
organization to change?
Tells us
• Whether the client really wants this engagement
• Whether the client may be able to accept his/her
role in the problem
• Whether the problem exists only for the client or for
others as well
• The likelihood of being able to tackle underlying
problems

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7. What outcome is desired?

Tells us
• What success looks like
• Whether we have a clear sense
of the purpose of the project
• Whether we have a realistic
sense of the project
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8. What would you like a consultant to do?

Tells us
• What role the consultant will take,
and whether that role is
appropriate
• How much involvement the client
will take versus the consultant

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9. Who will be involved in the project?

Tells us
• The complexity of the project
in terms of number of people,
kinds of people (one
organization, multiple
organizations)
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10. What is the timeline?
Tells us
• Whether the timeline is realistic
for the outcomes desired
• What interim milestones need to
be considered
• Whether the timeline is
negotiable
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 The Contracting Meeting
• Ask, Listen, Paraphrase/Feedback
– “So it sounds like you’re having difficulty
with coordination between the
marketing and sales departments?”
• Clarify the problem
– “What do you mean by X?” “How often
does X happen?”
• Give support
– “I appreciate your willingness to talk to
me about this difficult problem.”
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Block, 1981
 The Contracting Meeting
• Communicate understanding of the problem
– “It’s common for groups to feel
competitive in this manner, but the time
pressure placed on both groups makes
this situation unique.”
• Be explicit
– “I want to be clear – I don’t think we will
solve this problem with one workshop.”
• End with feedback

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Block, 1981
 Different Types of
Planned Change
• Magnitude of Change
– Incremental
– Quantum
• Degree of Organization
– Over organized
– Under-organized
• Domestic vs. International Settings

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Dimensions of Organizational Change

• Planning: Planned or Unplanned?

• Magnitude: First-order or second-
order? Transactional or
Transformational?
• Continuity: Continuous or
Emergent?
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The Two Metaphors Reflect our Assumptions
about Change
“Calm Waters” “White Water”
• The world is stable • Unpredictability is the rule
but punctuated by – What if you didn’t know how
moments of many weeks this course
would last or what
“storms.” assignments were required
• Lewin’s three-phase until just before they were
model of unfreeze- due?
change-refreeze – What skills would it take to
be successful?
• Consistent with • Consistent with social
systems theory construction approaches to
approaches change
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 Critique of Planned Change
• In conceptualization
– Limits to our knowledge about how to change behavior
– Context is an important variable and current models
are limited in adapting to context
– Change is not linear or rational – emergent conditions
make planned change chaotic
– Evaluation methods are imprecise
• In practice
– Limitations in OD practitioner skill
– Failure in diagnosis
– Unrealistic expectations within the organization
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 The Contingency Approach
to Change Management
• Dunphy and Stace criticize planned change models
that try to determine the outcome through a fixed
process
• The theory is situational because the changes are
contingent on how “to achieve optimum fit with the
changing environment” (Dunphy & Stace, 1990, p. 82)
• They identify two aspects of change that will assist in
deciding what type of change needs to be made:
scale of change, and management style needed to
achieve a change
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 Two aspects: Scale of Change
and Style of Management
• Scale of Change
– Does the organization need:
• Fine tuning
• Incremental adjustment
• Modular transformation or
• Corporate transformation?
• Style of Management
– Does it need to be:
• Collaborative
• Consultative
• Directive or
• Coercive?
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 Four Types of Change Strategy
• Depending on the mix of the scale of change
and the style of management needed, they
identify the following:
– Participative evolution
– Charismatic transformation
– Forced evolution
– Dictatorial transformation

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Summary
• Theories of planned change
– Lewin’s action research model
– Action research model and its adaptations
– The positive model
– Comparisons of the planned change models
• General model of planned change
– Evaluating, diagnosing, planning and implementing, evaluating
and institutionalising
• Different types of planned change
– Magnitude, degree of organisation and location
• Critiques of planned change
– In conceptualisation and practice
– Contingency theory

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