Ten Tasks of Change
Ten Tasks of Change
Jeff Evans and Chuck SchaeferJossey-Bass/Pfeiffer£21.50ISBN 0-7879-5345-8
This book is subtitled Demystifying Changing Organisations, and in the preface the authors state that their aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice in guiding organisational change. They achieve this pretty well.
They suggest that – not all that surprisingly – change is a process that is only ever really successful if all the stakeholders in the organisation fully participate in the process. This book has echoes of the Timperley book above – including the concept of "victims". Here, the authors are sympathetic to those "victims" who have change imposed upon them without the "luxury" of participation in the initial decision making process. The book is directed as much to this group as to those who are responsible for,and leading, the change process.
There is a logical approach to the subject –each chapter deals with a specific part of the change process. This overall structure starts by suggesting that it is important to appreciate the current situation and then works through the processes of gaining commitment and implementing change to "higher order"issues such as establishing continuous learning and improvement as a permanent feature in the organisation.
Without denying the complexity of change management, the book manages to demystify it by showing that each step is inherently (theoretically)straightforward though admitting that it is not always easy in practice. It also manages to remind the reader that a route map of a change process is only truly useful if it recognises that the route is not necessarily straight and that the path may change direction many times during the journey.
This concept of the "change process" as a journey – and the need for an effective map –brings us nicely to the next book.
