Change can be really challenging at an individual level – it can be hard to get up earlier, or get more sleep, or work out frequently. That doesn’t compare to the mountain of challenge of organizational change, of getting groups of people who are entrenched in their ways, to change. This book was a really in-depth exploration of the different ways that organizational changes fail, and the keys to making organizational changes successful.
“Powerful maceoeconomic forces are at work here, and these forces may grow even stronger over the next few decades. As a result, more and more organizations will be pushed to reduce costs, improve the quality of products and services, locate new opportunities for growth, and increase productivity.”
This book was published long before 2020, but I think that the need for organizational change has become so critical this year. What organization has not been forced to radically change in 2020? If you had told me a year ago that we would be successfully running a middle school that was operating entirely on Zoom, Canvas, and Desmos, I would have laughed.
The circumstances around us have changed radically, and we have been forced to change in response. That rate of change is only going to get faster as we go on. It’s been fascinating to see how some organizations have used COVID-19 as an opportunity to improve – to pivot to offering different services, adjusting their business model to respond to the changing needs of their audience. For every organization, it seems like it’s a choice between changing and declining.
This book was good, if a little dry and abstract – I see how it is critically important for leaders to successfully manage change. However, without having a change that I am responsible for managing in the near future, it felt like it would be challenging to take the principles in this book and apply them to my real work.