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Radical or transformational change
we achieve our goal, but she also believes that success will follow only where the
passion of ‘the change leaders’ matches their aspiration as judged by how
strongly they feel about that aspiration, how convinced they are of its accom-
plishment, how excited they are, what sacrifices they are prepared to make and
so on. But the advocate might be wrong. So another dimension is: can the advo-
cate enlist backers and supporters, and, ultimately, the sanity check of gaining
support from key stakeholders?
But these remain indicators of acceptability as much as of ambition; that is at
least likely to be the case. Can we more unambiguously address the question of
how to estimate the level of ambition in any set of proposals for strategic change?
Carnall (2004) presents a readiness for change index and McGrath and MacMillan
(2000) set out profiles for technical uncertainty, competitive insulation (basically
means of defending your competitive advantage expected in a new venture) and
the assumption-to-knowledge ratio (in essence the proportion of the knowledge
needed for a new venture based on assumption rather than hard evidence).
Clearly therefore we have thought it right to include the idea of the level of ambi-
tion involved in any set of changes (effectively the extent to which changes are
radical as opposed to incremental) in our readiness for change index. What issues
need to be considered in doing so? Before looking at that we need first to think
about unintended consequences.
I recall reading a short piece in The Times. It went as follows:

Schools in London implementing government healthy eating policies have
limited the number of days on which French fries are served at lunch to twice
per week. The police are horrified at a dramatic increase in truancy rates.

And how are these statements connected? The truancy was largely post lunch.
Seeing no French fries on the menu, the attractions of McDonald’s were just too
good, and once they left the school grounds . . .
We need to add a further idea, that of vicious circles. Masuch (1983) bases his
analysis on the simple thought that actions lead to consequences, not always
intended, still less always desirable. Using ideas from cybernetics and control the-
ory he notes that from the consequences of action comes feedback. Positive feed-
back tends to amplify any consequence in future. Thus if a manager chooses to

ignore the poor performance of a subordinate, this will both undermine future
performance of the subordinate and have a negative impact on colleagues (e.g.
they may need to work harder in consequence and may become demotivated in
consequence).

Radical or transformational change

Jack Welch, former head of General Electric, is the business leader most frequently
identified with ambitious, transformational strategy. Tichy and Sherman (1995):

The self-confidence that had characterized the company’s managers began to
erode. Left to pursue its course for another decade or so, this apparently
healthy company might have been another Chrysler. Instead of waiting for
trouble, the CEO pushed for radical change . . .

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