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Chapter 13 ■ Managing major changes
positive attitude to change among those who will make the final decisions. I
well remember discussing a proposed involvement scheme planned by a com-
pany which faced declining sales in the middle 1970s. A strategy for change and
improvement had been articulated. There seemed no future other than decline
unless this strategy was implemented. One employee rejected involvement on
the grounds that it meant he would be ‘conspiring in his own redundancy’ – he
could see no point to it. Where managers are clearly determined on change and
have good ideas, the implementation of change is obviously feasible. People can
also learn from changes implemented without extensive involvement as long as
there is general agreement over such changes, and care devoted to training and
communication. People will then learn new skills and new systems. But what if an
important and influential group of those involved is opposed to the changes?
Much will depend on the nature of that group, its power and the nature of its
opposition. Its members may be capable of persuasion. Other opportunities might
be created for them. However, to the extent that this is not so, to the extent that
its members feel coerced, then an outcome combining effective implementation
and learning becomes more difficult. But we should not see this as a single event;
it is a process. Over a period of time some or all of the members of such a group
may come to change their mind. We will turn to how this may be achieved in sub-
sequent chapters; for the moment I merely note the problem.
Significant change involves learning. If reality is tested openly, and if open or
constructive attitudes to change prevail, then we are most likely to achieve sig-
nificant changes. Change is possible without open reality testing, but only where
people who are excluded from this testing process are not fully engaged in the
changes to be implemented. If they are not involved in testing reality they can
neither understand the need for change nor feel committed to the changes, let
alone learn from them. Public or extensive testing of reality in a declining situa-
tion merely creates anxiety unless a constructive attitude to change prevails, par-
ticularly within management. Thus to argue that effective communication is
enough, without giving people the opportunity and support to seek solutions to
problems, will merely sustain the spiral of decline. In this company the reality-
testing process led to new attitudes which themselves both facilitated, and were

in turn sustained by, training programmes for new technology, improved main-
tenance and quality control by the emergence of new investment, new equip-
ment and by reorganization (including the formation of a marketing department
and the introduction of quality control systems). The spiral of decline was being
reversed.
Managing this transition to effectiveness, then, demanded both learning and
change, as indicated by the following five criteria:

1 Learning is produced by exploring dilemmas or contradictions (e.g. improved
quality was essential and end-users had to be convinced that they should con-
tinue to use company A’s product, but ageing plant, managerial problems and
low morale made this difficult to achieve).
2 Learning is based on personal experience and experimentation. People will only
learn if they understand the problems and are brought into the process of seek-
ing solutions.

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