Page 278 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Programmes of change

Reflection

Review against Learning
Learning vehicle
experience loop

Experimentation

Definition Action Matching of
of need loop needs

Needs gap

Figure 14.3 Strategic learning and action

How do we block out distractions? Well, as we have already implied, this is
partly an issue of cognitive style at the individual level. There are things we can
do at the team and organizational levels, however. Following Grundy (1994), I
include the following:

■ Manage personal and corporate agendas in order to meet the needs of stake-
holders, your board or other influential people along the way.
■ Define some ‘givens’ to stabilize the process.
■ Flexible control to spread learning beyond the top team.
■ Build learning into the organization through regular customer surveys, staff sur-

veys, quality assurance, performance improvement, etc.
■ Keep task forces etc. involved until implementation is complete.
■ Involve top managers at the centre of the process.
■ Use communication as a vehicle for learning.
All of this has implications for what and how we manage, which I have touched
on at various points in this book.

Programmes of change

Given that major strategic change creates tensions and conflicts, not least within an
organization, and that many fairly rigidly structured organizations already experience

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