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Chapter 14 ■ Change architecture
Gratton (2000) identifies a similar ‘cycle of despair’ and indicates that she has
observed the converse in place at Hewlett-Packard. This ‘cycle of hope’ is created
by providing people affected by change with voice, choice and what she describes
as ‘interactional justice’. This latter may be about treating people with respect
and creating a perception of fair treatment (but see Carnall (1982) for the com-
plexity of this concept in practice). Be that as it may, we are clearly operating at
the intersection between the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ world of organization. Just as
clearly many of the problems in handling change emerge out of inadequate man-
agement and infrastructure and thus it is that we argue for change architecture
to deal with these problems among others.
Gratton’s book is of relevance because she develops an idea of strategy
methodology which relates closely to the change architecture thinking presented
here. For Gratton, creating a ‘living strategy’ requires five steps, as listed below.

Step 1: Creating a guiding coalition

Here she identifies five key sets of stakeholders, namely senior managers, HR pro-
fessionals, young people, line managers, front line staff. Each brings a unique
perspective.

Step 2: Visioning the future
But here she limits herself to visioning the people issues. Thus she recounts
how at Phillips Lighting the senior executives team presented strategic goals
(e.g. grow to 25 per cent market share, no. 1 premium choice in Europe, no. 2
in the rest of the world, no. 1 in customer satisfaction and so on, which became
a frame of reference for visioning teams. In turn these visioning teams identi-
fied the organizational factors with a high impact on the delivery of that
vision, namely a structure capable of delivering new business and a network-
driven organization.

Step 3: Identifying gaps
In essence, understanding the current position and identifying gaps. Here she
presents a risk matrix – essentially a two-dimensional model mapping strategic
impact against current alignment.

Step 4: Mapping

She identifies key themes (e.g. customer focus, innovation, globalization and
market share), identify change levers (e.g. selection, rewards, training, develop-
ment, etc.), identify desired end states and model the dynamics.

Step 5: Modelling the dynamics of the vision

This final step looks at implementation. Gratton identifies two principles of inter-
est to us, namely:

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