Page 345 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Chapter 18 ■ Strategic convergence: a new model for organization change

Appropriate
structure

Change
accelerator Resonance
Ambition
and change
architecture

Change Change
leadership culture

Figure 18.1 The change capability framework

and appropriately comprehensive change architecture, while needed for success
in change, are nevertheless insufficient of themselves. What matters is how the
change architecture is operated and whether certain performance characteristics
of change architecture are being established. These performance characteristics
are grouped into five dimensions, namely appropriate structure, resonance,
change culture, change leadership and change accelerator. I propose a series of
questions to address any change situation in order to assess the change capabil-
ity of the organization involved. This leads to the establishment of a change
capability framework (see Figure 18.1 and the appendix on page 336).

Ambition in change

At one level this cannot be defined absolutely. The level of ambition must always
be relative. Relative to ‘need’, where need is socially defined. True enough, but
where expenditure, market or competitive pressures apply there exist some pretty
compelling definitions of need. But we are also concerned to ask if a given set of
change plans and objectives are achievable. What does that mean? Achievable
given current skills, capabilities and resources? Or achievable given the organiza-
tion’s ability to fill gaps in its profile of the aforementioned?
Defined relative to ‘need’ even where the latter is imposed by political leaders . . .
but note that corporate leaders are just as likely to impose cuts in order to reshape
a business in view of current market size, market share and revenues and in prac-
tice are not free of the need to ensure income flows for the organization. Thus,
in practice, changes can be imposed in any organization.
We can also define ambition in relation to former achievements. So a given set
of change objectives may outstrip any attempted in the past. This clearly can
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