Champions of Change: How CEOs and Their Companies are Mastering the Skills of Radical Change [Hardcover]

For me a key point made by the authors is that "this is not a book about leaders of change; this is a book about leadership and change. There's a huge difference." [page 7]

One of the things I learned from the book is that CEO's are called upon to be initiating leaders who provide appropriate and decisive leadership to their organizations during times of stability, change and transition, transformation, and crisis. However, their leadership is a key and not the key. Long-term successful CEO's know how to create and nurture a culture of leadership throughout their organizations.

In this context, David A. Nadler divides his book roughly into three sections. In the first section, he (1) overviews the forces that make change at once so inevitable and so difficult in modern organizations, (2) describes the pivotal role of top leadership, (3) describes the four basic types of organizational change, with a special emphasis on the most difficult of all-the Overhaul, or radical discontinuous change, (4) explores the inevitable resistance to change, and (5) offers some specific techniques for overcoming those barriers. In the second section, he (1) deals with the substantive tools and techniques that are required as the organization passes through the five stages of the change cycle, (2) describes in turn the issues that confront leaders as they go about changing each component of the organization. In the third section, he deals with the unique role of top managers in leading change.

In Chapter 4, he introduces five stages of discontinuous change:

1. Recognizing the change imperative: The easy description of this stage is simply that it answers the question, What's going wrong here? (for detailed discussion see Chapter 6)

2. Developing a shared direction: Providing clear direction for change and building coalition that will provide the support essential to the success of any radical change effort. (for detailed discussion see Chapter 7)

3. Implementing change: The core of the change process. (for detailed discussion see Chapters 8 to 11)

4. Consolidating change: Making change an integral part of the way the organization operates. (for detailed discussion see Chapter 12)

5. Sustaining change: The challenge of maintaining momentum, avoiding complacence, and searching for signs of the next wave of change. (for detailed discussion see Chapter 12)

On the other hand, in Chapter 5, he lists and discusses twelve action steps for overcoming resistance to change as follows:

1. Build the support of key power groups.

2. Use leader behavior to generate support.

3. Use symbols and language deliberately.

4. Define points of stability.

5. Create dissatisfaction with the current state.

6. Build participation in planning and implementing change.

7. Reward behavior in support of change.

8. Provide people time and opportunity to disengage from the old.

9. Develop and communicate a clear image of the future state.

10. Use multiple leverage points.

11. Develop transition management structures.

12. Collect and analyze feedback.

He argues that "the twelve action steps are not a recipe for transition management. They're a template to be overlaid on each organization and adjusted to its unique set of circumstances" (p.108).

Highly recommended.