Salz Review - Wall Street Journal

187
Salz Review
An Independent Review of Barclays’ Business Practices
change is (a problem that needs fixing), how it will be achieved, and how the existing
culture will facilitate or resist the required change. This subtle and important difference is
often misunderstood.
Change is by nature transformational; that is it requires unlearning of beliefs and
behaviours and relearning of new beliefs and behaviours. There are numerous models that
indicate that change typically takes place in stages and that different interventions are
required at the different stages in order for real change to take place.
Lewin (1947) and later Schein and Bennis (1965) describe the change process as one that
takes place in three stages:
― Stage 1: Unfreezing and creating the motivation to change;
― Stage 2: Learning new concepts and new meanings for old concepts, and new
standards for judgment; and
― Stage 3: Internalising new concepts, meanings and standards.
Prochaska and Diclemente 279 (1984) however, recommend a five-stage model of change.
Their model was originally developed as a model of behavioural change for changing
problem behaviours such as cessation of smoking. The model has more recently been
applied to organisational contexts, recognising that cultural change requires significant
shifts in behaviour:
Stage 1: Pre-contemplation (Not Ready) in which people are not ready to change and
typically struggle to believe the benefits of change. Interventions need to be
targeted at educating them of the benefits of change and risks of not changing;
Stage 2: Contemplation (Getting Ready). People can see the benefits of change and
express willingness, but still see the challenge of the change as insurmountable.
Stage 3: Preparation (Ready). People are ready to start taking action. They take small steps,
for example, telling others that they want to change their behaviour and
experimenting with small incremental changes;
Stage 4: Action. People have changed their behaviour and need to work hard to keep
moving ahead. These participants need to learn how to strengthen their
commitments to change and to fight urges to slip back; and
Stage 5: Maintenance (Reinforcing) People have changed their behaviour and must work
on identifying situations that may tempt them to slip back —particularly stressful
situations.
Kotter and Cohen 280 , on the other hand, describe a ten stage process. All models of change
share some common factors. For example, people at different stages of the change process
require different types of interventions; and inappropriately timed interventions can cause
set-backs. Trying to teach new behaviours if the person has not yet decided to change is a
279 James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente, The Trans-theoretical Approach: Towards a Systematic Eclectic
Framework, 1984.
280 Jan Kotter and Dan Cohen, The Heart of Change, 2002.