cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

The underpinning theoryHOMEOSTASIS IN ACTIONIn the 1990s many organizations embarked on TQM (total qualitymanagement) initiatives which involved focusing on customer satisfaction(both internally and externally) and process improvement in all areasof the organization. An Economic Intelligence Unit report indicated thattwo-thirds of these initiatives started well, but failed to keep themomentum going after 18 months. Focus groups were very active to startwith, and suggestions from the front line came rolling in. After a while thefocus groups stopped meeting and the suggestions dried up. Specificissues had been solved, but a new way or working had not emerged.Things reverted to the original state of affairs.Our viewLewin’s ideas provide a useful tool for those considering organizationalchange. The force field analysis is an excellent way of enabling forinstance a management team to discuss and agree on the driving andresisting forces that currently exist in any change situation. When thisanalysis is used in combination with a collaborative definition of thecurrent state versus the desired end state, a team can quickly move todefining the next steps in the change process. These next steps are usuallycombinations of:• communicating the gap between the current state and the end stateto the key players in the change process;• working to minimize the resisting forces;• working to maximize or make the most of driving forces;• agreeing a change plan and a timeline for achieving the end state.We have observed that this model is sometimes used by managers as aplanning tool, rather than as an organizational development process.The unfreeze becomes a planning session. The move translates to implementation.The refreeze is a post-implementation review. This approachignores the fundamental assumption of the organism metaphor that112