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

Leading changethe harsh reality of organizational life, and reminds us of the necessityfor involving influential people when change is desired, but overuse canbe seen as manipulation. The organism metaphor highlights the need forpeople to be involved, and to feel the need for change, but runs the riskof moving too slowly and too late. Finally the flux and transformationmodel is useful as a reminder that organizations and their people cannotbe wholly controlled unless we rule by fear! Leaders must encouragediscussion of conflicts and tensions to enable change to emerge, whileavoiding the trap of being too vague and lacking direction.We believe that successful change leadership is achieved by combiningaspects of all four metaphors. This is evidenced by the models andapproaches introduced in Chapter 3, which combine different metaphorsto some degree (see Table 3.2).COMBINING THE METAPHORS:REFLECTIVE COACHING SESSIONOnce I realized that my boss was using a completely different organizationalmetaphor from myself, I began to see how we were clashing in our discussionsabout how to run projects and how to improve processes.I prefer the machine metaphor. I like things to be pretty clear. In my area wehave a well-defined structure with clear roles and objectives set for each person.The team runs like a well-oiled machine, with me in the engine room pullinglevers and thinking about plans and processes.On the other hand, my boss prefers a more fluid style of working. Objectivesare flexible and revised daily, and the hierarchy means very little to him. Ifsomeone shows initiative and promise, he will go directly to that person andhave a quite intense conversation to convey the importance of a particularinitiative. It used to drive me crazy. I couldn’t keep control.One day we had a chat about this using metaphor to discuss our differences.It was most illuminating, and we started to see the pros and cons of eachapproach. As a result I agreed to incorporate more flexibility in certain projects,and he agreed to stick with the plan rather than review and change other, morestable processes. We still clash from time to time, but it doesn’t cause quite somuch irritation!Global Services Manager, Oil Company – on use of metaphor to enhanceunderstanding of other people’s viewpoints141