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

Leading changeRosabeth Moss Kanter: learning how to persevereRosabeth Moss Kanter (2002) highlights the need for keeping going in thechange process, even when it gets tough. She says that too often executivesannounce a plan, launch a task force and then simply hope thatpeople find the answers. Kanter’s emphasis is different from Kotter’s. Shesays the difficulties will come after the change is begun.Kanter says that leaders need to employ the following strategies toensure that a change process is sustained beyond the first flourish:1. Tune into the environment. Create a network of listening posts tolisten and learn from customers.2. Challenge the prevailing organizational wisdom. Promote kaleidoscopicthinking. Send people far afield, rotate jobs and create interdisciplinaryproject teams to get people to question their assumptions.3. Communicate a compelling aspiration. This is not just aboutcommunicating a picture of what could be, it is an appeal to betterourselves and become something more. The aspiration needs to becompelling as there are so many sources of resistance to overcome.4. Build coalitions. Kanter says that the coalition-building step, thoughobvious, is one of the most neglected steps in the change process.She says that change leaders need the involvement of people whohave the resources, the knowledge and the political clout to makethings happen.5. Transfer ownership to a working team. Once a coalition is formed,others should be brought on board to focus on implementation.Leaders need to stay involved to guarantee time and resources forimplementers. The implementation team can then build its ownidentity and concentrate on the task.6. Learn to persevere. Kanter says that everything can look like a failurein the middle. If you stick with the process through the difficult times(see box), good things may emerge. The beginning is exciting and theend satisfying. It is the hard work in the middle that necessitates theleader’s perseverance.7. Make everyone a hero. Leaders need to remember to reward andrecognize achievements. This skill is often underused in organizations,169