making-sense-of-change-management

Organizational changegroups of people will change only ifthere is a felt need to do so. The changeprocess can then turn into an illthought-outplan that does not tackleresistance and fails to harness theenergy of the key players. This israther like the process of blowing up aballoon and forgetting to tie a knot inthe end!Bullock and Batten, planned change: machineBullock and Batten’s (1985) phases of planned change draw on the disciplinesof project management. There are many similar ‘steps tochanging your organization’ models to choose from. We have chosenBullock and Batten’s:• exploration;• planning;• action;• integration.Exploration involves verifying the need for change, and acquiring anyspecific resources (such as expertise) necessary for the change to goahead. Planning is an activity involving key decision makers and technicalexperts. A diagnosis is completed and actions are sequenced in achange plan. The plan is signed off by management before moving intothe action phase. Actions are completed according to plan, with feedbackmechanisms which allow some replanning if things go off track. The finalintegration phase is started once the change plan has been fully actioned.Integration involves aligning the change with other areas in the organization,and formalizing them in some way via established mechanisms suchas policies, rewards and company updates.This particular approach implies the use of the machine metaphor oforganizations. The model assumes that change can be defined and movedtowards in a planned way. A project management approach simplifies the113