Managing Change Cycles

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Managing Change Cycles
MANAGING CHANGE
CYCLES
Wheels within wheels within wheels

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Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
Managing
Change Cycles
Introduction: Managing life cycles is a vital requirement for those who are faced
with unavoidable change. It requires an understanding of how things really work,
the courage to begin at the start of something new, and a willingness to live with
chaos while managing both old and new. Here are 7 key points of successfully
managing change cycles.

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Things to Do or Think About
https://pixabay.com/en/cycle-phase-change-process-diagram-2019530/
An end is also a beginning
1. ENDINGS
AND
BEGINNINGS
In Western culture, life is seen as a long line
starting on the left and going to the right. We see
things in terms of separate chunks of beginnings
and ends: ages, jobs, relationships, projects,
tasks, even life itself. In Eastern cultures, life is
viewed as a series of cycles or waves. Everything
has its own natural life span, so that in birth there
is death and in death there is new birth.
Imagine that you are explaining life cycles to a
child of 9. What analogy would you use?

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2. FOUR LIFE
STAGES
https://pixabay.com/en/tree-birds-lands-landscape-flower-832079/
Everything obeys the laws of change
One way to look at the four stages of life cycles is
to compare them to the four seasons of the year.
Spring is the stage of new ideas and new growth.
Ideas that survive Spring are by Summer
beginning to thrive. By Autumn, the life cycle
reaches its highest possible point as it fulfils its
promise. In Winter, things go downhill, although,
there is always the possibility of new life.
Describe what the four life cycles are like using
one of the following: the development of a
project, a team, or a partnership.

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https://pixabay.com/en/construction-worker-building-job-642631/
Don’t leave things too late to build
3.
CONTINUING
LIFE CYCLES
There comes a point in any life cycle when things
are on the up. This is the best time to think about
change. You have spare time and energy and the
success of the present cycle to buoy you up. But
the best moment may be missed through
complacency. When this happens, instead of
builders to lead them, desperate organisations
often turn to surgeons and executioners to save
them.
Find examples from your own experience of how
individuals or organisations introduced change
when an existing cycles was still in progress.

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4. THE
SIGMOID
CURVE
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasletholsen/6703638113/
A natural S-curve
The ideal change point on the life cycle is known
as the Sigmoid Curve. This is because a new life
cycle emerging from an existing life cycle carves
out a letter “S”, “sigmoid” being the Greek word
for the letter “S”. Sigmoid curves are natural
phenomena. That’s because the high point of
Summer – in nature as well as in any other life
cycle - produces the seeds needed for new birth.
Think about where you are in a current life cycle
in your organisation. At what point would you
start to think about new ideas, new products, and
new processes? Map out the plan on a Sigmoid
curve chart.

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5. TIMING
https://pixabay.com/en/time-timer-clock-watch-hour-488112/
It’s time for a change
Timing a change is often a matter of instinct and
intuition as well as experience and judgment. If
you institute a change too early, you may
jeopardise existing activities. If you institute a
change too late, your present cycle will be
running out of steam and so cannot feed the new
cycle with resources and energy. The best time
for change is neither too early, nor too late.
Find examples from your own experience or
anecdotally of individuals or organisations who
attempted change too early or too late. What
happened?

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6.
CONCURRENT
CYCLES
https://pixabay.com/en/fair-ride-folk-festival-prater-1665542/
The art of change is to manage two cycles at once
When you launch a new life cycle in the middle of
an existing cycle, you create a recipe for chaos.
The existing cycle is at the stage of predictability
and certainty; the new one is at the stage of
innovation and instability. That’s why Sir John
Harvey-Jones calls managing change “one of the
rarest and most difficult skills to learn” as well as
“the most desirable skill to learn”.
What are the key factors in successfully managing
a new cycle at the same time as an existing cycle?

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Singer sewing machines in an antiques market
7. NEW
BLOOD
https://pixabay.com/en/portobello-notting-hill-london-778864/
Organisations that want to survive invariably have
to face up to the need to change. Singer, the
sewing machine company, recognised that home
sewing in the late 20th century was a thing of the
past. They developed new products before their
traditional ones fully declined. They now operate
in electronics and aerospace, having made
simulators on the Space Shuttle.
Find examples of well-known organisations that
have successfully implemented new life cycles in
the same way as Singer.

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This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Managing life cycles is a vital requirement for those who run enterprises. It requires an understanding
of how things really work, the courage to begin again at the beginning, and a willingness to live with
chaos. But there is no alternative: “Every growing organism grows into maturity, levels off and dies,
unless there is new life, new blood, new activity, and new ideas.” (W Clement Stone)

Managing Change Cycles

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