Bolman and Deal, Chapter 18

1. Chapter 18
Reframing Change: Training,
Realigning, Negotiating and Grieving

2. Reframing Change: Training,
Realigning, Negotiating and Grieving
 A Common Change Scenario: DDB Bank
 Reframing Organizational Change
 Change and Training
 Change and Realignment
 Change and Conflict
 Change and Loss
 Change Strategy
 Team Zebra: The Rest of the Story

3. A Common Change Scenario: Thomas
Lo at DDB Bank
 Profitable bank faced changing environment
 Thomas Lo recruited to improve service and innovate
 Lo introduced many changes, but six months later
nothing was different
 Lo encountered lip service, passive resistance, but no
overt conflict
 Familiar story: hopeful beginning, muddle middle,
disappointing ending
 Change strategies that rely on only one or two frames
usually fail

4. Table 18.1(a)
Reframing Organizational Change
Frame Barriers to
Change
Essential
Strategies
Structural Loss of direction,
clarity and stability;
confusion, chaos
Communicating,
realigning, and
renegotiating formal
patterns and
policies
Human
Resource
Anxiety,
uncertainty
People feel
incompetent and
needy
Training to develop
new skills;
Participation &
involvement;
Psychological
support

5. Table 18.1(b)
Reframing Organizational Change
Frame Barriers to Change Essential
Strategies
Political Disempowerment
Conflict between
winners & losers
Create arenas for
negotiating issues,
forming new
coalitions
Symbolic Loss of meaning
and purpose;
clinging to the past
Transition rituals;
mourn past,
celebrate future

6. Change and Training
 Change initiatives often fail because
employees lack knowledge and skills
 People resist what they don’t understand,
don’t know how to do, or don’t believe in
 Training, participation and support can
increase understanding of why change is
needed, as well as skills and confidence
needed to implement

7. Change and Realignment
 Structural change undermines existing
patterns, creating ambiguity, confusion and
resistance
 People don’t know how to get things done or
who’s supposed to do what
 Change efforts need to anticipate structural
issues, realign roles and relationships

8. Change and Conflict
 Change creates winners and losers
 Winners support the change and fight for its
implementation
 Losers resist, try to block change effort (and
often succeed)
 Conflicts often are buried, where they smolder
and become more unmanageable
 Successful change requires framing issues,
building coalitions, and creating arenas where
conflict can be surfaced and agreements
negotiated

9. Change and Loss
 Loss of a cherished symbol produces loss –
akin to losing a job or a loved one
 Change produces conflicting impulses: replay
the past vs. plunge into the future
 Cultures create transition rituals to ease loss
 Ritual and ceremony are essential to
successful change: celebrate or mourn the
past and envision the future

10. Kotter: Stages of Effective Change
 Create sense of urgency
 Pull together guiding team with need skills, credibility
and connections
 Create uplifting vision and strategy
 Communicate vision and strategy through words,
deeds, symbols
 Remove obstacles, empower people to move
 Create visible progress: early wins
 Persist when things get tough
 Nurture and shape new culture to support new ways

11. Reframing Kotter’s Change Model
Kotter
stage
Structural Human
resource
Political Symbolic
Sense of
urgency
Involve,
solicit input
Network
with key
players
Build power
base
Tell
compelling
story
Build
guiding
team
Coordina-
tion
strategy
Team
building
Stack team
with key
players
Put CEO on
team
Uplifting
vision,
strategy
Implemen-
tation plan
Map
political
terrain
Create
vision
rooted in
past

12. Reframing Kotter’s Change Model
Kotter
stage
Structural Human
resource
Political Symbolic
Communi-
cate
through
words,
deeds,
symbols
Build
structures
to support
change
process
Meetings to
communi-
cate, get
feedback
Create
arenas
Build
alliances
Kickoff
ceremonies
Visible
leadership
Remove
obstacles,
empower
Change old
structures
Training,
support,
resources
Public
hangings
Early wins Plan for
short-term
victories
Do what it
takes to get
wins
Celebrate
early
progress

13. Reframing Kotter’s Change Model
Kotter
stage
Structural Human
resource
Political Symbolic
Keep going
when going
gets tough
Keep
people on
plan
Revival
meetings
New cul-
ture to
support
new ways
Align
structure to
new culture
Create
“culture”
team
Broad
involvement
in creating
new culture
Mourn past
Celebrate
heroes
Share
stories

14. Team Zebra: The Rest of the Story
 Top-down, Bottom-up Structural Design
 Learning and Training
 Areas for Venting Conflict
 Occasions for Letting Go and Celebrating
 Core values
 Encouraging rituals
 Anchoring vision
 Inventing ceremonies to keep spirit high

15. Conclusion
 Major organizational change inevitably generates four
categories of issues
 Affects individuals’ ability to feel effective
 They need training, participation, support
 Change disrupts existing patterns
 Structure needs to be realigned
 Change creates conflict
 Need arenas to negotiate conflict, reach agreements
 Change creates loss of meaning for recipients
 Need transition rituals to mourn past and celebrate
future