In the summer of 1994, I wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review entitled “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” It was based on my analysis of dozens of initiatives over the prior fifteen years to produce significant useful change in organizations via restructuring, reengineering, restrategizing, acquisitions, downsizing, quality programs, and cultural renewal. Even as I was finishing that piece I knew I wanted to write more on the subject, so I began this book shortly thereafter.
“Leading Change” was published in the March–April 1995 issue of HBR. Almost immediately the article jumped to first place among the thousands of reprints sold by the review, an astonishing event in light of the quality of its large reprint base and of the lengthy time normally required to build reprint volume. Improbable events like this are always difficult to explain, but conversations and correspondence with HBR readers suggest that the paper rang two bells loudly. First, managers read the list of mistakes organizations often make when trying to effect real change and said Yes! This is why we have achieved less than we had hoped. Second, readers found the eight-stage change framework compelling. It made sense as a roadmap and helped people talk about transformation, change problems, and change strategies.
I’ve tried to build on both of these virtues in writing this book, and to add a few more. Unlike the article, the book has dozens and dozens of examples of what seems to work and what doesn’t. In this sense, it is more hands-on and practical. I’ve also been more explicit in linking the discussion back to the engine that drives change—leadership—and in showing how a purely managerial mindset inevitably fails, regardless of the quality of people involved. Finally, I’ve broadened the time span covered, showing how events over the past century have brought us here and exploring implications for the twenty-first century.
Those familiar with my work will see that this volume integrates and extends a number of ideas originally published in A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management, Corporate Culture and Performance, and The New Rules: How to Succeed in Today’s Post-Corporate World. Although this book is a logical extension of my past work in terms of subject matter, it is a departure in terms of form. Unlike my previous books, Leading Change is not filled with footnotes and endnotes. I have neither drawn examples or major ideas from any published source except my own writing nor tried to cite evidence from other sources to bolster my conclusions. In that sense, this work is more personal than any I’ve previously published. I’m communicating here what I’ve seen, heard, and concluded on a set of interrelated topics that appear to be increasingly important.
A number of people have read this book in draft form and offered helpful suggestions. They include Darrell Beck, Mike Beer, Richard Boyatzis, Julie Bradford, Linda Burgess, Gerald Czarnecki, Nancy Dearman, Carol Franco, Alan Frohman, Steve Guengerich, Robert Johnson, Jr., Carl Neu, Jr., Charlie Newton, Barbara Roth, Len Schlesinger, Sam Schwab, Scott Snook, Pat Tod, Gayle Treadwell, Marjorie Williams, and David Windom. A few others have offered much inspiration for the work that underlies this manuscript, especially Ed Schein and Paul Lawrence. My thanks to all.