Harry Potter and the Intentional Change -A Strategic Analysis of Intentional Culture at Hogwarts

John D. CrewsHawaii Pacific University

AbstractThis is a strategic analysis of intentional change and organizational development as seen in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. My daughter received this book, along with the rest of the collection, for Christmas this year. Of course, as a Potter fan, I could not help but read them again myself. Once I got to the Order of the Phoenix, I was shocked at the amount of organizational development that was explored by Rowling. I had read the book previously, but it had not dawned on me until now how closely Rowling followed Kotter’s eight step method, providing both positive and negative examples.

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Introduction

In book five of her Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), J.K. Rowling writes three distinct instances in which intentional cultural change was introduced to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry1. First, Delores Umbridge, representative of the Ministry of Magic, attempts to bring about shocking changes to the

1 Please note that this strategic analysis was based on the book, not the movie. The movie lacked many of the details contained within the book; therefore, the latter is the focus of this analysis.

John D Crews is a senior staff analyst at ARINC, assisting customers implement technology-focused change within their organizations. An eight-year veteran of the US Navy, he brings military precision and dedication to the surface transportation industry in Positive Train Control and Intermodal Transport/Control projects throughout North America. John completed undergraduate studies at Colorado Tech (BSBA), earned his first master’s at Hawaii Pacific (MAOC), and is currently working on his second master’s at Cleveland State (MBA).

Author Contact Information: John D Crews 12050 Lake Ave #602 Lakewood, OH 44107 john.d.crews@hotmail.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johncrews/ http://meltingiceburgs.wordpress.com/

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Granger, Weasley, and Potter take matters (and their education) into their own hands at this point and form an unsanctioned club, in which they learn and practice useful defensive tactics. Because this club is illegal, they have to practice in secret. Eventually, of course, they are found out. Dumbledore takes the blame for the club, which allows Potter, Granger, and Weasley to stay at the school; however, he then has to leave his position as headmaster. The Ministry of Magic takes this opportunity and appoints Umbridge as interim headmistress, which increases the ministry’s influence at the school. At that point, Umbridge has free reign. She immediately imposes many changes that the students are unwilling to accept. She further identifies a group of students who support her and empower those students to enforce her new rules and dole punishments to fellow students. The general student body fights back and target Umbridge’s group of students. The new headmistress quickly finds that her coup is not complete with the removal of Dumbledore. She has a fight on her hands with each action. Umbridge is removed from this school by Granger, who leads her into a centaur herd. The centaurs might have sent her on her way with a simple warning; however, Umbridge displays open hostility and bigotry. This leads the centaurs to capture and carry her off. Shortly after Umbridge’s removal Dumbledore returns to Hogwarts. He is able, in a few hours time, to restore order and satisfaction to the school. Umbridge’s changes (including her changes to staffing) are reversed, and the students are able to resume life at Hogwarts.

Strategic Analysis This analysis provides a strategic breakdown

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school by using the power of her government agency. Perhaps a bit more subtly, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter implement their own change while Umbridge is working on her attempt. Finally, at the end of the book, the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is able to sweep in and rectify the catastrophe brought about by Umbridge. At the beginning of Potter’s fifth year at Hogwarts, Umbridge accepts an appointment to Hogwarts. Her appointment is to fulfill a dual role. First, she is to fill a vacant teaching position at the school. More importantly, however, she is instructed to evaluate the teaching staff and is given nearly autonomous authority to make changes to said staff as she sees fit. She uses this authority to attempt to integrate Ministry control over the students and staff at the school. Umbridge immediately meets with active resistance from the students. Her imposed ideals clashes with the existing culture and, therefore, are rejected out of hand. Her attempts are also rejected by the teaching staff, although this resistance is more passive in nature. One change Umbridge implements is to refocus Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons. Due to various (unfounded?) concerns held by the ministry, she approaches the lessons from a pure theoretical perspective, forbidding any sort of practical application of defensive spells. This puts the students at an extreme disadvantage because they are supposed to be working to become adept at self-defense. They were concerned that they would not be able to pass their upcoming examinations; further, there was a good deal of concern among the students that they would be faced with actual life-or-death conflicts and they would be ill prepared to defend themselves without practiced learning.

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reasons why her initiative was unsuccessful. There is a reason Kotter places this portion of the process near the beginning. The guiding team is an important touchstone in a change effort. It provides all of the cultural participants with an example, provides internal support when the change effort is being implemented, provides workers to manage and monitor the change effort and its effects, and gives the entire initiative a driving force. Late in the book, Umbridge recognizes her error and takes steps to correct it and scrapes together a group of student supporters; however, these supporters were not interested in ensuring that the imitative was successful. Instead, they are interested in their new authority and wield it inappropriately. Umbridge should have, at the beginning of the school year, developed a guiding team from the teaching staff. Once she had a group of teachers that supported her and her change, she could have then carefully selected a diverse group of students and provided them with training prior to handing them autonomous authority. This approach would have yielded her far different results. Step 3: develop the change vision and strategy. Umbridge definitely had a vision: a Hogwarts completely under the control of the Ministry of Magic. Rowling also writes that Umbridge wanted the seat of power at the school—headmistress. Unfortunately, these visions clashed with the existing culture and, as such, would never be internalized by the staff or students. Because her vision was diametric to the existing culture, all stakeholders actively resisted her change efforts. Her strategy was another failing. Umbridge relied solely on the authority of the ministry of magic to impose changes on the school. There was no true strategy; instead, she attempted to force the proverbial square peg through a round hole.

of two of the three organizational change attempts included in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: the one initiated by Umbridge and the one initiated by Potter. Each of these is examined in light of Kotter’s eight-step change model.

Umbridge’s Attempt at Organizational Change Step 1: create a sense of urgency. Delores Umbridge did attempt to create a sense of urgency; however, she targeted the wrong audience for her efforts. Prior to the start of term, she ordered ghostly dementors to attack Harry Potter. This event initiated a series of other events that created a sense of urgency at the ministry. However, it did not generate the same response from the student and teacher cultures at Hogwarts. The ministry did lean on the wizard newspaper, The Daily Prophet, to report stories in a manner that made it seem that Dumbledore and Potter were untrustworthy. This effort also produced a sense of urgency in the general wizard community; however, it did not stir the same reaction among the students and teachers at the school. These two efforts were a good foundation for Umbridge to create a sense of urgency; however, she failed miserably in convincing the students and teachers that there was an urgent necessity to implement change. Instead, as described in the steps below, she tried to force this change without laying the groundwork for acceptance by the very people from whom she most needed support. Step 2: pull together a guiding team. Once again, Umbridge aimed at the wrong group in order to develop her guiding team. She sought support from the Minster of Magic; however, she did not immediately develop a team inside the walls of Hogwarts. This oversight was to her detriment and, perhaps, one of the primary

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persistence, if nothing else, may be admired. Step 8: create a new culture. Because she failed miserable at 6 out of 7 of the steps above, Umbridge was not able to create the desired culture. Instead, the new culture was created organically as the students of Hogwarts actively resisted her attempts to impose Ministry control at Hogwarts. Every effort by Umbridge met with failure by the end of the book.

Potter’s Attempt at Organizational Change Step 1: create a sense of urgency. Potter, Granger, and Weasley did not need to actively create a sense of urgency. Umbridge did that for them. The students in general were concerned with the state of affairs after Umbridge began her campaign. The only thing that these students needed to do was to ask if anyone was interested in taking educational matters into their own hands. They soon found out that there was, in fact, a good deal of students who were ready to put forth additional effort to learn from Potter. Step 2: pull together a guiding team. This step occurred in three phases. First, the whole idea of a student organization originated with Granger. She then included Weasley and Potter in her original guiding team. At the first official meeting (the one in Hogwarts, not the general interest meeting in the Hogshead), Granger made it a point to ensure that the group officially elected Potter as their leader. Finally, within the first few meetings, the guiding team grew to include two additional members: Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley (Ron’s sister). This team (Potter, Granger, Weasley, Weasley, and Longbottom) represented a diverse group from within the ranks of the organization. Each of these individuals brought something to the group. These people worked hard and their efforts served as an example to the rest of the group. They also provided support to the rest of the organization.

Step 4: communicate for understanding and buy in. There is only one place where Umbridge attempted to communicate for understanding and buy-in. At the start-of-term feast, she gives a speech. During this speech, she does communicate, in a veiled manner, several of the changes that she intends to implement. Unfortunately, this was so skewed that most of the audience did not understand what she was saying. Even more unfortunately, those who did understand had a gut reaction to reject the change. Umbridge most certainly did not find success with this step. Step 5: empower others to act. It was only after the initiative began to fall down around Umbridge that she reluctantly empowered others. As mentioned above, she selected the empowered group based solely on who was supporting her. Further, she did not diversify her empowerment; rather, she focused it on only a select group of students who were already closely knit but did not have real influence on the rest of the student population. Further, Umbridge deliberately removed power from those who she should have sought as her best supporters—the teaching staff. Step 6: produce short-term wins. This effort did, in fact, see several short-term wins from Umbridge’s point of view. She was able to institute herself as a teacher, gain authority from the Ministry of Magic, and force several changes into effect. However, this may not have been a win at all. Umbridge used political force where diplomacy was called for. From her perspective, she may have thought that she was reaching goals, but the goals did not lead her to the desired result. Step 7: don’t let up. If nothing else, Umbridge was very successful with this step. She certainly did not let up until she was forced to by a herd of angry centaurs. Her

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Step 4: communicate for understanding and buy in. Granger once again led most of these efforts; however, there was at least one key element that Potter contributed. Granger led the initiative to source interested students. She also led most of the group discussions where everyone was able to voice their questions, concerns, and interest. Granger, Potter, and Weasley addressed these items. Potter did, however, make things abundantly clear. He clearly stated that he was not there to discuss certain experiences. He then reiterated that he was willing to teach them, if that was where their primary interests lie. He then asked them all to decide if they were there to learn or to glean information about said experiences. If they were not there to learn, he suggested that they not participate. Each person within the group demonstrated their buy-in by their continued involvement and refrained from asking questions about the taboo experiences. Step 5: empower others to act. The group was all about empowering its members. Each person immediately began to practice defensive spells and tactics. Further, Harry listened when people voiced concerns or made suggestions. Every member was able to actively resist Umbridge simply by belonging to the group. Step 6: produce short-term wins. Potter accomplished this step by means of his lessons. Every meeting included a lesson that, once accomplished by its members, gave them a bit more confidence and allowed them to attain a goal. Further, each meeting was another bit of resistance against the Ministry and Umbridge. Step 7: don’t let up. Dumbledore’s Army did not let up. They continued to work hard each session, and these efforts were driven by Potter and his guiding coalition. Every member put forth effort on his or her free time to continue moving forward.

Step 3: develop the change vision and strategy. Once again, this portion of the process occurred in phases. The first phase occurred when Granger asked Potter if he would take the lead and teach interested people how to defend themselves against attacks by dark wizards. The second phase occurred during the informational meeting in the Hogshead pub. There were two key events that took place during this meeting. The group of interested students was able to successfully communicate the reasons for their interest in joining the organization. This was a key event, in that it was the first glimpse into the organic culture of the organization. Also during this meeting, Potter was able to address the reasons why the students were participating and align their vision with his own. This act allowed him to successfully redirect the organization. By doing so, he was able to immediately begin to manage the development of the culture. The next phase occurred during the first official meeting (again, at Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement, not the informational meeting at the Hogshead). This portion was instituted by Granger. She led the group in a discussion of what to call themselves. She suggested Defense Association (or DA). Ginny Weasley then suggested that the acronym was appropriate, but suggested that they call themselves Dumbledore’s Army. This was a true glimpse into the vision of the group, in that it meant that they were supportive of their headmaster (Albus Dumbledore) and willing to resist Ministry of Magic efforts to control the school. Finally, Potter communicated his strategy. He discussed what they would study, how they would practice, and when they would meet. By doing so, Potter was able to share his vision with all stakeholders. This is a crucial step and directly leads to step four.

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References

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA (USA):Harvard Business Review Press.

Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York, NY, USA: Scholastic

Press.

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Step 8: create a new culture. Every lesson, every practice session, the new culture was further entrenched. The group got along well, they learned a lot, and they continued to resist Ministry interference. In fact, this step was completed in such a manner that the culture continued even after the group was forced to disband (after Dumbledore’s disappearance from Hogwarts). At the end of the book, Potter was accompanied by several members of Dumbledore’s Army to face the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. Potter did not want to involve these people; however, they insisted on accompanying him. They even stated that it was their participation in the DA culture that made them feel obligated and even entitled to participate. The culture was so embedded that its members continued to feel that they were a part of it even in the sixth book of the series. Finally, in the seventh book, the DA culture again made an appearance, allowing its members to stand strong in the face of Death Eater control at the school. It is interesting to note that Potter, Granger, and Weasley did such a good job building this culture that it continued in the seventh book, even though none of the three initiators was present.

Conclusion This strategic analysis clearly demonstrates positive and negative examples of how to (or how not to) implement change and direct cultural development. I am fairly certain that Rowling did not mean to follow Kotter’s eight-step change model; however, she did carefully create characters that did just that. She was able to give us shining examples of what we should and should not do when we are faced with implementing a change.

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