Paul C. Godfrey

Marriott School of Management

Organizational Change

Change: Three key cognitive phases

Unfreezing Change Re-freezing

• Admission that current state isn’t working

• Clear break with past actions or processes

• Organizational and formal

• Develop new behaviors

• Trial and error process—uncertain and serendipitous

• Failures and successes

• Creating Alignment

• Codification of new behaviors/ processes

• Embed new behaviors in training or compensation

• Signals the “end” of the change effort

The change process

Generate urgency

BuildCoalition

CreateVision

ShareVision

EmpowerAction

Short-Term Wins

ConsolidateGains

InstitutionalizeChanges

The Silent Phase(Unfreezing)½ -1 ½ years

The Active Phase(Change)1-2 years

Completion(Refreezing)

4-7 years

Sequencing Change

Strategic Intent Precise Broad

Substance Hard Soft

Scale Small Large

Scope Isolated Org. Wide

Speed Fast Slow

Sequence Hard-Soft Soft-Hard

Style Top-Down Bottom-Up

Change: Three key emotional phases

Unfreezing Change Re-freezing

Ending Neutral Zone New Beginning

• Disengagement• Dismantling• Disidentification• Disenchantment• Disorientation

• Settling in• Sense of security,

permanence• Ability to “move

forward”

• Anxiety up, motivation down

• Other weaknesses emerge

• Confusion/ creativity

The transition is not so clean . . .

people need to do all three at the same time.

“The purely intellectual task, the part that could be done by a strategy consultant, is

difficult enough, but that often is the minor part of the overall exercise. The emotional work is even tougher: letting go of the status quo, letting go of other future options, coming to grips with the sacrifices, coming to trust others, etc.”

John Kotter, Leading Change, p. 88

Some useful “rules”

• Endings always come before beginnings

• Endings usually recycle old ending scripts

• There is no timetable

• Your ending is not my ending

Planning for better endings

• Identify who will be losing what• Accept the reality of subjective losses

– Don’t tell people to “suck it up”– Listen and don’t stop the conversation

• Acknowledge losses openly and with sympathy• Treat the past with respect

– Don’t denigrate the past– Acknowledge that the past got us to the present– Let people take a piece of the past with them

• Show that the ending ensures the continuity of what really matters

The importance of communication

• Consciously overcommunicate– Giving out uncomfortable information models how to do it

• People don’t listen to what they don’t want to hear

• Define what is over and what isn’t– If people don’t know the difference they become paralyzed

Two Cautions• Remember the

marathon effect

• Measure twice, cut once

A final thought

The first task of change management is to help people understand the desired change and make it

happen

The first task of transition management is to convince people to leave home.