Change Management
Prof. Steve Phelan
Lecture 13
Today
• Receiving change
 The recipients of change (1990)
 Case: Donna Dubinsky and Apple Computer
• LMZ Chs 31-33
 Choosing the depth of intervention (1970)
 Rules of thumb for change agents (1975)
 Self-efficacy through coaching (2001)
The recipients of change
• Despite how bosses would like it to be “change”
is not merely doing A on Monday and B on
Tuesday
 There is a transition phase – shock, anger, confusion
 Some people move faster through the transition than
others, some get stuck - resistance
 “it is difficult to get cooperation, negotiation, and
compromise from people who are effectively ordered
to change, never listened to or supported, and then
faulted if they fail to change as expected”
Strategies
• Individual
 Accepting feelings as
natural
• Anger, depression, shock,
confusion
 Managing stress
• Diet, exercise, regular
breaks, limiting external
stressors, seeking support
 Exercising responsibility
• Identifying gains as well
as losses, participating in
the change, learning new
skills, diversifying
emotional investing
• Organization
 Rethinking resistance
• As legitimate and positive
step toward change
• As information on
problems with change
agenda
• As energy to work with
 Giving first aid
• Listening, accepting,
providing support and
safety
 Creating capability for
change
• Participation, encourage
risk taking, suspending
judgment
Continuous change
• Do employees need less hand holding in
this era of continual change?
• Are young workers being taught to accept
continuous change?
• Does going through a lot of change
“inoculate” against change emotions?
 I am something of an expert in moving house
• Some things get easier
• Some things get harder
Donna Dubinsky & Apple Case
• Analyze why Donna responded the way she did
to the JIT proposal (intellectually and
emotionally)
 What stages of change has she moved through?
• Did she do the right thing in confronting Sculley
and giving Campbell an ultimatum?
 What should she have done differently?
 What could Apple senior managers have done
differently to diffuse this situation?
 What should Donna do now?
Choosing the depth of
intervention
• Depth
 The depth of individual emotional involvement in the
change process
 The less economic and bureaucratic incentives work
the deeper the required intervention
• Rules
 Intervene at a level no deeper than that required to
produce enduring solutions to the problems at hand
 Intervene at a level no deeper than that at which the
energy and resources of the client can be committed
to problem solving and to change
Rules of thumb
• Stay alive
• Start where the system is
• Never work uphill
 Don’t build hills, work in the most promising arena,
build resources, don’t over organize, don’t argue if
you can’t win, play God a little
• Light many fires
• Load experiments for success
• Innovation requires a good idea, initiative, and a
few friends
• Keep an optimistic bias
• Capture the moment (timing is everything)
Self-efficacy through coaching
• Individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely
to succeed at tasks
 Those who think they can, do
• Training
 Self thought
• Challenge destructive patterns, build constructive patterns,
improve internal self talk, leverage mental imagery
 Guided Mastery
• Creating opportunities for people to be successful and
reinforcing success as due to their efforts
 Modeling – observing the success of others
 Psychological states – reducing stress & anxiety