5
business world to describe the terain we have to
operate in today.
Volatile – constant and significant change
Uncertain – events and outcomes are unpredictable
Complex – many interconnected parts and variables
Ambiguous – a lack of clarity – no precedents – the unknown unknowns
The existing approaches to organisational change management are simply not suited to a VUCA world.
The Old Approaches to Change No Longer Work
The framework that most organisational change management approaches have been based on, including that of Bridges, is assigned to Kurt Lewin and his 1947 three stage theory of change - commonly referred to as Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze.
The fact that Kurt Lewin may never have said or written "unfreeze - change - refreeze" is up for debate. Read about that here.
In a nutshell, the Change in Three Steps (CATS) model assigned to Lewin describes the three phases as unfreeze – prepare for change; change – transition and move toward a new way of being; and freeze – establishing stability once the change has been made.
But today, there is no stability. As Hamel and Zanini referred to it in a McKinsey 2014 article – its no longer about freeze and unfreeze because it is constant slush.
The Kubler-Ross inspired five stage change model – the change curve – still has relevance today in
explaining how individuals respond to change – but we no longer have the luxury to determine where each individual, or group of individuals, is on the curve and put in place tactics to move them along the curve.
The Accelerated Implementation Methodology® (AIM) from IMA also has three-phase process – plan, implement and monitor.
Even, Prosci®, one of the most widely used approaches to organisation change today, has a three phase process – prepare for change, manage change and reinforce change.
We are living in a different world that is going to require a different approach to change and transition.
We are not in a state where we can plan, do, embed and then wait for the next change. Rinse and repeat! Those days are gone. Constant change is the new black!
We Need a Different Approach
Today, transitioning people through change is continual and multi-faceted. We need a more agile and iterative approach to organisational change.
As the title of the Hamel and Zanini article cited earlier advises – “Build a change platform, not a change program”.
We are no longer in a situation where change is linear and episodic – where it happens every so often and disrupts what we were doing. It is driven from the top and cascades down through a hierarchical chain of command.