Book Review: Who Moved My Cheese?

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It probably isn't all that helpful to write a review of a book read a decade ago, but I am committed to providing a full slate of reviews of books I share with others... so here goes. 

This one was an instant classic that touched a lot of people.  It went to the top of the charts and was passed from cubicle to cubicle all over the world.  Those who wish to promote change read it on behalf of others they know and consider change resistant.  I can't test this theory without a crystal ball, but I would bet only a small percentage of people who read this little fable saw themselves in it, and made adjustments in their own lives.  I hope I'm wrong.

Some very excellent material on change management has come out in the 15 years since this was published, much of it by John Kotter and his colleagues (Our Iceberg is Melting, Leading Change, etc.) Those with a serious interest in helping to move their organizations forward will do well to settle in with one of those. Get a quick overview of four of my favorite fable-style books by clicking here for a free download.

This one still makes a great stocking-stuffer though. Share it with the Hemmers and Hawers in your life. Just don't be surprised if they give it back to you!


View all my reviews

Book Review: The Heart of Change

The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations by John P. Kotter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It always seemed to me that "change management" would be a funny field to get into. Since nothing ever stays the same, isn't managing change something that most of us are doing most of the time?  We need special consultants for this?

Yet, I find that I am more and more drawn to the subject. One of my favorite LinkedIn groups is called the Organizational Change Practitioners. I get a weekly breakdown of their discussions and always profit by taking the time to read it. These are people who are serious about helping others successfully navigate through the sometimes stormy seas of organizational life these days. It's an honorable and pioneering profession, and its practitioners deserve our thanks.

Change management guru John Kotter is definitely one of my favorite authors and I am always glad to find a book by him that I have not yet read. I've published reviews and summaries of several of his books, and I like it that he is consistent in his discussion of the "eight steps to successful, large-scale change":

    1. Increase urgency.
    2. Build the guiding coalition.
    3. Get the vision right.
    4. Communicate for buy-in.
    5. Empower action.
    6. Create short-term wins.
    7. Keep at it.
    8. Make change stick.

The Heart of Change sets out to be "real-life stories" of businesses and organizations, mostly clients of Kotter's, successfully moving through the steps and creating lasting, positive change.  Throughout, Kotter and his co-author Dan Cohen emphasize the emotional/behavioral aspects of the various stages.  This is important.  All the research, analysis, and rational case-making in the world won't get people to jump on the bandwagon if it doesn't feel right. 

This is a three star book for me because I was disappointed in the amount of new red meat here.  Leading Change remains the only book by Kotter an interested change leader needs to read.  But for those seeking to more deeply embed the change management process into their own DNA, the material in The Heart of Change is solid and worth reinforcing.   





View all my reviews

Book Review: Buy In

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down by John P. Kotter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fear Mongering. Delay. Confusion. Ridicule.  According to John Kotter, these are the four primary ways people use to kill other people's ideas.  Seems about right.

The pace of change is picking up in our world.  So is the volume of resistance.  Any suggestion of doing something differently will generate a response from those who either like the status quo or who don't see the need for the change.  That's why every effort at change management has to include a plan to communicate for buy-in.  This is Step Four in Kotter's Eight Stage Change Process, and it important enough to merit its own book.

Written fable-style, Buy In takes us through a community library meeting where a group of leaders must convince others of the need to install computers.  Seems easy enough, right?  Well... all four tactics are used by the opponents: "We don't want the kind of people who use computers hanging around in the library." "What's the rush? Let's do this later." "I don't understand the data you have here, I've done some research of my own and...." "The people who are proposing this have a personal agenda."  We've heard them all.

What's the solution? Don't avoid confronting the opponents.  Make sure they are at the meeting and voicing their concerns so they can be addressed. Keep your arguments simple and clear. Be respectful and courteous. Focus your presentation to people who truly are undecided or can be influenced, not on the hard-core opponents. Prepare in advance and hold yourself with confidence.  That's always persuasive!
 
This will make a good reference manual for anyone preparing a presentation for others on something they would like to try.  Change management is always a leadership issue, and John Kotter is one of the best guides we have.  Click here to download a free two-page summary of the book.



View all my reviews

Book Review: A Sense of Urgency

A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For the record John Kotter's book, Leading Change is all we need to truly understand the process of initiating and sustaining a successful change effort.  The eight steps he elucidates there (and recaps in the fun little fable Our Iceberg is Melting) form a foundation for thinking through organizational change and for implementing it. I reviewed and posted summaries of those two books last week.

The first step in Kotter's change management formula is Create a Sense of Urgency.  Since it is  probably the most difficult of the steps, it merits further exploration.  Whenever people within an organization - whether they are managers or frontline staff, don't see or feel the importance of changing or improving how things are done, any transformation effort will stall - if it ever gets launched at all.  The person who first notices that the iceberg is melting (the customer reviews are bad, the law is changing, the market is tanking, new technology is overtaking us, etc.) has to tell the others, and explain the implications of the discovery.  If the leaders keep the information under wraps, why would anyone feel a need to do anything about it?  They won't.  

There is a difference between true urgency (acting with a sense of real purpose) and false urgency (anxious activity and busyness.)  We're not talking about acting all panicky and spreading the upset around the workplace. To Kotter, creating a sense of urgency means communicating the need for change and making sure all members of the team know why it matters.   

Kotter has a good thing going, creating popular books that offer a unique solution to a problem experienced by many organizational leaders. His work is helpful enough to merit being purchased and read.  The material in A Sense of Urgency would better fit an article than a book, but then I probably would not have picked it up. A two-page summary, written by me, is available for download here.



View all my reviews

Change Management

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John P. Kotter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've been reading quite a bit on change management again lately, and I still keep coming back to John Kotter.  Maybe it's the simple eight-step process, and maybe it's just the characters in the fable.  (Haven't we all met people we would nick name "No-No?")   Maybe I just like his writing style.  Either way, though I've reviewed Our Iceberg is Melting and Leading Change before, both are worth another go.  In the next few weeks I'll post reviews and summaries of three more books by Kotter, but for today let's look again at the eight steps and remember - we can't blow past any of these if we want our effort to succeed.  

1.     Establishing a Sense of Urgency

§       Examining the market and competitive realities

§       Identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, or major opportunities

2.     Creating a Guiding Coalition

§       Putting together a group with enough power to lead the change

§       Getting the group to work together like a team

3.     Developing a Vision and Strategy

§       Creating a vision to help direct the change effort

§       Developing strategies for achieving that vision

4.     Communicating a Change Vision

§       Using every vehicle possible to constantly communicate the new vision and strategies

§       Having the guiding coalition role model the behavior expected of employees

5.     Empowering Employees for Broad-Based Action

§       Getting rid of obstacles

§       Changing systems or structures that undermine the change vision

§       Encouraging risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions

6.     Generating Short-Term Wins

§       Planning for visible improvements in performance, or “wins”

§       Creating those wins

§       Visibly recognizing and rewarding people who made the wins possible

7.     Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change

§       Using increased credibility to change all systems, structures and policies that don’t fit together and don’t fit the transformation vision

§       Hiring, promoting, and developing people who can implement the change vision

§       Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes and change agents

8.     Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture

§       Creating better performance through customer- and productivity-oriented behavior, more and better leadership, and more effective management

§       Articulating the connections between new behaviors and organizational success

§       Developing means to ensure leadership development and succession

Book Review: Leading Change

Leading Change by John P. Kotter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Yep.  I see why this one rose to the top of the must-read list for the organizational change practitioners and the consultants to nonprofits LinkedIn groups I follow.  It is a classic, a one-stop shop for anyone interested in understanding the process of change within organizations.  Focused largely on business (Kotter's examples and "reasons for" tend to be about competitive advantage,) the book is clearly applicable in nonprofit and governmental contexts. 

Of particular interest to me, and of real importance I think, is Kotter's clarity with regard to the different functions of management and leadership.  I have already used some of this material with clients - even before I finished the book - and I assume I will do so over and again.  The narrative is clear and concise, and the exhibits support an additional level of understanding.  Every chapter is an eye opener, building on the chapter before. 

I usually prefer to cherry pick good ideas from authors, leaving "take it all" prescriptive stuff for those who need an orthodoxy.  But I can see how the eight stages of Kotter's change management process hang together in a cohesive whole.  He makes his case for not skipping any of the steps in a convincing fashion.  With such a large percentage of the world transforming itself every year... this how-to guide is essential reading.  Good stuff.

A two-page summary, written by me, is available to those who click here.

View all my reviews

Book Review: The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Boy am I ever glad Malcolm Gladwell writes books.  They are entertaining, educational, and page turning... just the thing to take on a beach vacation. 

The Tipping Point was a bestseller for a very good reason... it is useful information with endless application. Gladwell pulls together some very relevant social scientific research from the world's best universities - which would otherwise not be accessible to the rest of us -- and he makes sense of it.  He weaves it together with interesting stories of real people to show how the learning works in real life.  And it all comes together to prove a valuable point, in this case that Little Things Can Make Big Difference. 

Years after The Tipping Point's publication, my friends and I still use many of its key words and concepts in our discussions.  We know who the connectors are in our community, and the salesmen.  (I am the maven in my social circle!)  We talk about getting to 150 supporters of any effort we undertake, and about the stickiness of our ideas.  Sometimes we have to remind each other of the specifics of this chapter or that, but the main themes come back quickly - I think because of Gladwell's superior ability to paint pictures with words.

By using such a range of examples and stories, Gladwell demonstrates the diverse applications of the research he reports on.  In some ways, The Tipping Point is the ultimate "how to" book. The techniques are universal... each reader gets to choose what to apply them to.  I first heard the book discussed in a training on launching a pro-environment messaging campaign.  I now use it with clients who advocate for people with disabilities.  It's endless. 

If you haven't read this one yet, I recommend taking it along on your next vacation.  You will be glad you did. In case you are curious, but not sure you are ready to dive in, here's a two-page summary, written by me.



View all my reviews