It takes one: Changing individuals changes organizations

According to Stewart Black and Hal Gregersen, Professors at INSEAD, the conventional approach to managing change is backward. Their new book, “It starts with one”, suggests that the conventional approach is “organization-in” – an expectation that if the organization is changed then individual change will follow. Pointing to evidence that suggests that 50-70% of all strategic change initiatives fail, Black and Gregersen argue for a new approach – change the individual and the organization will follow.

Starting with the individual

Black and Gregersen argue that every major change has its roots in past success. At the start of the process, an organization is doing the “right things” and doing them well. Over time, they discover that the “right things” are no longer appropriate – they have become the “wrong things”. They change, and do “new right things” but do them poorly at first as they gain the necessary skills. Finally, they come full circle and do the new right things really well. However, many organizations fail to complete this process and Black and Gregersen argue that this is due to “brain barriers”. Read more...

Welcome to Outlook for Change

This blog is intended as an introduction to our main online publication, Outlook for Change (www.outlookforchange.ca). We will be posting samples of our work here. Our complete library of articles and resources on managing strategic change and social innovation can be found at Outlook for Change.

“Outlook for Change” is the online publication devoted to managing change in organizations and communities. We are a group of scholars at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, who are affiliated with the CMA Centre for Strategic Change and Performance Measurement.

Our aim is to provide a resource for change agents and aspiring change agents in organizations and communities. Making change happen and stick is repeatedly cited as the most central and the most difficult task for organizational and community leaders. We hope to make it just a bit easier by providing you with the best of current thinking and research, and tools for change.Our approach here will be to provide you with an eclectic, but coherent series of writing that examines the task of managing change from a variety of perspectives.

We’ll be addressing critical issues such as strategic change, collaboration, communication, the role(s) of change agents, and innovation. We will provide you with synopses and discussions of the best evidence- and theory-based thinking on how change happens and how it fails, and how to manage organizational and inter-organizational change processes.

We want to know what you think of our efforts. Let us know what you think. Don’t be afraid to tell us what you find useful and what you find less useful, and to suggest topics for future coverage. Write to us at outlookforchange@outlookforchange.ca.