The Heart of Change: real-life stories of how people change their organizations - Books - Book Review

T+D, Dec, 2002 by Michael Cassidy

The only constant, the pundits remind us, is change: ubiquitous, continual, and absolutely essential for organizational survival. In The Heart of Change, change management expert John P. Kotter and consultant Dan S. Cohen argue persuasively that successful change is reflected in behaviors that support change efforts. When people begin to feel and view the world around them differently, change occurs as a result of their new perception of the circumstances.

Kotter and Cohen offer many arguments heard before, but in an updated, and eminently readable form. The authors have translated recent change theories and research findings into an efficient and useful overview.

The concept of successful change as a result of shifting personal attitudes isn't a new idea. More than 50 years ago, David Krathwohl and Benjamin Bloom, renowned for their revolutionary work on learning taxonomies, argued that behavioral change is grounded in valuing. Valuing must be preceded by an openness to listen, see and entertain new ideas, according to those two learning experts.

Now, many preachers of organizational change tend towards extremes. At one extreme reside the analysts, priding themselves on the rigor of their analytic methods. Think of Spock, everyone's favorite Vulcan on Star Trek, who embodied pure logic and empiricism. Analysts such as Spock think we should eschew at all costs the inherent irrationality of the human element. The other extreme is represented by the touchy-feely folks, who sometimes place the role of emotion on too-high a pedestal.

Fortunately, not all organizational change experts are as radical. Management scholar and controversial former editor of the Harvard Business Journal Rosabeth Moss Kanter emphasizes the importance of the political dimensions of change. In her many works, Kanter says when people don't like what's happening, they resist it.

Another exception is prominent neurologist Antonio R. Damasio. Relying on clinical evidence, Damasio argues in his 1994 book Descartes' Error that reason and feeling are inherently intertwined in our neurological makeup. That belief--how we feel affects how we think--is the heart of Kotter and Cohen's case for effective organizational change.

Many people tend to view step approaches as impractical. But the authors propose that successful change can indeed be implemented using an eight-step path. Addressing issues such as urgency, team composition, and communication, the steps provide an effective organizing structure to create change.

An appealing aspect of the book is its liberal use of hands-on war stories. These brief, first-person accounts serve as rich qualitative data to support the authors' advice.

One particularly inspiring story concerns a company's desire to reduce costs. A manager, curious about what the company was spending on gloves in the manufacturing plants, asked a summer intern to look into it. The intern reported that the plants were purchasing 424 types of gloves ranging widely in cost but generally equal in quality. Unaware of the high number of gloves, the manager asked the intern to collect a sample of each kind of glove. When division managers saw the astounding array, it had a profound impact.

The introduction of a visual component such as the glove display communicated the financial implications of failing to standardize the purchasing process and changed the managers' attitudes more effectively than any number of tables, graphs, or statistical analyses.

Aiming to help people implement change through grasping the fundamental importance of creativity, feeling, leadership and focus, Kotter and Cohen have compiled a delightful and accessible work. Just telling others to change won't work, the authors point our, and neither will using data or reason alone. Spock said, "Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end."

The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 208 pp. US$20

Michael Cassidy is a professor at Marymount University, School of Business, in Arlington, Virginia; cassidym1@aol.com.