This is a good book if you are looking for concrete examples of how large scale change has been successfully implemented in organizations.  The authors researched 130 organizations and found 8 common steps for successful change.  They illustrate each step by including several stories written by the people in those organizations they studied.

My synopsis of the book follows and contains my summary notes, highlights and quotes from the book.  I did not include any of the stories from the organizations; you can read those when you pick up the book.

Synopsis:  There are 8 steps that are required in order to implement large scale change in organizations: 

Step 1:  Increase Urgency
Step 2:  Build the Guiding Team
Step 3:  Get the Vision right
Step 4:  Communicate for buy-in
Step 5:  Empower Action
Step 6:  Create Short-term wins
Step 7:  Don’t Let up
Step 8:  Make Change stick

These 8 steps are derived from research performed at 130 organizations.  The following is a high level summary of what I found to be the key points in each chapter in the book.

Introduction

The single most important lesson is: People don’t change because they are fed analysis to shift their thinking; they change because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.  That is how you change behavior.

They succeed, regardless of the stage in the overall process, because their most central activity does not center on formal data gathering, analysis, report writing, and presentations – the sorts of actions typically aimed at changing thinking in order to change behavior.  Instead, they compellingly show people what the problems are and how to resolve the problems.  They provoke responses that reduce feelings that slow and stifle needed change, and they enhance feelings that motivate useful action. [page 8].

 Step 1: Increase Urgency

Four sets of behaviors commonly stop the launch of a change effort:

1. Complacency, driven by false pride or arrogance
2. Immobilization, self-protection, driven by fear or panic
3. You-can’t-make-me attitude, driven by anger
4. Pessimism that leads to constant hesitation.

Creating a sense of urgency is what initiates change.  Use something they can see and feel that affects their emotions; not just numbers and analysis.

Go after the emotions with concrete and almost smellable evidence, not just the abstractions so favored by the rational mind.  Use evidence you can see, not just words and numbers.  Create a dramatic, look-at-this presentation, yet one based on honest facts and no coercion.  As a result – and this is the key point – feelings are touched and changed, yet without provoking a debilitating sense of “I’m going to die” or an angry counterattack.  Instead, the sense of urgency goes up and the change effort is launched.  [page 30-31]

Step 2:  Build the Guiding Team

Large-scale change does not happen well without a powerful guiding force.  A fragmented management team cannot do the job, even if the individual members are strong people.  A hero CEO doesn’t work either… Lower-level task forces can be a joke.  Something else is needed. [page 41]

A powerful guiding group has two characteristics.  It is made up of the right people, and it demonstrates teamwork.  By the “right people”, we mean individuals with the appropriate skills, the leadership capacity, the organizational credibility, and the connections to handle a specific kind of organizational change. [page 43]

The most successful change efforts have built effective guiding teams the following way:

1.      A single person who feels the urgency brings together a core group.
2.      Key individuals are selected to serve on the team.  They have the following characteristics:

a.      Relevant knowledge about external forces and events
b.      Credibility, connections and stature
c.      Valid information about internal politics and processes (how things get done).
d.      Formal authority and good managerial skills
e.      Leadership skills (vision, communication, motivation)

3.      Pull the right people in and push the wrong people out.
4.      As change moves through the organization, form additional groups at lower levels.

Step 3:  Get the Vision Right

People want to know why a change is being implemented.  What does it mean?  What is the purpose?  Often guiding teams will either set no clear direction or embrace visions that are not sensible.  They make the mistake of thinking that planning and budgeting is all they need.  People need to see the big picture.  You need to paint a picture of the future so people can “see” the alternate way. 

In large scale change efforts there are four elements that direct action:  budgets, plans, strategies and vision.  A budget is a financial plan.  A plan lists the steps required to implement a strategy.  A strategy shows how to implement a vision.  A vision shows an end state where your plans and strategies take you.  A vision should fit on a single page and described in an elevator ride.

Visions and strategies are the hardest to do because they require you to venture into uncharted waters.

Without a good budget, you can run out of money.  Without a sensible plan, you can run out of time.  Without a good strategy, you can find yourself painted into a corner.  Without a good vision, you can choose a bad direction and never realize that you’ve done so. […] Strategic plans motivate few people, but a compelling vision can appeal to the heart and motivate people. […] Without vision, and without everyone having the same vision, running into obstacles and tripping over one another is inevitable. [page 68-69]

The Need for Speed:  Speed is one of the most important strategic issues in a change effort.  In today’s world you need to move as fast as possible.  Also remember that the pace of external change is only going to get faster.  This means that the rate of internal change has to increase as well.

Step 4:  Communicate Buy-In

The vision must be widely communicated.  The goal is to get as many people as possible acting to make the vision a reality.

Good communication is not just data transfer.  You need to show people something that addresses their anxieties, that accepts their anger, that is credible in a very gut-level sense, and that evokes faith in the vision. […] Too many people wing it. [p.84-86]

What works for good communication:

• Keep communication simple and heartfelt, not complex and technocratic.
• Do your homework first; know what people are feeling.
• Speak to anxieties, confusion, anger and distrust.
• Rid the communication channels of junk so important messages get through.
• Use new technologies to help people see the vision.
• Don’t under communicate.
• Don’t just transfer data.
• Walk the talk.

Step 5:  Empower Action

People have to feel empowered and barriers have to be removed for change to be implemented.  One of the biggest obstacles can be the boss: an immediate manager or upper level leader who has not bought in to the change.  In effective organizations, they confront the “boss issue” head-on.  They explain the situation to the person creating the problem.  When explaining fails, as often does, they try more creative solutions, such as changing responsibilities.

Other barriers are bureaucracies, lack of information, no reward systems and lack of self-confidence.

To help empower people:

• Find those with change experience who can bolster people’s self-confidence with “we did it and so can you” anecdotes.
• Recognition and reward systems that inspire, promote optimism, and build self-confidence.
• Give feedback
• Retool managers that “disempower” by giving them new jobs that show the need for change.
• Don’t try to remove all barriers at once.

Step 6:  Create Short-Term Wins

Create short-term wins to nourish faith in the change effort, emotionally reward the workers, keep the critics at bay, and build momentum.  Short term wins need to be visible and meaningful.  Identify the “low hanging fruit” and build a timeline to achieve them.  Do something that assists a key person as soon as possible.  This can increase their support for the change effort.

When reporting results, never stretch the truth.  Honesty always trumps propaganda; and honesty starts with being honest with yourself.

What works when creating short-term wins:

• Identify and achieve early wins that come fast.
• Wins should be visible
• Wins should be unambiguous
• Wins should be meaningful to others
• Early wins speak to the power players

Step 7:  Don’t Let Up

In successful change efforts, people build on the momentum of early wins to make the vision a reality by keeping urgency up and false pride down; by eliminating unnecessary work; and by not declaring victory too early.

At some point, you will have to attack the silos and politics of the organization.  They can be tough to handle in the early stages, but you have to eventually deal with it to fulfill the vision.  Use creative methods to tackle these problems.  Create a task force.  Use media to address problems in a humorous way, but don’t ridicule.  Images can be powerful; even if only seen once.

Don’t kill yourself with the work.  When you have too much work, jettison some.  Delegate more.  Delegate not only down, but up and sideways.

Continue with wave after wave of change until the vision is a reality.  What helps:

• Aggressively rid yourself of work that wears you down.  Delegate!
• Always look for ways to keep the sense of urgency up.
• Use new situations as opportunities to launch the next wave of change.
• Always show ‘em, show ‘em, show ‘em.
• Don’t convince yourself you can do it without confronting bureaucratic and political behaviors. 

Step 8:  Make Change Stick

Keep change in place by creating a new, supportive, strong organizational culture.  This provides roots for the new way of doing things.  Successful change is more fragile than we think.  Change can be overcome by traditional organizational culture.

New employees must be trained in the new way of doing things to help create a new culture.  Promote people that have adopted the changes into positions of power.

To use these ideas and avoid mistakes, it is important to understand a fundamental and widely misunderstood aspect of organizational change: In a change effort, culture comes last, not first.  Enterprises try to change culture first, but it won’t work.

A culture truly changes only when a new way of operating has been shown to succeed over some minimum period of time.  Trying to shift the norms and values before you have created the new way of operating does not work.   The new behaviors do not become the norms until the very end of the process. [p.176]

Be sure the changes are embedded in the very culture of the enterprise so that the new way of operating will stick.  What works:

• Don’t stop at step 7 – it isn’t over until the changes have roots.
• Use new employee orientation to build the foundation of change.
• Promote those that embrace the change.
• Tell vivid stories over and over about successes of the change.
• Make sure you have the continuity of behavior and results that help a new culture grow.
• Don’t rely on a boss or rewards; anything but culture to hold a change in place.
• Don’t try to change the culture first.

Conclusion: We See, We Feel, We Change

The single biggest challenge is changing people’s behavior.  The key is less about analysis and thinking and more about seeing and feeling.  “Example is not the main thing influencing others.  It is the only thing.” – Albert Schweitzer.

Successful change leaders identify a problem in one part of the change process, or a solution to a problem.  Then they show this to people in ways that are as concrete as possible.  They show with a vehicle you can see, hear, or touch.  They make their points emotionally engaging and compelling.  Change leaders show people the truth with a variety of creative presentations and events.

Our ministry is Second Pair of Hands, a ministry dedicated to helping single moms, elderly and disabled with basic repairs around the house.  Twice a year we help the church’s Outbound ministry by organizing the Outbound volunteers to go out and assist single moms with various projects.  Several needed yard work done, some needed plumbing repairs, a few had electrical problems, others needed carpentry or appliance repairs.  In all, our teams helped 31 households of single moms and elderly.

Most of the projects would seem like minor, easy-to-do work to most of us.  But to a single mom or elderly widow, these simple things can be monumental.  Many of these ladies have very limited income, live in stressful situations, do not know who to trust, and live in houses that are falling down around them because of lack of maintenance.  They struggle with several jobs, they’re trying to keep their kids in school and out of trouble, and just need some help.  So the work that was done, while insignificant to most of us, made a huge difference to them.

We were blessed to have 94 volunteers step up to help with Second Pair of Hands projects.  Some of these were teams from a men’s bible study group, some were families, and some were just guys and gals wanting to help.  We had them all meet at the church to sign in, meet their teams, get maps and last minute instructions, pray, and then sent them out the door by 9 AM.  Most of the projects were completed by noon, but some lasted into the afternoon.

It was an awesome experience and a blessing to those that served, not to mention the joy it brought to the ladies that we were serving.  Serving others is one of the things that Jesus modeled for us when He washed the disciple’s feet at the Last Supper: 

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.  John 13:15-17 NIV

If you feel a call to serve in a ministry, but don’t know where to start, talk to your pastor or ministry leader at your church.  You don’t have to know what you’re good at, or where you think you fit.  You just have to start.  Try different things and it will soon become clear what your gifts of service are.  Before you know it, you will be making a difference to someone and you will be blessed as Jesus promised.  As it says in Proverbs,

A generous man will prosper;
   he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.  Proverbs 11:25 NIV

Now, 40 years later, I have been revisiting the spectacular achievements made in space by America during the 60s and 70s.  I recently began reading Buzz Aldrin’s new memoir, Magnificent Desolation, which begins with his recounting of the lunar landing.  Even though I know how the events of Apollo 11 turn out, reading the author’s account of flying and maneuvering Eagle, the computer problems encountered, the split-second decisions they were forced to make, and the risks they took while landing kept me spell bound.

Once they had landed and had completed their checklists for take off (they wanted everything ready in case they had to make a hasty departure), they had a few moments to relax before preparing for their excursion on lunar soil.  It is at this point that I was amazed, and touched, by Buzz Aldrin’s next action.  I’ll let you read it for yourself in these two excerpts:

Weeks before, as the Apollo mission drew near, I had originally asked Dean Woodruff, pastor at Webster Presbyterian Church, where my family and I attended services when I was home in Houston, to help me come up with something I could do on the moon, some appropriate symbolic act regarding the universality of seeking.  I had thought in terms of doing something overtly patriotic, but everything we came up with sounded trite and jingoistic.  I settled on a well-known expression of spirituality:  celebrating the first Christian Communion on the moon, much as Christopher Columbus and other explorers had done when they first landed in their “new world.”

[...]

So, during those first hours on the moon, before the planned eating and rest periods, I reached into my personal preference kit and pulled out the communion elements along with a three-by-five card on which I had written the words of Jesus:  “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.”  I poured a thimbleful of wine from a sealed plastic container into a small chalice, and waited for the wine to settle down as it swirled in the one-sixth Earth gravity of the moon.  My comments to the world were inclusive:  “I would like to request a few moments of silence…and to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.”  I silently read the Bible passage as I partook of the wafer and the wine, and offered a private prayer for the task at hand and opportunity I had been given.

[Excerpts from Magnificent Desolation, pages 25-27]

The millions of people back on earth never saw or heard Buzz Aldrin take Communion:  the radio transmissions were blacked out by NASA.  Knowing now what he did gives me an enormous feeling of pride and gratitude.  As a nation we had overcome the most difficult technical challenges ever faced.  Despite the enormity of the science and technology, Buzz Aldrin kept everything in perspective and took time to give thanks to his Creator and Savior, honoring Him in a special way.  Wow.  That gives a whole new perspective to Apollo 11, the first lunar landing, and one astronaut’s view of man’s place in the universe.

Bill and Lisa have been close friends for about eight years.  We met in a class at our church and hit if off right away.  Bill worked for a national Heating & Air company and had moved around the country to “turn around” branches that were not meeting goals.  Bill knows the technical and business side of HVAC and was very successful. 

As is the case in many industries in America, the Heating & Air business is subject to mergers and acquisitions.  In the time that Bill and Lisa lived here, they went through at least two.  With each merger,  Bill was let go as the acquiring company brought in their own team to run the business.  And each time he was let go, Bill was hired by another company to run their local branch office.

His last job was with a well known local plumbing company that wanted to expand into heating and air.   Bill built up the fledgling business to a major player in less than 12 months and beat all their initial projections.   When the company began to feel the pinch of the economic downturn, the owner cut back and let  Bill go.  This time, there was not another company to bring him on board.  Months went by and Bill could not find work.  Bill and I often met and talked about his situation and we would pray for wisdom, guidance, and a job.    He chased every lead, applied for every job, did everything you would expect him to do.  Through it all he kept his faith, stayed in the Word and we kept him covered in prayer.   Spiritually, we knew that God was in control and would provide, but it is hard to understand His silence when bills are mounting and there are no jobs.   Financial pressures increased and he reached a point where he did not know what else he could do.  They were on the verge of foreclosure.  They had placed their house on the market months earlier but had received no offers and only a few showings.

While all this was happening, Lisa’s mom (who lives five states away) became ill and was hospitalized.  Bill and Lisa had to drive to where she was and take care of her.  Unable to care for herself very well, Bill and Lisa made several trips back and forth to her mom, all the while juggling their son’s school, trying to sell the house, and find a job. 

Bill and Lisa kept their faith and continued to pray.  We kept them in prayer as well.  Finally, an unexpected opportunity presented itself near the town where Lisa’s mom lived.  A company contacted Bill and asked him to be their general manager.  What made them decide to call Bill for an interview?  Their HR manager told me “anyone who only listed pastors as references had to be worth talking to.”  One major prayer answered; now if they could only sell the house. 

As they began to make preparations to move half way across the country, the real estate market continued to soften and they had no showings of their house.  God was obviously “in it” for their move, but what about the house?  Bill made the 15 hour drive back home one day to make arrangments to move their belongings and arrived at the house in the early morning hours.  Once there he realized he did not have a set of house keys.  He was locked out and it was 3 AM.  Exhausted from the drive, he slept in the car for a few hours until daylight.  He then awoke and started cleaning up the yard until a locksmith could be called to get him inside.  While he was outside, a neighbor was out for an early morning walk and asked Bill about his situation.  Bill explained the urgency to sell the house and how they have had no showings.  The neighbor told Bill “we’re going to pray right now”.  And so they did, right on the drive way at 7 in the morning.  In the next three days, Bill and Lisa had 11 showings and sold the house.

In hind sight, it is now obvious to us exactly what God was doing and how His timing was perfect.  To those who are in the midst of the storm, it is difficult to see any meaning or purpose.  We get confused and frustrated.  The beautiful, and inspirational, thing about Bill and Lisa is that they stayed faithful, stayed in the Word and stayed in prayer.  It was tough, no doubt.  And I know there were times when they questioned everything.  But God came through.  As Bill likes to say:  “God is seldom early, but He is never late”.  Prayer is powerful.  It keeps us focused and keeps us in touch with our Lord; especially when we need it the most. 

Stay in prayer.  Before, during and after the storm.

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Th. 5:16-18

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7

Compelled to give something back to the tiny village in northern Pakistan that saved his life after a failed attempt to climb K2, Greg promised the villagers he would return to build a school for the children of the village.  Generations of uneducated children were fueling the madrassas, or fundamentalist Islamic schools that were training future jihadists.  Greg forged friendships with village elders and tribal leaders to build schools to educate the children, especially the girls.  His philosophy is that if you educate a girl, you educate a village.  This is because girls grow to become mothers, and they raise their children to seek education and to value life over terrorism.

Greg Mortenson has built dozens of schools while enduring a kidnapping, fought a fatwa issued against him by an Islamic cleric (and won!), struggled against hunger and cold, and overcame government bueracracies that threatened his cause.

In his quest to educate the children of central Asia, Greg Mortenson has done more to fight terrorism and build friendly relationships that just about anyone.  It puts a new perspective on this area of the world that most of us knew nothing about prior to 9/11 and shows us that the real face of the enemy is ignorance.  It also shows us that the war on terror can be fought, and won, by using books instead of bombs.

This is an excellent book and we highly recommend it.