Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
END–OF-CHAPTER EXERCISES
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 4.1
Critical Thinking Questions
This video focuses on five kinds of tribes that people naturally form and how they
influence behavior.
• Describe Logan’s theory on tribes.
• Compare Logan’s ideas with groups tribes you’ve been a part of in the
past.
• Reflect on how Logan’s idea of Tribal Leadership may affect how to
approach change.
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 4.2
Developing the Background to Understand the Need for Change
As suggested earlier in this book, a careful diagnosis is essential for successful
organizational change. Much of this diagnosis is needed to understand the need for
change that the organization faces and then to engage and persuade organizational
members concerning the need for change.
1. Consider an example of an organizational change that you are familiar with or are
considering undertaking. What data could help you understand the need for
change?
2. Have you:
a. Understood and made sense of external data? What else would you
like to know?
b. Understood and made sense of the perspectives of other
stakeholders? What else would you like to know?
c. Understood and assessed your personal concerns and perspectives
and how they may be affecting your perspective on the situation?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
d. Understood and made sense of internal data? What else would you
like to know?
3. What does your analysis suggest to you about the need for change?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 4.3
Writing a Vision Statement
i
Think of an organization you are familiar with that is in need of change. If you were the
change leader, what would be your vision statement for change?
1. Write your vision statement for the change you are striving for.
2. Evaluate your vision. Is it:
● Clear, concise, and easily understood?
● Memorable?
● Exciting and inspiring?
● Challenging?
● Excellence centered?
● Stable and yet flexible?
● Implementable and tangible?
3. Does the vision promote change and a sense of direction?
4. Does the vision provide the basis from which you can develop the implementation
strategy and plan?
5. Does the vision provide focus and direction to those who must make ongoing
decisions?
6. Does the vision embrace the critical performance factors that organizational
members should be concerned about?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
7. Does the vision engage and energize as well as clarify? What is the emotional
impact of the vision?
8. Does the vision promote commitment? Are individuals likely to be opposed to the
vision, passive (let it happen), moderately supportive (help it happen), or actively
supportive (make it happen)?
9. Now assess your vision on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) relative to the
factors set out below.
a. Actions of senior managers are congruent with the vision. They walk the talk.
1 2 3 4 5
b. It pays attention to the needs of those who will be putting it into practice.
1 2 3 4 5
c. Realistic expectations develop around it that are challenging but can be met.
1 2 3 4 5
d. It communicates a broader sense of what is possible.
1 2 3 4 5
e. It is grounded in the reality of the present and can be reconciled with it.
1 2 3 4 5
f. It is neither too abstract nor too concrete. It has the potential to stimulate and
inspire, but it also communicates the sense that it is achievable.
1 2 3 4 5
g. It has been forged through an appropriately messy, iterative, creative process
requiring a combination of “synthesis and imagination.”
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
1 2 3 4 5
h. It has sufficient participation and involvement of others to build a consensus
concerning its appropriateness.
1 2 3 4 5
i. Its implementation contains “a sense of urgency…and measurable milestones.”
ii
1 2 3 4 5
10. Given your assessment of the above items, what would you recommend be done in
order to strengthen the value of the change vision?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 4.4
Putting the Need for Change and the Vision for Change Together
For any change to be successful, the need for change must be real and must be perceived
as real. If the organization does not accept the need for change, the chances of anything
substantive happening are negligible. Thus, developing the need for change is vital.
Understanding the gap between what is and what is desired is important in order to
accurately describe the need for change.
Think of the situation you were considering in Exercise 4.2.
1. What is the gap between the present state and the desired future state?
2. How strong is the need for change?
3. What is the source of this need? Is it external to the organization?
4. Is there tangible evidence of the need for change in that there is concrete evidence
of the need or a crisis situation that demonstrates the need for change?
5. If the change does not occur, what will be the impact on the organization in the next
2 to 6 years?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
6. What is the objective, long-range need to change?
People can be motivated by higher-order purposes, things that relate to fundamental
values. Change visions can be crucial in capturing support for change and in explaining
the nature of change to others. Creating such a change vision is tricky. If one aims too
high, it taps into higher values but often fails to link with the specific change project or
program. If one aims too low, the vision fails to tap into values that motivate us above
and beyond the ordinary. Such a change vision looks like and feels like an objective.
7. Return to the change vision you developed in Exercise 4.2. Does it capture a sense
of higher-order purpose or values that underpin the change and communicate what
the project is about?
8. Explain how the vision links the need for change.