CHAPTER 15
Leading Change
Chapter Outline
Leadership Means Leading Change
A Framework for Change
Using Appreciative Inquiry
Leading Creativity for Change
Implementing Change
In the Lead
Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C., Public School System
The Red Team
Dr. Dean Ornish, University of California at San Francisco
Leader’s Self-Insight
Resistance to Change
Are You a Change Leader?
Do You Have a Creative Personality?
Leader’s Bookshelf
Your Leadership Challenge
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Recognize the environmental forces creating a need for change in today’s organizations.
• Describe the qualities of a change leader and how leaders can serve as role models for
change.
• Implement the eight-stage model of planned change.
Key Terms and Concepts
Appreciative inquiry: a technique for leading change that engages individuals, teams, or the
entire organization in by reinforcing positive messages and focusing on learning from success.
Creativity: the generation of ideas that are both novel and useful for improving efficiency or
effectiveness of the organization.
Speedstorming: using a round-robin format to get people from different areas talking together,
generating creative ideas, and identifying areas for potential collaboration.
Brainstorming: a technique that uses a face-to-face group to spontaneously suggest a broad
range of ideas to solve a problem.
Electronic brainstorming: bringing people together in an interactive group over a computer
network; sometimes called brainwriting.
Lateral thinking: a set of systematic techniques for breaking away from customary mental
concepts and generating new ones.
Summary and Interpretation
The important point of this chapter is that tools and approaches are available to help leaders
facilitate creativity and change. The increased pace of change in today’s global environment has
led to even greater problems for leaders struggling to help their organizations adapt. Many
people have a natural resistance to change, but leaders can serve as role models to facilitate
change. Leaders who can successfully accomplish change typically define themselves as change
Major changes can be particularly difficult to implement, but leaders can help to ensure a
successful change effort by following the eight-stage model of planned change—light a fire for
change; get the right people on board; develop a compelling vision and strategy; go overboard on
communication; empower employees to act; generate short-term wins; keep up the energy and
commitment to tackle bigger problems; and institutionalize the change in the organizational
culture.
An exciting approach to change management known as appreciative inquiry engages individuals,
teams, or the entire organization in creating change by reinforcing positive messages and
focusing on learning from success. Rather than looking at a situation from the viewpoint of what
Implementation is a critical aspect of any change initiative. Leaders should strive to understand
why people resist a change. For something new to begin, something old has to end, and most
people have a hard time letting go of something they value. Leaders can help people change by
changing emotions so that people can let go of the old and embrace the new. They can provide a
positive emotional attractor, supportive relationships, repetition of new behaviors, participation
and involvement, and after-action reviews.
Introduction
J.C. Penney is not yet dead, but it is clearly on life support. Ron Johnson, a former Apple
executive known for his creativity, was hired to rescue the company only to be fired 17 months
later, most of his changes shelved as former CEO Myron Ullman returned to try to rebuild the
struggling retailer. Hopes were high for Johnson both within and outside the company. When he
took over, J.C. Penney needed radical change, but his approach to implementing changes
As the example of J.C. Penney illustrates, change—especially radical change—is tough to
accomplish. Johnson made mistakes, but major turnarounds are exceedingly difficult for any
leader, especially in retail.
Annotated Lecture/Outline
Leadership Challenge #1: Recognize the environmental forces creating a need for change in
today’s organizations.
I. Leadership Means Leading Change
It is the job of the leader to make sure organizations change as needed to respond to
threats, opportunities, or shifts in the environment. Leaders have to help people see the
need for change and buy into a new way of doing things. Change is necessary if
Exhibit 15.1: Forces Driving the Need for Change Leadership
Exhibit 15.1 shows some of the environmental forces, such as rapidly changing
A. Resistance Is Real
Leaders initiate many changes, but most of these don’t meet expectations. There are
many reasons why change programs don’t produce the intended results. One significant
New Leader Action Memo: Complete the questions in Leader’s Self-Insight 15.1 to see
if you have a natural tendency to resist change.
Leadership Challenge #2: Describe the qualities of a change leader and how leaders can serve
as role models for change.
B. The Leader as Change Agent
For people throughout the organization to view change as positive and natural, they
need leaders who serve as role models for change and provide the motivation and
communication to keep change efforts moving forward. Research has identified some
key characteristics of leaders who can accomplish successful change projects:
• They define themselves as change leaders rather than people who want to maintain the
status quo.
• They demonstrate courage.
• They believe in employees’ capacity to assume responsibility.
In the Lead: Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C., Public School System
Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools and founder of
StudentsFirst, is one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education, but love her or hate her
you can’t say she’s afraid of change. A daughter of Korean immigrants, Rhee wanted to quit
halfway through her first year in Teach for America, the organization that sends new college
graduates into some of America’s toughest schools, but her father made her go back and finish
the job. That’s where she first embarked on a personal mission to change the system for
America’s poorest students. Rhee noticed that students responded to teachers who pushed them
hard and kept them interested.
Discussion Question #1: As a leader, how might you overcome your own felt resistance to a
change from above and act as a role model for implementing the change?
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Discussion Question #9: Is the world really changing faster today, or do people just assume so?
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Discussion Question #10: Do you believe the recent Wall Street meltdown of 2008 will lead to
any lasting changes in U.S. financial services institutions? What kinds of lasting changes do you
envision? What about companies in other industries?
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Leadership Challenge #3: Implement the eight-stage model of planned change.
II. A Framework for Leading Change
When leading a major change project, it is important for leaders to recognize that the change
process goes through stages, each stage is important, and each may require a significant amount
of time.
Exhibit 15.2: The Eight Stage Model of Planned Organizational Change
Exhibit 15.2 shows a model developed by John Kotter that can help leaders navigate the change
process:
• Light a fire for change. Leaders communicate the urgency for change in a way that touches
people’s emotions—in other words, they help people feel the need for change rather than
just giving them facts and figures.
• Get the right people on board. For successful change, leaders build a strong coalition of
people with a shared commitment to the need for and possibility of change.
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can develop the personal characteristics to be a
change leader. To improve the success of a major change, you can follow the eight-stage model
for leading change, remembering to devote the necessary time, energy, and resources to each
stage.
Stages in the change process generally overlap, but each of these steps is important for successful
New Leader Action Memo: Answer the questions in Leader’s Self-Insight 15.2 to see if you
have what it takes to initiate changes and follow the eight-stage model of change.
Leadership Challenge #4: Use appreciative inquiry (AI) to engage people in creating change by
focusing on the positive and learning from success.
III. Using Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative inquiry (AI) engages individuals, teams, or the entire organization in creating
change by reinforcing positive messages and focusing on learning from success. Rather than
A. Applying Appreciative Inquiry on a Large Scale
AI can accelerate large-scale organizational change by positively engaging a large group of
people in the change process, including leaders and employees, as well as people from outside
the organization, such as customers or clients, partners, and other stakeholders.
Exhibit 15.3: Four Stages of Appreciative Inquiry
Once a topic has been identified for exploration, the group follows a four stage AI process, as
illustrated in Exhibit 15.3:
• Discovery. People identify “the best of what exists”—the organization’s key strengths
and best practices.
A wide variety of organizations, including businesses, school systems, churches and religious
organizations, communities, government agencies, and social service organizations, have used
AI for large-scale change.
In the Lead: The Red Team
When the general manager (GM) of the oil refinery where they worked asked them to “re–
imagine the organization,” the group of young engineers known as the Red Team naturally
wondered what he meant.
They came up with a simple theme, based on the word “Smile,” around which to connect people
and get their ideas for how to improve morale, motivation, and happiness. Using the AI model,
the team asked people to share their best experiences of working at the refinery (Discover),
which created an energized and fun atmosphere. Next, people contributed ideas for what they
thought the refinery could be if these experiences were the norm (Dream). In the third (Design)
B. Applying Appreciative Inquiry Every Day
Appreciative inquiry can be applied by individual leaders on a smaller scale. Good leaders
work daily to gradually shift attitudes, assumptions, and behavior toward a desired future.
Leaders can use the tools of AI for a variety of everyday change initiatives, such as
Discussion Question #2: How are Kotter’s eight-stage framework for change and the AI method
similar? How are they different? Explain.
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Discussion Question #3: Think of a problem situation you would like to change at work, school,
or home and describe how you would provide a positive emotional attractor for this change.
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Leadership Challenge #5: Apply techniques of enabling immersion, facilitating brainstorming,
promoting lateral thinking, allowing pauses, and nurturing creative intuition to expand your own
and others creativity and facilitate organizational innovation.
IV. Leading Creativity for Change
The American Management Association asked 500 CEOs the question: “What must one do to
survive in the twenty-first century?” The top answer was “practice creativity and innovation.”
Creativity is the generation of new ideas that are both novel and useful for improving efficiency
Discussion Question #8: Planned change is often considered ideal. Do you think unplanned
change could be effective? Discuss. Can you think of an example?
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A. Instilling Creative Values
Leaders can build an environment that encourages creativity and helps the organization be
more innovative. Fostering a creative culture and promoting collaboration will spread values
for creativity throughout the organization.
New Leader Action Memo: Complete the exercise in Leader’s Self-Insight 15.3 to see if you
have a creative personality.
Foster a Creative Culture
For creative acts that benefit the organization to occur consistently, the interests and
actions of everyone should be aligned with the organization’s purpose, vision, and goals,
and leaders should make a commitment of time, energy, and resources to support
creativity. One popular approach is to provide an idea incubator. An idea incubator
Promote Collaboration
Although many individuals have creative ideas, creativity soars when people work
together. Rather than leaving people stuck in their departmental silos, smart leaders find
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can help the organization be more innovative. You
can encourage values of curiosity, openness, and exploration and give employees time to work
A recent approach to promoting one-on-one collaboration is speedstorming.
Speedstorming was inspired by the phenomenon of speed-dating. It uses a round-robin
format to get people from different areas talking together, generating creative ideas, and
Discussion Question #7: Why are idea champions important for a creative culture? Do you
think these people would be more important in a large organization or a small one? Discuss.
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B. Leading Creative People
Many organizations that want to encourage change and innovation strive to hire people who
display creative characteristics.
Exhibit 15.4: Tools for Helping People Be More Creative
Leaders can help individuals be more creative by facilitating brainstorming, promoting lateral
thinking, enabling immersion, allowing pauses, and nurturing creative intuition, as illustrated
in Exhibit 15.4.
Facilitate Brainstorming
One common way to encourage creativity is to set up brainstorming sessions focused on a
specific problem or topic. Brainstorming uses a face-to-face interactive group to
spontaneously suggest a wide range of creative ideas to solve a problem. The keys to
effective brainstorming are:
• No Criticism. All ideas are considered valuable.
Brainstorming has both ardent supporters and intense critics, but it remains the most
common way leaders use groups to generate new ideas. Leaders are continually searching
for ways to improve the brainstorming process.
Discussion Question #4: How could you increase the number of novel and useful solutions you
can come up with to solve a problem?
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Promote Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking can be defined as a set of systematic techniques used for changing
mental concepts and perceptions and generating new ones. With lateral thinking, people
move “sideways” to try different perceptions, different concepts, and different points of
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can expand the creative potential of people in the
organization by facilitating brainstorming, promoting lateral thinking, enabling immersion,
allowing for pauses, and fostering creative intuition.
Alex Osborn, the originator of brainstorming, developed many creative techniques. One
effective technique that is widely used to stimulate lateral thinking is the checklist in
Exhibit 15.5.
Exhibit 15.5: Lateral Thinking Checklist
An exercise of considering opposites will stretch the mind in a lateral direction. Physical
New Leader Action Memo: Right now, see if you can think of three additional opposites in each
of the categories of physical, biological, management, and business. Look at opposites to stretch
your thinking for a problem you face.
Enable Immersion
Immersion means to go deeply into a single area or topic to spark personal creativity,
which has been called thinking “inside the box.” One approach to immersion is to focus on
Allow Pauses
Allowing pauses activates different parts of the brain. Recent research in creativity
suggests that having an “aha moment” often requires that a person stop trying to solve a
problem and allow the mind to wander. Creativity often occurs during a mental pause, a
period of mixed tension and relaxation. Exercise is often considered a good way to give the
mind a chance to work freely.
Nurture Creative Intuition
The creative flash of insight leaders want to awaken is actually the second stage of
creativity. The first stage is data gathering. The mind is gathering data constantly,
Leadership Challenge #6: Provide a positive emotional attractor, supportive relationships,
repetition of new behaviors, participation and involvement, and after-action reviews to overcome
resistance and help people change.
V. Implementing Change
Leaders frequently see innovation, change, and creativity as a way to strengthen the organization,
but many people view change only as painful and disruptive. A critical aspect of leading people
through change is understanding that resistance to change is natural—and that there are
legitimate reasons for it.
Consider This: Dealing with a Dead Horse
Ancient wisdom says that when you discover you are astride a dead horse, the best strategy is to
dismount. In government and other overly bureaucratic organizations, many different approaches
are tried. Here are some of our favorite strategies for dealing with the “dead horse” scenario:
• Change the rider.
• Buy a stronger whip.
• Beat the horse harder.
• Shout at and threaten the horse.
• Appoint a committee to study the horse.
The underlying reason why employees resist change is that it violates the personal compact
between workers and the organization. Personal compacts are the reciprocal obligations and
commitments that define the relationship between employees and organizations. They include
such things as job tasks, performance requirements, evaluation procedures, and compensation
A. Helping People Change
Many leaders don’t understand why change is so difficult for many people. But for something
new to begin, something old has to end, and most of us have a hard time letting go of
Exhibit 15.6: Endings Precede Beginnings for Successful Change
Exhibit 15.6 illustrates the transition individuals have to go through to make a successful
change. To help someone change means first dealing with the emotions associated with
endings and losses rather than denying those emotions or trying to talk people out of feeling
them. Then, people move into a neutral zone, where they’ve let go of the old but the new
B. The Keys That Help People Change
Most of us think if we were given a clear choice—change or die—we’d change in a hurry.
But in fact, scientific studies demonstrate that most people have a hard time changing even
when told that not changing will lead them to an early grave.
In the Lead: Dr. Dean Ornish, University of California at San Francisco
Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco and
founder of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute, found that an astonishing nine of ten
critically ill patients couldn’t change their poor diet and exercise habits even though it meant
Changing people’s thinking and behavior is possible, and the keys to doing so incorporate five
elements—a positive emotional attractor, supportive relationships, repetition of new
behaviors, participation and involvement, and after-action reviews.
• Provide a positive emotional attractor. A positive emotional attractor (PEA) is
something that awakens an individual’s hopes and dreams about the future, about
possibilities of what could be, rather than focusing on trying to “fix” weaknesses or
shortcomings.
• Make sure people have a support system. Leaders help people establish new, emotional
relationships that provide hope, make people believe they have the power to change,
and inspire people with the expectation that change will happen.
• Use repetition. People need the opportunity to experiment and practice the new skills
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can understand the reasons for resistance to
change and use tools such as a positive emotional attractor, supportive relationships, repetition,
involvement, and after-action reviews to help people change.
The nature and pace of change in today’s environment can be exhilarating, but it can also be
inconvenient, painful, and downright scary. Savvy leaders can help people navigate the
change process and make it successful.
Discussion Question #5: Of the five elements that help people change (positive emotional
attractor, supportive relationships, repetition of new behaviors, participation and involvement,
and after-action reviews), which do you think leaders are most likely to overlook? Why?
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Discussion Question #6: How would you suggest a leader overcome resistance to a change that
is going to cause some people to lose their jobs?
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Discussion Question #10: Do you believe the recent Wall Street meltdown of 2008 will lead to
any lasting changes in U.S. financial services institutions? What kinds of lasting changes do you
envision? What about companies in other industries?
Notes_________________________________________________________________________
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Discussion Questions
1. As a leader, how might you overcome your own felt resistance to a change from above and
act as a role model for implementing the change?
Students’ answers may vary. Some may say that a leader must be prepared for resistance to
a change from employees and find ways to enable people to see the value in changes that
are needed for the organization to succeed. To act as a role model for implementing a
change, leaders must:
• define themselves as change leaders rather than people who want to maintain the
status quo.
2. How are Kotter’s eight-stage framework for change and the AI method similar? How are
they different? Explain.
Similarities between Kotter’s eight-stage framework and the Appreciative inquiry method:
• Use a step-by-step process
• Empower employees
Differences
• Kotter’s framework:
o is more leader-driven.
• Appreciative inquiry
o engages individuals, teams, or the entire organization in creating change.
o reinforces positive messages.
3. Think of a problem situation you would like to change at work, school, or home and
describe how you would provide a positive emotional attractor for this change.
Students’ answers will vary.
For example, the problem may be that the Allegro Chorale needs more members.
• Discovery. People identify the organization’s key strengths and best practices.
The Allegro Chorale sings multicultural music because its mission is “Music Unites
Us.” The aim is to encourage diversity in the chorale by singing works in different
languages.
• Dream. People reflect on what they learned during the discovery stage and imagine
what it would be like if these extraordinary experiences were the norm.
The Allegro Chorale would have a membership of 70+ singers to include the
minorities represented in West Texas, especially Hispanics and African-Americans.
4. How could you increase the number of novel and useful solutions you can come up with to
solve a problem?
Leaders can increase individual creativity by facilitating brainstorming, lateral thinking,
and creative intuition. Many organizations set up separate creative departments or venture
5. Of the five elements that help people change (positive emotional attractor, supportive
relationships, repetition of new behaviors, participation and involvement, and after-action
reviews), which do you think leaders are most likely to overlook? Why?
Students’ answers may vary. Some may say that leaders may most likely overlook the
after-action review of a change. Once the change has been implemented, leaders might just
assume the outcome of the change and not analyze what worked, what didn’t, and what can