Make Change Work: Staying Nimble, Relevant, and Engaged in a World of Constant Change

by Randy Pennington

Remain competitive, inspire innovation, and ensure success Constantly adapting, improving, and changing is more important than ever for companies to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Make Change Work presents real solutions to thriving in a world of constant change. This book educates managers and leaders on how to lead change, with strategies for creating urgency, building support, and ensuring successful change. Get the guidance you need to be bold in the face of change, and learn how to make your company faster, better, cheaper, and friendlier―by simply listening to your customers  Learn how to establish a clear and purposeful goal, inspire a culture relentlessly focused on customers, and create an environment where your talented team wants to Make Change Work .  

Genres: Business

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure how this ended up on my list. It’s mostly common sense and could be summarized effectively on a few index cards: Change is necessary and inevitable, but remember to win people’s minds AND hearts when trying to make it happen.

None of this book’s insights or passages rang out to me as revelatory, and few were even memorable. I doubt it will leave any impression on me greater than the concern that if this work is genre-typical, then business must be writing’s most vacuous. I will try to resist drawing broad conclusions based on just one book.

Edit: After writing that, I had a thought that this book may have seemed mundane to me mostly because my age has already afforded me certain life experiences. Perhaps a younger person—one who hasn’t yet exercised workplace judgment and people skills in a variety of roles, managed staff, or read “How to Win Friends and Influence People”—might find the book modestly helpful. But still, I suspect that they could find better sources for its insights.

[Justin Goldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a quick listen and an easy to follow work on the challenge of driving change in the workplace. There is a lot of practicality throughout the book such as the essential communications needed to reach people across an organization to really drive a change effort. This work also made clear the importance of the early wins along the road and the need to get people onboard early in the change effort. Ultimately, it is people who make up organizations and change leadership means addressing those impacted by the disruptions that an inevitable part of any substantial change. When he cites that 70% of change efforts fail to reach their desired goal, it is not that difficult to find people with experience in an organization who take a cynical view towards new change efforts being rolled out. This is a leadership matter to get the right people onboard and motivate them to drive forward if a change effort is to reach its objectives.

[humanbear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems to be saying a bunch of things that are fairly common sensical - but maybe that is what change management is about, and the skill is in the execution.

[Pctrainer98 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good practical book about handling change in the workplace. He also has a sense of humor which I always appreciate in a business book. I had listened to a webinar by him on the same subject.