The Change Monster: The Human Forces That Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change

by Jeanie Daniel Duck

A brilliant, original, and powerful look at corporate change--mergers, reorganizations, transformations--and why it succeeds or fails.The Change Monster is the first book on the central issue that blows so many change efforts out of the the human interactions and emotional dynamics of the people involved. It is also an unusual book about business, one written from the heart as well as the head. The Change Monster is a tough-minded but compassionate book about leadership when major changes are after a merger, when profits are falling or markets being lost. It is also about the discipline and kindness it takes to get the people who report to and depend on you to confront their fears and move on to a new agenda, strategy, or company. The Change Monster is a reminder, through stories and anecdotes, of the essentials of the heart and mind that provide the basis for leadership. It also offers warnings that probably will be heeded only after they have been ignored. How, when you think you have made it clear to people what the new objectives are and how they need to behave differently, you are suffering serious illusions. And how, when you think they are not watching, they are, scrutinizing and often misinterpreting your every move.The Change Monster is also a personal journey. It will take you for a roller-coaster ride and make it clear why you have to muster the courage to take people down to reality before you can lead them back up to success, no matter how brilliant the strategy or plan.Jeanie Duck has a voice and style unlike those of any other business book. She introduces her own life into the book and writes with efficiency, informality, humor.The Change Monster has an important tool, the Change Curve, at its core. Developed from Jeanie Duck's years of experience working with some of the most important change efforts of our time, it provides a highly practical way to help you understand and deal with “the change monster” --the emotions and fears everyone has when going through major change. It will serve as your compass in making judgments about where, both intellectually and emotionally, your people are in their readiness and ability to execute a new strategy or make a new organization succeed. So valuable is it that a General Electric vice president commented after seeing its five “I feel like someone who's been suffering for years with an unknown ailment and finally got a clear diagnosis. You can't imagine how helpful this is.”

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Leadership

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2001

Reviews

[Arsen Lazursky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good ideas here. Understand why its a bestseller, but not necessarily an eye opener)))

[Kostiantyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good ideas?
Yes, there are quite a few.
Real cases without fiction?
Almost there.
A proven theory of change management?
Well... I would call it a set of hypotheses supported by 1-2 examples each. So, any counter-example would prove it wrong.
And this is one of the two problems I see with this book: raw ideas are presented as a solid theory, examples are presented as evidence, etc… The other one is that the author talks about herself as another person. “I”, “my” and “me” are changed to “she” and “her”. What a strange way to write your own book.

[Fatemah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice, but i wished it was more easy to read, it took me very long time to finish it as it was boring.

[Robert Bogue]

Change is often seen as a monster. It’s seen as something that is there to attack the status quo and disrupt everyone’s life. Jeanie Daniel Duck explains how this monster can be tamed in The Change Monster: The Human Forces That Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change. The change monster, she explains, follows a predictable path called the change curve, and by mastering the change curve, you can tame the monster.

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[Dana Ashfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the course of my career, I've learned that "change management" is both highly critical to creating positive and sustainable change while at the same time, seems to be one of the most ambiguous and widely misunderstood concepts in business. Why? Because change, at its core, requires people to do something different and there's no "formula" for changing human beings. This books brings this dilemma into sharp focus and provides lots of thought-provoking and practical insights.

[Micaela Illy]

Consigliato da Diego Medicina (BCG)

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Companies constantly start change initiatives and frequently results never match-up with their objectives. Why? Well people are involved and Jeanie Duck has managed to communicate this with the reader. If you are about to initiate a reorganization and desire to have your intended results achieved, you are advised to give this a read.

[Sara O’Toole · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introduction to change management for those new to the topic or just starting to delve into it. Easy to read but informative, and good to keep in the back of your mind when embarking on projects involving change management

[Megomars · Rating 3 out of 5]

the 5 stages in the change curve are: 1) stagnation, 2) preparation, 3) implementation, 4) determination, 5) fruition

[Mark Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me a while to move through this one. Describes a change model and emphasizes communication and building engagement. It was OK, but not really groundbreaking.

[Joy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read on a little-talked about part of major, organizational-wide change: the emotional affects. Well worth reading if your organization is stagnating and an overhaul is on the horizon.