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The Science of Successful Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture
The VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) creates a context that makes change more important than ever. Yet, it is as hard as ever, and fails as often as it ever did. To make organizational change work, you need to base it on science, not intuition.
In "The Science of Organizational Change, "Paul Gibbons offers the first blueprint for change for that fully reflects the newest advances in neuroscience, behavioral economics, sociology, and complexity theory. Starting with a rigorous and evidence-based understanding of what makes people in organizations tick, he presents a complete framework for organizing your company around successful change. Going broader and deeper than any previous discussion of the subject, Gibbons offers a much needed multi-disciplinary approach that reflects the complex and difficult realities of changing modern organizations.
You'll learn:
- How a deeper understanding of flaws in human decision-making can help you make far better choices when the stakes are largest
- How new advances in neuroscience have altered best practices in influencing colleagues, negotiating with partners, engaging followers' hearts, minds, and behaviors, and managing resistance
How to bring greater meaning and mindfulness to your organization - and reap their benefits
- How new ideas from analytics, forecasting, and risk are humbling those who "thought" they knew the future - and what to do with this new, more mature understanding
- How to improve your boardroom, promoting more effective conversations about strategy, ethics, and decision-making
What chaos and complexity theories mean in the context of your own business
- How to create resilient and agile business cultures, and anti-fragile, dynamic business structures
To link science with your "on-the-ground" reality, Gibbons interviews top CEOs who are applying its principles. You'll find case studies from well-known companies like IBM and Shell, and deeply relevant quotations from history's greatest leaders and thinkers. Change will never be easy. To systematically improve your odds, you need science, a framework built on science, and actionable lessons from leaders who've made change work. "You need Paul Gibbons' The Science of Organizational Change."
In "The Science of Organizational Change, "Paul Gibbons offers the first blueprint for change for that fully reflects the newest advances in neuroscience, behavioral economics, sociology, and complexity theory. Starting with a rigorous and evidence-based understanding of what makes people in organizations tick, he presents a complete framework for organizing your company around successful change. Going broader and deeper than any previous discussion of the subject, Gibbons offers a much needed multi-disciplinary approach that reflects the complex and difficult realities of changing modern organizations.
You'll learn:
- How a deeper understanding of flaws in human decision-making can help you make far better choices when the stakes are largest
- How new advances in neuroscience have altered best practices in influencing colleagues, negotiating with partners, engaging followers' hearts, minds, and behaviors, and managing resistance
How to bring greater meaning and mindfulness to your organization - and reap their benefits
- How new ideas from analytics, forecasting, and risk are humbling those who "thought" they knew the future - and what to do with this new, more mature understanding
- How to improve your boardroom, promoting more effective conversations about strategy, ethics, and decision-making
What chaos and complexity theories mean in the context of your own business
- How to create resilient and agile business cultures, and anti-fragile, dynamic business structures
To link science with your "on-the-ground" reality, Gibbons interviews top CEOs who are applying its principles. You'll find case studies from well-known companies like IBM and Shell, and deeply relevant quotations from history's greatest leaders and thinkers. Change will never be easy. To systematically improve your odds, you need science, a framework built on science, and actionable lessons from leaders who've made change work. "You need Paul Gibbons' The Science of Organizational Change."
308 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2015
20 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
About the author
Paul Gibbons
21 books26 followersPAUL GIBBONS (from London, England) is passionate about science, and how science can be used to transform the human condition, and improve humanity's prospects. His writing and teaching "at the nexus of science, philosophy, and business" focuses on the application of the wider human sciences (not just psychology), philosophy, medicine, public health, mathematics, behavioral economics, and machine intelligence to business and business leadership.
He began his career by earning a degree in neurochemistry, followed by Masters-level study in International Economics and Finance. At 20, he moved to London as a "quant" derivatives trader, working at Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and First Boston. He eventually became Director of Eurobond Trading for the world's third largest bank. At 28, he resumed doctoral study in neuroscience, and then joined PwC as a strategist and expert on derivatives, advising on trading disasters such as Barings, National Westminster and Long-Term Capital. He then joined PwC's "Strategy, Innovation and Change" think-tank, developed its methodologies in change management, innovation and corporate transformation, and ran its board-level leadership development programs.
In 2001, Gibbons then founded his own firm, Future Considerations, which grew at 60% per annum under his leadership and still competes successfully for leadership development and culture change consulting engagements at top companies. After selling that firm, he joined the University of Wisconsin, Madison as a lecturer, while continuing to coach senior executives worldwide. In 2008, CEO Magazine named him one of two "CEO Super Coaches." He recently published Reboot Your Life: A 12-day Program for Ending Stress, Realizing Your Goals, and Being More Productive.
He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his two sons, Conor and Luca.
He began his career by earning a degree in neurochemistry, followed by Masters-level study in International Economics and Finance. At 20, he moved to London as a "quant" derivatives trader, working at Salomon Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and First Boston. He eventually became Director of Eurobond Trading for the world's third largest bank. At 28, he resumed doctoral study in neuroscience, and then joined PwC as a strategist and expert on derivatives, advising on trading disasters such as Barings, National Westminster and Long-Term Capital. He then joined PwC's "Strategy, Innovation and Change" think-tank, developed its methodologies in change management, innovation and corporate transformation, and ran its board-level leadership development programs.
In 2001, Gibbons then founded his own firm, Future Considerations, which grew at 60% per annum under his leadership and still competes successfully for leadership development and culture change consulting engagements at top companies. After selling that firm, he joined the University of Wisconsin, Madison as a lecturer, while continuing to coach senior executives worldwide. In 2008, CEO Magazine named him one of two "CEO Super Coaches." He recently published Reboot Your Life: A 12-day Program for Ending Stress, Realizing Your Goals, and Being More Productive.
He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his two sons, Conor and Luca.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 27, 2015
This book debunks plenty of myths about change including the 70% 'failure stat' as well as pop psychology fads that people new to change management latch onto. Paul is a self-professed math geek who brings neo-behaviorism, brain science and decades of experience in large organizational changes with this book. What separates this books from the hoards of change books out there is how Paul combines information from many disciplines to help the reader think versus giving them some watered-down, step-by-step framework for 'ensuring successful change'. This is the best book I've read on change in a long time that accepts how hard change is, and doesn't try to placate or peddle a bunch of easy answers that so many change books nowadays do.
September 11, 2017
The Science of Successful Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture
Poachers, they say, make superior gamekeepers. Perhaps that is why Paul Gibbons, a former management consultant, is well placed to address a persistent problem in organizational change, and business management in general. “The craft of business leadership today pays too little attention to the science of how humans tick, and too much attention to folk and pop psychology”, he says in the concluding chapter of a book that exposes bad management practices, half-truths and pseudoscience with the kind of enthusiasm you see in the show Mythbusters.
And there is a lot of it. The book is jam-packed with facts, factoids and references (the bibliography runs to about 150 items). That can sometimes leave the reader a bit overwhelmed – something Gibbons acknowledges early on. That means it is not an easy book: you need to engage with the content, as it challenges received wisdom, introduces new angles, describes concepts, and proposes alternative models.
The problem of unscientific practice is widespread, Gibbons argues. We simply keep on treating traditional models and metaphors as sacred, despite the fact that they rest on little or no evidence.
Over eight chapters, Gibbons tackles an array of depressingly popular myths: you need a burning platform to driving change, or people know what they want and will act rationally in pursuit of it, that kind of thing. The bulk of the book is divided in two sections: Change Strategy (covering topics like governance, risk and decision making) and Change Tactics (looking at changing people’s behaviour and changing their hearts and minds).
There is much to throw away, unlearn and reframe – and much of the proper science to replace it with is immature and still emerging. Gibbons is well aware of this, and focuses on two levers to help bring this new paradigm about: more practical content in management education, and more experimentation by practitioners. We need more evidence, and we need to produce more evidence.
It is an ambitious book that is neither a comprehensive compendium of pseudoscience, stuff and nonsense, nor a guide to scientifically designing and implementing change. Instead, it’s an argument for practitioners and managers to adopt a scientific mindset. Letting go of presumed truths can be uncomfortable, especially if – as is the case – there are no real truths with which to replace them.
But Gibbons reassures us. He shows there are many ways to get a better understanding of human behaviour, and of both the robustness and the flaws in our thinking. He offers no ready-made solutions, but does gives us confidence that a scientific approach is the right way towards better outcomes.
Sure, I found it not always as critical of certain ideas as it should be (and as it impels us to be!), but I am happy to forgive the author – if only for his candid acknowledgements of having been taken in by hype earlier in his career as a consultant. If anything, the parts where certain ideas are accepted a bit too easily illustrate how important it is to remain on our guard.
The Science of Successful Organizational Change is not the last book you should read on the subject – it’s the first.
(There is a more comprehensive review, that discusses the content in more detail here on Medium)
Poachers, they say, make superior gamekeepers. Perhaps that is why Paul Gibbons, a former management consultant, is well placed to address a persistent problem in organizational change, and business management in general. “The craft of business leadership today pays too little attention to the science of how humans tick, and too much attention to folk and pop psychology”, he says in the concluding chapter of a book that exposes bad management practices, half-truths and pseudoscience with the kind of enthusiasm you see in the show Mythbusters.
And there is a lot of it. The book is jam-packed with facts, factoids and references (the bibliography runs to about 150 items). That can sometimes leave the reader a bit overwhelmed – something Gibbons acknowledges early on. That means it is not an easy book: you need to engage with the content, as it challenges received wisdom, introduces new angles, describes concepts, and proposes alternative models.
The problem of unscientific practice is widespread, Gibbons argues. We simply keep on treating traditional models and metaphors as sacred, despite the fact that they rest on little or no evidence.
Over eight chapters, Gibbons tackles an array of depressingly popular myths: you need a burning platform to driving change, or people know what they want and will act rationally in pursuit of it, that kind of thing. The bulk of the book is divided in two sections: Change Strategy (covering topics like governance, risk and decision making) and Change Tactics (looking at changing people’s behaviour and changing their hearts and minds).
There is much to throw away, unlearn and reframe – and much of the proper science to replace it with is immature and still emerging. Gibbons is well aware of this, and focuses on two levers to help bring this new paradigm about: more practical content in management education, and more experimentation by practitioners. We need more evidence, and we need to produce more evidence.
It is an ambitious book that is neither a comprehensive compendium of pseudoscience, stuff and nonsense, nor a guide to scientifically designing and implementing change. Instead, it’s an argument for practitioners and managers to adopt a scientific mindset. Letting go of presumed truths can be uncomfortable, especially if – as is the case – there are no real truths with which to replace them.
But Gibbons reassures us. He shows there are many ways to get a better understanding of human behaviour, and of both the robustness and the flaws in our thinking. He offers no ready-made solutions, but does gives us confidence that a scientific approach is the right way towards better outcomes.
Sure, I found it not always as critical of certain ideas as it should be (and as it impels us to be!), but I am happy to forgive the author – if only for his candid acknowledgements of having been taken in by hype earlier in his career as a consultant. If anything, the parts where certain ideas are accepted a bit too easily illustrate how important it is to remain on our guard.
The Science of Successful Organizational Change is not the last book you should read on the subject – it’s the first.
(There is a more comprehensive review, that discusses the content in more detail here on Medium)
April 26, 2018
Super complete book, about change and agility of the organization.
Paul Gibbons relates all the scientific based legendary theories and framework!
4 elements of CHANGE AGILITY:
1. Agile People; growth mindsets (Carol Dweck), cognitive flexibility plus learning agility
2. Agile Culture; every function is nimble, finance, operations, HR not juts strategy or R&D
3. Agile Structure; 3 alternative forms Project - based organization, self-managed work teams, Holacracy (Hola .. what??? :D)
4. Agile Processes; Ideas management, Change EXECUTION, Learning Process (learning 2.0 blends learning collaboration & knowledge management)
understanding volatility & uncertainty and how people behave and make decisions under those conditions is I believe, an essential capability for 21st century businesses.
The Quotes I love from this book:
"We have minds that are equipped for certainty, linearity, and short term decisions that must instead make long term decisions in a non linear, probabilistic world" - Paul Gibbons. Thumbs up!
Paul Gibbons relates all the scientific based legendary theories and framework!
4 elements of CHANGE AGILITY:
1. Agile People; growth mindsets (Carol Dweck), cognitive flexibility plus learning agility
2. Agile Culture; every function is nimble, finance, operations, HR not juts strategy or R&D
3. Agile Structure; 3 alternative forms Project - based organization, self-managed work teams, Holacracy (Hola .. what??? :D)
4. Agile Processes; Ideas management, Change EXECUTION, Learning Process (learning 2.0 blends learning collaboration & knowledge management)
understanding volatility & uncertainty and how people behave and make decisions under those conditions is I believe, an essential capability for 21st century businesses.
The Quotes I love from this book:
"We have minds that are equipped for certainty, linearity, and short term decisions that must instead make long term decisions in a non linear, probabilistic world" - Paul Gibbons. Thumbs up!
June 12, 2019
Although I embrace the intention of the book, I found it very disappointing. Paul Gibson talks a lot about science and he proposes that management should be more evidence based, but he lakes concepts on how this can be done. Even worse he accuses authors like Malcom Mc Gladwell that they provide only good narratives containing half-truth and common sense reasoning, but he himself does not better.
A lot of issues get mixed up in the book. Behavior Psychology, Risk Management, Agile, Habits and others. Sometimes even Organizational Change Management is an issue but not as often as one would suspect by the title. He often gets lost in other topics.
What he delivers is superficial, at least for me. If you want to get familiar with human biases and Behavior Psychology read Daniel Kahneman, Robert Thaler or Dan Ariely, if you what to dig into Risk and Risk Management read Gerd Gigerenzer, Douglas Hubbard (How to measure anything is more about Risk Management than about measurement - my opinion) or Karl E. Weick. The list could go on like this for almost every topic he alludes.
A lot of issues get mixed up in the book. Behavior Psychology, Risk Management, Agile, Habits and others. Sometimes even Organizational Change Management is an issue but not as often as one would suspect by the title. He often gets lost in other topics.
What he delivers is superficial, at least for me. If you want to get familiar with human biases and Behavior Psychology read Daniel Kahneman, Robert Thaler or Dan Ariely, if you what to dig into Risk and Risk Management read Gerd Gigerenzer, Douglas Hubbard (How to measure anything is more about Risk Management than about measurement - my opinion) or Karl E. Weick. The list could go on like this for almost every topic he alludes.
July 30, 2020
This was quite a hard book to swallow. I loved the scientific approach, enjoyed enourmously the plentiful examples and beautiful language and saved a lot of quotes and pictures for future use. But the information was far from easy to digest - as complex and multi-layered areas of knowledge should be! This book does not offer easy answers as many populistic business books do and that is it’s strenght. However, that also can make reading slow and the reader occasionally impatient, at least I felt so. But it is well worth it!
The book deals with wrong approaches as well as the scientific (”correct”) ones. I think the emphasis could have been more strongly on the latter.
The book deals with wrong approaches as well as the scientific (”correct”) ones. I think the emphasis could have been more strongly on the latter.
March 7, 2017
Best book I've read on Change Management in 15 years. Really surfaces what's new in the 2010's; talks about new research; new impacts of social networking and marketing in 21st century. Not a light read for a newcomer to change management, but highly recommend for someone with a bit more experience.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews