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Step Up, Step Back: How to Really Deliver Strategic Change in Your Organization
A new look at change management, bringing in new theories on what leaders really need to do to ensure that their change management programs are effective, meaningful for their teams, and also long-lasting.
Stepping Back helps leaders understand what they need to do--and, as importantly, when they need to do it--in order to enable their teams to execute strategy, or implement change, without needing ongoing input from them. Based on the findings of new, empirical research, this new model says that, by putting in place four specific elements (the "what") at three critical points (the "when") during a strategy or change program, leaders can ensure that the autonomy they give their employees is used effectively and delivers the change they want.
But this requires leaders themselves to do things differently. They actually need to do more in the early stages of the change (including by being be very prescriptive about what they want, for example). Ironically, this lays the foundation on which true employee empowerment can be built. And then, in the later stages of the change process, leaders need to do less--or step back--and again in specific ways and at specific times, to help followers embed and sustain the change that has started to take shape.
The prize of such "meaningful autonomy" for employees is huge--to step up, to do more, and ultimately to become leaders themselves. But for leaders, the prize is arguably even greater. To step out of the day-to-day management of activities and instead to use their time and effort for the true work of leadership: to think about the strategic rather than the tactical; to focus on the future rather than the present; in order words, to lead rather than do.
This new book by Elsbeth Johnson is based on years of research, often conducted over many years (so as to assess the longer-term evolution of sustainable change), and provides a unique and practical assessment of why change management can fail and what leaders and managers can do differently to ensure that their work on managing change is successful, effective and long-lasting.
Stepping Back helps leaders understand what they need to do--and, as importantly, when they need to do it--in order to enable their teams to execute strategy, or implement change, without needing ongoing input from them. Based on the findings of new, empirical research, this new model says that, by putting in place four specific elements (the "what") at three critical points (the "when") during a strategy or change program, leaders can ensure that the autonomy they give their employees is used effectively and delivers the change they want.
But this requires leaders themselves to do things differently. They actually need to do more in the early stages of the change (including by being be very prescriptive about what they want, for example). Ironically, this lays the foundation on which true employee empowerment can be built. And then, in the later stages of the change process, leaders need to do less--or step back--and again in specific ways and at specific times, to help followers embed and sustain the change that has started to take shape.
The prize of such "meaningful autonomy" for employees is huge--to step up, to do more, and ultimately to become leaders themselves. But for leaders, the prize is arguably even greater. To step out of the day-to-day management of activities and instead to use their time and effort for the true work of leadership: to think about the strategic rather than the tactical; to focus on the future rather than the present; in order words, to lead rather than do.
This new book by Elsbeth Johnson is based on years of research, often conducted over many years (so as to assess the longer-term evolution of sustainable change), and provides a unique and practical assessment of why change management can fail and what leaders and managers can do differently to ensure that their work on managing change is successful, effective and long-lasting.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published September 8, 2020
34 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
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January 31, 2021
A book on what leads big change initiatives to succeed or fail, taking a longer term (3+ year) view on change programs focusing on 4 case studies from a big company. Some useful concepts to take away on the importance of building systems rather than relying on personal agency of leaders to sustain the change.
The keys to a successful change initiative are for leaders (division or CEO level) to step up at the beginning with clarity, align words with action and resources, then step back in the later stages (years 2 and 3) with focus on just one change initiative, and consistency.
There are useful things to draw from the book, but it seems targeted to a pretty narrow set of circumstances - big company, CEO / division GM, company wide change initiative. Generic guidance is probably useful in other circumstances. In general the book didn't excite me or motivate me - I preferred principles of life and work by Ray Dalio, which has a similar concept to Elsbeth's "systems" in his discussion of "tuning the machine".
The keys to a successful change initiative are for leaders (division or CEO level) to step up at the beginning with clarity, align words with action and resources, then step back in the later stages (years 2 and 3) with focus on just one change initiative, and consistency.
There are useful things to draw from the book, but it seems targeted to a pretty narrow set of circumstances - big company, CEO / division GM, company wide change initiative. Generic guidance is probably useful in other circumstances. In general the book didn't excite me or motivate me - I preferred principles of life and work by Ray Dalio, which has a similar concept to Elsbeth's "systems" in his discussion of "tuning the machine".
Displaying 1 of 1 review