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For the past five years, my work has involved going into Public Sector organizations and helping them conceptualize, implement and evaluate projects aimed at making changing in the workplace. The changes were often aimed at improving their levels of service delivery. Before very long, the successful implementation of such projects led to requests for training in Change Management from the organizations with which I worked. In almost all cases, the organization’s management was interested in building the capacity among their staff members to manage continued change. These requests led me on a quest to find resources that would help me share practical, proven tools for change management with the participants in these workshops. While I could find lots of theory on change management, I was having difficulty finding good practical information that I could use and share. That is until I found the Managing Change in the Workplace guide. At the time I was preparing for a workshop for a Public Sector Reform Unit which had for over two years been trying to find a change management framework within which to complete its work. I needed to present them with ideas that were different from what they had been hearing about in the past. I was wary of sounding just like other consultants who had not been able to help them experience any ‘wins’. The Managing Change in the Workplace guide presented me with just what I needed. Using simple language, the guide laid out the issues relating to change in organizations in a logical and easy to understand sequence. In many ways the guide helped me to organize my own thoughts about change management. While the content may not have been new, the way in which it was presented definitely was different. Perhaps the most exciting feature of the guide is the inclusion of the practical tools for change management. I have found that being able to share practical tips and tools with the participants in training workshops is invaluable. Being able to help people do something cannot be replaced by telling them about a process. Since I started using the managing change guidelines, I have been able to leave the participants feeling that they could start to do something practical to change their organizations from the day after the workshop. To date, Managing Change in the Workplace is the best resource I have found anywhere to help me do my work. I am more confident when I approach assignments now than I had ever been before. I would recommend the guide to anyone involved in change management without any reservations. Cindy Emmanuel McLean
“If you are interested in change management you probably, like me, have a dozen or more books on your bookshelf, each on one particular dimension of the change management process and none addressing the whole process. You also know you’ll probably buy the next highly acclaimed one to be published as you search for that elusive “answer” that will produce the desired outcomes from your change management initiatives. This is why Leslie Allan’s book is such a gift to executives, leaders, managers and supervisors who want to initiate a change process in their organizations. It’s a complete guide and true to its subtitle a very practical guide. How often have you heard the comment: Change doesn’t work? True, it doesn’t for many people and organizations. It doesn’t because change management initiatives are often poorly conceived, planned and implemented. It is important to note at the outset that Leslie Allan believes that for change management initiatives to be successful in organizations they need to be led by the CEO, executives and managers, not HR. So his book outlines a process these people can go through that gives the best guarantee possible that the change they want and need to implement will provide the outcomes they desire. The book is actually a workbook and that’s why it is so valuable. It takes teams and their leaders through the entire change management process from conception to implementation. It is not, however, the read-chapter-1 and do-chapter-1 and then move-on-to- chapter-2 book. Rather it is a book a change management team, with a commitment to reflective practice, could work through as a group PRIOR to commencing a change process in their organization. This would mean that the leadership team becomes conscious of the possible challenges to the successful implementation of their plan in advance and can address them. In other words, many of the obstacles to success would be addressed BEFORE the process even begins. This is not, however, a book about slick strategies. At the outset it contextualizes change management, which is crucially important for any change management team to do to ensure the integrity of their initiative. This is the part that is often neglected or only superficially addressed and therefore results in a poorly conceived and ultimately failed process. Leslie Allan raises the importance, at the outset, of addressing six contextual issues:
It is Leslie Allan’s six phase, innovatively presented CHANGE process, however, that forms the major part of his book.
Each of these phases is addressed in great depth and worksheets are provided for each, allowing people to record and document their ideas and responses as they proceed. While this approach has been presented in a linear fashion so that people can see the process, Leslie Allan makes it very clear that it is not, in practice, a linear process. He makes the point throughout the book that it is people, not machines, that make change happen – or obstruct it – and that those leading the change need to go back and around all the time, re-iterating the vision and repeating the message in a wide variety of ways to gain the support of their people. In fact, one of the most important chapters for me was the G section on Growing the capability of people. After all this is my area of expertise and interest! Leslie Allan stresses the importance of investing in the organization’s people and their training, taking into consideration their various ways of learning and coming to know and understand, if we want change initiatives to be successful. This fitted well with the emphasis he put on the importance of communication in his H section on Harnessing Support. One of the great values of this book is that it does address the important planning issues relating to organizational and business objectives. It does address, for example, the performance metrics in change management, but as well it strongly supports the engagement of the organization’s people in the process of change and offers much support, ideas and suggestions for how to do that in a way that will ensure the success of the change initiative. It emphasizes the need for those leading the process to not only be technically proficient but to also have highly developed soft skills, those all important people skills, interpersonal and communication skills. This book is too comprehensive to review in its entirety. It’s a book, however, that I’d recommend to a whole range of professionals and business leaders, not only to those people initiating a change management process. It has excellent sections for project managers, teams leaders and people engaged in training and development, for example. It also has valuable information on the psychology of resistance and how to win people over to new ideas and change, an excellent section on communication, good information on goal setting and a comprehensive section on team building. While seeing this book as a very valuable book on change management to have on your bookshelf, I’m not promoting it as the magic bullet of change management, because there is nothing magic about change. It is hard work! The book is, however, a very helpful, practical and excellent guide to the change management process. It charts a path to follow; it raises very pertinent questions for consideration; it offers many, many solutions to common problems faced in change management initiatives. The thirteen worksheets it provides to accompany the book mean that, having worked through the book, the readers have a very well-developed draft of a change management process – all in advance of commencement.” Dr. Maree Harris, PhD.
“There are many books available that proclaim their ability to manage change. But seriously, can you really manage change? Change happens and when it does, it happens to people. Any time people are involved, a lockstep 1-2-3 approach to anything is simply is not going to work. So, when I am asked to review a process, procedure or book that seems to promise to do just that, I am always a bit skeptical. Les Allan, the Managing Director of Business Performance Pty Ltd, writes on business and organizational change and he recently released the second edition of his book, Managing Change in the Workplace. Change is a process and Les Allan notes that each and every one of us has either initiated change or been on the receiving end of a change. In the introduction, Les states that "moving to a new way of working is inherently messy," and that "it is people - thinking and feeling people - that will carry through your change." He goes on to state that his guide "will not provide you with a magic solution to the complexities and uncertainties" of change. And that is where he had my attention. Managing Change in the Workplace is not your usual book on leading and managing change. The chapters sequentially move the reader through a change process and provide valuable information on understanding change, principles guiding successful change programs, the CHANGE Approach, managing resistance to change and managing change through projects and through teams. The CHANGE Approach is the heart and soul of the guide and offers a "disciplined understanding of how organizations achieve real benefits through change." The phases of the CHANGE Approach are:
Managing Change in the Workplace is different from other guides because it is packaged with a reusable and customizable change program workbook. Regardless of where a reader is in planning or implementing a change process, or how comfortable they feel in leading change, there is something in the guide for them. Readers can scan the chapters and pick out the chapter or section that interests them the most. They can use all or part of the workbook. They can tailor this guide to their needs and the needs of their supervisors or team members. As a reader works through the guide and workbook, they actually are able to apply the lessons learned to their current change program. Managing Change in the Workplace is a solid, practical guide from beginning to middle to end for anyone embarking on a change initiative for the first time, wanting a refresher on the change process, or facing resistance to change and definitely worth a look.” Lisa Rosendahl Source: www.lisarosendahl.com/journal/2009/5/14/book-review-managing-change-in-the-workplace.html
“We are delighted with this programme. As our business is going through restructuring and have already implemented new operational systems, we have experienced considerable resistance from the staff. Using the steps and the structured approach helped us to analyse the situation. We have already ironed out several issues (SMART goals) and the staff are more motivated and committed to the change. We appreciate your professional service and will definitely be using more of your interesting resources.” Margy Jackman
“I purchased Managing Change in the Workplace as this is something that our organization is going through – change! I found the tools very useful and the information helpful in that it was written in easy to understand – plain English. As with most organizations experiencing change, we had an idea of what we needed to do but couldn’t fully capture how to do what we needed to do. Your materials assisted us greatly in accomplishing that task. I recommend this particular product for any organization that knows they are going to experience changes to their culture. If you are able to understand the complexities of what occurs during times of change, you are certainly in a better position to manage it. Thank you to Business Performance Products group for valuable insight!”
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