ABSTRACT
Like the seafarers of old, managers are constantly searching the horizon for dependable clues that can help them navigate what they often experience as treacherous environments. The challenges related to change management are often seen as wicked problems: problems that “cannot be easily and objectively defined . . . and that are open to interpretation from a virtually endless variety of angles. The same is true for possible solutions” (De Wit & Meyer, 1999, p. 60). These challenges are not hypothetical; for the managers involved they are real, and they have to act on them. As Bower (2000) states:
It’s one thing to recognize that a corporation is a complex nonlinear system interacting with a very rich and changing environment. It is another to provide a map of that system that permits managers to act in an intentionally rational fashion. (p. 91)
The need for such a map increases with the pressure, challenges, and competition managers and their people face. This makes them prone to stories and models that promise to tackle the complex problem of changing organizations and people. These ambitious, struggling, and sometimes insecure managers are the first ‘targets’ of authors producing books with promising titles such as Managing at the Speed of Change (Conner, 1992), Teaching the Elephant to Dance (Belasco, 1990), The Change Leaders Roadmap (Anderson & Anderson, 2010), and Taking People With You (Novak, 2012). Despite all the theories, models, and stories about change management, crafting organizational and behavioral change is not a trivial task.
