How to Change an Organization Without Blowing It Up Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Change happens on a big scale, and frequently in response to crisis. Yet we know from a lot of experience that Big Bang transformation attempts frequently fail, creating mediocre solutions with little long-term impact and cultivating employee discontent. Instead of undertaking a high-risk, large-scale makeover, organizations can seed transformation by jointly uncovering "regular disconnects"-the differences between our expectations about how work is carried out and how it is actually done. The discovery of such disconnects supports people to think about how the work might be done differently. Constantly pursuing these smaller-scale changes - and weaving them together offers a practical middle path between large-scale transformation and small-scale pilot projects that run the risk of creating too little too late.

These techniques may be used collectively. The three techniques are: 1. Work Discovery rather than assuming that you know work is designed, analyze it directly as it is actually conducted. Determine the best way to turn the (unavoidable) surprises you uncover into assets. 2. Better Practices Instead of just adopting the very best practices of other organizations, display the way work gets done through those best practices in your organization to generate new thoughts. In other words, use best practices to generate improved practices. 3. Test training rather than locking down the standard operating procedures throughout training, experiment with other, and possibly better implications for altering the manner the work will get done. Utilizing the training for testing these implications.

PUBLICATION DATE: January 01, 2013 PRODUCT #: SMR438-PDF-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about STRATEGY & EXECUTION