Who's in charge of change?

Abstract

Purpose

The question of who is in charge of change is often met with confusing answers in changing organizations. That confusion is accompanied with a correspondingly poor ability to sustain change successfully. The purpose of this paper is to outline what is required to sustain constant, complex change and most importantly, who must be accountable.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on three decades of practical experience helping organizations change, it has become clear that unless a very small handful of groups inside a changing organization see themselves and are seen by everyone else as ultimately in charge of change, the organization will not be successful at sustaining constant change. The paper clarifies who those three groups are and what specific things they need to be accountable for to enable the organization to improve its ability to change successfully.

Findings

Many organizations attempt to in source or out source the responsibility for change to “change management” experts which usually leads to dismal results. The three essential groups that actually must own change are the executives, project teams and first level supervisors. Every other group involved plays a support function to those three groups who must be in charge of change.

Originality/value

When executives, project teams and first level supervisors align their efforts using an integrated approach to leading change, an organization significantly increases its capacity for sustaining successful change over the long haul. When an organization relies on external consulting firms, internal support functions or some combination of the two without having accountability for change resting with the three key groups, the capacity for change is compromised significantly.

Citation

Edgelow, C. (2012), "Who's in charge of change?", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851211193363