Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness

Citation

Lawler, E.E. (2007), "Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness", Strategic Direction, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2007.05623dae.001

Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness

A round-up of some of the best book reviews recently published by Emerald.

Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness

Edward E. Lawler III, Christopher G. Worley, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2006

When I first picked up Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness, by Edward E. Lawler III and Christopher G. Worley, I thought, “It didn’t take long for someone to capitalize on the Built to Last book title by James Collins and Jerry Porras.” Hence, I began, what I thought to be an obligatory review, with somewhat less than a positive attitude. In addition, Lawler and Worley work in my backyard of Los Angeles at a little known competing institution called University of Southern California; USC for those of you who are not American football fans. Thoughts ran through my mind as I picked up the book, “I wonder if Collins and Porras know they got ripped off!” But, as I began to read the Foreword, the language sounded all too familiar. I quickly flipped to the end of the Foreword, scanned down the page to the author’s name and low and behold, the Foreword was written by Jerry Porras! Now in a complete state of shock, I reoriented myself and tried to make an attitude adjustment. If Jerry Porras wrote the Foreword to Built to Change, then perhaps there is more to this than just a title kidnapping.

As I carefully read through the first few chapters, every nerve in my feeble brain was on edge as I looked for something old, something borrowed, or something blue; some evidence that would give me back my self-dignity and affirm that my initial inclinations were true, and that Porras must have been duped into writing the Foreword. The further I read the clearer things became. Lawler and Worley are really on to something! Sure, we all know that change is the name of the game. But, to run headlong into the revelation that everything we have been teaching about SWOT analysis, and Kurt Lewin’s approach to organizational change, “Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze” is out of step with today’s market-driven, constantly changing environment, was a kick in the stomach. Lawler and Worley force us to “unfreeze” our way of looking at organizational effectiveness by removing the word “stability” from our vocabulary. Come on, isn’t stability what we should work for in our organizations? Not so, say Lawler and Worley.

After clarifying the need for organizations to break from the notion that stability can, or should be sought, the authors reinforce our shaky knees with new vocabulary, some of it borrowed from other discourse but redefined for the purpose of giving us “sea legs.” With this newly adapted vocabulary of words such as identity, strategic intent, and orchestration to work with, Lawler and Worley take us on a voyage through a three phase strategizing process. Although, resembling the stage processes of the past, their process is meant to take on a life of its own, so that adjusting to various scenarios becomes the agenda for applying daily tactics. It differs from evolutionary approaches and population ecology approaches in that change is not seen as an adaptation to environmental or market forces but is anticipatory in nature thereby, positioning the organization to be in the right place, with the right design and processes at the right time. And, this is not a temporal adjustment but an ongoing organizational lifestyle. Lawler and Worley admit that their process is not an easy one to establish in an organization but becoming a Deming disciple in the old days was not easy either. Not only do the authors cover strategizing and restructuring, they go on to talk about metrics and decision-making; often elements left out of revisionist-thinking books.

Lest you think that I have completely gone over to the dark side, not everything that we read is of a revolutionary nature. You will spot things like matching employee rewards to desired behaviors. But, suffice it to say, you have never heard it in this context. At this point, my mind is reeling with ideas that I want to incorporate into my teaching and consulting. Yet, there is still part of me longing to hold on to what I knew to be true. I guess this is the way of all disciples. Drs Lawler and Worley, show me the way to organizational enlightenment! I will not go into any more details because I want this book to hit you right between the eyes as it did mine.

If I were to say where Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness by Ed Lawler III and Chris Worley ranks in my all-time list of great business books; I would say it is certainly up there with Good to Great and Built to Last. Allow me speak prophetically and say Built to Change will quickly be on every serious manager’s and academician’s bookshelf. It is simply that good.

A version of this review was originally published in Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Volume 27 Number 5.