Putting the Need for Change and the Vision for Change Together
For any change to be successful, the need for change must be real and must be perceived as real. If the organization does not accept the need for change, the chances of anything substantive happening are negligible.
Thus, developing the need for change is vital. Understanding the gap between what is and what is desired is important in order to accurately describe the need for change.
Think of the situation you were considering in Exercise 4.2.
- What is the gap between the present state and the desired future state?
- How strong is the need for change?
- What is the source of this need? Is it external to the organization?
- Is there tangible evidence of the need for change in that there is concrete evidence of the need or a crisis situation that demonstrates the need for change?
- If the change does not occur, what will be the impact on the organization in the next two to six years?
- What is the objective, long-range need to change? People can be motivated by higher-order purposes, things that relate to fundamental values. Change visions can be crucial in capturing support for change and in explaining the nature of change to others.
Creating such a change vision is tricky. If one aims too high, it taps into higher values but often fails to link with the specific change project or program. If one aims too low, the vision fails to tap into values that motivate us above and beyond the ordinary. Such a change vision looks like and feels like an objective.
- Return to the change vision you developed in Exercise 4.2. Does it capture a sense of higher-order purpose or values that underpin the change and communicate what the project is about?
- Explain how the vision links the need for change.
See study.sagepub.com/cawsey4e for a downloadable template of this exercise.
