Just before this blog went silent in early August, I had
written an important
post distinguishing 5 very different “theories of change” ....wondering
why so few mutual links had been made by the practitioners of the 5 "schools". I now realise I may have
missed the most important school of all – that of “managing change”
Whenever the issue of change comes up, I rarely miss the chance to plug a book which was published in 2000 - Change the World by a management theorist Robert Quinn.
“Change the World” is actually one of a trilogy Quinn has written – the first being “Deep change” – and the final one “Building the Bridge as you Walk on it – a guide for leading change” (2004) an outline of whose basic argument can be found here.
Although I often reference Quinn, this is the first time I have written at length about him and notice a tinge of defensiveness as I reflect on his message……which perhaps sometimes smacks of “motherhood and apple pie”. He writes here about how the responses he received from his first book were the inspiration for the third -
In the early 1990s I would look for
copies of Stephen Covey’s
The Seven Habits of really effective People which had been translated into
the language of the country I was working in – partly to ensure that we had a
common frame of reference but mainly because of its encouragement of what I considered
to be useful ethical practices…..
Robert Quinn
is still writing - not least on a blog the positive organization
- although I suspect he has fallen prey to what happens to most gurus……they end
up as egocentrics on egotrips……
Whenever the issue of change comes up, I rarely miss the chance to plug a book which was published in 2000 - Change the World by a management theorist Robert Quinn.
It stood out from the huge mass of books about managing change
I had been reading in the late 1990s for its
explanation of why so many change efforts fail – offering a typology (and
critique) of four different strategies – “telling”, “selling”, “participating”
and “transforming” – and daring to pose the challenging question of how
individuals such as Gandhi, Luther King, Jesus Christ came to inspire millions…..
Virtually all books on managing change until then were (and
most remain) what I would call “mechanistic” – offering apparently neutral tools
of the sort consultants claiming objectivity can use. Quinn dares to introduce
a moral tone – which both management writers and practitioners find a bit
embarrassing. Their very legitimacy, after all, rests on the claims they make
to scientific authority…..
This is perhaps why most of his writing passes under our
radar. The same fate overtook Robert Greenleaf
whose books on “stewardship” are so valuable……
A European audience does recoil a bit when they see the
sub-title of Quinn’s Change the World, “how
ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary results” – even if such hyping
is a well-known US habit….His book then proceeds to offer 8 injunctions for those
who aspire to be change-agents, some of which may offer challenges to the
translator – the summary I offer in the middle column is from my memory of a
book which is almost 20 years old. Since then, our view of the world has been
hugely upset – not least by the social movements since then; by the 2008 global
financial crisis; and by more recent books such as Reinventing
Organisations by Frederic Laloux - my final column offers some preliminary and terse comments on how the injunctions have withstood the test of time ….
Quinn’s 8 Injunctions for
changing the world (2000 )
Quinn Injunction
|
What one reader thinks
he means
|
Fit with mainstream and
newer literature
|
“Envisage the Productive
Community”
|
Imagine how the system would work if we treated one
another generously - Don’t be satisfied with second-best
|
Laloux has a lot to say about this
|
“First Look Within”
|
Set your own standards of excellence – don’t go with the
mob
|
The self is very much back in fashion
|
“Embrace the Hypocritical
Self”
|
Be aware of your own double standards
|
Still worthwhile
|
“Transcend Fear”
|
We always feel a pressure to conform and fear the consequences
of appearing different
|
Ditto
|
“embody a Vision of the Common
Good”
|
Don’t be afraid to demonstrate behavior consistent with
what your ethical sense tells you
|
Laloux and the whole solidarity ethic much stronger
these days
|
Disturb the system
|
20 years on, we probably have too much of this now!
|
|
Events can never be
controlled – so let go
|
Chaos theory also back
in fashion
|
|
“Entice Through Moral
Power”
|
As above
|
See Laloux
|
“Change the World” is actually one of a trilogy Quinn has written – the first being “Deep change” – and the final one “Building the Bridge as you Walk on it – a guide for leading change” (2004) an outline of whose basic argument can be found here.
Although I often reference Quinn, this is the first time I have written at length about him and notice a tinge of defensiveness as I reflect on his message……which perhaps sometimes smacks of “motherhood and apple pie”. He writes here about how the responses he received from his first book were the inspiration for the third -
They defied what is written in almost all textbooks on management and leadership… common understanding and practice….. suggesting that every one of us has the capacity to transform our organizations into more positive, productive communities. Yet it is a painful answer that almost no one wants to hear. That is why it is not in the books on management and leadership. Painful answers have no market. The man states: “I know it all happened because I confronted my own insecurity, selfishness, and lack of courage.”
I wold hope to update the July table in a future post.....
More reading on social and organisational change
Supporting small steps – a rough guide for
developmental professionals (Manning; OECD 2015)
A Governance Practitioner’s Notebook –
alternative ideas and approaches (Whaites et al OECD 2015)
People, Politics and Change - building
communications strategy for governance reform (World Bank 2011)
Governance Reform under Real-World
Conditions – citizens, stakeholders and Voice (World Bank 2008)
Change Here! Managing change to improve local services (Audit Commission 2001)
https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2018/07/i-have-little-list_10.html
a Robert Quinn resource
a Robert Quinn resource
http://business.unr.edu/faculty/simmonsb/badm720/actchange.pdf
https://keithdwalker.ca/wp-content/summaries/1-c/ChangeTheWorld.Quinn.EBS.pdf
Building
the Bridge as you walk on it – a guide for leading change; Robert Quinn
(2004) With “Change
the World”, one of my all-time favourites. Before attempting the entire
book, you might find this
summary useful; as well as this excerpt
from the first chapterhttps://keithdwalker.ca/wp-content/summaries/1-c/ChangeTheWorld.Quinn.EBS.pdf
