Exploring Evidence-based Organisational Change

Thanks to everyone who liked and contributed to the discussion this week.

In last week's newsletter? we explored the foundations of organisational development and change.

The journey started with some key concepts being developed in the 1950's on autonomy, efficacy and belonging.

These were then used to build theories such as organisational justice, psychological safety and goal setting theory.

We then suggested that there were alternative evidence-based theories of individual and organisational change that we should consider instead of the traditional n-step approaches. ?Rob Robson?suggested Apter?and Dr Matt Hancocks recommended the COM-B model.

Based on Stouten's et al research we discussed what an integration of all the traditional change management models might look like when compared to the evidence. Dr Ross Wirth asked the question "Does an n-step framework have any relevance in an era of constant change?" and challenged how models deal with lots of overlapping, interacting changes originating from across organizations.

We finished the week thinking about the balance between structure and autonomy or planned v emergent change and ended the week with a poll that asked "Do you think organisational change should be emergent or planned?" Nearly 80% said it should be a bit of both.

This week we have covered:

Mind the Gap! Do traditional models cover all the bases.

Do we relentlessly seek new evidence?

Practitioners v Academics - what do they agree on?

6 Benefits of being evidence-based

What is your definition of organisational change & development?

This week's Friday quiz

Events

Here are a group of 7 monthly talks that complement this newsletter covering the History of Organisational Change, Adopting a Scientific Mindset, Complex Systems, Myths of Organisational Change, Neuroscience of Organisational Change and Change capabilities.

The aim of these monthly talks is to crowd-source a body of knowledge from people who have experience in Organisational Change.?I hope you can join us?

Purpose & Process

My ambition?for over 10 years has been to try to change Organisational Change (OC).

When I started in Organisational Change I did the usual round of training & qualifications. I was surprised by the underlying assumptions these methods made about human nature. It was taken for granted that 'the natural response to change was resistance' because 'brains hate change' or that we need to start with a 'sense of urgency' and that everyone's experience of change is the same. There was little evidence to support these claims. If managers and practitioners then adopted these methods wouldn't they become self fulfilling and organisations would find it hard to change?

That is?what I would like to change. To build a practice based on evidence. To discover how people really experience change and build organisations that are equipped to help people adapt and learn.

But none of us have all the answer which is why your comments and the dialogue we create is so important.

So the aim of this weekly newsletter?is to crowd-source a body of knowledge from people who have experience in Organisational Change.

To build this body of knowledge?I aim to cover the following topics over the coming weeks and months:

• History of Organisational Change?- this seems like a logical place to start to assess the current body of knowledge and tease out areas that need to be worked on
• Adopting a scientific mindset?-?we need a systematic way of building knowledge and challenging our beliefs
• Myths of Organisational Change -?this will be an exploration into current Organisational Change beliefs and whether they fit with the way we want to build our knowledge base
• Definition and Structure?- maybe the most difficult part. How do we agree axioms on which to build our practice?
• Change capabilities -?this is the body of evidence - a set of capabilities that organisations need to develop to be able to change. The fun bit would be working together to constantly test the effectiveness of these capabilities constantly enhancing our body of knowledge.