"The Art of Making Change Initiatives Stick"

Michael Roberto and Lynne Levesque

MIT Sloan Management Review

Summer 2005, pp. 53-60

This article focuses on identifying the antecedents and enabling processes that must be in place for change initiatives to succeed.

The four key antecedent conditions are:

• Chartering—This is defined as "the process by which the organization defines the initiative's purpose, its scope and the way people will work with one another on the program." Boundary setting is important to define the scope of the initiative, and team design provides the roles, responsibilities, norms, and ground rules for teamwork.
• Learning—This is defined as "how managers develop, test and refine ideas through experimentation before full-scale rollout." Primary methods of learning include discovery (through data and information gathering) and experimentation.
• Mobilizing—This is defined as "the use of symbolism, metaphors and compelling stories to engage hearts as well as minds in order to build commitment to the project." Storytelling makes the need for change concrete, and symbolic action reinforces the credibility and legitimacy of the message.
• Realigning—This is defined as "a series of activities aimed at reshaping the organizational context, including a redefinition of roles and reporting relationships as well as new approaches to monitoring, measurement and compensation." Performance management systems and job redesign are two important elements here.

The chartering, learning, mobilizing, and realigning processes enable employees to take ownership of the new procedures, as well as integrating and applying the key principles of the initiative. The enabling conditions take place in the following three contexts:

• Structural context—reporting relationships, monitoring and control systems, and reward and punishment systems. The structural context affects the behavioral choices made by employees.
• Procedural context—perceptions of procedural fairness and legitimacy as the new processes and systems are introduced. The procedural context affects the likelihood of accepting and adopting the change.
• Emotional context—fears must be allayed while enthusiasm is aroused. The emotional context affects how people come to grips with their new roles and responsibilities.

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