Managing at the speed of change : How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail. Daryl Conner, New York : Villard Books, 1993. 282 pp. $22.00. (ISBN 0-679-40684-0)
Daryl Conner is an internationally recognized leader in the field of change management; he serves as a leading advisor and educator to senior executives across the globe. This book made me think about the emotional aspects of people involved with a change management situation and how a person’s behavior can be changed in a certain way to better cope with change. The author talks about eight patterns that explain the mystery of change and how managers can use these patterns to increase resiliency in their organization.
The book starts with the author talking about his personal experiences as a kid trying to deal with repeated changes because of the frequent relocation of his family and how this was further extended to his adult life and affected his way of thinking. The theories mentioned in this book are based on the author’s personal experiences, his observations and experiences from people around the globe. His interest in change management led to the formation of his company – Organizational Development Resources, Inc. (ODR) which counsels various companies on organizational change and how to achieve desired results through change. The author makes you feel empowered by sharing with you the secrets that successful managers have been using either consciously or unconsciously to manage change. If you use it unconsciously, you cannot guarantee success each time and hence by studying the patterns involved in successful change management, the author provides us with steps that should be used consciously in dealing with change.
Conner recognizes eight patterns in an effective change management process and provides a clear depiction of each. He makes it apparent that it is not the events of change that confuse and overwhelm us, but the unanticipated implications that these events bring to our lives. The author captures the reader’s interest with certain simple phrases like “people have a fear of the unknown” and hence they fear change which itself is the biggest unknown. This is the explanation that Connor gives for a battered wife to remain in an abusive relationship; she dreads moving out of the relationship more than her current situation which is at least predictable. So even though the target audience for this book is managers at corporations, the examples provided are from all walks of life. This book can used by a variety of people, from someone who wants to learn to better deal with change in their personal lives to an employee who is part of an organizational change.
In one of the chapters the author talks about future shock of change that anyone could easily relate to. It was interesting to know that there is future shock associated with good change as well. These are the feelings of high followed by some level of dissatisfaction when things aren’t the same as it was even though that was what a person had hoped for. Everyone deals with all this in their daily lives, but it was nice to get all these feelings and emotions being validated by the author through authentic research. So once you understand the after effects of the event and if you are not surprised at the surprises that change brings, a person can better prepare himself to manage change and the author depicts this very evidently in the later chapters.
The book has a good flow, uses simple language and talks about change in a way that makes the reader wants to read more. He mentions how resistance to a change can also be used constructively that helps in an efficient change management process. Another interesting theory was his concept of how each individual has a set of assimilation points which represent an individual’s capacity to absorb change and how important it is to understand the limit of one’s assimilation points and to learn to use it wisely. Resilient people apparently learn how to increase the number of assimilation points and how to stay within their personal assimilation budget. He also touches upon how culture and having a synergistic environment contributes to an effective change.
On the whole the book was very interesting and the author did a good job relating with the audience. One suggestion that I would give is to make it a bit shorter. The book started with a very interesting note about how we all can learn this magic principle of dealing with a change, but somewhere in the middle of the book, it seemed to be a bit dry with the author over emphasizing the patterns he proposed. After a while, the book again was interesting as the author talked about different personality types and how a person could mould his/her personality to fit certain needs. He basically talks about two personality types – Type D and Type O where each lies in the extreme end of coping with change and how a person can learn to achieve certain characteristics of type O personality to better cope with the change. Here he mentions the five basic characteristics for being more resilient.
The behavioral change that the author suggests to be resilient is not a simple task and to change the behavior of a person takes a massive amount of determination and effort. So unless the person is committed and wants to make a difference in the way he was dealing with change and work the whole of his life, it will be difficult to be resilient and be a successful change management force. I also believe that by at least trying to understand the patterns and the after-shock involved in change could make us better prepare for the outcome of the change to deal with it effectively. Clear depiction, simple language and theories based on examples and study make this book one of the best books I have read on change management. If we can utilize the suggestions that the author gives in this book, I believe that any change management initiative can be made to turn its course from a badly managed situation to a successful change management process. The author mentions that change is a continuous process and that which shouldn’t be seen in black and white which I totally agree upon as I believe that change is the only constant that keeps changing.
I would recommend this book to anyone who might like to explore change management in their professional fields and also to anyone who would want to learn to manage change in their personal life as well because change is a never ending process. If you have learned how to manage change and make change as something that you look forward to, you have learned to solve the biggest mystery ever. Anyone who reads this book would be compelled not to take his principles seriously and even if you don’t it’s worth reading.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Ethical Frameworks
Some of the ethical frameworks that I would like to write about:
The Utilitarian Approach:
This approach emphasizes that the ethical action is the one that provides the most good or the least harm, or produces the greatest balance of good over harm. [1] This approach deals with consequences; it tries to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done. Thus this approach is a form of consequentialism, meaning that the end justify the means. One of the early writers of utilitarianism was Jeremy Benthem and John Stuart Mill.
Utilitarianism is applied in various walks of our society like the government formulating a new law, a drug company pushing a new drug or a business venture trying to yield maximum customers. Although it has proven successful in certain situations, I feel that it is not always right to make a decision just based on the utilitarian principle. Utilitarian principle must be used in combination with the other ethical approaches. I believe that every life is valuable and it is unethical to subject a part of any population to any harm in order to save the majority of the population. It’s impossible to measure and compare the worth of any human being and utilitarian principles should not be employed in cases where the adoption of this principle might cause a greater harm to some people.
The Fairness or Justice Approach:
Aristotle and Greek philosophers have contributed to the idea that all should be treated equally. This approach suggests that ethical actions treat all human beings equally or if unequally, then fairly based on some standard. [1] For example people get paid based on their hard work and their contribution to the organization. But this doesn’t explain the vast gap existing between the CEO salary and that of an employee which has been one of the recent debates hitting the headlines. Fairness and Justice Approach also accounts for equal employment opportunity, equality in laws that govern them and equality in the rights provided to the individuals. It ensures that the rules would be stated properly and also enforced justly without being partial to anyone. This approach need not be just limited to actions that relate to humans, but also humans’ actions to animals and the environment. To rightly say, this approach is the one that should breathe equality and fairness in anything you perform.
The Virtue Approach:
A very ancient approach to ethics again contributed by Greek philosophers is that ethical actions ought to be consistent with certain ideal virtues that provide for the full development of our humanity. These virtues are habits that enable us to act according to values like honesty, compassion, generosity, love, tolerance, fidelity etc. [1]. This approach makes us to question our actions based on these values and makes us to think what kind of person we would become if we happen to act in a certain way.
The framework that I feel most comfortable using:
Different ethical approaches or a combination of various frameworks must be used for different situations. I particularly like the virtue approach because this approach motivates people to be better at what they do and make them always go for virtuous deeds. These virtuous deeds will also have a long term benefit on our body and mind. It is a good approach to rethink and evaluate our actions and understand what actions we should have taken to make ourselves a better human being. This approach especially seems to make the point that anything starts with the individual. It is a bottom up approach where you start with a single individual to achieve the most favorable results for the society. If every single human being in this world adopts the virtue framework, I believe that there would be lesser tensions around the globe and it would be a stimulus for world peace. Almost all the religions in this world support the virtue approach and so according to me it is obvious that this approach provides the best results for the individual and the society as a whole.
Are some frameworks more appropriate for a virtual environment than others? Why or why not?
There shouldn’t be much distinction between the kind of person you are and the one that you want to be in a virtual environment. Then why adopt a different ethical standard in both these environments? Anything that a person does in a virtual role has some kind of implication in the real world as well. For example a person who has intimate relationship with someone in Second Life has a detrimental impact on his married life in the real world. So a person must know where to set his boundaries and where his virtual life misdemeanors might show up in his real life. The ethical standards that a person follows in his real life should be transported to the virtual life. The new generation is spending more time in the virtual world and slowly the gap between the real and virtual is getting diminished and so there needs to be proper ethical standards in the virtual world which is not much different from the real world ethics. Thus I suggest that a person should follow the same ethical framework in the virtual world that he does in the real world.
References:
1. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html
2. http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MED-2sixpillars.htm
3, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism
The Utilitarian Approach:
This approach emphasizes that the ethical action is the one that provides the most good or the least harm, or produces the greatest balance of good over harm. [1] This approach deals with consequences; it tries to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done. Thus this approach is a form of consequentialism, meaning that the end justify the means. One of the early writers of utilitarianism was Jeremy Benthem and John Stuart Mill.
Utilitarianism is applied in various walks of our society like the government formulating a new law, a drug company pushing a new drug or a business venture trying to yield maximum customers. Although it has proven successful in certain situations, I feel that it is not always right to make a decision just based on the utilitarian principle. Utilitarian principle must be used in combination with the other ethical approaches. I believe that every life is valuable and it is unethical to subject a part of any population to any harm in order to save the majority of the population. It’s impossible to measure and compare the worth of any human being and utilitarian principles should not be employed in cases where the adoption of this principle might cause a greater harm to some people.
The Fairness or Justice Approach:
Aristotle and Greek philosophers have contributed to the idea that all should be treated equally. This approach suggests that ethical actions treat all human beings equally or if unequally, then fairly based on some standard. [1] For example people get paid based on their hard work and their contribution to the organization. But this doesn’t explain the vast gap existing between the CEO salary and that of an employee which has been one of the recent debates hitting the headlines. Fairness and Justice Approach also accounts for equal employment opportunity, equality in laws that govern them and equality in the rights provided to the individuals. It ensures that the rules would be stated properly and also enforced justly without being partial to anyone. This approach need not be just limited to actions that relate to humans, but also humans’ actions to animals and the environment. To rightly say, this approach is the one that should breathe equality and fairness in anything you perform.
The Virtue Approach:
A very ancient approach to ethics again contributed by Greek philosophers is that ethical actions ought to be consistent with certain ideal virtues that provide for the full development of our humanity. These virtues are habits that enable us to act according to values like honesty, compassion, generosity, love, tolerance, fidelity etc. [1]. This approach makes us to question our actions based on these values and makes us to think what kind of person we would become if we happen to act in a certain way.
The framework that I feel most comfortable using:
Different ethical approaches or a combination of various frameworks must be used for different situations. I particularly like the virtue approach because this approach motivates people to be better at what they do and make them always go for virtuous deeds. These virtuous deeds will also have a long term benefit on our body and mind. It is a good approach to rethink and evaluate our actions and understand what actions we should have taken to make ourselves a better human being. This approach especially seems to make the point that anything starts with the individual. It is a bottom up approach where you start with a single individual to achieve the most favorable results for the society. If every single human being in this world adopts the virtue framework, I believe that there would be lesser tensions around the globe and it would be a stimulus for world peace. Almost all the religions in this world support the virtue approach and so according to me it is obvious that this approach provides the best results for the individual and the society as a whole.
Are some frameworks more appropriate for a virtual environment than others? Why or why not?
There shouldn’t be much distinction between the kind of person you are and the one that you want to be in a virtual environment. Then why adopt a different ethical standard in both these environments? Anything that a person does in a virtual role has some kind of implication in the real world as well. For example a person who has intimate relationship with someone in Second Life has a detrimental impact on his married life in the real world. So a person must know where to set his boundaries and where his virtual life misdemeanors might show up in his real life. The ethical standards that a person follows in his real life should be transported to the virtual life. The new generation is spending more time in the virtual world and slowly the gap between the real and virtual is getting diminished and so there needs to be proper ethical standards in the virtual world which is not much different from the real world ethics. Thus I suggest that a person should follow the same ethical framework in the virtual world that he does in the real world.
References:
1. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html
2. http://www.josephsoninstitute.org/MED/MED-2sixpillars.htm
3, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism
Information Security
There has been a rise in identity theft which concerns me on how secure is my information? How safe are we living in this information age? This is a serious issue that faces the information community. One of the biggest cases of credit card theft is the one that happened at TJMaxx where credit card information of 45 million customers were stolen to buy goods worth $256 million. This case had huge implications for the customers and the organization. Would you still shop in TJMaxx knowing that your information can be compromised? So there is also brand reputation at stake when an incident of this sort occurs. This incident has actually made organizations and people realize how serious this kind of theft is and many companies have strengthened their security and adopted stricter security measures to thwart the dangers of a breach. But with more and more information; and new technologies to transfer this information it is always possible to find new loopholes to attack a system and this goes back to my initial question on how secure we actually are? How secure is our identity and our information which can be traced to find out every possible details of us as a person.
It is now a day’s pretty common to keep track of costumer’s buying habits to understand their buying pattern. I personally wouldn’t want some stranger trying to make a prediction of what I want based on some previous data. It makes me uncomfortable thinking that a list of everything I buy might be stored in some database to understand me, what I like, not like and who I am as a person. As a customer I would want to know what is done with my information, where it is stored and how secure it is. Isn’t it unethical to use someone’s personal information without their knowledge? My opinion is that it is the responsibility of every business to tell its customers about what sort of their personal information is stored and how it is being used if at all for any analysis purposes. Being upfront and telling the customers would make you seem more genuine and as someone who cares about their customers’ information and its safety.
First and foremost, we need to have policies and laws in place to set a clear definition of what is acceptable and what is not in the online world. There are many policy agreements that a user needs to consent to before proceeding to a web page, but how many of us actually read the agreement? So a genuine effort must be made to educate the public about information privacy and security. There must be a standardized law to deal with situations like cyber crime and identity theft. Each state in US has its own laws to deal with privacy rights and data breach issues which then becomes a quagmire of various laws. There should be a common federal law for the country to deal with these types of situations. In order to have a safer community in the online world, it is highly crucial that these facts are set straight before we hit rock bottom.
It is now a day’s pretty common to keep track of costumer’s buying habits to understand their buying pattern. I personally wouldn’t want some stranger trying to make a prediction of what I want based on some previous data. It makes me uncomfortable thinking that a list of everything I buy might be stored in some database to understand me, what I like, not like and who I am as a person. As a customer I would want to know what is done with my information, where it is stored and how secure it is. Isn’t it unethical to use someone’s personal information without their knowledge? My opinion is that it is the responsibility of every business to tell its customers about what sort of their personal information is stored and how it is being used if at all for any analysis purposes. Being upfront and telling the customers would make you seem more genuine and as someone who cares about their customers’ information and its safety.
First and foremost, we need to have policies and laws in place to set a clear definition of what is acceptable and what is not in the online world. There are many policy agreements that a user needs to consent to before proceeding to a web page, but how many of us actually read the agreement? So a genuine effort must be made to educate the public about information privacy and security. There must be a standardized law to deal with situations like cyber crime and identity theft. Each state in US has its own laws to deal with privacy rights and data breach issues which then becomes a quagmire of various laws. There should be a common federal law for the country to deal with these types of situations. In order to have a safer community in the online world, it is highly crucial that these facts are set straight before we hit rock bottom.
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