Philip Atkinson acknowledges the anonymous quotation, ‘To understand change management, one first has to understand that change is a political process, fuelled by diverse behaviours and motivations not always committed to the greater good’. He focuses on practical solutions to ensure that political motivations are carefully managed and, when required, neutralised. This article is focused on working more effectively as a change agent and understanding the nature and power of political and behavioural forces in the context in which they operate. Life would be much easier if we could simply follow a logical sequence of steps that guaranteed that ‘change’ was implemented automatically.
Change is a complex process that goes way beyond a simple logic or a sequence of flow. If change were that simple, we could construct a simple cause-effect model, and the change would be implemented swiftly. We know that managing change is far more complex than current theory suggests.
Change has to take account of the people factor, which includes the world of personal egos, emotions, attitudes, motivations, drives and behaviours. It is essential to incorporate both the ‘left’ and ‘right’ brain and, thus, ‘holistic’ thinking into the change process. Change is a journey, not a destination and old thinking will not help anyone in the change arena to achieve success without understanding the behavioural and political aspects of change.
#organisationalchange #behaviourchange #politicalchange #leadingthroughCOVID
To download the article see below.
| philip_atkinson_-_leading_change_as_a_political_and_beh_process_winter_2023.pdf |
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