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Rita McGrath

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February 24, 2016

The perils of an incomplete change process

Some people really do change the world.  But all around us, we see evidence of change efforts that began with great promise but ended badly.  In a recent New York Times column, Tom Friedman speculated on the effects of digital communications on simultaneously facilitating the ability of social movements to ignite, but hampering participants’ capability to form lasting new structures that replace the old ones.  I recently walked through a way of thinking about what it takes to create a complete change process in an article in Fortune.    Essentially, I argue, building on the work of Michael Beer, that it isn’t enough to create dissatisfaction and articulate a vision.  You need a way of tackling the recreation of a new system that replaces the old one.  Otherwise, you end up with a vacuum – lots of change, but no reconstruction.  And that is hardly ever good.

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