The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Managing the Change Cycle".

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Managing the Change Cycle
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Managing the Change Cycle

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Managing the Change Cycle
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
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Managing the Change Cycle
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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Managing the Change Cycle
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
Change cycles, or life cycles, are the fundamental way things
work. They describe how everything in life has a birth,
periods of growth and peaking, and periods of decline and
death. Such cycles include natural events such as the
passing of the year, products, team growth and
disbandment, and organisation rise and fall. If we do not
manage them, these cycles can only lead to our demise. But
if we work with them wisely, especially in times of change,
we can manage them to survive and grow.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
LIFE CYCLES
In Western culture, life is seen as a long line starting on the
left and going to the right. We see things in terms of
separate chunks of beginnings and ends: ages, jobs,
relationships, projects, tasks, even life itself.
In Eastern cultures, life is viewed as a series of cycles or
waves. Everything is linked and connected. Everything has
its own natural life span, so that in birth there is death and
in death there is new birth.
Every living thing has a natural life span. So do products,
projects, organisations, teams, relationships. Life cycles are
everywhere. In a day, it is wakening, preparing, activity and
sleep.
In a year, it is Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
In a life, it is birth, growing up, maturity and death. In
evolution, it is ape-man, pre-historic man, modern man.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
FOUR STAGES
One way to look at the four natural stages of life cycles is to
compare them to the four seasons of the year.
Spring is the stage of new ideas, new growth, new ways. It is
a time of eager anticipation. Sometimes the climate is
inhospitable but with good preparation and enthusiasm,
things survive into...
Summer. Those ideas that survive through stage one now
start to take root. The climate is warm and friendly. Things
are on the up and up.
Autumn is the stage when ideas come to fruition. The life
cycle reaches its highest possible point but at the same
time, Autumn brings with it its own demise.
Winter is the time when things go downhill. The best times
are behind you now. People feel tired and jaded. If you can
survive winter, there is the possibility of new life.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
CONTINUING LIFE CYCLES
There comes a point in any life cycle when things are on the
up and up. Because morale is high, this is the best time to
initiate change. You have enough spare time and energy and
the success of the present cycle buoys you up.
By the same token there comes a point on the life cycle
when the best moment is missed. If you become
complacent during the good times in the belief that they will
last forever, the cycle may start to decline before you have
done anything to ensure your continued survival. When it
becomes apparent you are on the downside, morale is low,
panic and desperation set in.
At this point, instead of needing builders to lead them,
desperate organisations turn to surgeons, and executioners
to save them.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
THE SIGMOID CURVE
The Sigmoid Curve is the curve that represents one life cycle
emerging from an existing one. It is named after "sigmoid",
the Greek word for the letter "s".
Sigmoid curves are natural phenomena. When any life cycle
reaches a stage of abundance, (the season of Summer), it
creates its own seeds for future re-birth. Similarly, when one
business cycle is going well, it provides within it the seeds
for the next cycle. We need to collect the seed and sow it
before the cycle declines into unfavourable conditions, (the
season of winter).
The Sigmoid curve is a representation of how all animal
species ensure their own survival by reproducing
themselves when their adults are young, virile, fertile and
healthy. Managing change and survival is at heart the way of
Nature.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
MANAGING CHANGE CYCLES
The seven steps in managing change cycles are...
1. think long-term
2. be aware of the cyclical nature of things
3. encourage everyone in the organisation to have new
ideas
4. select the best ideas for change
5. make decisions in the knowledge that nothing is certain
6. time the implementation to make the best use of cycle
activity
7. manage concurrent cycles.
"In all things there is a law of cycles." (Tacitus, 55 - 117AD)

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
LONG-TERM THINKING
Thinking long-term is a gift all of us have. It enables us to
plan, to wish and to dream.
Elliott Jaques of Brunel University in the UK found that long-
term thinking was an essential feature of the job of those
heading organisations. Whereas middle managers needed
only to think in terms of months, or at most a year ahead,
and junior managers just a few weeks ahead, top managers
needed to think at least ten or fifteen years ahead.
Jaques discovered that in some Japanese organisations
strategic thinking stretched to 250 years ahead. Such
thinking implies a huge business cycle, within which other
smaller cycles would grow and die.

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WHAT GOES UP
...
The cyclical nature of things means that at any one time you
can assess where you are on your present cycle of activity
and decide what you should be doing to manage change.
If, for example, you are struggling to make something work
right now, you can be sure that with persistence, learning
and adjustment, the cycle will in time take you upwards. If,
on the other hand, things are going well right now, you need
to be aware that, unless you think about the next cycle of
change, things will in time run out of steam and start to
decline.
The knack is to work out what cycle you're on, how long it
will last and where you are on it at any particular time.

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ENCOURAGE NEW THINKING
In order to move out of one cycle of activity into a new one,
you need to encourage a steady stream of ideas. Within the
organisation you can do this in a number of ways...
1. use the young who are not bound by old ways of doing
things
2. employ outsiders to see things from a different
perspective
3. institute an organisation-wide and continuous
programme of idea-generation
4. ask the people who do the job.
"There are three types of employee who are potentially the
most valuable to you: newcomers because they have
escaped the corporate training plan; young people because
they have more creativity; and those on the periphery
because they are closer to change." (Gary Hamel)

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MTL Course Topics
A POLICY OF INNOVATION
A policy of innovation is necessary to make the most of the
potential within an organisation. To do this...
1. institute forward-thinking as part of all managers and
team leaders' responsibilities
2. let everyone know that to do their job they need to
think of how the job can change
3. make idea-generation culturally acceptable. Allow
people to think crazily, even absurdly, about what is
possible.
4. above all, listen, and act on what you hear.
The packaging firm, 3M, have one of the most advanced
policies of innovation. Their aim is for 30% of all sales to
come from products introduced in the previous four years
and 10% of sales from those introduced in the previous year.
All technical staff are expected to devote 15% of their time
to working on projects of their own invention.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
IMAGINEERING
The word "imagineering" is a combination of imagination,
the art of thinking what is possible, and engineering, the art
of doing what is possible. It is a combination of the possible
and the practical.
Imagineering requires people to...
1. question the status quo
2. adapt old ways of doing things to new ideas. For
example, the ball-point pen was a model for roll-on
deodorant.
3. be open to chance discoveries. For example,
shatterproof glass was discovered by a chemist who
accidentally broke a bottle filled with liquid plastic.
4. turn familiar problems on their head by re-framing
them. Thus, work isn't just a 9 to 5 activity but a chance
to grow; a job isn't just a list of duties but a way to serve
others.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
HUNCHES
Hunches are important when thinking about ideas for
change because they originate in the creative part of the
brain. Like intuition, hunches are based on a mix of personal
experience, skill and a feel for things. A good idea usually
needs to feel right before we can take it further.
Polar explorer Robert Swan has described how a hunch that
his expedition should cut their rations was the only reason
they had anything left to eat when they reached the South
Pole.
Human intuition can be superior to pure knowledge. Chess
Grand Master, Gary Kasparov, accepted a challenge to play a
series of chess matches against the Big Blue computer which
had access to four million moves on the chessboard each
minute. Yet Kasparov won the series.

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PREDICTIONS
Having well-researched ideas, hunches, intuition and market
intelligence does not necessarily lead to the correct choices
for new cycles of activity. Even the most renowned get it
wrong.
1. "Inventions have long since reached their limit and I see
no hope for further development." (Julius Sextus
Frontinus, Roman engineer, 1st century AD)
2. "What, sir! Would you make a ship sail against the wind
and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray
you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such
nonsense." (Napoleon Bonaparte)
3. Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" (H.M.Warner)
4. "We don't like their sound and guitar music is on the
way out." (Decca rejecting the Beatles in 1962)
5. “If I’d thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the
experiment. The literature was full of examples that said
you can’t do this.” (Spencer Silver on the work that led
to discovering the unique adhesives for 3m post-it
notes)

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TIMING
You can never be certain exactly where you are on your
present cycle of activity. Nor do you know for certain when
the best time for change is. Timing is often a matter of
instinct and intuition as well as experience and judgment.
if you institute a change too early, you are in danger of
devoting resources to the change that still need to be
devoted to existing activities
if you institute a change too late, your present cycle will be
running out of steam and so cannot feed the new cycle with
resources and energy.
"There is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more
doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to
initiate a new order of things." (Niccolo Machiavelli)

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
JEAN RE-ENGINEERING
Levi-Strauss, the clothing firm, is a privately-owned
company with a long history of innovation. It operates in 30
European countries.
In 1994, it was clear that, although the business dominated
its market, certain areas such as customer service needed
radical change. So began a re-engineering process that
added a new cycle of change on top of functions such as
marketing and manufacturing that weren't affected.
Levi-Strauss carried out the changes in line with their
mission of respect for employees and customers. A
company-wide education and training programme was
undertaken. Some jobs changed dramatically and there
were casualties. Half the employees at one warehouse in
Northampton lost their jobs when it became a high-tech
distribution centre. Today, the period of change continues at
an even greater pace.

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
CONCURRENT CYCLES
When you institute a new activity while still immersed in an
existing activity you need to work on two concurrent cycles
at once. One cycle is at its early stages of planning,
preparing and innovative thinking; the other cycle is at the
later stages of production, predictability and routine
procedure.
Managing concurrent cycles is a recipe for chaos, paradox,
contradiction and turmoil. To others, it can look messy and
unmanageable, but to you it is an inevitable way of
managing the present and the future.
"Without question, the most desirable management skill
will be the ability to manage change. This is one of the
rarest and most difficult skills to learn." (Sir John Harvey-
Jones)

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NEW BLOOD
Many long-established organisations have faced up to the
need to institute new cycles of activity while managing their
existing operations. Singer is a case in point.
Singer, the sewing machine company, recognised that in
their traditional markets, home sewing in the second part of
the 20th century was a thing of the past. They developed
new cycles of change before their traditional ones declined.
They now operate in electronics and aerospace, having
made simulators on the Space Shuttle.
"Every growing organism grows into maturity, levels off and
dies, unless there is new life, new blood, new activity, new
ideas." (W. Clement Stone)

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DON'T STAND STILL
When Joan put her notice in as a marketing executive to go
freelance, everyone was surprised. She was good at her job;
she had been with the organisation three years; she was
popular and well-liked.
When questioned by her puzzled manager, Joan admitted...
"No, there's nothing wrong with the Company or the job.
It's just that for a while now, I've started to find things too
easy. I feel on top of things and there's little more to learn. If
I stayed around any longer, I'd start to get complacent. This
way, I've set myself some new and challenging goals while I
still have the energy and motivation to learn.“
"A man grows tired by standing still." (Chinese proverb)

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MTL Course Topics
JOSEPH THE CHANGE MASTER
The story of Joseph in the Biblical book of Genesis is a story
about the management of the Ancient Egyptian economy
based on the natural cycle of good harvests followed by
bad.
Following Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat cows and seven thin
cows, Joseph was able to foresee a seven year cycle of
plenty followed by a seven year cycle of famine. This
enabled him to choose the best moment on the cycle of
plenty to start planning for the cycle of famine. He stored
enough grain for the forthcoming cycle to ensure that Egypt
did not starve.
"The seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of
Egypt were ended;
And the seven years of dearth began to come...and the
dearth was in all lands.
But in the land of Egypt there was bread." (Genesis 42 verse
53)

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Change Management
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Managing the Change Cycle
Change Management
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
Managing the Change Cycle
Change Management
MTL Course Topics