1. Do you want to help your
5!M
colleagues cope with change or
excite them? Do you want your
subordinates to act as hired hands
or committed volunteers?
Inspiring change is about shifting
INSPIRING
the change experience from bad to
good, and from good to great. It is CHANGE
about efficient management and
effective leadership. But it is more “You cannot solve a problem with
than this. It is about finding your the same thinking that caused the
voice and helping others to find problem.’
theirs. Albert Einstein
Inspiring change is not a ‘soft’
option. It is not a recipe for
avoiding discipline and
confrontation. It acknowledges and
uses these dimensions of change.
But it does so for a purpose worth
pursuing. With such a purpose, it
INSPIRING CHANGE
Richard J Badham
is possible to create and increase Macquarie Graduate School of Management
T: 0417 207554 E-mail richard.badham@mgsm.edu.au
the energy necessary for positive
and sustainable change.
In

2. S T R AT E G Y T O I M P L E M E N TAT I O N
“unless and until we are wi#ing to come to terms with organizational
power and influence, and admit that the ski#s of getting things done
are as important as the ski#s of figuring out what out do, our
organizations wi# fa# further and further behind.”
J.Pfeffer, Managing with Power, p.12
C O N T R O L
Managing Change is the best and worst of phrases. It performs a valuable task. It focuses
Change, Transition and Development
attention onto practically and effectively influencing people and events. Yet it also misleads. It
implies that this involves controlling change. It suggests an objective process of applying techniques
Change has to be managed. Managing change is a
and planning programs that deliver certain results. Yet the effective exercise of influence is
master technique. It plans and budgets, organizes and
personal and uncertain, confusing and confronting. It requires the understanding and control of
staffs, monitors and controls, and delivers a commercial oneself as well as others. Managing change is not an objective technique of control but the art of
influencing oneself and other people to achieve a purpose.
change: quality outcomes to stakeholders on time and
within budget. It pursues an engineering logic.
P E O P L E
Transitions have to be led. Leading change captures Managing Change attempts to remedy an imbalance in modern organisations. This is excessive
attention and value being attached to rationality, systems and structure, and relative neglect of the
hearts and minds - forges a community with a collective
emotions, mindsets and motivations of people. In Managing Change, this means being concerned
purpose. It establishes direction, aligns people
with the practicalities of implementation as well as the rigorous formulation of strategy. It also
around this direction, motivates and supports those
means considering the people component of organisational innovation. Such initiatives involve
who have to do the work, and brings about a real and
changing people’s actions and behavior as well as systems and structures. Detailed attention to
sustainable cultural transition. It follows a medical such issues is not enough, however. There is a need to combat the institutional bias against
considering such issues in the first place. This occurs in both strategy and innovation. Managing
doctor-patient logic, diagnosing ills in the corporate
change is a core capability not a people ‘add on’.
organism, prescribing cures and healing sickness and
pathology.
P U R P O S E
Managing change is about achieving purposes but this cannot be separated from the nature of
Development has to be inspired. Inspiring change
CHANGE!
these purposes and how they are created. Structural changes are intertwined with cultural
encourages the finding and expressing of voice. It
transitions, and these are inseparable from reflections on meaning and purpose. Ultimately,
questions and challenges the value of force of habit
managing change is about how we meaningfully grapple with the ongoing changing character of
and authority. This includes goals and purposes that
ourselves, others and the institutions within which we live. The 5M Action Framework is
guide change and transition. It encourages individual designed to provide a broad, practical and action oriented framework to guide such reflections.
It provides advice, methods, and guidelines about handling change in organisations. Yet it also
and group authenticity. It is critical, reflective and
encourages and supports critical reflection on how we handle change in ourselves as well as
positive. It combines the logic of the radical, the
others, and how as individuals and groups we create meaning and purpose in changing.
jester and the lama.