Stephen Billing’s Blog

Do you recognise any of these six fallacies in your own change initiative?

Alvesson and Sveningsson in their amazing book "Changing Organizational Culture" identify on pages 162 -163 six fallacies that are common in organisational change work. How many of these are driving your change projects?

• Domination of managerialism in the form of the belief that management is the central and superior actor, and that management’s intentions will drive outcomes.
   
• Overemphasis on planning and design, and ensuing neglect of energy, resources, attention and sensitivity to the process of implementation. I love the word "attention" because I have observed that often managers have their attention so focused on the future, or the plan, that they are oblivious to what is going on in front of their noses.
   
• Assuming the organisation works in a unitary way (i.e. has "one culture") leading to neglecting to work with the diversities of meanings.
   
• Translating complex phenomena like leadership and culture into seemingly simple representations which hide their complex and multifaceted qualities, giving a false impression of what can easily be dealt with.
   
• Believing in the quick fix, where rather limited instructions, resources and time are supposed to bring about great improvements.
   
• Underestimating the need for expressiveness and capturing the hearts and minds of people – through an over-reliance on planning and instrumentalism.