Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas (Paperback)

By Linda Rising and Mary Lynn Manns

Book Overview

"All that have ever tried to impose change in their organization will immediately recognize and truly value the in-depth knowledge and experience captured in this book. It contains a collection of eye-openers that is a treasure chest for pioneers of new organizational ideas, A fantastic toolbox for use in future missions "
--Lise B. Hvatum, product development manager, Schlumberger

"If you have need of changing your organization, and especially of introducing new techniques, then you want to understand what is in this book. It will help you avoid common pitfalls that doom many such projects and will show you a clear path to success. The techniques are derived from the experience of many individuals and organizations. Many are also fun to apply. This stuff is really cool--and really hot."
--Joseph Bergin, professor of computer science, Pace University, New York

"If change is the only guarantee in life, why is it so hard to do? As this book points out, people are not so much resistant to change itself as they are to being changed. Mary Lynn and Linda have successfully used the pattern form to capture and present the recurring lessons of successful change efforts and have placed a powerful knowledge resource in the hands of their readers."
--Alan O'Callaghan, researcher, Software Technology Research Laboratory, De Montfort University, United Kingdom

"The most difficult part of absorbing patterns, or any technology, into an organization is overcoming the people issues. The patterns in this book are the documentation of having gone through that experience, giving those that dare push the envelope a head start at success."--David E. DeLano, IBM Pervasive Computing

"If you have ever wondered how you could possibly foster any cultural changes in your organization, in this book you will find a lot of concrete advice for doing so. I recommend that everyone read this book who has a vast interest in keeping his or her organization flexible and open for cultural change."
--Jutta Eckstein, Independent Consultant, Objects In Action Author of Agile Software Development in the Large

48 Patterns for Driving and Sustaining Change in Your Organization

Change. It's brutally tough to initiate, even harder to sustain. It takes too long. People resist it.

But without it, organizations lose their competitive edge. Fortunately, you can succeed at making change. In Fearless Change, Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising illuminate 48 proven techniques, or patterns, for implementing change in organizations or teams of all sizes, and show you exactly how to use them successfully.

Find out how to

Understand the forces in your organization that drive and retard change Plant the seeds of change Drive participation and buy-in, from start to finish Choose an "official skeptic" to sharpen your thinking Make your changes appear less threatening Find the right timing and the best teaching moments Sustain your momentum Overcome adversity and celebrate success

Inspired by the "pattern languages" that are transforming fields from software to architecture, the authors illuminate patterns for every stage of the change process: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. These flexible patterns draw on the experiences of hundreds of leaders. They offer powerful insight into change-agent behavior, organizational culture, and the roles of every participant.

Best of all, they're easy to use--and they work

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0134395255
• ISBN13: 9780134395258
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Change will always be hard, but this book helps a lot

Change is hard. I've been part of companies that merged, were acquired, acquired others, downsized drastically, changed the CEO, moved corporate headquarters to another state and completely changed their target market. The change was difficult in each of these circumstances. That's not particularly surprising. What is surprising is that change is also difficult when doing something as seemingly simple as changing the company health plan. I wish I'd read this book before going through those changes. A large part of my current work is in helping companies manage the transition from how they currently develop software to developing software with an "agile process." The book codified some of the things I've done for years without thinking about why but more importantly it also presented ideas I hadn't thought of. For example, the "Champion Skeptic" pattern says to designate a skeptical, strong opinion leader to be the "official skeptic." I've always made a point of involving these skeptics because they can become your best advocates if you convert them. However, I've experimented with the idea as presented here and it works well. Change will remain hard, even after reading this book. But, you'll be much better prepared and you should find many of the patterns here very helpful.

Powerful, yet simple, change toolkit

I had found myself moderately successful at introducing new ideas and influencing change in my organizations, but never knew why, or how to improve my ability to influence and sustain the change effort. The lightbulb was illuminated immediately upon getting a few patterns into this book- I had been, in one way or another, using some of these patterns without realizing it. Opportunities I had failed to take advantage of in the past became obvious as well in many patterns that were new to me, and in the past went unrecognized (next time, they will either be easy to spot or part of the plan in the first place!) Once you are able to recognize techniques as patterns, influence becomes something much more controllable. This is a powerful, easy-to-use (and reuse) toolkit for introducing ideas and influencing change. I believe that those experienced in influencing change will find a well thought out set of techniques and those unsure of even how to start will have a great roadmap and set of practices to start with and to invoke as-needed as their change efforts evolve.

Understanding How to Make Change Happen

In addition to excellent, well written, patterns that tell you what to do, this books is full of stories that help you to understand how to use the patterns to influence people, overcome roadblocks, and spread new ideas. Anyone who has new ideas to share will benefit from this book including: Managers and Team members, Professionals and Volunteers, people in industry and those in community organizations. This book is one that I will reference frequently and share with others.

My best book of the year 2004

While rapid change has always been a fundamental component of the computing field, recent changes have been far more substantial and difficult to deal with. In the past, changes were generally things like the introduction of a new language or a change in the structure of an old language. While these were difficult, experienced IT workers grew to accept them as part of the job. However, the recent changes are far more significant and often differences in kind rather than differences in degree. Previously, collaboration between programmers could usually be handled by a gathering in a meeting room. Now, with the globalization of a project, organizing a collaboration literally is a difference between night and day. While it is daytime for some of the workers, for those on the other side of the world it is nighttime. There are also cultural, social and language differences to be factored into the communication protocols. Writing the source code is constantly shrinking as a relative percentage of the effort needed to create a software package. Developers are being forced to learn more about the business side and need to talk intelligently and persuasively about return on investment, time to market and profit/loss expectations. Manns and Rising describe fundamental methods that can be used to introduce change into an organization without having the cure be worse than the disease. As the presence of the word "patterns" in the title indicates, these are not specific recommendations for particular types of changes. They are general formulas for smoothly transitioning a social and political structure from one systemic belief to another. Since organizations are group entities where everyone shares some common beliefs and practices and those beliefs and practices cannot be changed by a mere decree, Manns and Rising provide advice that can aid nearly all companies. Generally, the effectiveness of the aid will rise with the size of the company, as clearly small one or two-person companies can probably introduce change easily. The solution to most problems faced by a company is to modify a process within that company. Since the changes in IT organizations have increased in magnitude over the last few years, this has grown more difficult. Manns and Rising show you how to prepare the ground for the change, which is the first step in solving most problems. I ranked it the best book of the year 2004 in my best books of the year column for the online "Journal of Object Technology."