About The Change Playbook

The Change Playbook is dedicated to developing, aggregating, presenting, and educating about actionable tactics that achieve the change management objectives and make change stick.

It results from years of practical experience with many organizations; from studying and practicing sales, marketing, and psychology, and other social sciences.

About Us

The Change Playbook is a change management site property of Institute X Inc. Its purpose is to provide step-by-step do-it-yourself guidance for change leaders based on our years of consulting to and leadership coaching of senior and mid-level managers through transformational changes.

Institute X is a transformation and chagne firm that provides thought leadership, consulting, and coaching.

How We See Change

How The Change Playbook came to be

People readiness is a driving factor. Repeat experience with too many people in organizations made responsible to ensure successful change and, trained or not, lacked the practical experience to make their objectives real. They knew where they had to go, more or less how to get there, but not how to make it happen. Even with a management of change process and a change management plan to follow, they really had no preparation for change and its challenges. We offer a practical action guide.

Philosophy of Change Management

Our fundamental basis is like the main methodologies and change management best practice. People need to be communicated with and engaged. Understanding is best developed through the traditional 5Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why—and of course, eventually, How. (Each method has a version: we like the focus of Prosci’s ADKAR.)

But we also know people don’t always do the right thing—what we want them to do—no matter how often, long, and well we engage them. They do things because they’re persuaded to do them. We also know that sometimes: to change, people need to be changed.

How People Change

People generally change with difficulty and anxiety, usually under duress or threat, and only sometimes for gain. Usually, people change to avoid immediate pain, and they backslide if discomfort can be deferred or if gain is too far in the future (even “next month”). They always need help and support, for a long time, because change is hard (mental) work.

Common Change Management Practice errors

Change Management in organizations is young and evolving. New ways replace the old: sometimes cycling in and out of fashion. What we keep seeing are variations of change management sins that happen with or without communication, training, sponsorship, standard procedures and tools, and so forth. A few such sins:

Presume this change is like the last one.
Assume people will do the right thing because it’s rational, the data proves it, and the “case” is proven.
Quit too soon/Don’t following through.
Underestimate the resilience and resourcefulness of people that don’t want to change.
Don’t appreciate the shifting forms resistance can take.
Ignore how change in an organization must have real, active leadership.

Dealing with Resistance

Change management is nothing if not effectively overcoming resistance to change. Whether individual or political (i.e., turf-based), potential or actual, and especially metastasizing resistance, action to remove these impediments to success must be the focus of change management and change leaders. Otherwise change management’s value is merely orchestrating (training and communication) experts and encouraging project leaders to do their jobs. That’s little more than good project management.

Does executing prescribed procedures and completing checklists achieve this goal? Let’s put it this way: It can’t hurt, and it just might help. But it won’t be enough to succeed