Article at a glance:
In an emergency, companies usually find it possible to rally managers and employees, but in the absence of an obvious crisis, attempts to transform organizations typically fail. Yet such transformations can succeed. The authors suggest four conditions that must be met if companies are to transform themselves in the absence of a crisis, as well as techniques they can use to create these conditions. Among the most powerful is the "transformation story": a more practical, personal, and lasting way to build commitment for change than the common "cascade" process.
The take-away
An unsuccessful change effort can leave an organization less capable than it was before of delivering the right service to the right market at the right time—and unlikely to attempt change again. Without a crisis, prescriptive, top-down changes rarely work; instead, executives must build the shared commitment that makes it possible for an organization to endure setbacks.