Gibbons - The science of successful organizational change : how leaders set strategy, change behavior, and create an agile culture

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How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture

Paul Gibbons

Publisher: Paul Boger
Editor-in-Chief: Amy Neidlinger
Executive Editor: Jeanne Glasser Levine
Development Editor: Natasha Wolmers
Operations Specialist: Jodi Kemper
Cover Designer: Alan Clements
Managing Editor: Kristy Hart
Project Editor: Elaine Wiley
Copy Editor: Karen Annett
Proofreader: Jess DeGabriele
Senior Indexer: Cheryl Lenser
Compositor: Nonie Ratcliff
Manufacturing Buyer: Dan Uhrig

2015 by Paul Gibbons

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Company and product names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing May 2015

ISBN-10: 0-13-400033-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-400033-6

Pearson Education LTD.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015934399

Organizational change is a huge industry filled with buzzwords and fads and suffering from an unacceptably high failure rate. Paul Gibbons applies scientifically founded, rigorous thought and practical wisdom to this charlatan-filled domain, and produces actionable, sensible, evidence-based insights that can make change efforts much more likely to succeed and organizations much more agile and effective.

Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Business School

The best book on change I have read. Paul Gibbons draws from his extensive experience in change management in big businesses and blends it beautifully with his knowledge of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and even derivative trading to produce a highly readable science-based and groundbreaking study of what has gone right and wrong in managing change in the business arena.

David Bennett, former CEO Alliance & Leicester PLC

In my 25 years of working with teams and organizations, this is the first book that actually uses science as the foundation of how organizations learn and develop rather than platitudes and well-worn but erroneous beliefs. One of Gibbons strengths is his willingness to tell it like it is, no matter how sacred the cow. This work will be used by businesses and consultants for many years to come.

Curtis Watkins, Master Coach

Paul Gibbons rethinks change management with a 21st-century approach that exchanges cargo cult management for an evidence-based approach built on neuroscience and complexity sciences. Time is overdue to replace Kotters change model for something better suited for a complex world where change is continuous and not a one-time event, and where creative change continuously drives organizational improvement. Paul has succeeded with this, and in the process distills the best research into a book with a framework and ideas that will resonate with the modern leader and the Agile/Lean community. Buy it, read it, and place it on the bookshelf next to The Halo Effect, Switch, and The Fifth Disciplinein easy reach for rereading.

Rolf E. Hsnen, Founder, Value at Work

Paul Gibbons has made a valuable contribution to the store of knowledge on change strategy and strategic decision making. By applying the latest findings from the science of decision making to his 25 years of practical in-the-tranches experience counseling executive teams, Gibbons has enabled anyone engaged in strategic decision making to raise their game.

Dan Sweeney, Director, IEE, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver

Few people bring Gibbons expertise, breadth of scholarship, depth of understanding, and range of experience to that most important of business practices: leading change.

Robert Entenman, Global Head E-business for a major European bank

To my parents and their bequest, the hunger for
knowledge; and to science, which reveals both the
fragility and vast potential of the human intellect.

It takes a lot to build a career, and many people, mentors, clients, colleagues, and bosses were supportive beyond what was sometimes rational. Thanks to Ray Aldag, Julie Baddeley, Nichola Batley, Aidan Brennan, Richard Briance, Peter Burditt, Cari Caldwell, Simon Collins, Tom Dolan, Maureen Erasmus, Jerry Goldstein, Kelvin Hard, Sigi Hoenle, Dennis Keegan, Kate Larsen, Mike Lewis (consultant), Michael Lewis (author), Jamie Maxwell-Grant, Frank Milton, Steve Oristaglio, AJ Pape, Paul Reyniers, Anita Roddick, Tom Ryves, Makoto Sagi, Bassam Shakhashiri, James Shaw, Rob Shephard, Tim Stanyon, James Shaw, John Stewart, Paul Taffinder, Val Thompson, Mark Wade, Ian Wells, Ian Wilson, Chuck West, Roger Wyn-Jones, Mark Young, and Hyuk Yu.

Many people reviewed early drafts of chapters while they were still unreadable. They were kind enough to say directly when that was the casea sign of true friendship. This includes Alan Arnett, Charlie Birch, Sarah Boulton, Francis Briers, Olivier Compagne, Pete Cuozzo, Trevor Davis, Geri Gibbons, John Gibbons, Pete Hamill, John Holt, Maz Iqbal, Rob Goathem, Stephen Guise, Akira Hirai, Claire Martin, Larry Pearlman, Tim Ragan, Brian Robertson, Surekha Subramaniyan, Aine Watkins, Curtis Watkins, and Andrew Williams.

A number of researchers were extraordinarily generous exchanging ideas electronically or providing guidance at various stages. These include Rob Briner, Dan Hausman, Helen Hughes, Phillippa Lally, Jan Lorenz, Scott Lilienthal, Mark Keil, James Kuklinski, Brendan Nyhan, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Nassim Taleb. They bear no responsibility for any wayward ideas in the final product.