“Change-Masters: Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work”

1. This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation • In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button • Select “Meeting Minder” • Select the “Action Items” tab • Type in action items as they come up • Click OK to dismiss this box • This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered. “Change-Masters: Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work” Source: Rosabeth Moss Kanter Professor, Harvard Business School

2. Definition of a “Change Master” • “… those people and organizations adept at the art of anticipating the need for, and of leading, productive change.” • Kanter, The Change Masters, Unwin Paperbacks, London, 1990.

3. Main Trait of a Change Master • “ … corporate entrepreneurs … who measure themselves not by the standards of the past (how far they have come) but by visions of the future (how far they have yet to go).” • Kanter, p.27f

4. History and the Future • “The change master is partly a historian who knows what pieces of the past to honor and preserve, while moving toward a different future, but that is not the same as letting the past define the future.” • Kanter, p.33

5. The Three Waves of Activity in a Prototypical Innovation • 1. Problem definition. • Acquisition and application of information to shape a feasible, focussed project • 2. Coalition Building. • Developing network of backers who agree to provide resources and/or support

6. The Three Waves of Activity in a Prototypical Innovation • 3. Mobilization. • Investment of acquired resources, information, and support in the project • activation of the project’s working team

7. Eight Classic Tactics of Change • 1. Waiting it out. • Useful when entrepreneurs have no tools with which to counter the opposition directly • 2. Wearing them down. • Continuing to repeat the same argument and not giving ground

8. Eight Classic Tactics of Change • 3. Appealing to larger principles. • Tying the innovation to an unassailable value or person • 4. Inviting them in. • finding a way that an opponent might share the “spoils” of innovation

9. Eight Classic Tactics of Change • 5. Sending emissaries to smooth the way and plead the case. • Picking diplomats on the project team to visit critics periodically and present them with information • 6. Displaying support. • Asking sponsors for a visible demonstration of backing

10. Eight Classic Tactics of Change • 7. Reducing the stakes. • De-escalating the number of losses or changes implied by the innovation • 8. Warning the critics. • Letting them know they would be challenged in important public forums

11. Core Value of These Tactics • Each of the 8 tactics stresses the need for change-masters to be “masters of the use of participation” • Not authoritarian but collaborative and participatory

12. How Corporate Entrepreneurs Produce Innovative Achievements • 1. Persuading • 2. Teaming • formal and informal coalition building • 3. Frequent sharing of information • staff meetings, brain-storms, scheduled and informal conversations

13. How Corporate Entrepreneurs Produce Innovative Achievements • 4. Seeking input from others • needs of users, suggestions of subordinates, review by peers • 5. Showing “political sensitivity” • understanding others’ stake in project • 6. Demonstrating willingness to share the rewards and recognition

14. The Right Change • The right people. • Uses the people with ideas beyond the organization’s established practice to form vision

15. The Right Change • The right places. • Integrative environments that support innovation and encourage the building of coalitions and teams to support and implement vision

16. The Right Change • The right times. • “Those moments in the flow of an organization’s history when it is possible to reconstruct reality on the basis of accumulated innovations to shape a more productive and successful future.” (p. 306)

17. Conclusion • Change-masters are able to bring about tactical Kingdom change in congregations when they are the • right people • in the right place • at the right time.

18. This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation • In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button • Select “Meeting Minder” • Select the “Action Items” tab • Type in action items as they come up • Click OK to dismiss this box • This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered. “Change-Masters: Corporate Entrepreneurs at Work” www.rasnet.org John.chandler@vbmb.org Copy right John Chandler, 2000