Synopses & Reviews
"Lawler and Worley have done it. Built to Change captures the change challenge faced by most executives and offers practical tools that not only dissect change but provide hope that the constancy of change need not be feared but relished.?They explain how to anticipate leadership challenges and make them manageable.?This gift is why Lawler continues to reign in this profession as the thought leader for ideas with impact."
—Dave Ulrich, professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and partner, The RBL Group
"Built to Change is a dramatic departure from the tired approach of looking back at successful companies and identifying elements of excellence. Lawler and Worley have broken new ground in helping companies to look forward and understand the requirements for success in a constantly changing world."
—David A. Nadler, chairman, Mercer Delta Consulting, LLC
"The absence of change is just another description for death in business as in life.?Ed Lawler and Chris Worley seize on this point to provide an insightful look into what makes a business not only survive but thrive in today's global marketplace. The book is concise, comprehensive, and a must-read for anyone responsible for ensuring the success of a company, large or small."
—Patrick L. Johnson, president and CEO, Pro-Dex, Inc.
"This is an important book for organizations positioning themselves for future success. It provides insight about the issues companies need to consider to ensure success."
—Ben R. Leedle Jr., CEO, American Healthways
Review
Back in the good old days, when news travelled at the speed of telex and the world seemed big, change was something that happened to companies once every few years.
Chief executives would initiate "change programmes" to rid their organisations of old habits and inculcate new ones. Strategy would be re-examined, priorities reset, jobs redesigned and reporting lines redrawn.
To be sure, these initiatives came with a variety of labels attached. In the 1970s, diversification and job enrichment were the watchwords. The 1980s belonged to strategic focus and quality. The 1990s gave us business process re-engineering and e-commerce. But the underlying assumption was always the same: change was periodic, planned and uncomfortable, given that the natural state of organisations was reckoned to be equilibrium.
The snag is that these days news travels so fast - and competitive advantage is so fleeting - that the planned approach has proved woefully inadequate. Change programmes come and go so quickly that managers and employees can barely keep up. The result is dysfunctional organisations with low morale and poor customer service. Yet chief executives who decide to slow the pace of change risk being overtaken by competitors.
If you think this is an exaggeration, take a look at Built to Change, a splendid new book by Ed Lawler and Chris Worley, both of the University of Southern California's Centre for Effective Organisations. As the authors note: "An analysis of Fortune 1000 corporations shows that between 1973 and 1983, 35 per cent of companies in the top 20 were new. The number of new companies rises to 45 per cent when the comparison is between 1983 and 1993. It increases even further, to 60 per cent, when the comparison is between 1993 and 2003. Any bets to where it will be between 2003 and 2013?"
Yes, a handful of companies do seem to be able to hang in there. The management practices of this select few were examined in Built to Last, by Jerry Porras and Jim Collins, published in 1994. But surviving is hardly the same as thriving. About half of the companies featured in Built to Last have fallen from grace since the book appeared. The same fate befell many of the companies featured in 1982's In Search of Excellence. The disquieting truth is that very, very few companies (including Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota and a handful of others) manage to sustain high performance over long periods.
The problem, argue Profs Lawler and Worley, is that we continue to design organisations with stability in mind. Executives need to think about building companies not only to last but also to change, in the sense of responding to the competitive environment without going through the trauma of planned change.
The message is not entirely new. Management writers such as Tom Peters and Rosabeth Moss Kanter first took issue with the planned change paradigm more than 20 years ago. They argued instead for corporate cultures that rewarded innovation and let change bubble up from below. More recently, managers have been urged to draw inspiration from complex adaptive systems found in nature by creating organisations that operate "on the edge of chaos". Alternatively, they have been told to make their bureaucracies more like markets by introducing internal competition for ideas, capital and labour. Enron, the energy trader, you may recall, was a standard-bearer for many of these trendy ideas before it became a byword for malfeasance.
What makes Built to Change worth reading is its careful attention to the unglamorous stuff of management - organisational design, decision-making processes, measurement and reward systems, recruitment criteria and so on. Yes, corporate culture is important. Yes, internal market mechanisms may work sometimes. But of more immediate concern are the policies and processes that underpin day-to-day work.
If we want our company to be more responsive to changing circumstances, how should we organise ourselves? (Answer: in self-managing teams and small close-to-the-customer business units.) What kind of people should we hire? (Normal folk will do just fine.) How should we appraise individual performance? (Do not exempt top management, measure outcomes as well as behaviour, avoid forced ranking.)
The ultimate Built to Change company? Profs Lawler and Worley offer nothing so gauche as a league table. My vote goes to Toyota, which has over the years shifted its source of competitive advantage from low price to high quality to sharp market segmentation and eco-friendly technology.
All in all, this is classic Ed Lawler. A serious student of organisations before many of today's chief executives were born, he has collected more detailed data about the management practices of more companies over a longer period than almost any other researcher. His writing is research-based, relevant, long on insight and short on extravagant claims. For the record, Built to Change is his 38th book.
My only quibble is with the notion that the average person will always embrace change if the organisational context is correct. Personal experience tells me that change - even voluntary change - always involves fear, uncertainty and elements of loss. I will devote next week's column, my last after 15 years as an Financial Times journalist, to this piquant topic. (The Financial Times Limited, 22 February 2006)
"...bold, fascinating..." (getAbstract, August 2006)
Review
"Lawler and Worley have done it.
Built to Changecaptures the change challenge faced by most executives and offers practical tools that not only dissect change but provide hope that the constancy of change need not be feared but relished. They explain how to anticipate leadership challenges and make them manageable. This gift is why Lawler continues to reign in this profession as the thought leader for ideas with impact."
--Dave Ulrich, professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and partner, The RBL Group
"Built to Changeis a dramatic departure from the tired approach of looking back at successful companies and identifying elements of excellence. Lawler and Worley have broken new ground in helping companies to look forward and understand the requirements for success in a constantly changing world."
--David A. Nadler, chairman and CEO, Mercer Delta Consulting, LLC
"The absence of change is just another description for death in business as in life. Ed Lawler and Chris Worley seize on this point to provide an insightful look into what makes a business not only survive but thrive in today's global marketplace. The book is concise, comprehensive and a must read for anyone responsible for ensuring the success of a company, large or small."
--Patrick L. Johnson, president and CEO, Pro-Dex, Inc.
"This is an important book for organizations positioning themselves for future success. It provides insight about the issues companies need to consider to ensure success"
--Ben R. Leedle Jr., CEO, American Healthways, Inc.
"This is classic Ed Lawler. A serious student of organisations before many of today's chief executives were born, he has collected more detailed data about the management practices of more companies over a longer period than almost any other researcher. His writing is research-based, relevant, long on insight and short on extravagant claims."- Financial Times (London)
"A survival guide for organizations of the future!"
-- Marshall Goldsmith, executive coach and author is the author of The Leader of the Future, Global Leadership: The Next Generationand Coaching for Leadership.
Synopsis
In this groundbreaking book, organizational effectiveness experts Edward Lawler and Christopher Worley show how organizations can be "built to change" so they can last and succeed in today's global economy.??Instead of striving to create a highly reliable Swiss watch that consistently produces the same behavior, they argue organizations need to be designed in ways that stimulate and facilitate change.?
Built to Change focuses on identifying practices and designs that organizations can adopt so that they are able to change. As Lawler and Worley point out, organizations that foster continuous change
- Are closely connected to their environments
- Reward experimentation
- Learn about new practices and technologies
- Commit to continuously improving performance
- Seek temporary competitive advantages
Built to Change is filled with illustrative examples from companiesProcter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Limited Brands, and Toyotathat have been able to change time and again to meet changing business demands. The book outlines what it takes to become an organization that continuously and rapidly changes. It includes information about creating strategies, structures, reward systems, communication processes, and human resource management practices that are designed to facilitate the ability of an organization to change.
Built to Change includes an online instructor's guide.
Synopsis
In this groundbreaking book, organizational effectiveness experts Edward Lawler and Christopher Worley show how organizations can be built to change so they can last and succeed in today's global economy. Instead of striving to create a highly reliable Swiss watch that consistently produces the same behavior, they argue organizations need to be designed in ways that stimulate and facilitate change. Built to Change focuses on identifying practices and designs that organizations can adopt so that they are able to change. As Lawler and Worley point out, organizations that foster continuous change Are closely connected to their environmentsReward experimentationLearn about new practices and technologiesCommit to continuously improving performanceSeek temporary competitive advantages
Synopsis
In this groundbreaking book, organizational effectiveness experts Edward Lawler and Christopher Worley show how organizations can be "built to change" so they can last and succeed in today's global economy.??Instead of striving to create a highly reliable Swiss watch that consistently produces the same behavior, they argue organizations need to be designed in ways that stimulate and facilitate change.?
Built to Change focuses on identifying practices and designs that organizations can adopt so that they are able to change. As Lawler and Worley point out, organizations that foster continuous change
- Are closely connected to their environments
- Reward experimentation
- Learn about new practices and technologies
- Commit to continuously improving performance
- Seek temporary competitive advantages
Built to Change is filled with illustrative examples from companiesProcter &Gamble, Johnson &Johnson, Limited Brands, and Toyotathat have been able to change time and again to meet changing business demands. The book outlines what it takes to become an organization that continuously and rapidly changes. It includes information about creating strategies, structures, reward systems, communication processes, and human resource management practices that are designed to facilitate the ability of an organization to change.
Built to Change includes an online instructor's guide.
Synopsis
This collection examines how useful research can be achieved and argues that in order to keep organizational research relevant to theory and practice, the approach must deviate from the orthodoxy of positivistic, “pure” research approaches. The contributing authors were selected for their demonstrated ability to conduct useful research, and they bring their unique professional experience to their chapters by describing the choices they make and the tactics they employ.
The core message of this book is that in order to conduct research that is useful, researchers must learn from practice and intentionally position their work so that it finds a pathway to practice. While each chapter can stand alone, the book is crafted to provide multiple complementary perspectives on the topic of useful research. It does an outstanding job of describing what it takes to bridge the gap between theory and practice. It goes beyond advocacy, theoretical debate, and restatements of the problem to focus on the types of research methods that produce useful research. Topics include crafting research programs to yield useful knowledge, academic careers that yield useful knowledge, pathways to practice, institutional agents such as MBA programs and journals.
About the Author
Dr. Susan Mohrman is widely known for her research in the area of organization design and effectiveness and on large-scale change. She has been actively involved as a researcher and/or consultant to a wide variety of organizations instituting innovative management systems and organizational designs. She has worked with a variety of organizations including Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Pfizer, and General Mills. She is the author and co-author of 13 books.
Edward Lawler is a Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and founder and director of the University's Center for Effective Organizations (CEO). Lawler is a consultant to the majority of the Fortune 100. BusinessWeek has proclaimed him one of the top six gurus in the field of management. National television appearances include The Today Show, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC. Lawler is the author and co-author of 43 books.
Table of Contents
Section I: Introduction and Framing 1)Introduction: The Value Stream of Organization and Management Science: Edward Lawler & Sue Mohrman (CEO, USC)
Section II: Exemplars
2)Rob Cross, University of Virginia
3)Amy Edmundson, Harvard University
4)CEO exemplars—Sue and Monty Mohrman (CEO)
Commentary: Richard Hackman, Harvard University
Section III: Bodies of Work that have Influenced Practice
5) Ed Lawler, CEO and Phil Mirvis, Boston College
6) C.K. Prahalad, University of Michigan
7) Mike Beer, Harvard University, emeritus & TruePoint
Commentary: Thoughts on an Academic Career with Impact – Jim O’Toole, University of Denver
Section IV: Pathways: Research to Practice
8) Books with Impact – George Benson, University of Texas, Arlington
9) Collaborations with Consulting Firms/The Role of Consulting Firms – Ruth Wageman
10) Evidence Based Management/Sticky Concepts—Denise Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon
11) Classroom—impact of education—conditions for application, etc. –Paula Jarzabkowski
12) Professional Associations—Workshops and Tools -- Wayne Cascio
13) Organization Development—Chris Worley and Tom Cummings
Practitioner Perspective: Pathways with Impact—Roundtable of Practitioners
Commentary: Gary Latham
Section V: Barriers and Enablers
14) Business Schools/MBA programs – Chris Worley, CEO, and Tom Cummings, USC
15) Journals—Theresa Welbourne, CEO
Roundtable Discussion of Deans, Department Heads and Journal Editors in Attendance
Commentary: Sarah Rynes
Section VI: Putting it All Together – Section Framing by Lawler and Mohrman
16) Reflective Chapter – Andy Van De Ven, University of Minnesota
17) Mohrman and Lawler –Learnings from the Conference and Book: What Academic Research Would Look Like if We Took Seriously a Mandate to do Research that Impacts Theory and Practice.