Mapping the Dimensions of Organizational Change

Friday, April 20, 2007

You can’t talk about organizational culture without eventually getting around to talking about organizational change. So in the spirit of recent Herculean mapping projects, such as the Human Genome Project and the mathematical structure known as E8, I am going to start by laying out all the different dimensions I know of when it comes to organizational change. I invite others to join in and add dimensions that I miss (the E8 project included 18 mathematicians using their super-computers to lay out a 453,060 x 453,060 matrix). To keep this effort somewhat manageable, I’m going to tackle one dimension or continuum per post. Let’s start with the role that the external environment plays in organizational change.

Dimension: External Environment

• the degree of force (speed, impact, rate, and breadth) of external changes.
• the degree to which the organization’s competitors are making changes in response to the outside forces.
• the degree to which the senior leadership attaches importance to a competitor’s actions.
• the degree to which the media are characterizing the external environment and the quality of the various organization’s responses to date.
• the degree to which the organization is physically located to the source of the change.
• the degree to which the Board of Directors (both individually and collectively) is:
• paying attention to these forces;
• using data, anecdotal evidence, or intuition to characterize the external environment;
• attaching importance to these forces;
• taking these outside forces seriously;
• concluding these outside forces require the internal organization to adapt;
• communicating its assessment of the external environment to senior leadership.
• the degree to which the shareholders (both individually and collectively) are:
• paying attention to these forces;
• using data, anecdotal evidence, or intuition to characterize the external environment;
• attaching importance to these forces;
• taking these outside forces seriously;
• concluding these outside forces require the internal organization to adapt;
• communicating its assessment of the external environment to senior leadership and the Board of Directors.
• the degree to which senior leadership (both individually and collectively) is:
• paying attention to these forces;
• using data, anecdotal evidence, or intuition to characterize the external environment;
• attaching importance to these forces;
• taking these outside forces seriously;
• concluding these outside forces require the internal organization to adapt;
• making plans to respond to these forces;
• concluding which parts of the organization need to change and how quickly.
• the degree to which middle management:
• buy into senior leadership’s assessment of the external forces;
• trust the analysis and judgment of senior leadership.
• the degree to which rank-and-file employees:
• understand the external forces and their potential impact on the organization’s future success;
• believe these forces will have the consequences that senior leadership has spelled out;
• trust senior leadership’s judgment and assessment of the external environment;


Future postings will cover a different dimension of change. Maybe together we’ll be able to pull off this Dynamics of Change Mapping Project after all.