Change Models

You need to use the below book for 3 references and the rest you can use from good sources. Please read the instructions carefully and write .

Change model: You will choose one model regarding organizational change and explain it in depth. You are to research the model and the leadership behaviours needed to sustain the models change. How does this model fit a chosen organizational needs and abilities?

Given what you know about yourself, and change would you be able to lead the change? Maximum 6 pages. (5 + References)

1) William Bridges Model of Transition

2) Kurt Lewin

3) Kotter’s 8 step change model

4) ADKAR

5) The Mickinsey 7-S model

6) The Nadler-Tushman model

10%

Models for change

WEIGHT

Instructions

Weak

Mid

Solid

Excellent

STRUCTURE

Essay is clearly organized into APA paragraphs, with a table of contents, introduction, body, and conclusion. References and citations are well done

Please double-space your report, ensure that your name in on the cover and the class name, time, the date, page numbers, and bibliography. Use one paragraph per thought and in each paragraph or statement. Please support with citations.

EVIDENCE the model you chose and why it is best for the situation and four your ability to lead the change

All arguments/claims are fully and clearly supported by evidence based on referenced research.

35%

ALL your comments MUST be supported by research evidence that is taken from academic or professional sources which are immediately listed as a reference within the paragraph (NOT Wikipedia).

CONCLUSION-ANALYSIS your summary is to be a critical analysis summarizing the how and the why. This should be supported

25%

I am especially looking for YOUR OWN conclusions and critical thinking about what you have learned from the paper and your research. Please note In own words does not mean you do not site the source of your knowledge about the models

PRESENTATION

Absence of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

10%

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE from web sites or from other students’ papers. Use your own words unless you are quoting a source.

EXCELLENT ENGLISH GRAMMAR IS A MUST!

REFERENCES

Essay includes a variety of sources, each clearly related to the topic.

I expect ASSIGNED TEXTBOOK and at least 3scholarly references that support your paper’s comments using academic (NOT Wikipedia or non-academic web sites) sources. Ensure those references appear within your paper and are cited in full in your references page. More than 90% of references are correctly formatted using APA style.

Demonstration of how it all works for you – Shows personal reflection

15%

Your story your application your learning explain

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD

LIVING CHANGE

A guide to understanding and leading change
in organizations and life

Eli Sopow PhD
Version V 202

Prepared for use in MBA MGMT 643 Change Management University Canada West

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 1

The author

Eli Sopow PhD
Faculty Professor, MBA program
University Canada West
Vancouver BC Canada
www.elisopow.org

Dr. Eli Sopow, a faculty professor at University Canada West and an organization consultant, has 40 years of
national and international award-winning, diverse senior management and leadership experience working in
journalism, as an Associate Deputy Minister in government, the vice-present and partner with an international
consulting firm, and 18 years serving as a civilian member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—Canada’s
national police service. As a consultant his firm provided services to major organizations throughout North and
South America and in Southeast Asia.

At the RCMP Dr. Sopow was Division Director of Research, Analysis, and Strategic Intelligence within the Operations
Strategy Branch. He also served for two years as Research Director of the national RCMP Change Management
Project. In addition, he was a staff instructor in change management, public order protests, and strategic
communications at the RCMP Pacific Region Training Centre. With top-secret security clearance Dr. Sopow’s work
included identifying for senior management critical issues impacting public order and safety and the analysis of
external factors impacting the Division strategic plan.

He has completed employee surveys and analyses at over 500 workplaces including over 15,000 employees. Dr.
Sopow holds a PhD in Human & Organizational Systems, Master’s degrees in both Human Development and
Leadership, and a Certificate in Peer Counselling. His undergraduate studies were in Public Administration. He is
also the author of over 80 emerging issues environmental impact-analyses plus four books dealing with human and
organizational behavior, three books on change and management, plus several peer-reviewed journal articles.

The cover: The graphic on the cover is the mathematical plot trajectory of the
“Lorenz attractor” also commonly called the famous “Butterfly Effect.” It shows
what happens to data projections if just a very small change is made to a formula
with many variables. The discovery was made in

60 by North American theoretical
meteorologist Dr. Edward Lorenz. It is one of the great achievements of twentieth-
century physics and a major contribution to chaos theory. Simply put, it means that
in certain cases a very small change can dramatically change outcomes. The change:
Six decimal places were stored in the computer’s memory: .506127. To save space

on the printout, only three appeared: .506. Lorenz had entered the shorter, rounded-off numbers assuming that
the difference of one part in a thousand was inconsequential. The result was a MAJOR change!

The student
Prepared for continued
reference and workplace use
by the following student at
University Canada West, MBA
program.

Name

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 2

How to use this guide

The purpose of the guide is to give you practical and useful tools to understand the rapidly
changing external environment facing organizations and how their internal workplace
environment can adapt to and lead change. A key message is that all factors are interconnected
to some degree and a change in one can impact all others to varying degrees.

Section 1: Environmental scanning: provides you with new and proven tools to
identify, evaluate, and analyze external environmental factors that impact an
organization, commonly called an environmental scan. It is vital in today’s rapidly moving
world to know which factors have a direct impact on your organization’s goals,
reputation, profitability, and the needs of employees. It is also very important to know
that these factors are interconnected and continually changing.

Section 2: Change management planning: provides the basics of developing a
successful change management plan. There are many existing models of change
management and the UCW 643 course will go over many. They key is to understand
which approaches, or combination of approaches, are best to align an organization’s
internal environment with its external environment. This section deals with the
importance of communication, why change is resisted, and what employees and others
need to know to support change.

Section 3: Changing you: It is very important to understand our own personal
responses to change including our attitudes, behaviors, prejudices, and fears. This
section will help you gain self-awareness that will help you not only live with but lead
change.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 3

Table of contents

Introduction: The Continuous Change Cycle 5
30 facts you need to know about your organization 6
The 10 basics in brief: All involve communication 6

Part 1: Identifying the forces of change: Environmental scanning 7
The need for integrated environmental scanning 8
External environmental factors impacting an organization 9
Internal environmental factors 13
Internal employee systems factors that are connected to
external organization environments 15
Aligning internal environments with external environments 14
The 6-Systems Network 15
Example: What to do, how to do it, and what to do with it 16
Using the Integrated Change Cycle Model environmental scan 17

Step 1: Getting to know the model 17
Step 2: What is outside? Measuring external environmental factors 18
Step 3: How external factors impact reach other 20
Step 4: Measuring internal environmental factors

Step 5: Aligning external with the internal environments 24

Several good sources for environmental scanning 27

Part 2: Developing a Change Management Plan 29
The 10 basics in brief: All involve communication 30
The purpose of a change management plan 31
Organizational change may be any or a combination of the following 32
When successful change (transformation) happens 33
Picking the right change management team 34
“Egosystems” versus “ecosystems” 37
Changing job satisfaction and/or morale 40
Chances of your change actions succeeding 41
Areas where a workplace has more control over change 43
Identifying supporters and detractors to change 45
The “3Ps” of employee needs during change 45
Finding and reducing the fear of change 46
The silent victim language of fear of change 47
How to turn fear into support—and conflict into collaboration 48
Project management and change management 49
Communicating the change action 51
Crafting your message content 52
Emotional, Simple, Personal the ESP of change communications 52
The W.H.O. cares about your change action model 53

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 4

Audiences for change communication 54
Change, gender, multi-culturalism, and diversity in the workplace 57
Hidden communication power within the organization 58
Reaching out to employees and hearing back 59
No such thing as a communications gap 60
Believing is seeing in communications 61
Quick draft communication plan 62
Anticipating and managing conflict during change 63
Do changing behaviors change attitudes? 67
The positive never-ending “chaos” of change 68
Change lessons from complexity science 69
Anicca Wave of change management 69
“Static quo” versus “status quo:” A huge difference in the change continuum 70
Predicting organizational change: The Critical Issues RADAR 71
Handy references 72

Part 3: Changing who you are: 73
Do you know who you are? 74
“Know thyself” Part 1 75
The “Big 5” (OCEAN”) personality test 75
The Gibbs Reflective Cycle 76
Combining your OCEAN results with Gibbs to know yourself 76
“Know thyself” Part 2: The Action Formula 𝒌 ∗𝒆=𝒂 77

References 78

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 5

INTRODUCTION: The Continuous Change Cycle

The Continuous Change Cycle (below) shows how change is an emergent, interconnected,
cyclical process that never goes back to exactly where it started but builds upon its own results,
following a familiar path that continually offers new adventures. Throughout the process
COMMUNICATIONS is a constant.

Follow the steps

1) What is the need for change—both urgency and purpose? WHY is there a need?
2) Is there clear, unwavering, consistent, and clear senior management absolute

commitment and support for change? Do you have a change management team?
3) Does your plan divide steps into easy-to-do actions within your control? It is clear who is

doing what, why, and when?
4) What is the personal, emotional impact (good and bad) that employees see from the

change? How will you change negatives into positives?
5) What are your simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound (SMART)

objectives and are you measuring both outputs (what you are doing) and outcomes (the
impact/results)?

6) What potential conflicts have you identified? Why do they exist? What is your conflict
management strategy? Are you prepared to change course in the face of facts?

7) How will you celebrate each success no matter how small? This builds morale,
teamwork, creates momentum and teaches you how to win.

8) Once your change goal is achieved—what is next? Change does not stand still. What are
your continuous improvement steps?

9) Finally (and ongoing) what changes do you predict over the next 12 to 36 months?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 6

30 facts you need to know about your organization

*not in order of importance

1. Name of organization or unit (obvious maybe…but may not be the official name)

2. Location (both headquarters and branch offices if they exist)

3. Organizational sector (technology, banking, construction, etc.)

4. Mission statement

5. Espoused set of values

6. Strategic plan including key priorities, objectives, and measures

7. Environmental scan

8. Services or products provided

9. Description of organizational culture

10. Description of organization structure

11. Description of organization workplace climate (job satisfaction/morale)

12. Key clients, customers, stakeholders

13. Key competitors

14. The organization’s key suppliers of goods, materials, and contract resources

15. The communication tools you regularly use to communicate to employees, customers,

clients, stakeholder groups, partner organizations, and government agencies

16. Any former change actions and the result

17. Any high-profile public or employee complaints about how the company treats its

employees or operates in the external environment

18. The average socio-demographic profile of your clients / customers

19. How long your organization has been in business

20. The number of employees who work directly and part-time for the organization

21. A breakdown of what units the different employees work in

22. The average age of all employees overall, and by the different work units

23. The percentage of women/men employees overall and in each work unit

24. The percentage of visible minorities in the overall workplace and within each work unit

25. The most common ethnic backgrounds of all employees working in management and

non-management

26. The percentage of your employees who are in supervisory or management, or senior

management positions

27. The percentage of your employees (if any) who belong to a union and have collective

bargaining rights. The expiry date of the current collective bargaining agreement

28. The trend over time in job satisfaction and morale

29. What government laws, by-laws, regulations, and legal requirements does the

organization operate under

30. The attrition rate within your organization (people quitting)

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 7

PART 1
Identifying the forces of change

Organizational Environmental scanning

Using the Integrated Change Cycle©i

Note: This material is related to Dr. Sopow’s research study Aligning Workplace Wellness With
Global Change: An Integrated Model, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Organization
Change Management Emerald Publishing Ltd., (2020).

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 8

The need for integrated environmental scanning

In order to successfully adapt to and lead change you first need to understand what changes
are occurring in both your external and internal organizational environment. This requires
ongoing, thoughtful, analytical and valued-added environmental scanning. As the Society for
Human Resource Management states:

Environmental scanning is a process that systematically surveys and interprets
relevant data to identify external opportunities and threats. An organization
gathers information about the external world, its competitors and itself. The
company should then respond to the information gathered by changing its
strategies and plans when the need arises. ii

Equally important is the following statement:

…a scanning system can be considered effective if it generates awareness of
environmental conditions, knowledge about the organization’s strengths and
weaknesses, and an awareness of existing or impending problems. However,
only those scanning systems that are aligned with the requirements of
organizational context would be expected to be effective.iii

The following tools and formats provide you with the power to identify and rate the nature and
interconnectivity of how external environmental factors impact your internal environment
and vice-versa (it is possible for a company, like Facebook or Google, to dramatically change all
external environments). The process then allows you to make evidence-based decisions of
where change actions need to occur.

It is argued that while many organizations address the urgency of external forces through
environmental scanning methodologies the direct link to internal environmental factors is not
well established. This appears especially true as organizations attempt to address external
environment challenges through continued reliance on mechanistic and linear/reductionist
models of management developed decades ago. I argue that a focus on changing organizational
technological, structural, and various systems without attention to the condition of the human
factor, especially the impact on employee emotional wellness, will not provide solutions to
managing change.

The following is an integrated model that addresses the need to enmesh external environmental
challenges with internal organization environment priorities, incorporating the needs of
employee emotional wellness and workplace climate issues.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 9

External environmental factors impacting an organization

The Integrated Change Cycle© is a map of the organizational ecosystem showing key
external environmental factors that directly impact an organization.iv Those impacts are
occurring at a faster pace than ever through the interconnectivity of the internet. What is
not moving as fast is internal change.

External environment
factors include:

Change in the status of
suppliers and competitors
• Are your suppliers of
goods and services adapting
to their own external and
internal environmental
pressures? Are they in a
position to continue
meeting your needs in a
reliable, consistent, and
quality-assured manner?

• Are your competitors
continually adapting to

their own changing external and internal environments? How and why? Are their gaps in
aligning internal to external environments presenting an opportunity for you? Are your
competitors ahead of the curve of change thereby posing a threat to you? Explain this with
solid evidence.

Demographic changes
• What demographic changes are occurring in your client, stakeholder, and customer base
on at least an annual basis? This includes age groups, gender, ethnicity, diversity, languages
spoken at home and at work, incomes, spending habits, education, religious affiliation,
culture, family size, and housing factors (renters, owners).

• Demographic conditions positively or negatively align to what your services or products
are. A shift in demographics can impact the demands for services and products, either
creating new opportunities or reducing current demand. A change in demographics may
represent a change in expectations, attitudes, and values. Find what’s changing, how and
why.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 10

News and social media
• Traditional news media outlets and the millions of social media sites can have a
profound impact on your customer/client attitudes and behavior. If your stakeholders
and audiences already have a very strong impression and trust level in your services and
products it is usually very difficult to change those attitudes through negative stories in
the news and social media. But if they have no opinions or negative ones, then negative
or conflict-laden stories can create huge impacts on your reputation.v

• News and social media also provide a good barometer of interest in your sector,
services, or products. By monitoring such changes and trends you can be prepared for
emerging issues that may pose a risk and get “ahead of the curve” thereby providing
advantages to you. Today, with internet data-tracking sites you can easily do this.

• It is important to remember that news and social media have a major impact on your
internal environment as the content of such stories can have a significant impact on
employee attitudes and behavior as well as political and policy decisions. What is the
tone (negative, positive, neutral) of such items, what is the volume (how many over
what period), what is the impact on your organization’s reputation and profitability?

Economy
• Economic conditions at the global, regional, and local level have a direct impact on
your organization’s services, products, and internal environment. There can be a direct
hit on your profitability (both good and bad), your expansion plans, as well as your ability
to offer services and products at a certain price. An economic downturn can also
negatively impact training programs, spending on new equipment, and spending on
employee overtime.

• Economic conditions can impact interest rates which in turn can impact borrowing
costs and plans for investment in operational matters. In addition, the cost of real estate
and rents can play a major factor in decisions about staying in business.

• Economic conditions can also present opportunities at the local, regional, and
international level. This may involve matters of mergers and acquisitions, partnerships,
and the opportunity to expand your services and sales to another organization that is
expanding in your areas of expertise.

Climate change
• Global climate change is a scientific given despite some opinions to the contrary. There
are multiple ramifications both small and large that can have a direct impact on your
organization. Climate change can negatively impact growing seasons for crops you or
your suppliers need, destroy large swath of trees used in lumber and pulp and paper
manufacturing, destroy fisheries, and significantly affect communities through flooding.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 11

• Think about your services/products and how they may be impacted by transportation
costs, weather patterns, and crop growing seasons. What about changes in weather
patterns affecting travel and vacation plans?

• What pressures are there on your organization to “go green” both with
services/products and internal activities ranging from recycling to workplace practices?
There are many scientific sources about the impacts of climate change. What are the
ones affecting your organization’s internal environment as well as services and sales?

• What is your organization doing to stay “ahead of the curve” with climate change
including electric vehicle use, recycling, and using energy-conservation construction
materials and daily operations?

Society and culture

• What are the local, regional, and international societal and community expectations
and demands on the sector you are in and of organizations/corporations in general? This
includes society’s demands for “corporate transparency” in dealing with groups and
individuals (being upfront and honest), financial and personal ethical behavior, and fair
hiring practices including diversity in age, gender, culture, and personal lifestyles

• What are local community, regional populations, plus national and international
population, and government expectations of organizational behavior? This includes
protection of the environment, respect for employees (gender, age, and multi-cultural
groups), accountability and responsibility by an organization and its leaders to society for
behaviors, ethical actions, and honesty?

• How are your organization’s services, products, and behaviors meeting with these new
external societal values and expectations? Is your internal environment such as
treatment of employees in synch with such societal demands?

Demographics
Demography is the study of populations. It is important to know how the populations you
serve as an organization are changing as well as the populations that can impact your
reputation and profitability.

• Discover what changes are taking place in population growth or decline, in gender and age
composition, education levels, immigration rates and from where, languages spoken at
home, religious beliefs, types of employment and family/personal income, the type of
dwellings people live in, and what forms of transportation they take to get to work and how
long it takes.

• You can also discover “socio-psycho-demographic” profiles of populations including where
and how they spend their money, their shopping habits, and their political beliefs.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 12

Politics and law
• Your organization exists because of the consent of government and the public. There
are many laws governing how corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit organizations
operate including laws and regulations governing financial reporting, treatment of
employees, trade and sales, protection of the environment, and many other practices.

• All such laws and regulations have come about in large part because of public demands
or from pressure and influence by lobby groups representing many sectors in society.

• What changes to recent laws are directly impacting your organization’s operations
including profitability, employee relations, trade, and sales/service practices?

• What changes are being called for by lobby groups, social movement groups,
environmental groups, and other powerful influencers of government politics and
policy?

• How is your internal environment directly impacted by recent or proposed changes to
laws and policies/regulations?

Science and technology

• The current and future advancements in science and technology are growing at an
exponential rate and affecting every sector of business, organizations, and society.

• What advancement in technology is currently impacting your ability to offer services
and products to customers and clients?

• How exactly are those changes impacting your ability to provide services and products
cost-effectively and efficiently?

• How exactly are the internal environmental factors being impacted by technological
change? For example, the impact on organizational structure, various systems, training,
and staffing.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 13

Internal environmental factors

The internal organizational environment is all that happens within an organization, how it is
structured, what its goals and purpose are, leadership and management styles and how it treats
its employees.

1. Culture informs the design of how an organization is structured, how various systems and
processes give life to that structure, how those various systems impact the workplace climate
and employee job satisfaction, morale, and their level of engagement in what they do, and
finally how all this impacts the everyday actions and performance of an organization.

• Organizational culture includes the
values, traditions, assumption of how
things get done, and the reasons for
both penalties and rewards for
employees. Cultures are usually deep-
rooted and more difficult to change.
Sometimes a culture reflects the people
who started an organization and
sometimes (or both) culture reflects the
way that other organizations in the
same field operate (banks, industries,
high-tech, non-profits). Culture is also
reflected in organizational leadership
styles.

Sub-cultures are “cultures within cultures.” This means that while employees in an
accounting department subscribe to the company’s overall culture, they also have their own
unique way of working and attitudes (generally more cautious, detailed, and conservative)
than employees working in the marketing department (generally more creative, “out of the
box thinkers,” and imaginative). Employees in different sub-cultures are trained differently,
attend different conferences, and can even share different values from other employees.

2. Structure involves how the organization is put together including levels of reporting, how
power is shared, whether there are branch offices, the span of control of managers,
centralization, and decentralization, and whether an organization is hierarchical (lots of
layers) or “flat” (few levels). The organization chart tells you a lot about structure.

3. Organizational systems involve how information, training, communication, accountability,
and responsibility is designed and operated throughout the organization. These systems can
involve human resource policies, conflict management, internal communication, IT policies
and practices, strategic planning systems, environmental scanning, research, and other
activity that serve the purpose of the organization.

3. Systems

2.
Structure

1. Culture

3. Climate

4. Actions

Culture-Climate-Change Cycle

Eli Sopow PhD

Components

Responsibility

Relationships

Processes
Policies
Regulations

Values

Assumptions
Traditions

Job

satisfaction

Morale
Engagemen

Expected
Effective

Sopow E. (2009) Aligning RCMP Culture, Structure & Systems to Employee Climate: A national research study Royal

Canadian Mounted Police (non-protected document)

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 14

4. Organizational climate is how employees feel about their workplace. It involves job
satisfaction (liking what they do), morale (how they feel about workplace conditions), and
how engaged they feel in the workplace which is often linked to levels and types of
motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic). All these qualities can be measured through surveys. A
workplace climate is also an indicator of an organization’s employee recruitment and
retention patterns. Are there many people wanting to work at the organization (or do they
avoid it) and are they high levels of employee absenteeism and quitting their job (or do
employees rarely quit and absenteeism is low).

5. Organizational actions are the outcome of all the above. Actions can include the quality
and timeliness of services and products to clients and customers, the reputation and trust
level in your organization, and the level of engagement of employees. It can also be
reflected in your profitability, success in achieving goals and objectives, and achieving your
purpose.

Aligning internal environments with external environments

• How is your organization structured? Does it need to branch out, add more levels of
reporting, or get “flatter” in terms of reporting lines? Does it require more
decentralization or less? Does it require a more “organic” model of collaboration and
communication?

• Do employees expect better systems of respect, work-life balance, and diversity
because of changing societal demographics (the workplace climate)? Do systems of
human resources provide adequate recruitment, training (both mandatory and
discretionary), and up-to-date job descriptions? Are internal communication systems
effective and clear?

• Are news and social media stories about your organization or organizations in
general affecting how you do business and with whom? Do you have a well-known
and good reputation with the public and customers/clients?

• Is there talk that your organizational “culture needs changing” because of attitudes
toward the workplace, the internal environment such as workplace inclusion
(gender, diversity, and fairness) and elements of the external environment such as
attitudes towards climate change and changing demographics?

• How are all the external and internal environmental factors interconnected to the
highest level possible? If not, why not?

• What factors—both external and internal—have an urgent and high impact on your
organization requiring change?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 15

Internal employee systems factors that are connected to external organization
environments

The 6-Systems Network describes
the six key interconnected areas of
employee organizational systems
as proven through extensive
employee researchvi. All six areas
have a strong and statistically
significant correlation to each other
and to factors including workplace
trust, respect, and leadership.

The state of such alignment can be
determined through employee
research, either quantitative
(surveys) or qualitative (employee
interviews).

• Authority means the level of independence employees are given to make decisions affecting
their specialty of work. When do they “need permission” and in what circumstances can
they make their own decision?

• Communication means both sharing useful information with employees in a timely and clear
manner and listening to what employees have to say in terms of feedback. It also involves
providing constructive feedback to employees on a regular basis.

• Responsibility is ensuring that all employees know very clearly what their job is and that
they have the proper and ongoing training to do their job in an effective manner.
Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) must continually match the job.

• Accountability is providing truly clear, timely, fair and reasonable responsibility for
employees to perform tasks in a certain manner within a certain timeframe. Measures of
accountability (outcomes not outputs-based) need to be consistent, clear and have a
purpose.

• Coordination involves the need to coordinate actions by employees so that knowledge is
integrated with other actions, mutually planned for maximum benefit, and various units
avoid overlap, duplication, and failure to execute.

• Collaboration is the understanding of how different activities and actions are
interconnected and can produce very productive synergies. This is essential for the
organization to achieve its goals, objectives, and its purpose. It involves effective teamwork,
sharing of information and skills, and especially mutual trust.

6-Systems Network ©

Eli Sopow Ph.D.

Performance

Very poor 1 2 3 4 5 Very

good

Importance
Very low 1 2 3 4 5 Very high

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 16

EXAMPLE: WHAT TO DO, HOW TO DO IT, AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT

A simple employee survey asking employees to rate BOTH how important each of the six factors
is on a scale and how good a job is being done will provide powerful information to begin
required change. The goal is to be doing a very good job on what is most important to
employees in the workplace.

But you do not need an actual widely distributed survey. Here is an example of using the 6-
Systems Network with small groups of employees across Canada.

Step 1: Finding evidence. First explain
the definition of each of the six factors
to employees so that they have a
common understanding. Hand out a
copy of the 6-System Network.

Ask employees to individually rate on
the scale the importance of the
measure to them personally (1=not
important at all, 5=very important).
They can mark each rating with an “x.”

Next employees rate how good a job is
being done (performance) again using

the five-point rating (this time 1=very poor and 5=very
good). They can mark each rating with a circle.

Collect all the handouts. Add up the total for each of
the six systems and calculate the average

Present the results in a circle graph with the results for
both importance and performance connected with
either a different color line (as shown) or a solid line
versus a dotted line to show the difference. Or you can
use a bar chart.

STEP 2: Discussion, analysis, and actions. Present the
results. Discuss what and why there are gaps between
importance and performance. Discuss how the six

measures impact each other. Come to conclusions about what can be done to close the biggest
gaps. Agree on how improving one area can impact other areas which mean not every system
needs to be improved.

x
x
x
x
x

Importance
Very low 1 2 3 4 5 Very high

Performance
Very poor 1 2 3 4 5 Very good

4 4

2 2

3 3 3

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

IMP PERF

Display of gaps between importance (IMP) and
workplace performance (PERF)

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 17

Using the Integrated Change Cycle Model vii environmental scan

The following pages are a proven step-by-step process to align key external issues that are
impacting your organization’s internal environment. This gives you the evidence-based power to
address change where it is most needed and most within your control. Change that can insulat e
your from negative impacts and change that can place you ahead of the competition.

STEP 1: Getting to know the model

The first step is awareness of how the model works. The Integrated Change Cycle model
identifies key integrated and interconnected change drivers.

The outer wheel of the Cycle presents the general agreement on the major and accelerating
external environmental changes impacting organizations including social, economic, news/social
media, political, demographic, technological, supplier/competitor, and climate change.

The inner wheel again draws from what scholars and practitioners identify as overall
components within the internal organization environment including culture, structure, systems,
the workplace climate, and resultant organizational actions emanating from the internal
environment.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 18

STEP 2: What is outside? Measuring external environmental factors

The second step in assessing the Integrated Change Cycle requires detailed identification of the
workplace-specific issues within each of the external and internal environmental factors. This
is accomplished by a detailed research, assessment and analysis of the external and internal
environment using Tables 4 and 5.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE:
A small bicycle sales and repair shop in Vancouver is facing the 2020 global pandemic. It
usually has a steady customer base of singles and families of all ages. Now it faces tough
government restrictions on public shopping, the need to wear a Covid-protection mask, and
restricted social gatherings. Business was good before Covid but now is off by 30%. The
company has no e-commerce presence. Our research provides input into the External
Environment Impact Rating.

External Environment Impact Rating
1 = Very negative 2 =Negative 3 =Average 4 = Positive 5 = Very positive

Brief definition of impact

Suppliers &
competitors

While smaller bike shops are closing and facing fewer sales
the big malls and department stores are staying open. Our
suppliers in the supply chain are facing shutdowns.

Demography 4
The population of Vancouver is very health and exercise
conscious with a large demand for bicycles both for health
reasons and to protect the environment.

News & social media 2
Daily news media stories warn of the pandemic and its
impact creating public fears of shopping. The bike shop has
a limited social media presence and no e-marketing.

Economy 1
The pandemic is having a devastating impact on the
economy with fewer people spending and higher rates of
either unemployment or people working less.

Society & culture 4
Usually, the Vancouver area society and culture is one of
strong environmental protection and taking steps to stay
active and address climate change.

Climate change 3
Protecting the planet from climate change and pollution is
a very-important topic for people in the Vancouver area.
Bicycle usage is very high because of that.

Politics & law 3

Both good and bad for the shop. Gov’t grants and loans are
helping small businesses deal with the pandemic but at the
same time government agencies warn people to stay home
and not shop except for essential.

Science & technology 1
The bike shop has no e-commerce presence.

Average 2.4 Overall negative impact of external environment

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 19

ANALYSIS: The above example shows the company has an external environment impact rating
of 2.4 / 5.0. This places it in the NEGATIVE rating for external environmental impacts with
several very negative impacts (1) including science and technology, the economy, and
competitors. In order to stay competitive, the firm must adapt to high-impact changes that are
also connected to all the other factors.

Knowing what you can do

But what control does the little bicycle shop have over those strongly negative impacts?

• Can the owners and employees control the economic downturn caused by the pandemic
and its impact on business?

• Can it control what its competitors are doing, especially the big chain stores?

• Can the bike shop control its lack of e-commerce?

There are many management tools to help answer those questions including doing a S.W.O.T.
analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), applying Lewin’s Force Field Analysis
where you weight and compare driving forces of change versus the resisting forces, plus using
tools to ensure goals and objectives can be achieved such as applying S.M.A.R.T. planning
(Simple, Measurable, Attainable, and

Time

bound).

Discovering the interconnection of everything

All the above are very good approaches to leading the changes that are necessary due to what
you discovered in the external environmental scanning. However, the Integrated Change Cycle
model offers another very important step that reveals much more.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 20

STEP 3: How otside environmental factors impact each other

The eight external environmental factors do NOT exist in isolation from each other. Each has a
positive or negative impact on another to varying degrees. This impact is also NOT stable. It can
ebb and flow depending on circumstances. This is the nature of an ever-changing world.

How to rate the connections

Determining how much impact one external factor has on another requires research, a very
questioning nature, and an understanding of how systems interconnect. You can accomplish this
with quantitative and qualitative analysis resulting in statistical correlations. Or you can
brainstorm the results of the external environment ratings using the knowledge you have
resulting in a reasonable early conclusion that can lay the foundation of deeper analysis. The
important point is that you understand that all situations and actions have an impact on other
things. Nothing is isolated in a box, especially with change.

What you are rating from what you know is if the connection between two environmental
factors is negative or positive in terms of its impact on the bicycle shop.

This is what appears below as we use the example of the bicycle shop. (How to use the table: Go
across the first row of factors, stop at each one, and then go down and as you do rate how
strongly it connects to the factor in the left-hand column. You do not do anything in the gray
cells because that compares the same things). Also, the row ends with “Politics & law” because
the only connection now made is between Politics and law and Science & Technology.

We really have got

External Environment Interconnectivity (EI) Matrix: Impact on organization

1 = Very negative 2 =Negative 3 =Average 4 = Positive 5 = Very positive

What impact do the
factors have on each
other?

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cs
&

Suppliers/competitors
Demography 3

News & social media 3 4

Economy 2 2 2

Society & culture 3 4 2 2

Climate change 3 4 4 3 5

Politics & law 3 3 3 5 4 4

Science & technology 1 1 2 1 1 4 4

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 21

Making sense of the external environment Interconnectivity Matrix

What and how were we thinking when we decided on how strongly connected the eight
external environmental factors are? The following dialogue among team members in the
picture shows how the EI Matrix (External Environment Interconnectivity Matrix) can help you
think in terms of linkages and connections as you brainstorm the link between
suppliers/competitors and demography. Notice that even at a most basic discussion critical
thinking is evident.

Thinking about the
impact on the bike
shop, the team agrees
things are very
negative when it
comes to the
connection of science
& technology to
Supplier/Competitors,
Demography, the
Economy, and Society
& Culture.

Competitors-suppliers impact on / demography 3 out of 5 (average impact on
bike store)

Our small shop
competitors are dealing
with the same customer
base so I don’t see a
negative or positive
impact on us.

Yeah, but the big box
stores selling bicycles
have access to way more
customers than we do
and that’s a negative.

Sure but we have
loyal customers
who like our
personal service. I
say a neutral
connection.

Science & technology impact on Suppliers/Competitors; Demography,
Economy, Society & Culture (all a “1” very negative impact on bike shop )

We really got hit hard
and fast because we
were taking too long to
do e-commerce and
update our social
media presence!

We got too comfortable
before the pandemic.
We were making
money, had a solid
walk-in customer base,
and thought we had
time. This is very bad. We are in big

trouble. Society
is now all about
on-line buying
and learning and
our customers
want us to have
on-line sales!

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 22

STEP 4: Measuring internal environmental factors

The Internal Environment Impact Rating identifies the internal organizational strengths and
weaknesses. To complete the research, assessment, and analysis you need to have a clear and
evidence-based understanding of all five factors. This is accomplished through a review of your
organization’s culture, structure, operating systems, how employees feel about their job, and
customer satisfaction with your business.

AGAIN, THE BIKE SHOP CASE STUDY EXAMPLE:
Business was good before the pandemic in 2020 but now things are different. Sales are down
and the mood of employees and the owner is not as upbeat as it once was. We do an Internal
Environment Impact Rating to gauge the condition of the five major internal environmental
factors. We do this by talking to all employees (or doing a survey), reviewing sales record s, and
reviewing the company’s strategic plan and mission statement. The results are below.

Average rating: 3.6 / 5.0

The table shows an average moderate risk (3.6) based on the bike shop’s internal environmental
factors with some factors rated higher than others. This is enough information to begin a good
discussion and analysis of what is happening and think about steps to change the situation.

But how do the internal factors connect to each other?

We are going to use the same approach we did with the external environmental matrix using
our best information, critical thinking, and judgement to conclude how one internal

factor

impacts all others and what this can mean to the company.

Internal Environment Impact Rating: “The Bike Shop”
1 = Very negative 2 =Negative 3 =Average 4 = Positive 5 = Very positive

Brief definition of impact
Culture 4.0 Strong values, fairness, openness, respectful

Structure 5.0 Small shop with few employees, quick decisions

Systems 4.0
Good sharing of authority, accountability, clear
responsibilities, communication, collaboration

Climate 3.0 Average job satisfaction and morale

Actions 2.0 Sales now suffering because of pandemic

Average 3.6 Average results internal environmental scan

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 23

REMINDER: Determining how much impact one internal factor has on another requires
research, a very questioning nature, and an understanding of how systems interconnect. You
can accomplish this with quantitative and qualitative analysis resulting in statistical correlations.
Or you can brainstorm the results of the external environment ratings using the knowledge you
have resulting in a reasonable early conclusion that can lay the foundation of deeper analysis.
The important point is that you understand that all situations and actions have an impact on
other things. Nothing is isolated in a box, especially with change.

What we are rating from what we know is if the connection between two environmental factors
is negative or positive in terms of its impact on the bicycle shop.

Internal Environment Interconnectivity (EI) Matrix

1 = very
negative

2 =
negative

3 =
average

4 =
positive

5 = very
positive

What impact do the factors
have on each other?

Culture Structure Systems Climate

Culture

Structure 4.5

Systems 5.0 5.0

Climate 3.0 4.5 3.0

Actions 1.0 4.5 1.0 1.0

Making sense of the internal environment Interconnectivity Matrix

What we found: The
bike shop has a good
organizational culture
(4.0 in the Internal
Environment Impact
Rating). It also has a
good structure and
systems. BUT…as the
brainstorming by
employees on Zoom
shows, those areas that
were once considered
to be positive for the
company in good times
are NOT when
immediate change is
needed—like e-
commerce.

Actions internal environment connection to Organization Culture, Systems,
and Workplace Climate (all “1” = very negative).

Our bike shop’s
culture failed

us. We are too
complacent!

Our systems of
employee

communication
failed to point out
that we needed to

be more e-
commerce savvy!

And that’s why our
good workplace
climate now has

poor job
satisfaction and

morale!!!

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 24

Step 5: Aligning external with the internal environments

This is the unique feature of the Integrated Change Cycle. It is what differentiates this
environmental scanning from all other approaches, giving you the analytical and priority-setting
power to link the outside world of organizations to the inside world.

Step 1: In the column, put in the results from the external environment ratings that you have.

Step 2: In the row, put in the ratings from the internal environment ratings that you have.

Step 3: Multiple the 2 sets of ratings by each other to get an integrated impact rating.

Blank sheet with ratings from external and internal ratings

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 25

What your Impact Alignment scale looks like after it is filled in. (3 versions)

Step 1: The ratings from the external environment ratings are in a column. Step 2: The ratings
from the internal environment ratings are in a row. Step 3: Each external and internal rating are
multiplied against to get an integrated impact rating. Example: Culture (4) x
Suppliers/competitors (1) = 4. The end of each line gives you the average integrated rating for
each external factor. The bottom of each column gives you the average integrated rating for
each internal factor.

The able below is your table filled in and the ratings multiplied against each number. The result
is a lot of numbers! This is great if your audience likes numbers. It certainly shows numerically
where vulnerabilities lie (low numbers) and where the good news is (high numbers).

But there another way to show the results

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 26

Same data but with color to highlight the results

Great success has been found in our presentations to senior executives when we highlighted
each impact rating with it’s associated color, offering the audience both numerical data AND
easy-to-understand color ratings for each impact.

And then there is the color-only presentation. Same data but presented as a dashboard
with color-coding only. Here the facts are fast, simple, and with obvious impact. A common
reaction from top executives and managers is to simply use the language of color, as in “let’s get
out of the red zone by using the positive lessons from the green zone.”

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 27

Several good sources for environmental scanning (data changes frequently)

There are literally thousands of credible, evidence-based available public sources of information
related to environmental scanning. Your continual focus must be data that is directly relevant
to the purpose of your organization. You must answer the question “What does this mean to
our organizational purpose, our reputation, our profitability” in simple, clear language.

1. OECD Economic Outlook, Volume 2019 Issue 2 (free)
The OECD Economic Outlook is a twice-yearly analysis of the major economic trends and
prospects for the next two years. You find a set of projections for output, employment, prices,
fiscal and current account balances. Coverage is provided for all OECD member countries as well
as for selected non-member countries.
https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/oecd-economic-outlook-volume-2019-issue-2_9b89401b-
en#page2

2. The 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer (free)
Reveals how public trust in institutions and corporations changes over a year.
https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer

3. The World Values Survey (free)
The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries
containing almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire
answered by a total of almost 400,000 respondents. Only downside is the latest data is about
two years old. http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp

4. Statistics Canada (free)
Data from Canada’s 2016 census (done every 5 years) provide statistical information about
everything that can be measured in Canadian society—age, gender, income, size of families,
marital status, languages spoken at work and at home, fear of crime, immigration and cultural
diversity, type of housing, and a wide range of economic factors.
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/index-eng.cfm

5. Statistics Canada GeoSearch (free)
This interactive mapping application makes it easy to find geographic areas in Canada for which
census data is available. You just click and zoom in on a map of Canada or search by place name
or postal code.
https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/geo/geosearch-georecherche/index-eng.cfm

6. Google Trends. One of my great favorites. A solid scientific search engine that displays in
maps, trend lines, and Excel format (if you want) how many people in any country and most
major cities are searching for particular search terms on Google in any month, week and
year. (https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US) The default is the U.S. but you can select
any one of dozens of countries.

The UCW Library

https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/oecd-economic-outlook-volume-2019-issue-2_9b89401b-en#page2

https://www.edelman.com/trust-barometer

http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/index-eng.cfm

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/geo/geosearch-georecherche/index-eng.cfm

https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 28

The library has an excellent range of research sources related to environmental scanning and
outstanding staff to help you. Here are just a few important sources found at
http://www.myucwest.ca/library/index.php?id=141

• The Conference Board of Canada’s e-Library contains over 4,000 research documents in
areas such as economics, market forecasting, statistics, leadership, public policy, risk
management, jobs, and tourism.

• Academic Search Utimate is a multidisciplinary database with a large index of academic
journal articles. It is a good place to start general research.

• Nexis Uni (formerly called LexisNexis Academic) is a comprehensive database covering
major newspapers in Canada and worldwide, as well as some smaller titles in British
Columbia. In addition, it has a wealth of information from legal resources as well as
company information, IPO and M&As.

• Regional Business News provides full access to business publications, on a regional level,
for Canada and the United States. Key resources include newspapers, trade publications,
magazines and newswires.

• SimplyAnalytics is a mapping, analytics, and data visualization application containing
interactive maps and reports using thousands of demographic, business, and marketing
variables, including Statistics Canada data. One of my favorites!

• Statista is a database with statistics from a multitude of sources – some free (such as
national statistical agencies: StatsCan, Bureau of Labour Statistics), while others are
subscription based.

• CANSIM – Canada’s official socio-economic database from Statistics Canada. Topics include
business performance & ownership, trade, and prices & price indexes. It also has stats on
specific industries.

• Google Scholar enables you to search for academic literature, including peer-reviewed
papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of
research.

ALSO: Please check the UCW portal for my course in Change Management 643 under the week
we are studying environmental scanning. There are MANY continually updated sources.

http://www.myucwest.ca/library/index.php?id=141

http://www.conferenceboard.ca.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/e-library/default.aspx

http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?authtype=ip&profile=ehost

http://www.myucwest.ca/ezproxy.php?url=http://www.nexisuni.com

http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?authtype=ip&ebsco&profile=ehost&defaultdb=bwh

http://www.myucwest.ca/ezproxy.php?url=https://app.simplyanalytics.com

http://ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login?url=https://www.statista.com

https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/start

https://scholar.google.ca/schhp?hl=en&newwindow=1&as_sdt=1,5

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 29

Part 2

Developing a Change Management Plan

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 30

The 10 basics in brief: All involve communication

1. What is the change action you are doing? Why? (provide specific details)

2. What is the urgency? (provide evidence from external and internal e-scans)

3. What is the purpose of the change? (show the positive result)

4. What is your “vision for change” (a very short, simple, and powerful message that
summarizes what the future will look like after change)?

5. Who is on your MAIN change team? What are their titles and level of power in the
organization? How are you providing communication, coordination, and collaboration?

6. Who are members of your change support team (these can be employees throughout
your organization who are helping deliver the message and listen to employees, and/or
they can be team leaders for parts of your change plan)?

7. What is your communication strategy (target audiences, communication vehicles,
measures)

8. When will the change be complete and what are the change steps along the way and
when? What will you do when the evidence says the change is wrong?

9. What is your measure of success (both outputs and outcomes)?

10. When, why and how will this change be required to change again?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 31

The purpose of a change management plan

The purpose of a change management plan is to successfully respond to a shift in the external or
internal organizational environment that poses a risk to the organization or presents a great
opportunity. Change requires an ongoing successful alignment between an organization’s
external and internal environment, its culture, its structure, the systems that give life to that
structure, the impact of various systems and processes on the workplace climate, and the
operational and emotional outcomes of that climate.

To do so requires the knowledge and application of tools, techniques and strategies that in
particular address the human factor within organizations.

There are many models and approaches to change management (see Appendix). While you can,
you do not have to select any one of them. Consider all the models (which have many
similarities) as tools in your change toolbox. You can use components of any one of them to
apply to your unique situation. And your situation IS unique. No change management

situation

is exactly the same as any other. So be extremely cautious about using what worked
elsewhere with your own change needs.

All change involves an emotional impact on those both directly and indirectly affected.

Change

is a constant in human and organizational life. Within organizations the change may be
necessary because of the following INTERCONNECTED factors (see Part 1 Environmental
Scanning):

1. The impact of external environments such as changes in technology, the values and
expectations of society, legal and political changes, demographic changes in the
population, economic swings, the impact of climate change, the status of suppliers and
competitors, and the content of news and social media.

2. The impact of changes in the internal organizational environment including its culture,

the structure of an organization, the many systems and processes, the configuration of
work including responsibilities and accountabilities, and the nature of both job
satisfaction and morale—both of which include many contributing factors. The internal
environment also includes operational and administrative factors such as budgetary and
human resource conditions.

3. The direct impact of external factors on internal environmental factors. It may be

possible for an organization to address changes in the external environment with the
current state of its internal environment. However, an organization may also have to
change its internal environment to meet the pressures of the external environment.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 32

Organizational change may be any or a combination of the following

1. Organization-wide (large scale change) sometimes called “enterprise” change. Examples
include changes to technology and IT systems, certain human resource systems and
practices, and structural changes.

2. Transformational change: Changes that are intended to do more than “change” how
things are done, structures, systems, and processes. A transformational change involves
a different way of thinking and behaving, often accompanied with an impact on the
organization’s culture.

3. Remedial change: This is usually more focused and is a “remedy” to an apparent
problem.

4. Personal change involved the human element—the attitudes and behaviors of people.
This is a complex and often difficult area of change.

5. Planned change is a change process that has identified a needed and purpose for change
and proceeds with a structured plan.

6. Unplanned change is a sudden and often dramatic event that forces an immediate need

to change. It can range from natural disasters such as storms, earthquakes, fires, and
floods to a sudden change in an organization such as resignations, deaths, or scandals.

The integration of all the above

Chances are the above definitions of change will be bundled together in many ways. For
example, a “planned change” could be driven by a need for “organization-wide change” that
may also require “transformational change.” It is also highly likely that any organization
change involving culture, structures, or systems will require personal change on various levels.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 33

When successful change (transformation) happens

1. A pressing and obvious urgency or opportunity is addressed.

2. There is a clear purpose to the change.

3. The purpose of the change directly supports strategic priorities.

4. The change effort has a clear and continued commitment, including the support of
adequate resources, from those in senior management.

5. Actions are quick and simple and make a difference.

6. You build on what is already working well.

7. Those affected understand at both the emotional and cognitive level how the change
benefits them personally.

8. Communications about change is clear, consistent, frequent, HONEST, multi-channel and
facilitates wide feedback—NOT buzzwords or “branding.”

9. Timelines, responsibilities, and measures of success are laid out in an Action Plan which

is regularly reviewed and updated as required.

10. Success is celebrated, widely shared, and learned from.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 34

Picking the right change management team

MBA students in University Canada West Change Management 643 are required to
complete a major term assignment as a team. Usually, they like to pick their own team
composition rather than me selecting the teams. This is logical. They know each other and
usually have worked on teams together. They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses
(or so they think!).

It is the same in the workplace. Sometimes we have the choice to select a team that we
think have the right knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) as well as motivation. But
sometimes we do not and are assigned to a team, a “working group,” a committee, or
something similar.

First things first: A Team Charter

A Team Charter is essential to get teamwork started. It is similar to a Project Management
Plan but a little different. A Team Charter makes it clear what you are doing, who is doing
what, who is the team leader, when things will get done, and other important factors as
indicated in the following:

The Team Charter Basics

CONTEXT: Why team was formed, the
problem it is trying to solve, how the
problem fits into the broader
objectives or the organization, and the
consequences of the problem not
being addressed.

MISSION & OBJECTIVES: (key!) What
goals the team must achieve within
what time frame and how success will

be measured. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Time-bound (SMART objectives).

COMPOSITION & ROLES: Pick a leader. Pick a liaison between the team and other groups.
Clearly lay out responsibilities, duties, and accountabilities. (Get the people with the right
skills, experience, connections, and fit the right person with the right job. Select (if you can)
personalities that fit in with the team.

AUTHORITY & BOUNDARIES: How much time is spent on the team’s various goals? How will
conflicts be resolved?

RESOURCES & SUPPORT: How many resources are required (time, equipment, money,
people) for each task? What resources are available to the team in achieving its goals
(research sources, human resources, other groups)?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 35

OPERATIONS: When will meetings be held? How will information be shared among the team
members? What information needs to be shared? Who will keep notes, who will determine
the agenda?

ACCOUNTABILITY: Who is going to do what and when and how will success be measured?
How will failure to achieve goals be met?

A few processes about teamwork

There is a great deal of information about what makes a great team and where there can be
problems (check out the references at the back of the Guide). Here are just a few highlights:

The forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development was first
proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who said that these phases are all necessary and
inevitable for the team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan
work, and deliver results.viii

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 36

Robbins & Langton. (2004) have a straight-forward list of things that make a great team
including the following:ix

1. Clear

purpose

2. Informality
3. Participation
4. Listening
5. Civilized disagreement
6. Consensus decisions
7. Open communications
8. Clear rules & work assignments
9. Shared leadership
10. External relations
11. Style diversity
12. Self-assessment

My own model that I have used in many workplaces copies my Six Systems content and
highlights that all six components are essential for good teamwork, both within your team
and working well with other teams. In fact, one of the biggest complaints I find in my
employee survey work is a lack of collaboration among various teams.

Six Systems Model of Teamwork © Eli Sopow PhD

•Power to make decisions

•Support from higher authorities

•Clear leadership of team

•Linkages between groups

•Common purpose

•Seeking of consensus

•Timely reporting of results

•Clear measures of success

•Fairly applied rewards and

penalties

•Sharing of knowledge

•Helping those who need help

•Mutual respect

•Reasonable expectations

•Clear job description

•Skills match the job

•Common understanding

•Timely & relevant

•Two-way

Communication

Responsibility

Cooperation

Accountability

Collaboration

Authority

TEAMWORK

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 37

Robbins & Langton (2004) also point out why teams can run into trouble. They include:

• Not sharing issues and concerns

• Overdependence on the leader

• Failure to carry out decisions

• Hidden conflict

• Not resolving conflict

• Subgroups (which means people within the group break into little groups that don’t
share or apparently care about what the overall team is up to)

“Egosystems” versus “ecosystems”

I also have what I call the “egosystem” versus “ecosystem” model of teamwork. The
differences are very easy to spot. One approach builds team spirit and the other destroys it.

An ecosystem team is one that connects, shares, sees itself as a single unit with a number of
overlapping and unique components, and takes both credit and blame as a group. A team
leader, even when presenting the team’s findings by themselves to another group or senior
management, refers to “us” and “we.”

An egosystem team is all about one person and how great they are. They take credit from
others without acknowledging the team’s work. In a presentation they use the words “I” and
“me” extensively without mentioning the work of others.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 38

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

USE THE WORKSHEETS BELOW TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS: Create as many tables as
needed

1. Describe exactly what your change action or actions are. For each indicate the urgency
and impact (Low, Medium, or High) on your organization.

2. Describe exactly how your change initiative is directly going to help your organization

achieve its strategic goals and key purpose.

3. Describe in detail the pressures (urgency) and purpose of the change required (consider
both external and internal environments and provide evidence-based facts).

4. What will happen to your organization (risk) if the change does not occur (provide

measurable evidence of what and when and the financial and/or reputational impact)?

5. Who is directly affected by the change?
a) Specify which employee groups and their jobs
b) Specify which clients or customers and where they are located
c) Specify which government or regulatory agencies are affected
d) Specify which if any consumer, environmental, social, and labor groups are affected

External pressure for
change: environment

factor

Internal pressure for
change: environment

factor

How do the pressures
connect to each other?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 39

Change action: external /
internal

Urgency
Low,

Medium,

High

Impact
Low, Medium,

High

How change action
supports organizational

purpose

L M H L M H

*Every pressure for change is interconnected (correlated) to varying degrees to another issue.
It is vital to know where these correlations exist. While a “correlation” does not necessarily
mean a “cause” it does mean that as one pressure changes so will those strongly connected to
it.

**One change action will likely have many sub-actions. For example “improving internal
communication” requires many sub-actions to achieve that change including the type of
communication vehicles that are used, their frequency, and feedback mechanisms. It is
important to know both the urgency and impact of your change actions in order to set priorities.

***All change actions must support your organization’s strategic plan and purpose. This
linkage must have both measurable outputs (specific measures) and outcomes (the result of
action). How will the change action help achieve the organization’s purpose?

REMEMBER: No change occurs in isolation. All changes in one area have an impact on other
areas of your organization, both great and small. These correlations are important to identify.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 40

Changing job satisfaction and/or morale

No matter what change action you undertake it will impact employee job satisfaction and
morale. Yes, these are two different but connected concepts although many textbooks and

studies only talk about job
satisfaction.
I have completed employee
surveys at over 500 different
workplaces involving over
15,000 employees in which I
researched several workplace
factors affecting both
employee job satisfaction and
employee morale.

As the information in the boxes
shows, job satisfaction can be
simply described as liking
WHAT you do while morale is
how you feel about the
conditions that IMPACT what
you do.

You can investigate such
additional factors such as
extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation. Extrinsic usually
involves outside forces such as
pay and benefits. Intrinsic
motivators include such things
as how you are treated.

My research with close to
2,000 employees in 2018
shows the differences that
employees had when rating
both their job satisfaction and
morale.

Employees with poor morale
often perform more poorly
than those with high morale
and are far more prone to sick
leave and quitting their job.

Job satisfaction vs. morale

JOB SATISFACTION is liking WHAT

YOU DO including the activity,

outcomes, and responsibilities.

It often includes the POWER you have

over your workplace and activity, the

PRIDE you feel in your

accomplishments, and the PROFIT

you received not just from money and

benefits but also from the gains you

get from training, friendships,

advancements (the “3Ps”).

Job satisfaction vs. morale

MORALE is how you FEEL about how

you and others are treated in the job

that you are responsible for. It is an

emotional construct.

It includes how valued you feel, how

included you are in decisions, how

well conflicts are managed, how

respected you feel, and the quality of

communication that occurs in your

workplace.

Job
satisfaction

Good / very

good 64%

Morale

Good / very
good

49%

N-1,904 2018 study. ©Eli Sopow PhD

Job satisfaction vs. morale by age

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 41

Chances of your change actions succeeding

There are several tools you can use to gauge the success of your change action. The following
are two that will give you a good insight into what you need to increase the probability of
change succeeding.

Kurt Lewin was a sociologist who back in the 1940s developed many excellent approaches to
managing change. One of the most commonly and practical models, still used a great deal today,
is the Force Field Analysis. In simple language (and you probably do this every day) it identifies
and measures what are the upsides and downsides to doing what you want to do.

APPLYING THE FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS

1. In the middle column put in your change action or actions.

2. On the left draw the actions and issues that are supportive of the change. It can be
competition forces, a need to improve profitability or efficiency, or the state of your
workplace climate including morale. For each driving force provide a measure. It can be
low, medium, high (1,2,3) or anything else.

3. On the right draw the actions and issues that are opposed or holding back (restraining)

the change. It can be poor communication, budgets, human resources, or anything else
that holds back the change action you identified in the middle column. For each
restraining force provide a measure. It can be low, medium, high (1,2,3) or anything else.

4. Add up the value of both driving and restraining forces. If restraining forces are

overwhelming the driving forces, you have two choices: Increase driving forces or lower
restraining forces. Create an Action Plan to do that including measures of results.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 42

The Change Assessment Index measures 10 factors that extensive experience shows are
essential for a change process to succeed. The CAI maintains that you need at least a total
rating of 40 to succeed at change. Just like with the Force Field Analysis you can identify where
the weakest scores are and improve them, perhaps by applying factors that have a high score.

For example, a high rating for clear communications can be applied to simplifying actions and to
raising employee commitment. Ensuring that there is local workplace input will also help build
commitment. Again, all actions within an organization are linked to some degree.

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

Why would any of the 10 factors receive a low rating? Is it because of:

1. A lack of accurate and timely information?

2. Embedded personal attitudes against the change?

3. A threat to the “3Ps” of power, pride, and profit?

What is your plan to address the above?

FACTOR STRENGTH SCORE

Simple to do Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Organizational urgency / purpose Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

High impact / importance Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Local workplace input Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Resources available time, money, people Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Employee commitment Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Available change expertise Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Clear communications Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Strong support from top leadership Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

Action supports org. priorities Strongly disagree 1..2..3..4..5 Strongly agree

TOTAL SCOREChange Success Index: low 10-20; moderate 21-39; High 40-50

Change Assessment Index ©Eli Sopow PhD

THINKING: How can you improve on individual ratings that are below “4”? How do the 10

factors interconnect? Where are the highest ratings? What creates those higher ratings?

How can you leverage that positive power to improve other areas (also called “appreciative

inquiry”)?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 43

Areas where a workplace has more control over change

The two graphs on this page are the results of my surveys of about 3,000 employees in Canada
(2015-2017). What the results show is that many employees agree that there are factors which

can have a negative
impact on their morale
because of how they are
structured but these are
also factors that are
NOT within the
immediate control of an
individual workplace.

To change such
structural and systems
factors requires an all-
encompassing
commitment to change
from senior
management as well as
involvement from many
employees. In many
respects the changes
are often institution-
wide requiring
extensive change
planning.

What can be done?

The list on the left is
what employees
identified in my surveys
as areas they feel they
have power over to
make changes without
the need to have major
structural changes.

In almost all cases the changes can be brought about through the collaboration of supervisors
and managers and their employees.

Employees agreeing “ Not within my immediate control”

▪ Staffing levels
▪ Budget
▪ Job codes
▪ Job descriptions
▪ Promotion system
▪ Basic pay/benefits
▪ HR practices
▪ Workplace laws
▪ Union contracts

*Based on surveys of 3,120 employees ©Eli Sopow PhD

Within your immediate local control

Internal communication
• sharing of info
• asking for opinions
• effective listening

Conflict mgt.
• identify ahead of time
• skilled intervention
• respectful

Fairness
• work allocation
• access to training
• workload

Feeling valued
• asked opinions
• included in actions
• given recognition

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 44

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

1. Use the table below to gauge how much control (low, medium, high) you have over
factors within your workplace that impact morale, productivity, employee wellness and
the ability to achieve objectives.

2. Rate how good a job is being done by those areas you have control over (you can
determine this through employee surveys).

3. What actions can you take to IMPROVE the conditions of areas where you have the most
control over but are performing poorly?

Factors within your workplace that impact
morale, productivity, employee wellness

and the ability to achieve objectives.

Control
Low (1)

Medium (2)
High (3)

How good a job is being
done by those factors? Poor

(1) Average (2) Good (3)

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 45

Identifying supporters and detractors to change

There are many reasons to support and oppose organizational change. In my research I have
summarized the reactions in what I call the “3Ps” – Power, Pride, and Profit. Here are the
questions you need answered:

Use this table to identify where employees and others see both gains and losses from change.
For any “3P” affected you must develop an action plan to address the concern.

Change action Supporters
“3P” Reason for

support
Opponents

“3P” Reason for
opposition

ADDITIONAL READING: Check out “extrinsic” and” intrinsic” motivation

The “3Ps” of employee needs

Power

Pride

Profit

The power and control over workplace conditions

ranging from hours worked, wages and benefits,

having a say, being heard, how you dress, to what’s

on your work station.

The pride you have in where you work, what you

do, the people you associate with, how certain

others think about you, and the accomplishments

you achieve.

Not just about money and benefits. It’s how you

profit and gain from making friendships, having

trusted colleagues, learning new things, being

recognized, and feeling emotionally and physically

healthy.

©Dr. Eli Sopow

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 46

Finding and reducing the fear of change

Humans like stability and predictability. Although we encounter various levels of change
throughout our life, sometimes daily with little things and sometimes less often with major
issues, we prefer to think we are in control. This makes us feel safe.

Our brain is well-designed to protect us from danger. If our senses spot what may be a threat to
our lives or well- being that message in a split second goes directly from the stimuli to the
emotional area of the brain called the amygdala, bypassing our “logical” cognitive brain area. It
is an area we share with all mammals and reptiles. Facing danger, we must react—not think!

The amygdala is informed (again in a split second) by an area of the brain called the
hippocampus that remembers past events and occurrences. If a stick looks like a snake that is

good enough for the
hippocampus which causes our
amygdala to have us fight, flee,
or freeze.

A truly short time later our
“thinking brain” (the highly
developed neuro-cortex)
considers the context of a
situation (again using memory).
So, a “snake” turns out to be a
stick and we breathe easy.

It is the same with

organizational change management. A change is something new or different. Our brain
prepares us as if we are facing a possible threat to our safety and security. The words used, the
actions promised, and pictures conveyed in flashy brochures, are all interpreted by what we
already know—or believe we know. This means that perception is indeed reality. If an action or
image or a word related to “change” reminds us of a negative experience then that drives our
emotional reactions of surprise, fear, anger, and defensiveness.

Just like when we encounter a scary sound or image in the wilderness, our brain tells us to fight,
flee or freeze when we encounter an organizational change that reminds us of a bad
experience.

We can “fight” back with protests, complaints, or forming an employee defense group and
joining a union (collective bargaining representation). We can “flee” by quitting our job or
transferring to another position. Or we can “freeze” by basically becoming disengaged and
doing just the minimum required. In short, we are following a defensive and protective brain
circuitry that has kept humans alive for hundreds of thousands of years.

How our brain reacts to “uncontrolled” change

3.
What we think

-logical
-“factual”
-practical

1.
What we feel

-surprise
-fear / anger
-defensiveness

“Cognitive
Brain”

“Emotional
Brain”

2.
What we know
-culture
-history
-experiences

Memory

©Eli Sopow PhD
19

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 47

The silent victim language of fear of change ©Eli Sopow PhD

1. I’m afraid of what I don’t know

2. I’m afraid of looking stupid

3. I’m afraid that I can’t learn new ways

4. I’m afraid that everything I succeeded at is now wrong

5. I’m afraid that my rank/position is being challenged

6. Deny: There’s no problem here

7. Defend: We’ve always done it this way—in fact I helped design this method 20 years ago!

8. Destroy: Those “facts” are all wrong. You don’t know the real world

9. Deflect: That’s not my problem. It’s not our mandate. I have no control. That’s what

we’re told to do.

10. Delay: Maybe next year we can do this change thing

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

Many fears of change by individuals, especially those that have been around for a while, are
strongly felt but not said out loud. You MUST be able to understand such fears. Can you add
to the above list?

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 48

How to turn fear into support—and conflict into collaboration

It is possible to change the state of human emotions related to a change action. The following
four actions (in no order) can help remove the fear of change within those who have misgivings
and are ready to fight back.

One: Find the fear (what are people really afraid of?) Remember the “3P” model and how
important it is that the state of power, pride, and profit be at least maintained if not enhanced

for individuals. Understanding the
fear of change requires you being
open, empathetic, and respectful.
Personal fear is not a subject that we
like to discuss.

Fear can be described as a sense of
powerlessness and unknown.
Remove fear by empowering
employees with knowledge and a
say in things.

Two: Link changes to the best of
culture—do not CHANGE the
culture, GROW the culture. Unless

there is an overwhelming negative culture very resistant to change, then it is much more
acceptable to many to build upon what is already working.

There is a good change that those senior in the organization (those with the greatest power)
also had a direct role in shaping the culture. Those senior people likely do not want to admit
that they are “wrong” and everything they did was in error. They are much more likely to agree
to improve what they were a part of because the times are changing.

Three: Communicate in a shared language. Do not use complicated, technical, and specialized
language with those who don’t “speak that language.” It is important to communicate at the
same knowledge level as those receiving the message. This means engineers will likely
appreciate a technical description of what change means, but not the accounting department.

Four: Present an “end state”—vision—that others can easily embrace and want to be involved
in. Basically, you are answering the questions of “why are we doing this, why now, why not
another approach, when will it happen, how does it affect me personally and what will it look
like when we get there.”

You can, over time, create mental models of memory for people who equate the words
“change management” with something that they experienced as positive and having a direct
impact on their lives. Such memories can create a reaction of safety, respect, and support.

1.
What we feel

-safe
-respected
-supported

“Cognitive
Brain”

“Emotional
Brain”2.

What we know
-trusted info.

-promises kept
-culture valued

Memory

The positively wired “change brain”

3.
What we think

Positive
suggestions
Problem-solving
skills
Part of the process

©Eli Sopow PhD
22

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 49

TIME OUT OR THINKING

Find the fear and you find the solution

Use the following worksheet to discover where the fear of change lies and what actions you can
take to turn it into active support.

• What is the strongest fear of change?

• What sense of empowerment are you providing the employee (the power they have to
influence the change)?

• What information are you communicating to the employee so that they have all the
facts about the change and how it affects them directly?

Fear Empowerment action Communication content

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 50

Project management and change management

Many practitioners of change management also have at least a
working knowledge of project management. I consider project
and change management “cousins” of the same family. The
following quote is an excellent, short description of how project
and change management are related.

There are five phases in a project: initiate, plan, execute, monitor, and
control, and close. During the life cycle of a project, change can occur
during the execution, monitoring and controlling phases.

Change is measured against the project baseline, which is the detailed
description of the time, cost, scope, and quality of the project that you
have determined when planning. Therefore, a change management plan
is going to take that baseline and ask how, what, when where, why, and
how to figure out change and how to manage it.

https://www.projectmanager.com/training/how-to-make-a-change-
management-plan

A change management plan is in essence a project management plan with a twist. Project
management generally involves far more financial, engineering, and technical specifics than a
change management plan. However, both involve purpose, goals, timelines, responsibilities,
financial impacts, and measures of both outputs along the way and the outcome.

It can be argued that a change management plan places far more emphasis on human factors,
especially emotional reactions to change than a project plan.

However, all plans involve people. And all people express emotions.

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 51

Communicating the change action

Communication never ceases in the human brain. Every second, 10 million bits of information
enter our mind through our five senses. As we can only process 140 bits per second, we use
internal filters to delete, distort and chunk the information down. Our internal filters are our
values, beliefs, attitudes, memories, language we use (both vocally and silently within our
mind), decisions we make, and meta-programs. The information we accept after deleting,
distorting, and chunking are the ingredients we use to make our internal map or model of the
world (Source: http://itrustican.blogspot.com/2009/09/nlp-communication-model.html).

Many studies have conclusively proven that we remember events that are very emotional
and/or especially fearful. This is because emotional events alert our personal bodyguard the
brain’s amygdala which warns us of danger. That is why boring or confusing information is
quickly forgotten. Dramatic and emotional information is recalled deep and long.

But wait! — there is a big difference between information and communication!

“Information” can be a lot of data, words,
numbers, and charts. Information is very
important to have. But for information to
be useful—not just interesting—it must
be clearly understood and actionable (you
can do something with it).

Information about change management
will do the following without effective
communication. It will bore employees,
anger them, confuse them, and create
huge mistrust.

Communication is reaching someone. It
quickly stirs emotions and immediately
activates memory cells in the brain that
link the message with what has been
experienced in the past (good and bad).

In general humans are visual beings. It is
often shown in studies to be our strongest
perception of the world. If we do not
“see” in our mind’s eye what a person is
talking about or the message delivered in
words through text messages, e-mail, and

written documents, we simply will not fully understand the message. At worse, our brain will
default to what it already knows—what it sees as being “close enough” to the message, no
matter how wrong.

This is COMMUNICATION

This is INFORMATION
A PowerPoint diagram meant to portray the complexity of American strategy in Afghanistan

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 52

Crafting your message content

Communication about change must address three things: Awareness, attitudes, and behavior.
The easiest is raising awareness which can be done with effective communications. Attitudes
are hard to change because they are deeply embedded through experiences, culture, gender,
age, religion, and other ingrained factors. Behaviors are an outcome of attitudes, but they can
be quickly changed through rewards and penalties. Over time, behaviors can change attitudes.
But there can also be “masked behaviors”—people behaving in a certain way only because they
must. For this reason, change may appear to be accepted when really it is not.

The best remembered and most effective messages are what I term Emotional, Simple, and
Personal. This ESP formula is designed to have messages about change easily understood
thereby helping reduce fear and concerns about change and encouraging participation and
support for the actions.

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

Think about your change action or actions

1) What POSITIVE personal emotions are being affected by the change?

2) Describe in simple language of no more than 20 words the urgency and purpose of your
change action

3) Provide just one, strong positive example of how the change is or will impact one person.

Now provide six examples of six different people positively impacted.

Using ESP to effectively communicate

Emotional
The message must evoke positive emotions. It could be happiness,

excitement, hope, pride, belonging, or anticipation.

Simple
The message must be short and simple to understand. No confusing

facts and statistics. No acronyms. No specialized or very technical

language.

Personal
The message must have immediate personal relevancy to the

receiver. It must show specifically how the receiver of the message

gains from change. Why they should care.

©Dr. Eli Sopow

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 53

W.H.O. cares about your change action?

Employees are already overworked in many places, they may have seen change come and go,
and they may even be cynical about the very words “change management.” Remember—
studies show that many change actions fail for a wide range of reasons including:

• Poor or no planning

• Poor or no expertise

• Poor or no communication

• Little or no employee involvement from “the bottom up”

• Egos getting in the way

• No support from top management

• The failure to change direction when the facts change

• A lack of committed resources

All 10 questions in my WHO Cares model must be fully and honestly answered in your change
communications. Your communication must be:

• Frequent

• Two-way (both sharing and listening), and then validating and explaining why feedback is
accepted or not

• Meaningful and useful

• Honest (avoid “public relations”-sounding buzzwords)

1. Why are we doing this?

2. What’s the purpose?

3. What’s the urgency?

4. What are the facts?

5. Why not do it another way?

6. Why should I trust you?

7. How is this directly affecting me?

8. How is this affecting my unit?

9. How can I have a say?

10. One reason why I should personally

care?

The big question employee’s ask: W.H.O. Cares?

I’m already

overworked!

NOW what?!!!

©Dr. Eli Sopow

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 54

Audiences for change communication

Every change management plan must have a communication plan. This is the most important
part of any change action.

In simple terms a communication plan MUST have the following:

1. Objective of the change message

• Your main objective is to raise awareness of the change action and to engage employees
in contributing to the process. But you may also be trying to change certain attitudes and
behavior. Be extremely specific here.

2. Single overriding key message

• This is a short, simple, emotionally powerful key message that conveys what the change
action is and its impact. No longer than one paragraph.

3. Supporting messages (no more than three messages)

• These messages describe in more detail what the key message is about. One paragraph
each explaining the urgency and purpose, the timelines, and the desired outcome.

4. Target audiences: You need up-to-date contact information for all the following

• A target audience is who you must reach with your change messages. Your target
audiences can include all or some of the following:
a) All employees
b) Unions that represent employees in collective bargaining for workplace conditions

(*be aware than labor law can specify when you can contact employees during a
workplace dispute or if employees are trying to join a union to represent them)

c) Different employee departments (engineers, marketing, accounting, production, etc.)
d) Different categories of employee (some employee will be in management, others

may belong to a union, and others may be non-management / non-union employees)
e) In some cases, reaching gender groups and diverse employee cultures may also be a

target depending on the change action
f) In some cases, certain age groups may be the target
g) Customers and clients
h) Suppliers and contractors
i) Government agencies and regulatory bodies who make laws about how you operate
j) Sometimes the news and/or social media may be a target audience if the change

action is considered “newsworthy” (the action is unique, involves high-profile conflict
or a positive contrast, has a human-interest angle, and/or is emotionally evocative).

2021 Living Change ©Eli Sopow PhD 55

• For each of the above groups list what their change-action needs are.

• For each of the above groups how are their “3Ps” affected? Power, pride, profit?

Do not mix up need, should and want to know!

Communicate first to those who NEED to know, then to those who SHOULD know, and then to
those who WANT to know. Especially make sure the NEED TO KNOW is fully communicated to
first. You do NOT want your employees to know about a coming change by seeing something
in the news or social media!

Target audiences

Employees

Managers

Supervisors

Senior executive

Customers

Suppliers

Shareholders

All have
different
needs!

Need to
know

©Dr. Eli Sopow

Those most DIRECTLY
and IMMEDIATELY

affected: Employees,
shareholders,

regulators, customers,
partner groups

Those indirectly
affected: suppliers,

supporters, customers

Those on “the edges.”
Competitors, news

media, others

Communication priority

All employees are NOT the same: There is an overarching organizational culture
and there can be many sub-cultures

You know from earlier pages the definition of an organizational culture and the impact it can
have on change actions. But most organizations also have what is called SUB-CULTURES. These
are groups of employees who work in different areas of an organization and do vastly different
things with unique skillsets.

While sub-cultures believe in the overall culture of an organization and its values, traditions, and
ways of doing things, they also have their own “sub-cultures” meaning they may operate with
their own unique ways of behaving and doing things.

For example, those
in the accounting
department will
likely believe in
working together in
a certain way and
behaving according
to certain practices.
They will attend
certain conferences
and access certain
training

However, the sales
department or
production

department will have employees with different skills and a different way of relating, behaving,
and valuing how employees work together.

You MUST identify the different subcultures in your organization. Just because your change
action is good for the organization overall, it may have very different effects on different
subcultures. This means that every sub-culture MUST be communicated with differently.
What is the impact of that subculture? How are the “3Ps” affected?

Overarching corporate culture

Sub-
cultures

Sub-
cultures
Sub-
cultures
Sub-
cultures
Sub-
cultures
Sub-
cultures
Sub-
cultures

Examples of

sub-cultures

• IT

• Marketing

• Public Relations

• Accounting

• Management

• Clerical

• Trades

• Scientists

• Engineers

• Specialists

• Others

Communication with sub-cultures

©Dr. Eli Sopow

Change, gender, multi-culturalism, and diversity in the workplace

Diversity in Canada’s workplace is very important and is an excessively big deal. Check out this
quote:

Canada is the only country in the world where multiculturalism policy is
enshrined in our country’s constitution.x

Today’s workplace in dramatically changing in terms of the following:

• Gender Trends

• Aboriginal Peoples

• Employees with Disabilities

• The GLBTTQ Community (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, and Queer)

What this means in a workplace change action is that strong attention must be paid to matters
of:

1. Appropriate communication including use of words and symbols
2. Recognition that employees may have language needs besides English
3. Recognition that a change action may be interpreted quite differently depending on the

diversity of employee groups

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

Does the presence of diversity (languages, customs, gender, diversity) in a workplace
contribute to change management challenges?

Hidden communication power within the organization

A big mistake that is made is thinking that power within an organization is equated with the
position that a person holds in the organization. Significant research including my own with

thousands of employees shows
that in most part, employees trust
their immediate supervisor more
than the chief executive officer or
head of an organization.

Why?

It is because an immediate
supervisor has the most contact
with employees. Unless that
supervisor has extremely poor
skills, they will usually be the ones
employees turn to during change
to see if the change makes sense
and if they should support it.

Sometimes the most trusted source of communication in an organization has nothing to do
with their position or role. It can be that an employee who has been with the company a long
time, or who is personally very good at networking with others and is also well trusted will be
the person employees turn to when seeking information about a change. This person may be
the office receptionist, the long-term production worker, or the long-serving administrative
assistant.

It does not matter what their position is in the organization. What matters is that they are an
important and trusted source of information. There are in fact, gatekeepers and validators of
change communication. You MUST know who these people are!

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

1. Who are the most trusted people within your organization and/or within the work unit
that is facing a change action?

2. Are those “opinion leaders” in favor or not of the change? Why?

3. If they are not in favor, what is your plan to work with those individuals to hear their
viewpoint and ensure they have the most accurate information (to get them on board

with change—or to hear what may be valid views against the change action)?

Reaching out to employees and hearing back

There is no ONE right way to communicate about a change action. How do you know which way
is the best way? Simple—ask the employees. This can be done through employee surveys, or
through individual or group meetings. It can also be done by exploring what is working well now.

What is clear is that because there are many ways to communicate, many organizations use a
“multi-channel” approach. This means use of emails, organizational web sites, podcasts, social

media, paper newsletters,
bulletin boards, “town hall”
meetings where groups of
employees meet with the
change team and/or senior
executives.

Whatever communication
vehicle you choose you MUST
do the following:

1. Communicate
honestly and openly. Do not
exaggerate or make false
promises or lie.

2. Communicate on a

regular basis, even if nothing is happening. Employees like to know what actions are
taking place, how they affect them personally, and what is next and when.

3. IMMEDIATELY Correct errors about the change action.

4. Ensure that you are making it easy for employees to provide feedback and then let

employees know what that feedback is and what is being done. If nothing is being done
related to the feedback, explain why.

Weak Multichannel Strategy Will Compromise Effectiveness

1. Keep communications flowing about the change with success stories and examples of
people who are actively involved.

2. The stories must be emotive (I can feel the positive emotions involved), simple to

understand, and personally relevant (the message means something to me).

3. The messages must be about people—not just statistics and numbers, and buzzwords

about change such as “empowerment, dialogue, etc.”

4. Do not stop communicating even if you think there’s nothing to communicate. There
ALWAYS is something to share. A communication vacuum with be filled with information
from those opposed to the change. Often that will include errors, lies, rumors, and
falsehoods designed to stop change. If that happens you will waste time trying to
correct all those mistruths when you should be focusing on the positive.

WARNING: A negative image or comment is far more powerful, remembered
longer, and has a far greater emotional impact (fear, anger) than a positive
comment.

Believing is seeing in communications

It is impossible for any two people to see EXACTLY the same thing or to exactly hear the same
message. How we receive information is based on many factors including our gender,
experiences throughout live, our age, religion, faith, culture, up-bringing, positions of power,
education, values, and many other factors.

As Stanford University Professor Carl Sorensen is quoted as saying, “Believing is seeing,” not the
common expression “Seeing is believing.” This means if we strongly believe in something then
that is what we will “see.” While many people may have the same beliefs and attitudes and
“see” change the same way, those perceptions will not be exactly the same.

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

1. Write down just one word or very short phrase that describes your change action.

2. What picture immediately comes to mind in your brain? What do you SEE?

3. What do others SEE when you say that same word or words to them?

4. What are the differences?

777

Values

Age Lens of personal perception

“Believing is seeing—not seeing is believing”
-Carl Sorensen

Stanford University

THINKING: Write down the first thing that comes to mind when you see this

word—”carrot”—compare what you wrote down to the person next to you. How

many had exactly the same answer? How come? What if the word was “change”?

Quick draft communication plan

As a change manager you may be fortunate to work with the organization’s communication
specialist or someone who is hired on contract. However, you may have to go it alone. These are
the basics that must be in you change management communications.

1. Introduction:

The goal of the change plan—raise awareness, gain support, influence attitudes, change
behaviors

2. Key messages: What is the change action?
Purpose and urgency

3. Supporting messages: When will the change occur?
Timelines, deadlines, locations

4. How will things be different?
Description of what will be different and the impact when change is complete

5. Target audience: Who is directly affected?
Individuals, groups, units, sections, locations, job descriptions, gender, employee
diversity

6. Communication vehicles:
List of tools (emails, web site, social media, townhalls, team meetings, electronic and
print newsletters, bulletin board postings, etc.)

7. Frequency of communication:
Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, this will depend on the volume and intensity of change)

8. Feedback from those affected:
How are you going to encourage feedback to the change actions?

• Email address to the change team

• Corporate bulletin board

• Employee surveys

• Other

9. Measuring success: You need on an ongoing basis to measure how well your
communication plan is working: How many and what type of communication are you getting
and what is the content and tone (supportive, not supportive, suggestions for action)?

At some point you need to do some scientific measures such as an on-line employee survey
measuring how well employees understand the change, how important do they think it is,
how good a job is being done, how it is affecting them personally (the ability to do their job,
their morale, their job satisfaction, etc.)

Anticipating and managing conflict during change

“Conflict” during change is NOT necessarily a bad thing! In the electrical world a “resistor” is an
electrical gadget that controls the flow of electricity so that it flows at a smooth rate and does
not create a dangerous overload, blowing fuses and shutting down power grids.

Same thing in the workplace but the word is “resister.” A workplace resister is like an electrical
resistor. An employee who acts as a resistor to change may in fact be a very positive thing,
bringing forward opinions and facts that prevent the change overloading the organizational
system preventing a “blowout,” and help prevent a dangerous overheating in the system.

Here is my experiential view:

“All change is conflict—but not all conflict is bad”

In other words, unless you encourage constructive criticism of change and are open to
“changing change,” then what you are doing is simply applying cosmetic makeup to an
unattractive situation. Studies show that there is “good” conflict and “bad conflict.” Good
conflict is the ability for employees and others to respectfully question why change is occurring,
what will it accomplish, why now, why not another way, when will it happen, and what will
happen if no change occurs.

These are vital questions that must be encouraged at all levels of an organization.
Organizational expert the late Dr. Brenda Zimmerman used to call these the “wicked questions”
that unearth realities in an organization or change process.

On the accompanying slide (p. 26) you will also see a description of “functional” and
“dysfunctional” aspects of conflict.

DEFINITIONS
Informal dispute resolution
specialist: Internal employees
trained to try and have parties agree
on a solution before it becomes a
“formal” process.

Conciliator: Trusted third party
usually associated with labor, family,
and community disputes.

Mediator: Neutral third party usually
used labor-management and civil
court disputes.

Arbitrator: Third party with the
power to impose a decision. Again
usually associated with labor-
management conflicts

Conflict — A disagreement between two or

more people over values, needs, beliefs,

perceptions, or expectations. It can arise

from ineffective and unclear communication,

but this is not necessarily the case.

Because we are all different, differences in

points of view are inevitable.

Conflict can also be a good thing. It has the

potential to increase understanding,

stimulate positive change, and facilitate

human relations, but it can also lead to

relational stalemates.

Eli Sopow Ph.D.

Conflict management is an extremely
broad field on study involving many
aspects of personal and organizational
life. Presented here are but a few
highlights related to change
management.

In the Aspects of Conflict graph, you
see a list of both “functional aspects”
and “dysfunctional aspects” of conflict.
The functional aspects are the positive
things about conflict including the
ability to challenge assumptions,
identification of weaknesses in the
change, allowing for creativity and
innovations

The round graph is Christopher
Moore’s “Circle of Conflict” that
describes five key causes of conflict.
Jolie Bain Pillsbury has added another
dimension “Language Conflicts” that
offers a useful additionxi.

Moore’s wheel is an excellent way for
you to both anticipate the kinds of
conflict that may arise from your
change action as well as understand
the conflicts you are currently and in
the future encountering.

TIME OUT FOR THINKING

1. Use the Basic Sources of Workplace Conflict graph on the next page together with the
“3Ps” of Power, Pride, and Profit model to list all possible conflicts that may relate to
your change action.

2. Access the many conflict management tools available to you on the internet and through

the UCW library to design a conflict intervention plan to address each conflict.

Dysfunctional
-hinders group performance

-creates “toxic” workplace

-communication slowdown

-infighting

-low morale

-low job satisfaction

-workplace stress

Functional
-group goals supported

-assumptions challenged

-”brainstorming” encouraged

-processes not people questioned

-performance improved

-innovations

-stronger relationships

(-) (+)

Conflict resolution from Krishna Kanth

Christopher Moore, The Mediation Process, Third Edition (San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass), 2003.

There are many sources and recommendations dealing with conflict management which is a
specialty all to itself and can involve a professional designation. In the process of change
management, one model that I recommend exploring is the following Five Critical Conversation
Steps by Christine Tangora Schlachterxii. It is a favorite of mine because it recognizes that all
conflict involves human emotions, and the effective communication and clarity goes a long way
to resolving conflicts.

Basic sources of workplace conflict

https://www.colourbox.com/image/what-causes-conflict-image-13738461

Five Critical Conversation Steps

A quick and accurate diagnostic model of conflict (six Systems Model revisited)

Earlier in this booklet we discussed my “Six Systems Model” of identifying internal organizational systems
needs and conditions. I also use this model (renamed the Workplace Alignment Test) to very quickly
identify at least surface reasons for workplace conflict.

Here is the principle: When people don’t get what they think is important in their workplace (or personal
life) they can become upset leading to workplace conflict. Now, this may be a case of too high or
unreasonable expectations. But it can also be not getting what they need in terms of guidance, training,
communication, and direction. The Workplace Alignment Test (below) gives you a quick temperature of
the workplace on what is proven through extensive research to be six interconnected critical success
factors.

First have employees rate how important each of the six critical success factors is on a scale of not
important at all (1) to very important (5). Next ask them to rate how good a job is being done with each
of the six measures. A big gap between importance/performance is a big cause of workplace conflict.
And remember this. All six factors are strongly correlated according to statistical analysis. This means
making a change in one will affect others!

Do changing behaviors change attitudes?

Psychologists differentiate between human attitudes and behavior. In very simple terms we can
describe an attitude as the accumulation of long-term beliefs that have been formed through a
wide range on influential factors such as our gender, age, experiences and associations.xiii
Attitudes, therefore, can be very hard to change.

Behavior, it is argued in the
scientific literature, can be a
direct offshoot of a person’s
attitude. However, a
person’s everyday behavior
at work may not be a true
reflection of their attitude.

They may simply be
behaving in a certain way
because a negative
consequence could result
from not doing so.

Changing attitudes
A great deal of scientific
research exists about
whether it is important to
change attitudes before a
behavioral change can occur.

The prevailing opinion is that
“It is not necessary to
change attitudes to change
behavior.”xiv What is clear is
that in many workplaces
behavior can be quite
quickly changed through the
use of incentives/reward for
“correct” behavior” and

significant, quick, fair and transparent penalties. Over time this behavior change may change
attitudes, but it is no guarantee. It is also likely that a person will mask their attitude with
“appropriate behavior” in public situations but privately have no change in attitude.

ATTITUDES
We think about things
based on long-established
influences on our brain
including our:

Gender
Family
Friends
Groups
Ethnicity
Faith
Age
Experiences
Education
Emotional health

Here’s my deep-
seated

emotional
reaction to this

situation
Eli Sopow PhD

WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR

The positive never-ending “chaos” of change

Chaos theory in science and the associated “complexity science” (complex adaptive systems
theory) is a way of looking at the world and organizations as NOT being predictable, mechanistic
entities but as ever-changing organisms that continually face complex and often unpredictable
situations.

One of the best quotes I have seen that perfectly describes the state of all organizations today
comes from a United States Marine Corps leadership manual.

“Command and control is not so much a matter of one part of
the organization getting control over another as it is something
that connects all the elements together in a cooperative effort.”

United States Marine Corps “Command and Control” Leadership manual
MCDP6

All organizational change is very much a connected, cooperative effort. In my doctoral
research I was struck by a documentary interview with a Marine Corps officer in charge of
planning. She said that the “command and control” notion of the Corp is wrong. She said the
Marine Corps operates on a “command and coordinate” model because the military has little
or no “control” over the theatre of war. But it can and does have a superb command structure
and outstanding coordinating and communication abilities.

The Canadian military also acknowledges this organic, complex adaptive interconnectivity of
leadership and management as well as its approach to continual change. It states in its model of
leadership, “The inter-relationships and interconnectedness of command, management, and
leadership functions often make it difficult to disentangle the command, management, and
leadership effects achieved by individuals in position of authority.”xv

Change lessons from complexity science

A final lesson I offer from complexity science is that change is a constant in human and
organizational life. Change is a constant in human and organizational life. In my Anicca Wave of
Continuous Changexvi I map out the following:

1. A change can be triggered by many factors—some you know about and can plan for—
some that “come out of nowhere” and require immediate addressing.

2. Once the status quo is disrupted through a triggering event, action occurs through the
guidance of a change management plan.

3. Once the change is implemented the organization returns to a state of calm and status
quo.

4. But the new status quo is different from the status quo before change occurred. We
never return to the exact place where we started from.

5. It is guaranteed that another triggering event will occur that again demands change
action, and effective change to the existing status quo.

6. This results in a new state of calm and a new status quo different from before.
7. Change occurs in waves. Some large, some small. Some often, some less often.
8. As the Anicca Wave shows, the state of equilibrium or status quo is continually re-

defined.
9. This means that the methods used before in dealing with change may not be the right

ones to deal with the new opportunities for change.
10. It is not correct to say that “the more things change the more they stay the same.” The

correct view of the world is that “the more things change the more they change.”

Anicca Wave of Continuous

Change

Status

quo

Trigger

event

Change
Status
quo
Trigger
event
Change
Change
Status
quo
Status
quo
Trigger
event
Time

“Static quo” versus “status quo:” A huge difference in the change continuum

Here is something to consider, and another lesson from my Anicca Wave. I suggest there is a big
difference between what I call “static quo” in change and “status quo.” Let us start with
definitions from the Cambridge Oxford dictionary:xvii

Static quo
adjective
Static: “staying in one place without moving, or not changing for a long time. Also
motionless, stationary, still.”

status quo
noun [ S ]
“the present situation or condition.”

Here is my point. The Anicca Wave shows that a new “status quo” will be achieved every time a
change occurs due to some triggering event following by action. But in EACH new status quo
the conditions will be different—either greatly or somewhat—and never replicated again in the
next iteration of status quo.

Not so with “static quo.” This is where the REAL ISSUE blocking change occurs. A “static quo” in
my definition occurs when the culture, leadership, and systems are so entrenched that they
simply avoid any change whatsoever.

Here is an analogy. When the arteries of your heart get clogged you suffer arteriosclerosis
defined by the Mayo Clinic as:

Arteriosclerosis occurs when the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients
from your heart to the rest of your body (arteries) become thick and stiff —
sometimes restricting blood flow to your organs and tissues. Healthy arteries
are flexible and elastic, but over time, the walls in your arteries can harden, a
condition commonly called hardening of the arteries.xviii

It is the same thing with organizational structures and systems. I call this condition
“systemsclerosis”xix which is a hardening of the arteries of communication, accountability,
responsibility, authority, collaboration, and cooperation. And just like with arteriosclerosis,
“systemsclerosis” can be a killer—organizationally and through its impact on employee
wellness.

Predicting organizational change: The Critical Issues RADAR

I designed the national Change Potential Scale (CPS) while serving as Division Director of
Research & Analysis for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (it is a publicly released model).
Used in dozens of situations and locations, and part of a national intelligence model (also made
public) the CPS allows a finer-grained assessment of the ©External Change Radar using issues
and change management tradecraft.

The above is simple to use. The higher the rating for the first 10 measures or the “issue” the
greater the pressure to change the status quo as it exists today. The emotional path goes like
this—we fear something will hurt us, we get angry, we get organized through leadership, and
then we act.

The bottom 10 measures describe people seeking change. The higher the rating the greater the
ability of change drivers to have something happen. Combine a high-rated issue with a high-
rated group and the pressure for change can be enormous.

Remember that issues do NOT exist in isolation. Every issue for change is interconnected to
many other issues to varying degrees. It is vitally important to map out those interconnections
and monitor their strengths and growth.

Low
(1)

Medium
(2)

High
(3)

1. The issue impacts broad-based concerns

2. The issue has parallels to other issues of concern

3. The issue addresses a lack of fairness

4. The issue creates a sense of urgency

5. The issue creates uncertainty

6. The issue threatens a sense of control

7. The issue has a long-established pattern of concern

8. The issue is very simple to understand

9. The issue affects people personally

10. The issue creates a sense of fear

11. The group driving the issue is well known

12. The group is publicly credible

13. The group has change experience

14. The group is strongly committed to their cause

15. The group has access to human/financial resources

16. The group is news media “savvy”

17. The group is supported by many other groups

18. The group is well organized

19. The group has strong leadership

20. The group is very social media/Internet savvy

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

Total CPS

Change

Potential

Scale
20 proven factors

that are needed to

give a group

power to raise

awareness and

emotional impact,

and to create

change.

Handy references

There are many sources of information about change management in books, journals, the
internet, and from numerous consulting firms.

But BEWARE! Ensure that your sources of information are credible and are backed up with
empirical research. One way to judge credibility is the frequency that models, ideas, or research
is cited in many other places. There are many solid sources from academia and in many
consulting firms. Use those sources wisely and of course with proper referencing!

The following books about change management are recommended:
1. Canadian Organizational Behavior. (McShane)
2. Complexity & Creativity in Organizations. (Stacey).
3. Corporate Personality Disorder: Surviving and Saving Sick Organizations. (Sopow)
4. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. (Cameron & Quinn)
5. Edgeware. (Zimmerman, Lindberg, & Pisek)
6. Emotion in Organizations. (Fineman ed.)
7. Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior. (Robbins & Langton)
8. Handbook of Organizational Culture & Climate (Ashkanasy, Wilderom, & Peterson)
9. Immunity to Change. (Kegan & Lahey)
10. Making Sense of Change Management. (Cameron and Green)
11. Managing Transitions. (William Bridges)
12. Organization Change: A Comprehensive Reader (Burke, Lake, & Paine)
13. Organizational Climate & Culture. (Ehrhart, Schneider, & Macey)
14. Organizational Culture and Leadership. (Schein)
15. Organizational Development & Change. (Cummings & Worley)
16. Power and Influence in Organizations. (Kramer & Neale ed.)
17. Strategy Safari. (Mintzberg)
18. The Complexity Advantage. (Allison)
19. The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Climate & Change. (Schneider ed.)
20. The Theory and Practice of Change Management. Hayes

Web links to change management models

1. John Kotter 8 stages: https://www.kotterinc.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/

2. McKinsey “7S” model of change:
https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/mckinsey-7s-model-framework.html

3. William Bridges transformational model: https://wmbridges.com/

4. Prosci ADKAR model of change: https://www.prosci.com/adkar/adkar-model

5. Kurt Lewin’s 3-stage model: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm

6. Nadler-Tushman 6-step Congruence Model:
https://www.toolshero.com/management/nadler-tushman-congruence-model/

https://www.kotterinc.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/

https://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/tools/mckinsey-7s-model-framework.html

https://wmbridges.com/

https://www.prosci.com/adkar/adkar-model

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm

https://www.toolshero.com/management/nadler-tushman-congruence-model/

Part 3

Changing who you are

Do you know who you are?

In ancient Greece, the phrase “Know thyself” was inscribed on the frontispiece of the Temple of
Delphi and was widely taught by the philosopher Socrates. In those days it was thought that “An
unexamined life is not worth living.” A bit harsh but the intent is very well-meaning.

But truly knowing yourself can be difficult as thousands of scientific books and ongoing journal
papers in psychology, counseling, and psychiatry continue to show us, as well as all the “self-
help” books flooding Amazon’s web site.

In this class of Change Management, we skim along a very deep surface. We learn this:

1. Who you are in terms of attitudes and beliefs have been shaped and to a degree re-
shaped since the day you were born.

2. Attitudes are deep-seated acceptance and beliefs about the way things are and should
be. They are influenced by your gender, your upbringing, age, religion, culture,
education, experiences, and by those you associate with as well as those you trust.

3. Once attitudes are formed, they are very hard to change.

4. Behaviors are actions that you take that often reflect your attitudes. If your attitude
toward dogs is that they are a friendly companion you will likely be more inclined to pet
a dog and be friendly back. Not so if you are afraid of or loathe dogs.

5. However, behaviors are much easier to change than attitudes because they are shaped
by rules, rewards, and negative consequences.

6. Your attitude toward very tall employees might be that you resent them but your
behavior toward them will (usually) be neutral or supportive because the workplace
rules say you must behave that way or get fired.

7. Some researchers argue that over time changing your behaviors because you must do so
can change your attitude over time.

8. However other researchers show that if your attitudes are very firmly entrenched than
you may change your behavior over time, but your attitude will not change. And so, your
behavior goes back to showing your true attitude.

This is but one of many particularly good references on the topic that I recommend readingxx

THE CONCLUSION:

• Change in an organization is all about the impact on people. This includes you as an
employee, manager, leader, government regulator, client, customer, or a stakeholder in
an organization’s actions.

• Check out the eight-point list above. Everyone affected by change has a different range
of attitudes and behaviors, emotions like fear and happiness, and actions/re-actions.

• Do you see and judge others from the same lens you see yourself? Can you be wrong?

“Know thyself” Part 1

There are many credible survey and personality profile available in the social sciences ranging
from Myers-Briggs instrument to the “Big 5” diagnostic tool that looks at five characteristics
labeled the OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and
Neuroticism).

I recommend a combination of two different models for this class.

STEP 1: First apply the OCEAN model https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test. It is easy
to use, on-line, and the methodology and results. As the web site says:

This free personality test gives you accurate, precise scores for the Big Five
personality traits and takes just 10 minutes. See exactly how you score for
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism,
and understand how the Big Five personality factors apply to your life, work
and relationships. The Big Five or Five Factor model is the most scientifically
sound way of classifying personality differences and is the most widely used
among research psychologists.

Take the “test” and draw a chart/table of your results (something like the following).

https://www.truity.com/test/big-five-personality-test

STEP 2: Let me introduce you to the Gibbs Reflective Cycle that is a great and easy tool to
critically think about events and actions and especially how they connect to you. Here’s
consultant Patty Mulder’s explanation of the Cyclexxi.

In 1988, the American sociologist and psychologist Graham Gibbs published his
Reflective Cycle model in his book ‘Learning by Doing‘. Gibbs Reflective Cycle
encourages people to think systematically about the experiences they had
during a specific situation, event, or activity. Using a circle, reflection on those
experiences can be structured in phases. This often makes people think about
an experience, activity, or event in more detail, making them aware of their
own actions and better able to adjust and change their behavior. By looking at
both negative and positive impacts of the event, people can learn from it.

Step 3: Now combine the Big 5 with the Gibbs Cycle

1. Briefly describe your OCEAN results in terms of the kind of personality traits you have. Very
briefly state how (not why) your personality traits would react to change in your workplace or in
a major event in your life. Don’t analyze those results or offer opinions, just the basics.
2. Describe your feelings (your emotional reaction) to the OCEAN results. WHY do you feel that
way? Based on your OCEAN results what emotions/feelings will you have when faced with
future change in your workplace or life?
3. Evaluate how your OCEAN results (the highs and the lows) will either help you or hinder you
in dealing with…and especially…LEADING change.
4. Analysis: What you have learned from the OCEAN results and your application of the Gibbs’
Model? What do you know now that you did not before?
5. Conclusion: Present three conclusions about yourself that this process has help you reach,
particularly how you deal with change.
6. Present a very brief action plan on how you can improve on areas within the OCEAN results
that will help you both manage and lead change.

The following exercise combining the Big 5 with Gibbs tells you a lot about yourself and your
reaction to both the onset of change and your ability to lead change. In all my classes many
students have commented on how they have gained a new understanding of themselves and
what they need to do to grow as leaders and managers.

“Know thyself” Part 2: The Action Formula 𝒌 ∗𝒆=𝒂

“The nature of action is dependent on the quality and quantity of knowledge multiplied by
the intensity and type of emotion”xxii

Over the years I developed and administered in projects a little formula that has big answers
when applied. I simply call it the Action Formula wherein knowledge (what you know, “k”)
multiplied by your emotions (what and how you feel, “e”) determine the type and quality of
your actions (“a”) or k*e=𝒂). The formula is knowledge multiplied by, not added to, emotions.
Adding two things together simply produced a sum of the parts. Multiplying them creates an
amalgamation, a result that is much greater than the sum of the parts and therefore has a much
bigger impact.

Here is how you apply the formula to yourself when considering actions that involve change of
any kind.

Answering the first 14 questions can provide a great deal of information about the motivations
that will lead you to action and the type of action. This critical thinking self-assessment needs to
be done honestly and with a great deal of thought. You may find that answering the first 14
questions has a profound impact on the final seven action-results either confirming the desire to
take action or concluding there is little gain to be achieved.

What you know
What you don’t know
What you need to know
Who you need to know
Why you need to know
When you need to know
How you get to know

What emotions you feel
Why you feel this way
Actions causing the emotions
People causing the emotions
When you feel this way
How long you feel this way
How long you’ve felt this way

Knowledge x emotion = action

Immediate: Why and how
Over time: Why and how
Level of emotional fulfillment
Level of cognitive fulfillment
Level of physical fulfillment
Level of social fulfillment
Level of personal fulfillment

References

i Sopow, E. (2019)
ii Society for Human Resource Management https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-

and-samples/hr-qa/pages/cms_021670.aspx
iii Masoud Yasai-Ardekani & Paul C. Nystrom. School of Business Admmistration, University of

Wisconson. Designs for Environmental Scanning Systems: Tests of a Contingency Theory.

Management Science Vol 42, No. 2, February 1996
iv Sopow, E. (2019) Aligning workplace wellness with global change: An integrated model.

Academic paper presented to the Oct 5, 2019 Private Degree Granting Institutions

Association conference Pathways to Well Being, Growth and Sustainability, Vancouver

B.C.
v Daniel J. Hopkins, Eunji Kim, and Soojong Kim. (Does newspaper coverage influence or

reflect public perceptions of the economy? (2017). Research and Politics. October-December

2017: 1–7
vi Sopow, E., Bogle, D. (2008-2018). National Change Management Project, Royal Canadian

Mounted Police
vii Sopow, E. (2019) Aligning workplace wellness with global change: An integrated model.

Academic paper presented to the Oct 5, 2019 Private Degree Granting Institutions
Association conference Pathways to Well Being, Growth and Sustainability, Vancouver

B.C.
viii http://www.mspguide.org/tool/tuckman-forming-norming-storming-performing
ix Robbins & Langton. (2004). Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour
x https://www.ayoubhr.com/diversity-gaining-momentum-canadian-workplace/

https://www.nlc.org/sites/default/files/users/user112/Circle%20of%20Conflict%20Adaptation.p

df
xii https://www.dummies.com/careers/project-management/five-critical-conversation-steps-to-

resolve-workplace-conflict/
xiii Gilbert D., Fiske, S. and Lindzey. (1998). Vol. 1 The Handbook of Social Psychology 4th Edition
xiv Chaiklin, H. (2011). Attitudes, Behavior and Social Practice. The Journal of Sociology and Social

Welfare, 38 (3), pp. 31-53,
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Ottawa: Canadian Defence Academy—Canadian Forces Leadership Institute.
xvi Collins dictionary: In The ravada (Buddhism) the belief that all things, including the self, are

impermanent and constantly changing
xvii https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/static
xviii https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/arteriosclerosis-atherosclerosis/symptoms-

causes/syc-20350569

https://www.nlc.org/sites/default/files/users/user112/Circle%20of%20Conflict%20Adaptation

xix Sopow, E. (2007). Corporate Personality Disorder: Surviving and Saving Sick Organizations. E-

Universe, Lincoln, NE, USA
xx Lines, R. The Structure and Function of Attitudes Toward Organizational Change. Human

Resource Development Review 2005; 4; 8
xxi https://www.toolshero.com/management/gibbs-reflective-cycle-graham-gibbs
xxii Sopow, E. 2009.

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