We all experience change all the time. Just think about all the change you’ve experienced in the last 12 months. Write everything down in a list. What kind of changes are on your list?
I’ve said before that not all changes are created equal. There could be major changes in your life that have a dramatic effect, like marriage, childbirth, or bereavement. Or there could be small changes, like buying a new pair of shoes. Things might change slowly, like losing weight; or they might be sudden, like the introduction of Covid 19 restrictions. The same change might be viewed positively or negatively, depending on whether you wanted it or not.
When we’re talking about organisational change, Ackerman (1997) divided change into 3 types:
- Developmental – this is incremental change, where there is steady improvement made to the current organisation. This is either planned or emergent.
- Transitional – this is where you want to achieve a desired new state that is different to the existing one. The change is planned and the transition is managed over time. It’s a fairly radical change.
- Transformational – this is the emergence of a new state, which is unknown, following a crisis
For the purposes of the module I teach on Managing Change, we focus on transitional change, as this is what a lot of traditional change management literature refers to. In later posts I will outline some of the models used in planned, transitional change.
But it’s interesting to note we also use these terms and ideas when coaching individuals. We talk about having goals for improvement and we steadily work on improving skills (developmental). Or we ask people to think about their vision of a ‘future you’ to aim towards and we plan the best way to get there (transitional). We also talk about ‘transformational coaching’ where there is a shift in thinking and a different ‘new you’ emerges through the coaching.
Looking back, what types of change have you experienced?
References:
Ackerman, L. (1997) Development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organisations In: Van Eynde, D., Hoy, J. and Van Eynde, D. (eds) Organisation Development Classics. San Francisco:Jossey Bass
Image from:
Balogun, J. and Hope-Hailey, V. (2008) Exploring Strategic Change. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd, 3rd ed.