SPONSOR: The Eight Constants of Change

A note from Change Guides LLC about The Eight Constants of Change

Internationally-known change agents Stacy Aaron and Kate Nelson bring simplicity and order to a complex topic: organisational change. While change is not easy, this straightforward and fun read makes learning about change a breeze.

The Eight Constants of Change is a practical, easy-to-use guide that can help you and your team produce immediate, tangible, real-world results. By employing The Eight Constants of Change process, you'll see improvement in employee morale, efficiency and your bottom line...beginning immediately.

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The Eight Constants of Change may seem like an oxymoronic title to some, but in my experience there are many common issues that need to be managed during any transformational change project, including the perennial key issue of conflict. This is because there can’t be any progress without any conflict. Stacy Aaron & Kate Nelson's neat little book, in my view, is probably not aimed at skilled and experienced change practitioners. It does, however, provide useful a bird’s eye view of the issues senior managers need to be aware of when planning an implementing change.

The 120 pages or so pages comprising this book contain many useful suggestions, anecdotes and templates to help those sponsoring and/or responsible for change: 

• quality assure their change plans and change interventions for completeness;
• inform their tentative ideas about how to improve the chances of their changes sticking (i.e. actually working and getting embedded in their organisations);
• arm readers who may be new to change with a broader understanding of strategic change issues and help inform their thinking when looking to appoint a change team, including external advisers.

This book is easy to read and includes many examples and 'war stories' that illustrate the change issues (i.e. the Eight Constants) identified by its authors, including why:

1. organisations change only when their people change
2. resistance to change is inevitable
3. hanging on to the past hinders change
4. building commitment to change means connecting to the heads and hearts of the stakeholders of the change
5. change leaders must seen to ‘walk the talk’
6. lots of quality communication is essential if change is going to be effective
7. people support what the helped to create
8. support and reinforcement help make change more sustainable.

While the book does not debate the concept of building organisational capacity make and sustain change overtly, it does so indirectly by focussing on the issues that must be resolved in order to optimise the chances of a planned change sticking and delivering business benefits.

In my view, anyone expecting this book to show them how to plan a detailed change programme may be disappointed because it is not a programme and/or project management toolkit. Nor is it a tome that seeks to draw on and codify academic research. What the book is is a practical toolkit for dealing with common issues that need to be addressed in any change programme from a senior management perspective.

What The Eight Constants of Change also does well is provide practical suggestions technology and market agnostic on what should comprise change programme/plan, i.e. a list of the components of change plan, and furnish a range of toolkits that can be used and or adapted to help delivering any change project.
 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER: Geri McLeary is a programme manager who has delivered high profile deliverables in local and central government and who is often called on to reinvigorate struggling programmes and projects; and as a consequence, he has to assess organisation, team and individual behaviours to inform his improvement plans. His expertise in centralised government led to an interview in The Guardian in 2009.

DO YOU WANT TO REVIEW A BOOK FOR ARRAS PEOPLE? Contact us today.

Kate Nelson, Partner, Change Guides LLC

Kate has over 17 years of business experience working with large and small companies worldwide to help them manage change. Her clients have spanned consumer products, life sciences and manufacturing industries. She has authored numerous articles in regionally and nationally distributed publications and is frequently sought out and cited as an expert in the field of organizational change. Before co-founding Change Guides in 2005, Kate worked with Deloitte Consulting serving clients and helping to shape the firm's change management practice. She earned a BS from the College of William and Mary, an MBA from the Fisher School of Business and an MS from the School of Natural Resources at Ohio State University. She currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Stacy Aaron, Partner, Change Guides LLC

Stacy has more than 20 years of business and academic experience specializing in change management, marketing and organizational behavior. Stacy has provided change management consulting and training to many healthcare, non-profit, and service organizations. She has authored numerous articles and is cited as an expert in the field of organizational change. Before co-founding Change Guides in 2005, Stacy worked with Deloitte Consulting serving clients and helping to shape the firm's Change Leadership practice. She has taught marketing, management and organizational behavior at Miami University of Ohio and Wilmington College. Stacy earned her BS from Miami University of Ohio and an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.