Change is a risky business. It’s a step into the unknown and that involves risk. Niccolò Machiavelli obviously understood what was involved when any leader decided to implement a significant change, namely:
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Niccolò Machiavelli
Of course you can always refuse to change but, as evolution has taught us, that way leads to extinction.
This section contains range of ideas. Quotation/s:
- 57 argues that the best changes are those that are made from the bottom up.
- 58 and 59 offer a warning about the dangers of change overload and the need to maintain some sense of continuity for the benefit of staff.
- 60 and 61 deal with the danger points in any change process.
- 62 and 63 offer competing advice. Quotation 62 suggests that you should always make the change before you have to, but quotation 63 suggests that there is one area of change that you should avoid for as long as possible, namely organisational culture.
As you read the entries in this section you will quickly realise that all the commentators share one objective: that is to minimise the risks associated with change. This is an area to which many project managers pay insufficient attention during their project planning.
Please note: While I recognise that not every change is a project, many significant changes are run as a project. Therefore, I’ve used the words ‘change’ and ‘project’ interchangeably in this section.