Strategies of Change: Changing Change Management | BCG Henderson Institute

The changes to work, workplace, and workforce over the past 20 months have highlighted the importance of change management in organizations. But as noted in this article, change efforts can fail because standard change management techniques often rely on generic change models versus adjusting the approach to fit the organizational contexts in which change occurs. And given that contexts can vary significantly, the authors posit that “effective change management requires leaders to shift away from one-size-fits-all approaches and develop an expanded set of context-specific strategies.” The article presents four fundamental archetypes for determining the change context for various situations. 1) Simple Change, 2) Unpredictable Change, 3) Interdependent Change, and 4) Complicated Change. Exhibit 1 describes each of the four contexts, and Exhibit 2 shows how firms can determine their change philosophy and the most effective change interventions for each context. As firms continue to drive various change initiatives, this reference provides valuable ideas for accelerating those efforts through context-driven change management strategies.