1. The Challenge of Leading Strategic Change

I was recently talking with a CEO (I will call her Maria) about a major transformation that she was leading in her company. After several minutes of explaining her change plan, she asked me if I could recommend a good book or article for her to read on leading strategic change. I mentioned that, in fact, I had a book coming out on the topic. Graciously Maria congratulated me and then asked, “So what’s new and different in your book?”

“That’s simple,” I said. “Most other books on change have it backwards. They take an ‘organization-in’ approach wherein they outline all the organizational levers, such as reward systems, organization structures, performance management processes, and so on, that you should ...

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