Book Review: Change the Way You Lead Change

I always get a little nervous when a book’s title includes words in boldface, all capital letters, or underlined multiple times. It seems like someone is yelling across a room to get my attention, hoping to convince me of something by sheer volume and decibels rather than by reasoning and content. So it was with a little trepidation that opened Change the Way You Lead Change: What You Really Need to Know About Leading Change.

As it turns out, though, authors David Herold and Donald Fedor really have identified some of the key questions that should be asked before undertaking a serious organizational change effort. These questions, if asked and answered by change leaders, can put the brakes on kneejerk reactions and lead to a more reasoned change effort that will be right for the company’s circumstances and be more acceptable to the employees who have to implement it. While the concepts themselves are not particularly earth-shattering, they break down the simple questions of “who, what, when, where, how?” into chapter-length discussions on who the leader is and what skills they bring, the composition of the workforce, the circumstances that seem to be demanding change, realism vs. idealism, and other considerations that will give the potential change leader pause. The purpose is not to stop you from creating change by causing you to question your whole reason for being, but merely to slow you down and make you think more clearly about what is most likely to be effective.

The authors provide plenty of examples of CEOs trying to change their corporate cultures as well as outsiders being brought in to save the day. While this will advance your understanding of what they mean, by putting concepts into practical terms, the facts and discussions seem to come largely from media reports and some individual interviews. If you are looking for a rigorous academic study underlying their conclusions, this probably is not going to do it for you.

In fact, it is these examples that make me question the usefulness of this book for leaders in small companies or at the lower levels of management. The focus here seems to be on CEOs, specifically CEOs of major corporations, and manufacturing firms in particular. While the basic concepts are useful to leaders at all levels, especially those who aspire to become CEOs of big firms someday, I am not sure how relevant the majority of this book will seem to those outside a fairly narrow niche. You are liable to read this and say “well, I’m not the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, so this does not apply to me,” and in the process, you might miss the stuff that actually IS applicable. Another book, more specifically aimed at smaller businesses, might be a better choice. My suggestion: try looking for this at a library before looking at a bookstore.

Change leadership is only one element of the broader concept of leadership, but it’s also one of the most challenging. There are so many variables associated with organizational change that it’s imperative for change leaders to be asking the right questions. The questions presented here sound like the right ones, even if the book itself may not be.