For more than two decades, businesses have
been warned to "change or perish." Yet a growing number of
companies are perishing because of change. What's going on? Columbia
Business School Professor Eric Abrahamson argues that although change
is necessary for companies to grow and prosper, many organizations have
blindly taken the mandate too far. The "creative destruction"
advocated by change champions has resulted in a painful cycle of initiative
overload, change-related chaos, and widespread employee cynicism. To
reverse this cycle, Abrahamson says, companies must learn to change
how they change.
Drawing on a decade of research and dozens of company examples, this
book offers a positive new approach to change called "creative
recombination." Rather than obliterating and then reinventing anew,
creative recombination seeks a sustainable, repeatable transformation
by reconfiguring the people, structures, culture, processes, and networks
the company already has. Abrahamson offers a broad toolkit of techniques
for achieving smoother, more cost-efficient, less painful organizational
change--and helpful guidance for how and when to implement each tool.