The Change Masters Book Summary - The Change Masters Book explained in key points

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The Change Masters summary

Name: The Change Masters
Rating: 4 (27 reviews)
Author: Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the American Corporation

4 (27 ratings)

20 mins

Table of Contents

The Change Masters
summarized in 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

What’s in it for me? Discover what makes a company truly open to change.

Resting on your laurels has never been more dangerous. In today’s world, with rapidly changing markets and fierce global competition, only companies that can adapt to new realities and embrace change will survive.

But how do you lay the foundation for a truly innovative, adaptable company?

Rosabeth Moss Kanter has spent many years researching American Fortune 500 companies to determine the factors that contribute to a company’s ability to change. As these blinks will show you, good communication, fluid job titles and cross-departmental collaborations are just some of the things that will make sure your company stays on the cutting edge of innovation.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why good communication is essential for change;
what loading guns has to do with innovation; and
why your project team needs to be protected from the outside world.

Collaboration and innovation are often stifled by success formulas in traditional organizations.

Globalization has dramatically changed the rules of business in recent years. Traditionally, most industries were dominated by a few big corporations and markets were relatively stable. Today's businesses have to compete globally and survive in rapidly changing, volatile markets. Many organizations are failing to keep up. Why?

One reason is that traditional organizations are often held back by their success formulas.

When companies overcome their first set of challenges, they typically develop a success formula that outlines the way the organization should be run. It can address issues like production techniques or the company's structure. The point is that since the formula worked for the business in the past, it becomes the standard protocol. This can seriously impede innovation.

The author conducted research on a textile manufacturer that struggled with just this issue. The company had experienced problems with yarn breaking since it first went into operation, so the owners considered this to be a normal cost of the business and didn't try to fix it.

Then a new plant manager joined the company. He worked to improve employee communication and eventually met a worker who had an idea for modifying the production technique to reduce breakage. He'd had the idea for 32 years, but he never shared it until he was asked.

When the new manager asked the employee why he hadn't spoken up before, he said that the old manager simply hadn't been interested in changing the process. This shows how getting too comfortable in your routine can be detrimental.

Segmentalist organizations stifle innovation by keeping their employees in strictly defined roles.

The author identified several behaviors that hinder innovation and change as she conducted her research on modern-day businesses. She termed these behaviors segmentalism.

But what exactly is segmentalist behavior and why does it stifle innovation?

Integrative companies have complex organizational structures that foster collaboration.

We've seen that an essential part of innovation is allowing people the freedom to step outside their usual roles. But why is this freedom so essential, and how do integrative organizations foster it?

Integrative companies use complex organizational structures that encourage collaboration.

Information, resources and support are crucial for innovation.

Innovation requires a certain degree of complexity and freedom, but that's not all you need. There are three basic commodities that are necessary for innovation: information, resources and support.

Important changes can only come about with a free flow of information. Innovative ideas emerge when people approach problems from new perspectives, so it’s vital that they have access to multiple sources of information.

Too much power circulation is harmful.

An organization needs some degree of power circulation to allow for creativity, but you can have too much of a good thing. Without some limits on power circulation, employees might simply jump from project to project without staying on one long enough to finish it. It’s important to balance power circulation with focus, but how?

An effective organization fosters the development of innovative ideas, then steers them in the right direction. Power circulation (through interconnectivity, complexity, freedom, diversity and so on) is necessary at first because it gives people the space to be creative. But later on, that same freedom can present problems.

Before you start your project, gather information, plant your seeds and ask for support.

Even if an organization has provided its employees with sufficient information, resources and support, it still needs to ensure that their innovative ideas come to life. How?

The first step toward implementing an idea is to collect enough information for a feasible and goal-oriented project definition.

Don't let your team members get distracted by external problems or noise.

There's another important truth that the author uncovered in her research: projects often fall apart over time, even if they start with the right information, resources and support.

This is often caused by a lack of focus or external pressure from the rest of the organization. As a project manager, you need to look out for exactly these sorts of distractions.

Use team-building skills to maintain your project's momentum.

When projects run for a long time, team members can start to lose motivation, especially if they have other responsibilities to attend to as well. If a project drags on, team members might even start to resent working on it. They may not put in their best effort, or might even try to kill the project internally. As the team leader, it’s your job to prevent this.

Preserve your project's momentum by using team-building skills. Your team members won't stay motivated if they don't feel involved, or feel undervalued.

Teamwork isn't always necessary and can even be counterproductive.

Getting employees to actively participate in projects is a crucial attribute of innovative organizations. Unfortunately, participation and teamwork can't solve all corporate problems on their own.

It's certainly possible to foster too much teamwork and hold too many meetings. And doing so can make simple tasks very time consuming.

A company can't change unless the employees truly believe that change is possible.

Changing an entire organization is a change master's greatest skill. You have to promote participation and power circulation, as well as make resources available, but that's not all. The corporate culture, that is, your company's mindset, has to be ready for change too.

The vice president of General Electric once said that if your company isn't fully prepared for innovation, your ideas won't break into the market, even if they're great. Your organization has to be ready to adjust to the changes that innovation entails.

The way a company tells its story affects its attitude toward change.

The author uncovered an interesting fact about change-averse companies during her research: they interpret their own company history differently than companies that embrace change.

Change-averse companies tend to insist that they haven't changed much since day one. Organizations that embrace change, on the other hand, openly stress the changes they've undergone. Why?

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What is The Change Masters about?

The Change Masters (1983) is about Rosabeth Moss Kanter's findings from her extensive research on American corporations in the 1980s. She identifies the key factors that bring about change and innovation, and explains how you can structure your organization to adapt to change more effectively.

Who should read The Change Masters?

Change managers and business consultants
Managers and team leaders
Ambitious entrepreneurs and anyone interested in innovation

About the Author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a sociologist and Management Professor at Harvard Business School, where she was the first woman to be awarded an endowment chair. Her main fields of research are leadership strategy, change management and innovation.

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Management & Leadership

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