Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times by John P. Kotter.
John holds a MS from the MIT and PhD in Business Administration (DBA) from Harvard. He has been a long tenured professor at HBS. He co-founded Kotter International, his leadership and strategy implementation firm. Leading Change published in 1996 was named one of the most influential business books of all time by Time Magazine.
While John introduced Leading Change in 1996, this book is moving the reader to accept our the world has moved from episodic change to a state of permanent, volatile flux. This falls into perfect alignment with modern IT’s Continuous Delivery.
The focus is on behavioral science, the barrier to organizational change is not bad management, but human nature. As a result, John presents two distinct “channels” for organizations. The Survive Channel: Triggered by threats is reactionary and negatively increasing anxiety. A Thrive Channel: Triggered by opportunities will drive curiosity, collaboration, and creativity. Yet John is outlining modern corporate KPIs and quarterly targets are shutting down innovations organizations need today in order to to stay relevant.