Psychology of Change in Organisations

Psychology of Change in Organisations

[From the Archive: Originally posted at Amplify.com Apr 08, 2011]

[Updated Jan 17, 2021 to point to different online version of the referenced article, the original at www.psychologytoday.com having become inaccessible.]

Here’s a snippet from an article explaining the key role of (collective) mindset in organisational change.

Organisational psychology and neuroscience are two key influences in the Marshall Model. This article fills in some of the background to how these things relate:

Leaders today must understand and apply the knowledge of behavioral psychology and the lessons from brain science [a.k.a. neuroscience] to manage organizational change successfully. In the past, efforts at organizational change which have focused on the structural aspects of organizations have systematically failed because they have neglected the reality that change doesn’t happen without individual people changing their thinking, beliefs and behavior.

In an article in the McKinsey Quarterly, Emily Lawson and Colin Price argue that change success in large organizations depends on persuading hundreds or thousands of groups and individuals to change the way they work, a transformation people will accept only if they can be persuaded to think differently about their jobs. In effect, CEOs must alter the mind-sets of their employees—no easy task.

Read more at TheChangeManager

– Bob

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