Activity-Based Management for Financial Institutions: Driving Bottom-Line Results

CHAPTER 6

Managing Organizational Change

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

—W. Edwards Deming

IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT

While we all recognize the need to adapt and improve in order to grow and prosper, the resistance to change remains ingrained in all of us. This resistance is the primary reason why many accurate and well-designed ABC models are not converted into bottom-line results. Many ABC/M practitioners debate the merits of various ABC designs, but the best ABC model is still a waste of shareholder value without accompanying improvements.

Like many ABC/M implementers, I am a very numbers-oriented person. So, why do I emphasize a “soft skill” like organizational change management (OCM)? From a very practical standpoint, I believe in OCM because it increases the likelihood of ABM success.

FIGURE 6.1 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief

Reactions to Change

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, in her book On Death and Dying (New York: Touchstone, 1969), unwittingly laid some of the foundation for OCM by defining the five stages of grief shown in Figure 6.1. Most people are familiar with the concept of the five stages and the stages have become common knowledge: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Like any social science observation, the five stages are not a physical law. They are a framework and as a framework . ...