Chapter 5
Capable Champions
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.
—Muhammad Ali
Top executives increasingly create cross-functional task forces comprised of respected middle managers to serve as a guiding coalition for major change initiatives. However, even when the top management team personally leads a change initiative, such as in life-or-death turnaround situations, individual change champions within the middle management ranks must “step up” if the change is to be successful. Consequently, the “vertical” chain of command, addressed in the previous two chapters (the hierarchical leader–follower ...
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