HBR Guide to Leading Through Change

CHAPTER 2

Ten Beliefs That Get in the Way of Organizational Change

by Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

Let’s acknowledge a hard truth: A colleague you love or respect may be playing a role in unproductively lowering your organization’s metabolic rate. Maybe it’s even you. People often ask us about the right timing for big change, and our answer is almost always the same: How about now? Now is typically the right time to accelerate excellence. But first you need to address some of the common assumptions that may be holding your team back.

1. Meaningful change happens slowly

When we view the human story from the luxury of distance, progress can take decades, generations, even centuries (or longer). History may take that long, but change can be ...