How to Be a Positive Leader

11Create Micro-moves for Organizational Change

Karen Golden-Biddle

Recall an organizational change you have personally experienced and considered important to implement. How did you come to see this change as desired and viable? How did people undertake meaningful and collaborative effort? How was energy generated to keep going? Questions such as these direct our attention toward the “how” of change: actions and interactions comprising change processes that, while small and often barely visible, are essential to the successful creation of generative change. We call them “micro-moves.”¹

Usually, we pay attention to the “what” of organizational change (e.g., structural reorganization, incentive schemes, leadership turnover) and leave implicit the ...