The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook & Companion, 2nd Edition

Chapter 20The Engagement Paradigm: Changing the Way We Change Our Organizations

Dick and Emily Axelrod

This article is a reflection of Dick and Emily’s work over the last forty years. It gets to the heart of the question of how strategy translates into action. Based on their groundbreaking work with the Conference Model®, it offers the specifics of how engagement strategies can change the world. Dick and Emily have a symphony conductor’s sensibility for the elements needed to bring people emotionally into a project. They make the distinction between persuasion and engagement and provide a set of principles for bringing deeper engagement into all aspects of our work lives.

You bolt upright, drenched in sweat. After fumbling for your glasses, you look at the clock. It’s three a.m. What began a few weeks ago as a nagging anxiety now takes the form of full-blown terror. You feel absolutely certain that the organizational change initiative that you have been trying to implement is on the verge of collapse. The minutes seem like hours as you try to figure out what to do. You have few answers, if any.

If you’ve ever found yourself in this situation, you were probably following the conventional wisdom for creating organizational change. You formed steering committees and design groups representing all levels and departments of the organization. Participants in these groups were committed to the task and were genuinely excited about the challenge of bringing about this important change. ...