The Organizational Network Fieldbook: Best Practices, Techniques, and Exercises to Drive Organizational Innovation and Performance

Chapter 9. CHANGING CULTURE THROUGH NETWORKS AND NARRATIVE

Steve Denning and Rob Cross

Executives today must implement large-scale organizational change initiatives in ever-tighter time frames and with fewer and fewer resources. Advice for managers is increasingly available, but success in implementing change does not appear to be improving. One recent Gartner Group study found that although 90 percent of companies surveyed had undertaken significant organizational change within the previous two years, only 5 percent had avoided substantial disruptions and finished on time.

A shift in culture is one of the most difficult change processes an organization can undertake. Many organizations' approaches are largely impersonal. Typically, a small ...