The Science of Successful Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture

Introduction

“It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.”

—Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series, “Errand of Mercy”

How to Set 3 Million Dollars on Fire

In March 1993, the derivatives market was booming, and banks—although intoxicated by the profits—were worried about the risks of these strange, complex instruments and how to control the armies of traders making all that money. The normally reserved world of British commercial banks had been taken over by brash traders using swarthy epithets as often as the gammas and deltas of the trade. Senior management loved the income, but did not understand the math, hated the new trading-room culture of risk, vulgarity, and aggression, and were at sea with how to manage ...