The Art of Change Leadership

Chapter 5The Change Cycle Transformation Tool

If you get the culture right, most of the other stuff will take care of itself.

—Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos

In Chapter 4 we focused on the importance of being a flexible and adaptable change leader with an upgraded operating system. Upgrading the leadership operating system is a key component of being able to successfully navigate self and others through change.

In this chapter we will look at the change cycle model and how to use it for leading change for self, others and for the organization.

Think about a recent big change in your own life. Maybe it was a job change, a relationship-status change, a new baby, someone passed away, someone had a health crisis, reaching a milestone birthday. Each of these are changes that impact our lives. Typically it is easier to accept a perceived positive change than a perceived negative change. I say “perceived” because truly it is the lens with which we look at something that determines how we respond to it. A milestone birthday may be super exciting for someone and absolutely painful for someone else. A lot of how we each process change is dependent on how we think about the change. This is why I suggest that we all need to upgrade our operating systems because we can rewire the brain to be more adaptable and creative rather than relying on the typical flight-or-fight reaction that most people use when faced with major change. The change cycle model in Figure 5.1 shows the stages of change and ...