Versatile Change Strategy: Thriving in a Complex World

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Recommended: Understanding and Coping with Change

Abstract

This paper presents a perspective of the multifaceted components associated with change and offers insight on the strategy to effectively manage the change. For the purpose of exploring an actual change process, I have chosen the area of increasing productivity and the rising demands organizations have today to do more with less. I have chosen the subject because of the critical nature of the requirement to change and the firm belief that organizations that do not take a pro-active and holistic approach are destined to fail.

Surviving and thriving in a multifaceted world requires a versatile change strategy. There must be more variety in the strategy than in the system you are trying to change (Bennet & Bennet, 2004). This is similar to a common saying that implies we cannot envision the future or change the present with the same thought or intellect processes that we carry from the past or that we used to get to the present. One way of looking at accomplishing the task of breaking out of the old mold is to use a combination of past experiences and adding them to current realities and then projecting a vision of the future to be created with the synergy created by the all of the joined forces. The ICAS (Intelligent Complex Adaptive System) change strategy refers to a connectedness of choices. This means having a clear direction for the future with a cohesive understanding of why that direction is desirable coupled with individual decisions, support, knowledge and sharing and some common beliefs and values (Bennet & Bennet, 2004). Conventional wisdom cannot alone sustain the strategy, and is many times restricted by habit and pre-conceived notions.

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