Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!
The Ballad of East and West by Rudyard Kipling
A tension exists in the world of change practitioners, an interchangeability that ruffles the feathers. Those who would practice Organization Change often bristle at the term Change Management. The distinction is necessary. The tension is not.
Yes. They're Different.
Organization Change and Change Management are different sides of the same coin. When using organizational development as a tool for effecting change, we consider three pieces: strategy, operations, and organization (what, how, who). Conveniently, our change tension aligns well to this way of thinking.
Organization Change = what and who. Change Management = how.
- Does this change affect what we do as an organization?
- Are we impacting who we are and how we define ourselves?
- Does this affect why we exist as an organization?
- Will this change how we describe our organization to clients, partners, recruits?
- Does this change how we operate, the things we do on a daily basis?
Change Management is linear. Organization Change is not.
- Can we lay out a detailed project plan for how to accomplish this change?
- Can we definitively state when this change effort will be completed?
- Can we quantitatively measure success?
Organization Change is a model. Change Management is a process.
- Do we look at this change effort and ask…where do we start?
- Are there multiple places where we could start?
- Are the process steps prescribed?
Enter Mr. Kipling
So is this just an exercise in nuanced vocabulary? Or is there meaningful crossover between these ideas? Rather than draw a distinction between the two concepts and - to borrow from Kipling - ensure that "never the twain shall meet," we should acknowledge the power of the distinction AND the reliance of one upon the other.
Organization Change is an amorphous concept framed in the context of who we are as an organization and what we exist to accomplish. As such, we use models to frame the view. From Burke-Litwin to the McKinsey 7S, we find ways to make sense of a non-linear effort. Change Management discipline helps make the amorphous tangible. Processes like Prosci, Kotter, and Plan-Do-Act-Check help us effect the results we seek.
In the Shadow of Westminster
Years ago, on my first trip to London, I climbed the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. From 250 feet up, the view of the city is commanding (and includes Kipling's resting place at Westminster Abbey). As I wandered the city over the next few days, my mind would recall that view whenever I felt lost. As anyone who has spent time there knows, street signs only take you so far. Eventually, you need to get the bigger picture.
Such is the case with our change tension. In the words of Kurt Lewin, there's nothing so practical as a good theory. Having a model upon which to base our Organizational Change helps to define the Change Management process steps to come.
If we're doing our jobs right, the twain SHOULD meet.