Ready for Change – book review

Ready for Change – Edited by Cora Lynn Heimer Rathbone

This is a change management book aimed at Leaders, managers, Human Resources and organizational change professionals looking to be ready for change.

Initial reaction – Ready for Change

One thing I do first when looking at a management book for the first time is look at the design. Are there illustrations,  models or tables helping to communicate key messages – and this book is full of them!  Over 44 in just 260 pages.

This may sound strange, but I like authors to be able to communicate their ideas and thoughts in a variety of ways – and the process of print went beyond letters only with the first printing press. I look for variety and engagement.

The structure of the book

Broken into 12 chapters, each led by a different leaders in their filed, this is a real smorsaborg of content and ideas for those of us involved in change.

Ready for Change: Chapter 1 – Spurring innovation through strong HRM systems – Dr Helen Shipton

Ready for Change: Chapter 2 – Establishing Organizational Receptivity for Change – Dr Michael Butler

Ready for Change: Chapter 3 – The alchemy of entrepreneurial business growth – Prof. Mark Hart

Ready for Change: Chapter 4 – Linked data for the 21st century enterprise – Dr Christopher Brewster

Ready for Change: Chapter 5 – Collaborative Decision-making – Prof Duncan Shaw

Ready for Change: Chapter 6 – The essence of high performing teams – Prof Michael West

Ready for Change: Chapter 7 – The case and context for quality working relationships – Prof. Robin Martin

Ready for Change: Chapter 8 – Organizational Change and development – Prof Pawan Budhwar, assc Prof. Jyostsna Bhatnagar & Prof. Debi Saini

Ready for Change: Chapter 9 – Leveraging relationships to get ready for change – Prof. Paula Jarzabkowski, Dr Michael Smets and Dr Paul Spee

Ready for Change: Chapter 10 – “Marketing is all about T-shirts and posters – Right?” – Dr John Rudd

Ready for Change: Chapter 11 – Securing the benefits of inward investment – Prof. Nigel Driffield and Prof. Jim Love

Ready for Change: Chapter 12 – Measurement of project management performance – Dr Prasanta Dey

Ready for Change: The Epilogue

Rathbone explores three key factors pulling this all together:

• having a heart that welcomes change
• having a head for thinking through change
• having the capability to effect change

are reminiscent of Beckhards’ change model (Ready for change) in the way it fits, through a few short stories.

Too many professors

Looking through the contributors, it would be easy to assume this is a theoretical and academic tome – but nothing could be farther from the truth. Whilst written around sound academic research, each chapter is a pragmatic attempt to walk the reader through some of the ideas and processes required for effective change. The plethora of graphics, word clouds and action plan pages help turn this from a coffee table book to a practical desk manual.

Throughout the publication

are a smattering of self assessment tools and audits to help the reader orientate there strengths and weaknesses in a given area.

Key take-away learning from Ready for Change

When i read a book I try to find one thing that i will attempt to embed in my practice. For me in Ready for Change, one of the most important things that I don’t do enough of is “map group knowledge”. In chapter 5 Prof Shaw shows the importance of knowing the knowledge available to ensure a sound collaborative approach.

In conclusion – ready for change

Great read and a powerful resource – I will be re-reading this one again soon

About the author

Cora Lynn Heimer Rathbone has been Director of Executive education at Aston Business School and Executive Development Director at Cranfield School of management.

The book Ready for Change – Edited by Cora Lynn Heimer Rathbone is a valuable asset for all modern practitioners