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aspect focused on the changing environment (of work and people). The coach-
ing centered on supporting the senior manager and organization on shifting
team dynamics and policies. I also did individual and group coaching for su-
pervisors and associates that were being asked to work in a new way. Another
ef fort, this time in an internal role, occurred during the merger of two global
financial firms. In addition to setting up a merger integration team to focus
on people and organizational issues I provided coaching to managers and teams
working through issues related to change and new work structures that
blended the two organization’s people and processes.
A tool I have developed to help people understand the strategic and tac-
tical interrelated issues tied to organizational change is the Star Model for
Change©. The Star Model for Change© provides a one-page visual, a sim-
ple model elucidating the complexity of issues for folks undertaking change.
I tee off with this in many meetings to show the landscape and start a dia-
logue to bring clarity to important issues surrounding the change effort.
Often, executives decide change is important for one of many significant
reasons—competition, business environment, Wall Street expectations (or
the global equivalent), client shifts, and so on—they get the “burning plat-
form” and are motivated to drive change. Below them, there begins a po-
tential wobble: people don’t move fast enough and don’t understand why
there’s a change. They see confusion/incongruent behavior across the lead-
ership team, and the change seems like extra work with no benefit, espe-
cially when their paycheck still arrives at the same time each month.
Simply put, they don’t see the issues through the same lens. This creates an
organizational drag at best; at worst, it can derail much of the anticipated
change benefits (e.g., a great example is the statistical research on the pro-
posed synergies of mergers that dynamically fall short of their stated
goals—the outcome of the bulk of merger efforts). The Star Model for
Change© does three major things to lever a systems/holistic view of orga-
nizational change, it:
- Brings to light the “other” areas a leader/manager needs to ensure they
and their management team are considering and planning for - Provides a template or road map that can be completed and can later
ser ve as a framework to build aligned goals - Serves as part of an organizational communication tool to help educate
people and build commitment toward shared goals
Simply looking at the Star Model for Change©, one could take the view
that it’s simply an organizational development model—which it is—and, yet,
it is more. The Star Model for Change© actually provides an assessment to