Who Killed Change?

About the Authors

Ken Blanchard is an internationally recognized business consultant, speaker, and author, known for his work on leadership and management. His books include The One Minute Manager, The One Minute Entrepreneur, and Leading at a Higher Level.

John Britt has over 20 years of experience in providing change leadership management guidance to large organizations. He is a partner with Mountjoy and Bressler, LLP.

Judd Hoekstra is a leading expert at The Ken Blanchard Companies in leading change and is coauthor of the company's Leading People Through Change program, as well as Leading at a Higher Level.

Pat Zigarmi is a founding associate of The Ken Blanchard Companies and serves as vice president for business development. She is coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Leading at a Higher Level.

Main Idea

Who Killed Change? Solving the Mystery of Leading People Through Change by Ken Blanchard, John Britt, Judd Hoekstra, and Pat Zigarmi, is a business parable that explores the challenges of change management through the eyes of Agent Mike McNally. The book uses a detective story format to identify the various factors that contribute to the failure of change initiatives within organizations. It emphasizes the importance of leadership, communication, and engagement in successfully managing change.

Table of Contents

1. Scene of the Crime
2. The Usual Suspects
3. Super Cops & Stakeholders
4. The Autopsy Report
5. Whodunit

Scene of the Crime

The book opens with Agent Mike McNally investigating the death of a change initiative at ACME organization. Change initiatives often fail without obvious causes, leading to short-lived efforts that do not achieve their goals. McNally, an expert in "change fatalities," examines the common patterns that lead to these failures.

"Change would be introduced to an organization with varying degrees of reception. From all appearances, Change would begin to integrate into the organization and then, without warning, Change would be found dead, quite often with no apparent injury." - Ken Blanchard et al.

This section sets the stage for the investigation, highlighting the mysterious and often sudden failure of change initiatives. McNally's role as an investigator underscores the complexity and difficulty of identifying the precise causes of these failures.

The Usual Suspects

McNally interrogates various characters, each representing a common factor in change management, to uncover the root causes of the failed initiative. Each character, with their unique flaws, highlights different aspects of change that are often mishandled.

Carolina Culture

Carolina represents the organizational culture. She is timid and fails to actively engage with the change process, only coming to life when reciting the company’s value statement.

"Carolina is timid and reticent, blending into the background of every department." - Ken Blanchard et al.

Carolina Culture symbolizes the pervasive attitudes, beliefs, and behavior patterns within an organization. Her lack of proactive engagement indicates a culture that is resistant to change, where employees may be aware of the organization's values but do not embody them in their daily work.

• Failing to define and reinforce the predominant attitudes and behaviors.
• Not actively supporting and integrating change into the daily routine.

Chase Commitment

Chase misinterprets his role as merely delivering motivational speeches rather than engaging individuals to adopt new behaviors. His lack of active engagement undermines the commitment required for successful change.

"You’re overestimating the power of your words. As Sponsorship, you must do more than introduce Change." - Ken Blanchard et al.

Chase Commitment's approach to change is superficial, focusing on high-energy speeches without ensuring that individuals are genuinely committed to the new behaviors. This reflects a common issue where leaders fail to connect deeply with their teams, resulting in a lack of genuine engagement.

• Motivating through speeches without personal engagement.
• Failing to convince leadership to fully support and resource change initiatives.

Spence Sponsorship

As a senior leader, Spence should be deploying resources and modeling behaviors to support change. However, he limits his involvement to introductory speeches, delegating the rest of the work to others.