COURSE INFORMATION

Change Management

“τὰ ὄντα ἰέναι τε πάντα καὶ μένειν οὐδέν”

(Pronounced: Ta onta ienai te panta kai menein ouden)
Meaning: All entities move and nothing remains still.

“πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει” καὶ “δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης”

(Pronounced: Panta chōrei kai ouden menei… kai… dis es ton auton potamon ouk an embaies)
Meaning: Everything changes and nothing remains still…and…you cannot step twice into the same stream.

These are the two famous quotes on “change” from Heraclitus in Plato’s Cratylus depicting that only thing which has become epitome of the concept that only change is constant and everything else has to change.

All of us desire to see improvement in our lives and in our society be it related to the social or economic structure. With rapidly changing technologies, globalization and growth and complexity, the pace of change and its requirement is increasing. It is true that we and our businesses have been evolving since the birth of the civilization and not until recently people have started stressing upon the concept of change management. The reason for that is that earlier the changes came along the way in form of slow transformations and now due to its pace, the changes has to be managed. It is “change or die” situation for the businesses.

Often people say that the “people factor” in organizations is resistant to change. This is not completely true in a real sense. As truly said by Ferguson:

“It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change, or so in love with the old ways, but it’s the place in between that we fear… it’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to.” — Ferguson.

Change management is nothing but understanding the process of change, implementing it in such a way that people are not afraid of it and have something to hold on to while the process of change undergoes. It is very important for the prospective managers to learn how to handle the complexity of change in today’s environment because that is where most organizations fall short of the benefits of change and find themselves between the resistance from people and the process itself.