Managing Change Enquiry and Action

The aims of this chapter are to:

• show how the nature of learning includes different preferred styles;

• develop a model of learning for technique and insight;

• explain alternative methods of learning and development;

• illustrate the application of these methods in a mini-case study of the Boston Consulting Group; and

• establish the application of learning and development practices as part of change management.

Learning and development are central to change management. Most change projects entail people doing things differently, and major changes often mean that people need to understand the nature of the organization’s processes, relationships with customers and clients and practices of delivery differently. Such changes mean that the change manager has to understand how people develop and what can be done to enable people to enact and understand the innovations that are aspired to (Antonacopoulou, 2006).

This chapter sits between the macro issues for learning that were raised in Chapter 6 and the more person-centred issues that are discussed in Chapter 14. In Chapter 6 the distinction was made between single-loop learning (incremental improvement) and double-loop learning (radical change). In Chapter 14 we explore the nature of reflection and reflexivity and the ways that learners can challenge themselves and come to a new understanding of who they are and what they do. In this chapter we focus on the distinction between technique learning – the focus on specific, defined skills outcomes – and insight learning – the focus on developing new ways of conceiving reformatory personal change. We discuss how the alternative methods of learning and development can be integrated and the change manager’s role in selecting which methods to use to meet the demands of their situation (Easterby-Smith and Lyles, 2003).