A few weeks ago I attended a conference where one of the speakers (a charismatic and knowledgeable young man) spoke about the need to engage the workforce in the change process. All good, sensible stuff.
During the presentation one of the attendees asked "but what if we can't get the senior managers to agree to the change?". The speaker explained that the senior team needed to be, and be seen to be, the driving force of the change and briefly touched on Kotter's Eight Steps (recommending all attendees should read the book). A good answer at the time.
Since the conference I've thought about that question more and think there are two main points that should have been discussed at the time:
1) If the senior team aren't convinced of the need for business change then the case for change must be flawed. Senior sponsorship is vital for any sort of success. If the senior team can't see the benefits, how likely are they to be delivered?
2) If the middle managers can't convince the senior team of the need for change how on earth are they going to convince the workforce?
Kotter's seminal book on change can be found here.
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