Vision Statement and Management of Change

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude

– Maya Angelou

In “Vision, Mission and Values” workshop, the leadership team comes up with a very ambitious vision statement ex. “To be $ 10 billion organisation by 20XX”. To execute the strategy a balanced score card is designed which result in Big, Hairy Audacious Goals for individuals.

Goals many not just be financial, there are cultural and social dimensions to it. To achieve these goals, leaders have to manage change, which in turn is linked to their appetite for change management.

Christopher Musselwhite and Robyn Ingram have come up with a model which studies orientation of an individual towards change.

They divide people into three categories.

1. Conservers- Conservers are comfortable with existing system and not keen to change it. They prefer change to happen in gradual and incremental manner, drastic change is not for them.
2. Originators – Originators are opposite of Conservers, they want to challenge the status quo and want change to happen in rapid pace.
3. Pragmatists- Pragmatists too want change, but only in areas where it is absolutely necessary. They will study the situation and identify areas where change is required and will initiate steps in those areas.

All three categories are found in every organisation and each plays  a role in managing change. An originator will challenge status quo and come up with innovative ideas which other two categories cannot think of, but when it comes to implementation of such innovative ideas conserver can play a key role.