The Change Monster: The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change

In emotionally draining management situations, you as a manager, or you as an employee feels totally lost and alone. You think that this dark cloud over your head is so unique that you don't think there is hope. Nobody will understand how this is done. I think the use of this book, akin to personal self-help book, is to tell you you are not alone. This situation you are going through is normal and you are not going out of your mind. Yes, there might not be concrete steps on how to do things, but in dealing with human beings, nothing is set in stone. That's why it's so hard to manage. That's why we have shrinks. There is no formularic way of "fixing the problem". You will just have to learn from experience, and reading about other people's experiences will help you identify potential red flags.That's what's good about this book. It's loaded with Ms. Duck's personal experience working as a Change Management Consultant for BCG. She presents two real cases (one real and the other one an amalgamation of similar companies), tells us what was going through in the heads of management and employees. She painstakingly details the action that was taken and how it affected the company as a whole. It's a very good book to start your way into the realms of change management.

Author Jeanie Daniel Duck presents an engaging, personal look at the human emotions, conflicts, fears and anxieties that unite to make change difficult. She describes the five stages of the change process - stagnation, preparation, implementation, determination and, finally, fruition. As she goes in depth about each stage, the author illustrates her explanation with personal examples from her experiences as an organizational consultant. Some of the issues she raises may be familiar to those who have read other books about how to launch change initiatives, but we [...] find that her focus on the human elements of change provides a fresh perspective. The book is directed primarily toward executives, managers or supervisors in charge of leading corporate change, but even if you are already prepared to conquer the change monster, this author's personal touches and stage-by-stage approach will intrigue you.

As someone who's helped plan and implement major change initiatives at numerous companies (and numerous corporate cultures) I've had a large stake in searching for and hoping that someday someone would publish a helpful guide focusing on the human aspect of change, the emotional roller coaster ride experienced by the employees undergoing the change--rather than the often dry treatises focusing on structural archetypes or the academically-oriented anthropologist's view of change. Jeanie Duck has done, and done it beautifully. If you are undergoing change at your workplace I can't recommend this book more strongly. I've already given it to several people I've worked with who have come back to tell me how helpful and meaningful they found it.

While this book is a "must read" for midlevel managers and up it is a gift to the rest of us. For change touches everyone in the business whether we like it or not. Ms. Duck is very clear about this and the steps it takes to be successful. She pares away the jargon, excuses and finger pointing this subject engenders and leaves us with an understandable and inspiring map of the territory. I don't know about you but I like to know where I am at all times and that includes work. With this map I can gauge what is happening there and know whether to stick with my current job or update my resume. In fact, I'm sending a copy to my CEO!

Change Monster and Winning at Mergers and Acquisitions both score big time in the areas of change and culture. But the information contained in both of these books creates a synthesis of change management that when blended together provides extraordinary results. Both books provide tools to help drive change and forge buy-in. Change Monster speaks more from a consultant standpoint while Winning at Mergers comes from the voice of corporate management. Winning at points out grave mis-steps in leading change and critical success factors to reverse them. Change Monster fills in some of the more detailed steps. Together these groundbreaking guides are more than enough to help you lead, structure, and support change efforts at any company whether or not they're M & A driven or economically derived and whether you're a consultant or corporate manager.