If you are at all interested in making organizational changes, then you need to clear your calendar and read:
“Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” by Dan Heath and Chip Heath.
And here’s why:
Reason #1: True operational excellence is within the reach of anyone willing to address real issues. You don’t have to be in “top management” to make changes, but you do need to work harder and more explicitly.
Reason #2: Rational analysis of facts and data alone will not drive change. Efforts to educate people so they “will understand the change” and “the reasons why” are often wasted because individuals do not have an emotional connection to the change.
Reason #3: Don’t focus on what isn’t working and trying to fix it. Instead, find examples of what is working, compare what makes them successful, and highlight these bright spots.
Reason #4: Big changes often scare people. While it’s important to have a compelling vision for the future, it’s even more important to create a sense of immediate progress. Break changes into smaller, manageable chunks.
Reason #5: Don’t shy away from tweaking the environment. While stabilizing and improving processes, you are clearing the path toward the behaviors you want. Study the behavior, identify roadblocks, and then rearrange the environment to remove these obstacles.
Honestly, this book completely changed the way I think about the changes on the organizational level.