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leading change

Leadership & Organisations

Change Management: How Leaders Can Tip the Scales

Change Management: How Leaders Can Tip the Scales

Navigating the complex dynamics of organisational networks.

In a dynamic business environment, leaders often need to implement new strategic initiatives – from new business models to new technologies or workflows. But change is never easy. 

The success of new initiatives depends on whether leaders win the support of actors within the organisation. In other words, it is a matter of influence. In this podcast with Vibha Gaba, the Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership at INSEAD, we discuss the forces at play when leaders try to drive change.

As she wrote in a recent working paper, to build support for their strategic initiatives, leaders must understand how support and resistance spread within the organisation's networks. This requires navigating the complex dynamics of these networks.

Gaba explains how leaders can manage change by focusing not just on gaining support, but also on actively addressing resistance to their initiatives. She urges leaders trying to garner support not to overlook the counter forces of resistance – especially when active resistance is present. 

Importantly, there are practical interventions leaders can employ in managing change, in particular, the use of subtle interventions instead of authority. Essentially, empathy and engagement must be at the core of all actions for change to be effective and sustainable.

Edited by:

Geraldine Ee

About the author(s)

About the research

“Tipping the Scales: How to Shape the Diffusion of Actively Contested Strategic Initiatives” is a working paper. 

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