Building bridges for change: how leaders enable collective change in organizations

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present multidisciplinary, research‐based insights into the challenges of changing behaviors at large‐scale in organizations and articulates practical approaches for leaders.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review of research and practices of social and organizational change was conducted and thematically summarized. The themes were discussed and revised with input from twenty global leaders and a dozen university researchers at a two‐day conference held at Harvard University's Learning Innovation Laboratory.

Findings

Supporting changes of practice in organizations depends on a leaders understanding how to best affect collective behaviors. Emerging research from the fields of political science, social networking, and social change suggest that leaders can build three types of bridges that support large‐scale change: emotional bridges by creating strategic narratives, relational bridges by targeting social clusters, and structural bridges by leveraging pre‐existing social associations in organizations.

Practical implications

The themes illustrate practical approaches that leaders can use to diagnose the types of change they wish to support and offer concrete strategies for designing and supporting changes in collective behaviors.

Originality/value

This article aims to present a unique synthesis of emerging, multidisciplinary research on supporting collective change in organizations and offers an intuitive model to support leaders in their actions.

Citation

Gray Wilson, D. (2010), "Building bridges for change: how leaders enable collective change in organizations", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 21-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777281011010488