Planning Deep Change Through a Series of Small Wins

Transformational change: governance interventions for climate change adaptation from a continuous change perspective

“…In both the organisational change and the climate change adaptation literature, the transformationalÀincremental dichotomy is key in the debate. Many of the arguments for a shift from incremental to transformational change are based on a number of assumptions about the depth, scope, and speed of change (Vermaak 2013). As discussed in Section 1, transformational change is often associated with change that is in-depth (fundamental, truly new, revolutionary), large scale (the whole system), and/or quick (a discontinuous jump, achieved in a relatively short amount of time), whereas incremental change is often portrayed as shallow, partial, and slow.…”

“…Although this might be an attractive proposition for people with a change agenda, organisation science suggests that achieving all three simultaneously is virtually impossible because of the inherent trade-offs between them. Vermaak (2013) argues that the depth and the scope of change are at odds with each other; one way is to go for scope by organising a large-scale, first-order change; the second is to go for depth by organising a small-scale, third-order change. A combination of both is impossible for two reasons.…”

“…A combination of both is impossible for two reasons. First, because in-depth change requires people to challenge existing cultures, dominant rationalities and habitual practices, which cannot be enabled through rolling out a largescale intervention over the whole organisation in a standardised way (Vermaak 2013;Weick and Westley 1996). As Vermaak (2013, 18) illustrates, "If a CEO announces a companywide cultural shift, he or she is either camouflaging what is really going on or is ignorant about what is actually feasible."…”

“…As Vermaak (2013, 18) illustrates, "If a CEO announces a companywide cultural shift, he or she is either camouflaging what is really going on or is ignorant about what is actually feasible." Second, because large-scale changes are more visible and thus will experience more institutional pressure to conform, they will hinder second-or third-order change (Vermaak 2013;Letiche and Statler 2005). This is especially the case in political power-driven organisations, in which high and conflicting interests are at stake.…”

Changing Leadership Dynamics at Agility-Critical Interfaces: Action Research as a 25-Year Longitudinal Study

“…The action researcher has co-learners in every arena and can invite them to join him in crossing the boundaries to the other arenas (Vermaak, 2009). Instead of integrating the four types of activities into one monolithic endeavor, the tensions between the contrasting orientations can be utilized by loosely coupling divergent types of action research of which there are many available (Vermaak, 2013). In arena 1, the action research was of the types survey feedback (Mann, 1957(Mann, /1961 and clinical inquiry (Schein, 1987).…”