2. Coursera Program Chapters 1-6

INTRODUCTION

What is the Coursera Course and Why Should I Access It?

The Coursera Course Leading Transformations: Manage Change was developed as an on-line accompaniment to enhance the accessibility and impact of the book. It provides lecturers, students and practitioners with an enriched learning experience covering the first 6 chapters of Ironies of Organizational Change. For each chapter, there are video lectures and multiple-choice quizzes with feedback to check understanding and assess progress, as well as accessible readings and stimulating discussion questions. Weeks 1 to 6 on the course align with Chapters 1 to 6 of the book.

What does the Coursera Course Cover?

As the Coursera Course Preamble puts it:

“We live in a globalised world of continuous change. Your ability to successfully manage change will allow you to have a positive impact on your work and your life. Via structured learning activities (video lectures, quizzes, discussion prompts and written assessment) this course will teach you how to effectively influence change by developing a ‘change mindset’, creating a productive change cycle, and leading yourself and others on the change journey. You will learn how to re-imagine change by redefining the change problem and developing a balanced and reflective change mindset. Change is inevitable but you can influence how it affects your organisation.

What you will learn from this course is to:

•  Design successful change initiatives by adopting a balanced and reflective change mindset.

•  Create change cycles that effectively apply tools and techniques for orienting, performing, and evaluating change.

•  Generate leadership strategies that are mindful of the complexity and challenges of change and mobilise energy for transformation.

It takes 18 hours to complete.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

The Coursera Course has had over 40,000 enrolments from students and practitioners around the world, has received a 98% ‘thumbs up’ from attendees, ranking the lectures as 4.79 out of 5. In 2022, it was the most highly rated of the 10 Best Change Management Courses available on line (https://digitaldefynd.com/best-change-management-courses/)

The following are unsolicited endorsements from attendees:

Luís M B d M

This course is definitely not one more course on change management. It gives a completely new perspective and framework for reimagining change as a cycle and defining the necessary set of tools to be used in order to influence others to get things done.

Britt R

I don't typically learn much in online training courses, so I was prepared to have the same experience with this program. I am absolutely blown away by how wrong I was. What I learned in this course will be absolutely pivotal in my approach to leading change from this point forward.

Jessa I

This course gave me words to experiences I do not know how to call. If you feel you are stuck at work and are in a career rut, this will help you see things from a new perspective.

Veronica B

The material is absolutely amazing: hardly ever have I come across such a good MOOC!

Nick W

An excellent course that offers more than the basic change story. Hard enough to work but soft enough to get most people thinking. Congratulations.

Sigrid A

This course is outstanding! If you work in an organization where change initiatives are commonplace, but leave a lot to be desired, this course explains why & what to do about it.

Christian T

Really loved this course--so clear, concise, and coherent. I've worked in transformation and change management settings for the last 9.5 years, and this course provides a fantastic theoretical and deeply human framework for all of those experiences.

Alim J

Superior stuff. I've already done APMG change management practitioner..but this course was just fantastic in making sense of how and when to use certain tools and overcoming expected barriers…should really be required for all organizational leaders and managers.

Ondřej S

I could not believe that I found this course! As a project manager I have been working on various changes in the past 20 years and this program addressed all the complexity and simply named the concepts that should help any beginner or advanced user. Thank you for broadening my horizons and I am sure I will keep using all the suggestions in my current transformation program in Nordic Telecom in the Czech Republic.

May N

An amazing course. I am a change management practitioner, and IT professional and an MBA holder. This course provided me with what I was looking for. It is very different from attending other change management training where the main intention is to capitalize and commercialize one change management approach to create rigid artifacts that lead to dealing with change using a "project management" approach. I was so impressed by the lecturer, the richness of the images and the metaphors used in the course which can definitely be used and apply to real life change or transformation initiatives. The whole course was so inspiring.

Germain G

So far the best course I've taken on Coursera. Great new ways of explaining and teaching, very condensed and informative, but in no way boring!

Reynolds D

The best course I have taken on Coursera. Worth all the time and effort…

For a full selection of student reviews see:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/change-management/reviews

TOPICS COVERED AND ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

•  Video Lectures, Readings and Questionnaires

CHAPTER 1

Video Lectures

•  Week 1 Outline

•  1.1 On the surface

•  1.2 The deeper problem

•  1.3 Solutions that fail us, solutions that don’t

Explore Further Resources 1: Readings

1. What does McKinsey take as evidence of failure?

•  D.Jacquemont et.al.: How to beat the transformation odds.

2. In what ways are organizations not set up for agile change?

•  C.Tams: Why we need to rethink organizational change management.

3. What does Hamel have to say that illustrates Kurt Lewin’s four disciplines?

•  G Hamel: Why change management is an oxymoron (video).

Questionnaires

•  Recall 1: Check your understanding (6 questions)

•  Quiz: Check your applied learning (6 questions)

CHAPTER 2

Video Lectures

•  Week 2 Outline

•  2.1 Images of change

•  2.2 Re-imagining change

•  2.3 Re-inventing yourself

Explore further resources 2: Readings

1. An example of video messaging developed to share the case for change:

•  Mckinsey transformation: tell a compelling change story (video).

2. According to Rick, the differences between the ‘tip’ and ‘bulk’ of the iceberg:

•  T.Rick: The iceberg that sinks organisational change.

3. What Rendle has to say about the rollercoaster:

•  G.Rendle: The rollercoaster of change.

4. What does Radicleffe mean when he discusses leadership?

•  S.Radcliffe: Future-Engage-Deliver (video).

5. Further readings:

•  Re-energize change programs to escape the ‘valley of ‘death’ Bain & Co.

•  E Langer: Mindfulness over matter (video).

Questionnaires

•  Recall 1: Check your understanding (6 questions)

•  Quiz: Check your applied learning (6 questions)

CHAPTER 3

Video Lectures

•  Week 3 Outline

•  3.1 Gap analysis

•  3.2 Force field analysis

•  3.3 Route analysis

Explore further resources 3: Readings

1. What are the elements of current state, starting point, future state, desired outcomes, Road Map and why gap analysis first?

•  E.Levinson: Thriving on change: creating a gap analysis (video).

2. What do you think are the most important forces that promote or hinder change?

•  J.Riley: Lewin’s force field analysis model (video).

3. Do you agree or disagree with Cummings et.al.’ critique of the ‘trite’ three step model?

•  Cummings et.al.: Unfreezing change as three steps (video).

4. 3.4.4 Inconvenient Truths: Five Multinational Corporations (MNCs)......79.

Questionnaires

•  Recall 1: Check your understanding (6 questions)

•  Quiz: Check your applied learning (6 questions)

CHAPTER 4

Video Lectures

•  Week 4 Outline

•  4.1 Practice and performance

•  4.2 Control through influence

•  4.3 Tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes

Explore further resources 4: Readings

1. Erving Goffman on social life as a performance:

•  N.Warburton: Erving Goffman and the performed self (video).

2. Articles on control through influence:

•  P.Higson: A theory of change management.

•  M.Lukens: The false choice between top-down & bottom up.

3. Theory E & Theory O:

•  C.Hart: Summary of Heer and Nohria (2000).

Questionnaires

•  Recall 1: Check your understanding (6 questions)

•  Quiz: Check your applied learning (6 questions)

CHAPTER 5

Video Lectures

•  Week 5 Outline

•  5.1 Reflection and agile learning

•  5.2 Changing measures

•  5.3 Learning spaces

Explore further resources 5: Readings

1. The explorer, the experimenter and the jazz musician:

•  B.Rischer: The leadershp advantages of Bezos, Musk, Ma and Zhang: an explorer’s mindset.

•  F.Barrett: If Miles Davis taught your office to improvise.

2. The head, heart and hands of transformation:

•  J.Hemmerling: BCG article.

3. A learning organization:

•  Sprouts: A learning organization (video).

Questionnaires

•  Recall 1: Check your understanding (6 questions)

•  Quiz: Check your applied learning (6 questions)

CHAPTER 6

Video Lectures

•  Week 6 Outline

•  6.1 The leadership gap

•  6.2 The practice gap

•  6.3 The power gap

Explore further resources 6: Readings

1. The difference between management and leadership and overcoming the leadership gap:

•  H.Ibarra: Act like a leaders, think like a leaders (video).

2. Adaptive leadership and overcoming the practice gap:

•  NACCHO: Adaptive leadership and public health (video).

3. Mobilising power and an 'entrepreneurial spirit' to overcome the power gap:

•  R.M.Kanter: The enduring skills of change leaders.

•  R.M.Kanter: Creating a supportive environment for innovation to flourish (video).

Questionnaires

•  Recall 1: Check your understanding (6 questions)

•  Quiz: Check out your applied learning (6 questions)