Who Killed Change?

This book about how to manage organizational change successfully was written by Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, and a distinguished group of co-writers, so I was expecting good things.

I was disappointed.

The book is written as a contrived murder mystery – who killed Change? It is awkward and tedious, and by the third “interview” with a “suspect” it is really old.

On the plus side, if you are new to change management this book is not a bad introduction. The last chapter lays out the authors' recommendations (without the murder mystery framework) and contains some good information. However, for the OD practitioner, there is nothing new here.

Lastly, even though this book is obviously not a scholarly work, I was disappointed that no credit was given to others for their important work in this field. For instance, the author mentions the difference between theory-in-use and espoused theory, but he never mentions Chris Argyris. But maybe that’s an indication of Blanchard’s intended audience, because anyone without a background in OD would probably not notice that oversight.