| Anti-Change | Rational | Panacea | Bolt-On | Integrated | Continuous | |
| Basic View | It is unnecessary for sound business decisions involving change to be hindered by how people feel or what they think about the implications. | Change is inevitable and so are the related people problems, but they can be dealt with easily. | Focus on What, Why, and Whether to change. | Focus on What, Why, Whether, and How to change. | How to orchestrate unending transition. | |
| Type of change encountered | Lower first-order, minor, incremental | Mid first-order, moderate incremental | Mid first-order, prominent incremental | High first order, formidable incremental. | Lower second-order, one or more paradigms redefined. | Second-order, numerous paradigm reconfigurations, nonconforming movement. |
| Magnitude of change encountered | Inconsequential | Modest | Strong | Shocking | Breathaking | Relentless |
| Cost of implementation failure | Slight | Noteworthy | Significant | Considerable | Extreme | Prohibitive |
| Interest in a nimble work environment | None | Low | Limited | Significant | Substantial | Extensive |
| Application of human due diligence | N/A | Believe it is unnecessary | Believes employee attitude surveys are sufficient. | Belief that only a cursory review of people issues is necessary. | Believes it should be fully utilized with focus on specific current initiatives. | Believe it should be fully utilized, with focus on both general preparation for the organization and the execution of specific projects. |
| Underlying assumption | Life should be mostly calm. Therefore, significant fluctuations are unnecessary and undesirable | Life is a binary experience. When change is required, it can be accomplished in a rational, linear manner. | Any change-related problem can be handled if you show the right video, give people laminated cards to put on their desks as reminders, and give them cool T-shirts to signify they were properly dipped in the correct training “solution.” | Change management is an option that may be attached to a project if after getting into trouble you remember it, and the time and money involved are not too burdensome. | Carefully architecting the human side of change is essential to the success of new initiatives so Human Due diligence must be embedded in the process of introducing important modifications to an organization. | It is no longer career-enhancing to consume all the available adaptation resources for the changes presently at hand, when even more demanding initiatives must be accommodated in the future. |
| Goal | Protect status-quo | React to external shifts in the market while minimizing the melodrama and avoiding mistakes. | React to external shifts in the market while keeping people happy. | Engage in reactive and proactive change while taking care of as many people issues as feasible, given the constraints. | Orchestrating massive, complex change while treating people issues as integral to the success of each major project. | Succeed with current projects while ensuring that the organization maintains adequate assimilation resources for the changes it will face n the future. |
| Comfort found in | Believing bureaucratic steadfastness will provide a safe harbor in a turbulent world. | Believing the strength of logic will prevail over the frailty of emotions | Believing complex human reactions to organizational change can be addressed with simple, quick, inexpensive solutions. | Believing change-management “S.W.A.T. teams” can be effectively deployed after resistance becomes a problem. | Integrating the human and technical factors of change and relating to both as inseparable aspects of the same process. | Realizing that assimilation capacity can be managed like other strategic assets. It can be measured, developed, harvested, and used with caution after careful consideration and planning. |
| Primary message to organization | “Don’t change” | “We can’t allow the whiners and complainers of the world to impede necessary progress.” | Human resources will handle any people concerns that arise. | Try to take care of the human side of change whenever you have the time and resources to do so. | Human Due Diligence must be completed before key change decisions can be made and carried out | We must prepare ourselves to survive and prosper during constant turbulence. This is possible if we build a nimble organization capable of addressing, with speed, agility, and skill, the ceaseless advance of uncertainty and ambiguity that will be coming our way. |
| Idealized organization | Stable, secure, predictable, and controlled. | Mostly stable, but when a change is called for, it is implemented in an unemotional and sequential fashion. | Regularly faces disruptive change, but resistance and ambiguity problems are handled without much difficulty. | Can recover from any implementation problems by calling on change-management professionals. | Has a seamless process that deals with the human aspects throughout the decision-making planning and execution phases of introducing change. Attempts are made to prevent problems by diagnosing potential concerns, taking early corrective action, and carefully framing the initiative to generate as much support as possible. Also, executives prepare to manage the remaining inevitable resistance that occurs with major disruption. | The attention paid to any one project is never allowed to supersede the overriding priority the organization has set on maintaining the assimilation resources needed to respond when the next set of change demands inevitably surfaces. |
| Response to change-related people problems | Slow, rigid, and considered uncalled-for | Cerebral and judicious; problems considered nonessential. | Superficial, cursory, emotional, and driven by the Human Resources Department | Tentative, discretionary, piece-meal, and delegated to change-management specialists. | High interest, in-depth concern, balanced perspective, project-specific focus, driven by line management. | Among top priorities; constant vigilance, future-oriented, and driven by executive leadership. |
| Management style metaphor | Thermostat | Computer | Dry cleaner shop | Optional feature that may be added to a new car. | The diagnosis a doctor performs before prescribing medication is a distinct yet inherent part of proper medical treatment. | Tao — the Chinese word for continual flow of energy, the endless motion that occurs in all living systems. |
| Principal Strength | Provides people with stability and predictability about tasks and roles, and helps organizations reap benefits from previous sound decisions. | Introduces logic and objectivity into the often emotionally laden change process. | Demonstrates value for attending to the human dynamics | Brings together reasoning from the Rational change approach and attention to the human dynamics from the Panacea approach to form a more effective change management framework. | Uses the structure and discipline of Human Due diligence to address individual change projects. Positions change management as a necessity for the success of important initiatives. | Provides people with a feeling of control when in turbulent work environments. Helps them gain confidence in the organization’s Nimbleness to respond to any significant disruption. |
| Principal weakness | Not suited for highly competitive, volatile markets. | Not suited for complex environments where participation and commitment are necessary for change to succeed. | Employees left unprepared for the human side of major change; management and Human Resources erode their own credibility. | usually produces too little value too late to have significant impact on change projects | Emphasis is on the success of separate projects, not on the organization’s overall capacity to be prepared for ongoing transitions. | Unknown |
Source: Daryl Connor, Leading at the Edge of Chaos