CHANGE-MAKER'S HANDBOOK

Bondareva, the founder and CEO of consultancy Vivit Worldwide, explores the many factors involved in leading organizations through transformative change.

This “trail guide for change-makers” focuses on fostering transformative change by increasing effectiveness, rather than pursuing incremental change by improving efficiency: “Incremental change fine-tunes the system while transformation recasts it, fundamentally changing the rules, structures, systems, skills, and processes.” She views this sort of change-making as a vocation that has lacked the definition and structure of an established professional discipline, and this book is intended to provide that framework, arguing for a process of “change design” that comes before and goes beyond the better-known work of change management. Using concrete examples from her personal experience, she breaks the process into six key stages: “Finding Your Purpose,” “Identifying the Idea,” “Vetting the Idea,” “Creating Change” (the most substantial section), “Getting Yourself Ready,” and “Exit.” Bondareva covers various modes of change-making (advocacy, supporting others, intrapreneurship, and entrepreneurship), 10 “megatrends” that offer opportunities for meaningful change (“In a world seemingly run by technology, we are hungry for solutions that honor our humanity and deliver more than a modicum of compassion,” she notes at one point), risk assessment, getting funding and support, implementation, and more. The author presents familiar concepts in fresh ways; for example, she defines risk assessment as confidence versus trepidation, and transformation as a current state versus a future state. She also provides useful exercises, strategies, and tips for everything from preparing financials and presentations to gauging impact and managing stress relief. In addition, Bondareva strongly emphasizes the importance of seeing other people’s points of view. Despite some repetition, the author’s style is clear and direct, using simple analogies, examples, and occasional charts and diagrams to explain potentially difficult concepts. Her passion for her subject is obvious as she frankly presents the challenges of trying to change the status quo while also encouraging readers to overcome such obstacles. The final section (“What Now?”) sums up the book’s main ideas and compiles several exercises into a “Change-Maker’s Checklist.”

A comprehensive, rigorous, and friendly guide to transforming organizations.