07/11/2018
Mueller and Comey: Change Management and Organizational Crisis
Change management is as much situational as it is philosophical. Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Directors, Robert Mueller and James Comey are change managers with two very different leadership styles. They served as directors at the FBI during two very different times. Their leadership styles impacted their decisions as change managers as much as the eras they served in and those processes of change impacted the organization’s culture.
Change managers initiate change from the top
The term, change management (CM) is used to describe the processes of change at any organization and that process comes from the top as it is dependent on the leadership style of the organization’s decision maker as well as context of time and space during those decisions. There are a number of reasons organizations go through change including organizational restructuring, changes in business practices, disruptive technologies, required changes from customer/client, and crisis. As Peter Senge states, “A learning organization is an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future. The organization with an over the horizon perspective is more likely to be a learning organization that identifies disruptors that lead to conflict and proactively resolves conflict before it becomes a crisis.
When looking at CM it’s important to distinguish management processes from leadership processes, they are related but not the same. Management processes requires positional authority to allocate or direct people, money, and equipment toward a goal and/or objective. Leadership processes do not require positional authority, rather it’s about influencing and inspiring others to behave in a preferred way or towards a preferred outcome. Whether a person is a great manager, leader, or both the most critical skill is understanding how and when to use those competencies in the framework of time and space. Situational awareness is key to situational leadership and knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em is as important in running an organization as it is playing a hand of cards.
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