subject: Integration And Change Implementation [print this page] Organizations often attempt change implementation only to find that initiative never gets anywhere. Blame can and often is laid on everyone in the initiative food chain, but at least some of the blame can be attributed to a phenomenon that occurs outside of the control of any individual: differentiation.
Lawrence and Lorsch developed a theory regarding organization behavior called contingency theory or differentiation-integration theory. Among other things, they noted the tendency for organizations to engage in differentiation or the separation of things into smaller and smaller segments. It is a kind of natural force that drives organizations to try and put everything into its own very specific container.
For example, a taskforce will spin off a sub-taskforce which in turn spins off sub-sub-taskforce. Each taskforce or sub-taskforce becomes responsible for an ever more narrowly defined piece of a project or initiative. If the purpose of such an activity is to design a manufacturing process, in which there are very specific activities that may be separated in space or time, then differentiation can yield positive results. The reality is that change implementation is not an activity that survives differentiation well.
What organizations frequently to do not have, but is necessary for change implementation, is a good mechanism for integration or reassembling the segments into a recognizable whole. The organization has practice differentiation, but is on new ground with reversing it. This is a role that is frequently taken up by change professionals and firms.
A strategy that some change professionals use is to take a simplicity approach. They seek to create elegant solutions to complex problems or to simplify assumptions. To many people that work within large organizations, change implementation can appear to be a tangled ball of string with a dozen threads sticking out in every direction. The change professional should aim to help the organization to identify the string that needs to be tugged first and then second and so on. As the ball becomes less tangled, the change implementation becomes more integrated.
