Famous Figures in Change Management: The Names You Need to Know

Famous Figures in Change Management: The Names You Need to Know
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Be Confident in Your Knowledge Base

If you’ve studied change management, you certainly know the names of change pioneers such as W. Edwards Deming and Walter Shewhart. Wouldn’t it be nice at your next meeting to be able to throw out a name or two in the mix of today’s leaders who have influenced the face of change management planning? Have you been having a difficult time keeping up with discussions on trends and gurus in the change management arena? If so, this article was written for you: Think of it as a “who’s who of change management.”

Vidas Puodziunas

According to an article Gurus of Change by Tony Martell, Vidas Puodziunas is one of three top change management gurus. Puodziunas serves as a consultant for Compaq Canada. While his main work focus is not change management consulting, it does make up a large portion of Puodziunas’ daily work tasks. Martell describes Puodziunas as using more science than art in his change management techniques. Puodziunas cites in this article that he sees his main role as being the person to come up with a solution for a client’s problem.

Garrison Wynn

Whereas Puodziunas has received the title of “Guru” by Martell and a few others, Garrison Wynn bills himself as a top-notch change management guru. Wynn travels around the country speaking on topics such as what’s hot in change management. He intends to motivate others through his training, coaching, and speeches to help them achieve their own goals for success. Wynn has worked with the NFL, Association of Golf Managers, Air Force Association, Alabama Medical Association, Shell Oil, Choice Hotels, and the Boys and Girls Club of America, just to name a few of the dozens upon dozens of clients he has served. One of Wynn’s most popular speeches, “Making the Most of Difficult Situations Changing Markets, Changing Times,” focuses upon ways to get through the hard times and use change management techniques to survive.

John Kotter

John Kotter is credited with creating an eight step model of change. He serves as a professor at Harvard Business School. The 8-step model of change he created began in 1995 in a book he published titled Leading Change. The eight steps of change he listed include:

  1. Create a sense of needing it to be done now.
  2. Build a strong team.
  3. Create the vision for the change.
  4. Make sure everyone understands the vision through communication.
  5. Remove any obstacles in the way of implementing the change.
  6. Make sure that the company experiences a sense of success.
  7. Don’t declare victory too early - keep building.
  8. Make sure the changes become a core part of your company.

Jeff Hiatt, Michael Beer, and the BCG Change Management Experts

Jeff Hiatt is co-author of a book titled Change Management: The People Side of Change along with Timothy J. Creasy. Hiatt has written five books on change management, and he has helped more than 1600 companies with their change management projects. He is a proponent of strategic planning for change.

Michael Beer also has written books on change including his 2000 book, co-authored with Nitin Nohri_a, Breaking the Code of Change._

Finally, Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, and Alan Jackson wrote an article for the Harvard Business review, The Hard Side of Change Management. These three authors work for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the major management consultancies in the United States.

And if you haven’t read up on Deming and Shewhart, try N. Nayab’s PDCA for Quality Management.