In “How Leaders Get in the Way of Organizational Change” in Harvard Business Review, Ron Carucci discusses ways leaders can create problems in change.
The three main pain points he discusses are:
- Scope naiveté: Underestimating the work
- Change laziness: Overestimating the organization’s capacity
- The perceived pet project: Misjudging how others see you
Great article, I strongly recommend reading it.
For each of these democratic leadership is an effective path to avoiding.
- Idealized Influence: By holding oneself accountable you spend the time to understand the organization’s capacity
- Inspirational Motivation: Moving from pet project to what is best for the organization
- Intellectual Stimulation: Strive to overcome scope naiveté
- Decentralized decision-making: Get the organization bought in to accelerating the change
Investigations of a Dog 