The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Organizational Change
The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Organizational Change
In Harvard Business Review’s article “The Most Successful Approaches to Leading Organizational Change,” authors Deborah Rowland, Michael Thorley, and Nicole Brauckmann argue that leaders often focus too much on what must change — strategy, structure, operating model, integration, transformation — and not enough on how the change should be led. Published on April 20, 2023, the article introduces a practical framework for choosing the right approach to change based on the organization’s intent, complexity, urgency, and need for stakeholder ownership.
For business leaders, the article is a valuable reminder that change management is not one-size-fits-all. A directive, top-down rollout may work for simple execution, but complex transformation usually requires deeper engagement, trust, experimentation, learning networks, and broader change capability.
Executive summary for business leaders
Overarching theme: Successful organizational change depends not only on the destination, but on the leadership approach used to get there. Rowland, Thorley, and Brauckmann identify four change approaches: directive change, self-assembly change, masterful change, and emergent change. Their research finds that masterful and emergent approaches are most associated with successful high-magnitude change, while directive and especially self-assembly approaches are more common in lower-success change efforts.
The article’s core message is that leaders must make a conscious choice about how they will lead change. If they default to old routines — rigid programs, excessive governance, toolkits, templates, one-way communication, or fragmented local implementation — they may create activity without real transformation.
Major takeaways on leading organizational change
1. Leaders often overfocus on the “what” and underfocus on the “how”
The article warns that leaders commonly spend most of their energy defining the new strategy, structure, operating model, or integration plan, while giving too little attention to the way people will be engaged, supported, and mobilized through the change.
Business implication: A technically sound change plan can still fail if the leadership approach does not match the complexity, emotion, and stakeholder impact of the change.
2. Directive change is controlled, top-down, and limited
In a directive change approach, senior leaders decide both the direction and the method. The work is managed through tightly controlled steps, programs, and one-way communication. This may create speed and clarity, but it often produces limited ownership and little capability-building.
Business implication: Directive change may be useful for simple, urgent, or compliance-driven shifts, but it is risky when the organization needs learning, engagement, adaptation, or deep behavior change.
3. Self-assembly change creates activity without enough coherence
In self-assembly change, senior leaders set the direction but delegate implementation to local teams. The organization often launches many tools, templates, workshops, and initiatives, but impact may be weak because the activity is tracked more than the outcomes.
Business implication: Leaders should beware of confusing rollout activity with transformation progress. A high volume of workshops, dashboards, and templates does not guarantee meaningful change.
4. Masterful change combines clear direction with deep engagement
In masterful change, senior leaders hold a clear direction while investing heavily in stakeholder dialogue, local adaptation, trust, learning networks, and change capability. The mindset is not “I can manage change,” but “I trust my people to solve things with me.”
Business implication: Masterful change is especially relevant when leaders know the broad destination but need people across the organization to help refine, own, and implement the change.
5. Emergent change works through experimentation and feedback
In emergent change, leaders set a guiding intention but do not prescribe the full solution. Instead, they create conditions for experimentation, establish a few hard rules, focus on hot spots, and use rapid feedback loops to learn what works.
Business implication: Emergent change is powerful when the environment is uncertain, the right answer is not yet known, or local knowledge and experimentation are essential.
6. Masterful and emergent approaches are most linked to successful complex change
The authors report that across four rounds of research over two decades, masterful change was especially present in successful long-term change, while emergent change was especially present in successful change at pace. By contrast, directive and self-assembly approaches were more present in lower-success complex change efforts.
Business implication: Complex transformation requires more than control. It requires trust, learning, ownership, and the ability to adapt as reality changes.
7. The right approach depends on change intent
The article recommends starting by clarifying the change intention: what the change must generate, how complex it is, how long it will take, how many stakeholders are affected, and how many variables must shift.
Business implication: Leaders should not automatically use the same change playbook every time. A cost restructuring, culture transformation, digital operating model, acquisition integration, and innovation reset may each require a different approach.
8. Change leadership requires mindset change
Rowland, Thorley, and Brauckmann argue that changing the approach often requires changing the leader’s mindset. A leader who believes “I can manage change” will behave differently from one who believes “I can only create the conditions for change.”
Business implication: Leaders must examine not just their change plan, but their assumptions about control, trust, authority, learning, and employee capability.
9. Change capability should be built broadly
The article emphasizes that change literacy cannot sit only with the CEO, transformation office, or HR team. Organizations need broader capability so people across the system understand different change approaches and can participate effectively.
Business implication: Strong change organizations build shared language, coaching, facilitation skills, stakeholder engagement practices, and feedback loops across the enterprise.
10. Leaders should ask whether change feels genuinely different
The authors recommend getting feedback during implementation and asking whether the way the organization is approaching change actually feels different. This helps prevent leaders from claiming a new approach while unconsciously returning to old routines.
Business implication: Change credibility depends on consistency. Employees can quickly detect when leaders talk about empowerment but still manage through control, reporting, and top-down compliance.
Leadership talking points for leading organizational change
Organizational change fails when leaders use old routines to reach new destinations.
The “how” of change is as important as the “what.”
Directive change may create compliance, but it rarely creates deep ownership.
Self-assembly change can produce tool fatigue and fragmented effort if leaders track activity more than outcomes.
Masterful change works when leaders provide direction while trusting people to shape implementation.
Emergent change works when leaders cannot know the answer in advance and must create conditions for experimentation.
The best change leaders adjust their approach to the intent, complexity, urgency, and human impact of the change.
Reflection questions
Are we using a default change approach without consciously choosing it?
Is this change simple enough for a directive approach, or complex enough to require masterful or emergent leadership?
Are we asking people to adopt another top-down rollout after they are already change-weary?
Where are we tracking activity instead of real behavior change, learning, or business impact?
Do employees feel consulted, trusted, and equipped — or simply managed through the change?
What leadership mindset is shaping our approach: control, delegation, trust, or emergence?
Are we building change capability across the organization, or relying on a small transformation team?
Does the way we are leading this change feel meaningfully different from past efforts?
Potential action items for leading organizational change
Diagnose the current change approach: directive, self-assembly, masterful, or emergent.
Clarify the change intention before choosing the approach, including complexity, urgency, stakeholder impact, and degree of uncertainty.
Use directive change only where the work is simple, urgent, or non-negotiable.
Avoid self-assembly change when the organization needs coherence, deep engagement, or measurable transformation outcomes.
Use masterful change when leaders know the broad direction but need stakeholder ownership, learning networks, and local adaptation.
Use emergent change when the solution is uncertain and experimentation is needed.
Build formal feedback loops so employees and local leaders can shape implementation as the change unfolds.
Train leaders in stakeholder dialogue, systems thinking, facilitation, listening, psychological safety, and change literacy.
Create a “change approach charter” that explains not only what is changing, but how the organization will approach the change differently this time.
Recommended similar articles
How to Get Your Team on Board with a Major Change — A related HBR article by Rowland, Brauckmann, and Thorley on helping people feel secure and engaged during major organizational change.
10 Beliefs That Get in the Way of Organizational Change — A useful companion piece from Frances Frei and Anne Morriss on assumptions that prevent leaders from moving quickly and effectively through change.
Storytelling That Drives Bold Change — A strong follow-up on using a clear, compelling narrative to mobilize people around transformation.
Transformations That Work — A relevant HBR article on how some companies defy the odds in major transformation efforts.
A New Model for Continuous Transformation — A practical next read for leaders who need to move beyond one-time transformation programs and build a more continuous transformation capability.
4 Strategies to Guide Your Team Through a Departmental Transition — Useful for managers leading change at the department or team level.