Disrupting Change: What Needs to Change About Change?

Existing theories of change struggle to capture how contemporary change unfolds, or to guide those tasked with leading it. This article sets out to disrupt and update current thinking about what change leaders need to “know,” to “do,” and to “be”. We take an “outside-in” approach: four experts from fields external to organizational change each offer their perspective on organizational change research, and three scholars from within the field respond. Reviewing the exchange, we find that the complexity, non-linearity, and technologically driven demands of contemporary change are well understood. The deeper problem lies elsewhere: our understanding of change leadership is mired in a long-standing, outmoded assumption—that to lead change means controlling it. The exchange crystallizes the need to confront this assumption, and to develop leaders able to convene and cultivate change without controlling it in the ways we currently prescribe.