{mosimage}The supertankers that now carry most of the world’s crude oil are well over a quarter of a mile long, the length of more than four football fields---so long that the officers on the bridge, located at the stern of the ship, must use binoculars to see what’s happening at the bow. These ships are so immense that no port can handle them; they must remain in 100 feet of water, unloading their cargo into smaller vessels or pipelines connected to shore refineries. It can take a supertanker as much as five miles to stop its forward motion, and twenty miles to make a 90-degree turn, even when there is danger ahead.

By all of the usual indicators -- number of books, articles, and workshops -- change management is the one of the latest fads in business today.  But introducing organizational changes is certainly not new, nor for that matter is the field of organizational change management (OCM).  And like many of the major fads that have preceded OCM (TQM, BPR, and MBO to name a few) the results are not encouraging. 

In ancient philosophy there were seven deadly sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.  Today, we have the seven deadly sins of current approaches to change management: (1)  Ignore current organizational reality, (2) Address single changes, (3) Emphasize activities, not results,(4) Scratch the surface, (5) Insult people, (6) Miss the real issue, (7) Prone to operator error.