Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: 'Real Change Now—Company Change Mastery'

Real Change Now: Company Change Mastery

If you are uncomfortable with change, or you know change is coming, this is the book for you. My advice is to read it and keep it right by your desk for easy access and constant reference.

Real Change Now is all about leading change in your company or organization. Author Daren Martin takes us through the different types of change—from intended to unintended, creeping to cataclysmic, and forecast to constant—and how to handle each in a steady and calm way, no matter what the changes and how they are occurring.

One of the most valuable aspects of the book is when he describes the types of people in your company, their reaction to change, and how you can deal with them effectively. He describes how to deal with the person who wants to hide their head in the sand and try to avoid change at any cost. The answer: Ask this person to share their concerns and address them when possible. Ask for their involvement in the change.

Another type of person is the “negator,” the one who starts rejecting change and will do everything they can to slow it down. Martin suggests the best you can do is increase the pressure to their resistance until they can no longer get any traction in the resistance.

There’s also the person who embraces change and looks forward to being an integral part of it. The answer here is to encourage this person and actually make them part of the change initiative—a disciple, if you will.

Martin describes your role as the leader, the head “changemaster” and what you can do to lead the change. He lists the characteristics you must display as an effective and successful master of change. A good master of change must be decisive, wise, resilient, an educated risk taker, an influencer with an understanding of how to deal with others, and the foresight to show them where they are headed and how things will turn out in the end.

As a consultant who not only must create change but help others through it, I found this book very helpful and unique. In fact, I read a lot of books and I can’t think of another one to compare it to.

One of the best things about the book is the basic no-nonsense writing. Martin needed just 100 pages to offer his most germane advice, where others would have need at least 300 pages to get to the same result—and probably not as effectively.

Look, we are all facing change now more than ever, it seems, so do yourself a favor: Pick up this book and keep it on your desk for future reference.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.

Real Change Now: Company Change Mastery
Author: Daren Martin
Copyright: 2020 Amazon Press
Price: $9
Pages: 107