UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFICULTIES OF LEADING CHANGE THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE

Change is complex process riddled with obstacles, barriers, and resistance. Leading changerequires a comprehensive understanding of the change process and an effective application of managerial skills. The present study focuses on analyzing the difficulties that emerge during change process in an organization through an experiential exercise „The Change Game‟ developed by Lewis & Grosser (2012). It also attempts to study the effectiveness of the exercise in simulating the complexities of leading change in a classroom setting. The experiential exercise was conducted on a sample of 17 post-graduate students of University of Delhi. The data that emerged from the activity and postactivity discussion reflects that a lack of clear communication, trust, transparency, perspective taking, and accountability between the management and the workers are the major difficulties in a change process. The negotiation of power between the managers and workers and the influence of group norms were the strongest barriers. The findings of the present study are based on a single conduction of one experiential exercise