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Book of Change
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A book proposal for the:
About the Book
Now more than ever, organizations are faced with unprecedented transformational change. The Book of Change® provides both for profit and non-profit organizations with a step-by-step instruction guide to manage change. It provides state-of-the-art business solutions for those who need to address change, either small or large, in the workplace.
When pandemics, mergers, restructuring, bankruptcies, layoffs or major software implementations hit the workplace both managers and their employees are naturally fearful of the looming changes. Organizational change is meant for the people who manage the organization and the people who make it function day-to-day.
Today, the change we face is as just exponential, as it is existential. People want to understand how to deal with the external changes like the Twin Towers attack on 9/11, the Great Recession, the European Brexit, the Presidency of Donald Trump, and now COVID-19. They also need to deal with immediate internal organizational changes like mergers or restructuring. The Book of Change® provides them with answers and a road map to address their specific change management needs. The book is an instruction guide that an organization or change management agent can use to manage organizational change.
The Book of Change® is written for business and government executives, change management consultants, and university scholars and students. It provides practical change management solutions for those who need to address change in the workplace. The book is designed to be a step-by-step instruction guide that the change management agent can use to manage organizational change. These could be internal or external impacts to the organization’s health or profitability.
This organizational change could be big or small. For example, the person could be a company president charged with managing a major merger with another firm. On the other hand, it could be an IT manager who needs to implement a major new software system. Organizational change comes in a thousand different types and sizes. But the bottom line is there is a manager worried about how she or he will manage this new challenge. The manager can use the Book of Change® to either proactively or reactively address such change impacts. That is why the book admonishes the reader that,
Either you manage change or change manages you!
The Book of Change® is the first and only doctorate level, systematic meta-analysis of the seven decades of both the historical and the published organizational change management models. The 100,000-word book presents a comprehensive model that combines the best attributes of the various change management models that have been created in the last 70 years. One of the more unique and appealing aspects of the book is its readability, as in non-academic and non-metaphysical, in terms of explaining what needs to be done. It is worth noting that another similar and easily recognized title is the Book of Changes or I Ching (周易) which was written around the 9th Century B.C. in China.
The book is written in six chapters starting with an Introduction, History, and then two chapters on organizational change management. The core of the book is Chapter 5: PSOCM® 10-Step Model. This chapter is divided into three Phases, 10-Steps, and 39 Actions. The book concludes with a three Appendices, a Glossary, Quotations, and an Index.
I focused my research on 21 different organizational change management (OCM) processes published since Curt Lewin created the field in 1951. As an academic, I spent my doctoral research reading the leading publications, periodicals, and research papers on this subject so that you, the reader, does not have to.
If all of this sounds a little academically boring, then consider one of the books I found comparable. Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan (2010) is one of these. It spent 36 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list because people wanted answers to the changes that were coming and how to address them.
About the Author
Richard H. Carson is a practitioner, consultant, and academic scholar. His experience spans 40 years. For the first 30 years he worked as a senior executive manager and as a policy analyst, on economic and environmental issues, to three Oregon governors. He then spent the next 10 years as a change management consultant for a national management company and also did his doctoral studies in organizational psychology at Washington State University, a Tier-1 research university.
Mr. Carson has written over 100 articles for international and national periodicals such as Entrepreneur, Business Journal, Public Management, and Architecture. He wrote four non-fiction publications that are listed on Prabooks and Amazon Author pages.
Mr. Carson managed government agencies at the city, county, regional and state level in the Pacific Northwest. He also worked for a national consulting firm helping both for profit and non-profit organizations become more performance efficient and cost-effective. The latter led to Mr. Carson’s frustration at his inability to get his management company to move beyond providing services in efficiency and effectiveness and into organizational change management (OCM).
This frustration resulted in his founding the firm of Carson & Associates in 2018. The firm now provides services such as organizational change management, strategic planning, and executive coaching exclusively to individuals and organizations.
Target Audience
Richard H. Carson is a practitioner, consultant, and academic scholar. His experience spans 40 years. For the first 30 years he worked as a senior executive manager and as a policy analyst, on economic and environmental issues, to three Oregon governors. He then spent the next 10 years as a change management consultant for a national management company and also did his doctoral studies in organizational psychology at Washington State University, a Tier-1 research university.
Mr. Carson has written over 100 articles for international and national periodicals such as Entrepreneur, Business Journal, Public Management, and Architecture. He wrote four non-fiction publications that are listed on Prabooks and Amazon Author pages.
Mr. Carson managed government agencies at the city, county, regional and state level in the Pacific Northwest. He also worked for a national consulting firm helping both for profit and non-profit organizations become more performance efficient and cost-effective. The latter led to Mr. Carson’s frustration at his inability to get his management company to move beyond providing services in efficiency and effectiveness and into organizational change management (OCM).
This frustration resulted in his founding the firm of Carson & Associates in 2018. The firm now provides services such as organizational change management, strategic planning, and executive coaching exclusively to individuals and organizations.
Competitive Analysis
I researched 18 comparable books going back to 2010. I focused my review on 20 different organizational change management (OCM) processes published since Curt Lewin created the field in 1951. As an academic, I spent my doctoral research reading every publication, periodical, and research paper on this subject so that you, the reader, do not have to.
The field of organizational change management (OCM) has three kinds of publications:
On the one end there are slim 100-150 page volumes published by consultants. The purpose of the volume is to attract consulting business. Most of these books are given to potential clients as a loss leader to impress them. On the other end of the spectrum, I found 500-600 page tomes meant to be sold to masters or doctorate degree students. These publications provide more than the average manager needs to address change in the work place.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010), The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. New York: Random House. 2nd Edition. Pages: 444. Hard Cover ($21.99)/Soft Cover ($11.99). ISBN: 081297381X. Summary: Discussion of highly improbable events and how to make them more predictable. Spent 36 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list. Book was timely as it addressed the Great Recession of 2008. My book is comparable because it addresses the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2019. The advantage of my book is that it provides a step-by-step guide on how to address change.
Lee Bolman, Terrance Deal (2017). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey Bass; 6th Edition. Pages: 512. Hard Cover ($44.80)/Soft Cover (46.40). ISBN: 1119281822. Summary: Presents how to deliberately look at situations from more than one vantage point in order to build high-performance organizations. My book takes the same approach, focusing on creating more performance efficient and cost-effective organizations.
William Bridges, Susan Bridges (2016). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Boston: Da Capo Lifelong Books. 4th Edition. Pages: 109. Soft Cover ($16.67). ISBN: 0738219657. Summary: details how transition is successful when employees have purpose, a plan, and a part to play. This is a guide on how to face the challenges. My book provides a more detailed step-by-step guide to manage organizational change.
John Kotter (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press. Pages: 208. Hard Cover ($16.69). ISBN: 9781422186435. Summary: Provides an eight-step change management process. My book is similar in that it provides a ten-step process. However, it goes further by providing 40 action items.
Tupper Cawsey, Gene Deszca, Cynthia Ingols (2019). Organizational Change: An Action Oriented Toolkit. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 4th Edition. Pages: 537. Hard Cover ($95.00)/Soft Cover ($74.99). ISBN: 9781483359304. Summary: Provides tools for implementing, measuring, and monitoring sustainable change initiatives and helping organizations achieve their objectives. My book does the same and includes a maintenance section for monitoring.
Warner Burke (2015). Organizational Development: A Process of Learning and Change. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. 3rd Edition. Pages 375. Hard Cover ($94.99)/Soft Cover ($74.99). ISBN: 0133892484. Summary: Explains how organizational development is practiced and continuing to evolve. The authors illuminate each key theory in the field, giving readers the background they need to translate theory into action.
The Platform
My book also covers theory, history, and how to implement theory in a more detailed manner. The Book of Change® platform is designed so that the some of the parts is greater than the whole. In other words, the various platform elements create a larger synergy since they feed into each other.
Website: I own the domain www.bookofchange.online, as well as the trademarked name. The site currently has 30 pages and is designed to mirror the book itself. Each page is a separate website on itself. I did this intentionally so that people accessing the material cannot just download it like they could if it were an e-book or print book. All of the other technology venues such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages drive readers to it. The website becomes an Internet storefront. Certainly, the website can sell books. However, is can also be used to provide several freebies to keep people interested. For example, they could download the step-by-step guide; signup for the e-newsletter, or blog or go view the YouTube video. There also is the Glossary, Quotes, and Bibliography sections. Current traffic is 141 clicks per day.
Google Ad/Facebook Campaign. I currently have an online Internet campaign for the book’s website (Book of Change®) with Google Ads and Facebook. The ads slogan is “Either You Manage Change or Change Manages You.” That is the message I also use as a tag line in the Book of Change®. The site has been evolving since June 2018.
E-Newsletter. The website is promoted through a monthly E-newsletter that goes out quarterly to 10,000 “managers” via DataAxel USA (formerly InfoUSA).
Social media: There are a lot of top-rated social media outlets. However, not all of them are going to useful to sell my book. It will be important to carefully select which is the most relevant. For example, I use LinkedIn which is rated lower than others, but is much higher when it comes to selling to professionals versus youth. Currently establish venues are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
You Tube. I am currently working on creating my introductory You Tube video. I have all of the technology that I need to create my own You Tube video library of training sessions for each of the three Phases, 10-Steps and 39 Actions. That is the way I would package the You Tube videos as a series.
Trademarks. Both the Book of Change® and the People Sustain Organizational Change Management (PSOCM® ) are trademarked. I use the PSOCM® process in my consulting business.
Promotion Plan
Campaign Message. As I mentioned earlier, a comparable book is The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I have communicated with Mr. Taleb. What sold his books was that he predicted the Great Recession. What I am selling is that I predicted the Great Pandemic! I will not go into detail here, but it is in the Preface of my books that I include here. My online publication predicted 14 global change events and #1 was the pandemic.
Slogan and Logo. The Book of Change® has its own campaign slogan which is “Either You Manage Change or Change Manages You.” It is currently being used on the website and in the Google Ad campaign. I don’t plan to use it as a tagline on book cover. The logo is pretty basic, so I am open to any suggestions from the literary agent or publisher.
Google Ad Campaign. I currently have an online Internet campaign for the book’s website (Book of Change®) with Google Ads. The ads slogan is “Either You Manage Change or Change Manages You.” That is the message I also use in the Book of Change®.
The site has been evolving since June 2018. This last month my ad was shown 475,000 times and I got 4,240 clicks which works out to about 141 visitors per day. Keep in mind that I am only paying $100/month to generate this much traffic as a “beta-test.” I would make a commitment to increase my ad campaign substantially for one year from the book’s launch.
I only mention this to demonstrate that the attraction of this topic is on par with the average Google Ad campaign. The average “conversion rate” for arts and entertainment is 3.56%. If I invest $1,000 per month, then I can expect to generate book sales of 51 books per day or 18,615 per year. The amount of traffic and click being a function of money, so I would reinvest any publishing advance back into the monthly Google Ad campaign. I would plan on increase my Ad campaign to at least $1,000/month for a 12-month kickoff. Now remember this is based on my expenditure only and not the publishers. This is just on piece of my overall sales platform.
Publication Media. I have written over 100 essays for national and international periodicals like Architecture, Business America, Public Administration, and Entrepreneur. I also get interviewed by various trade journals. For example, I will be featured in the March 2021 issue of H R Today. This is the monthly publication of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). I am a member of this group that has 300,000 members in 165 countries.
Speaking Engagements. I speak at 1-2 conferences per year. I book my speaking engagements through the Ecospeakers bureau. These are generally national trade conferences for human resource specialists, city/county managers, urban planners, community development directors, or social services counselors.
Miscellaneous. There are also curated content (not all needs to be original), utilize split Call-To-Action, drip email campaign, segregated email lists, (i.e., gender, location, interests), focus on mobile subscribers, and text, test, and re-test email campaigns.
Marketing Calendar
Phase 1: Pre-Launch. I am a novice when it comes to having a full-blown, non-fiction book published. So, the Pre-Launch phase will be a learning curve for me.
I will work with the publisher/literary agent on both the front cover design and back cover. I have already designed a graphic that portrays the 10-Steps in an attractive numbered color wheel. I chose the circle because it mimics the I Ching circle. The tag line, where one is desired, is Either you manage change, or change manages you!
Develop a social media marketing sub-plan which will include Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads, blogs, Enewsletter, Podcast, and YouTube video. I will make changes to the marketing campaign and website, as requested by either the publisher or literary agent. I create a very compelling video given my previous media training. I once had to get in front of television cameras daily to explain how and why an 8-year old boy was killed by a pit bulldog. I am more than capable to handle ad hoc media inquiries.
Develop key selling points. That will be easy based on what you have read here.
Phase II: Before Book is Released. I update and work on my "launch" activities that I develop with my publisher/literary agent team.
Plan book launch event. I know Michael Powell and could do a book signing at Powell’s Books, “The World’s Largest Independent Book Store,” in Portland, Oregon.
Send out book launch invitation via electronic/USPS mailing lists.
Build my electronic/USPS mailing lists. I have worked with several of the email list companies recently. Buying such a list is relatively cheap.
Develop several trade-magazine articles. I would work on getting one of big ones like Forbes, WSJ, etc.
Refine my marketing plan, calendar, and budget.
Phase III: Post Launch. My post-launch period will be spent working to raise awareness build on my platform, and attract identified readers.
Hold more book launch event(s) and record them for YouTube.
Publication of periodical articles. One of two major periodicals like Forbes. Also, several smaller trade journal publications. For example, I belong to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) and International City Managers Association (ICMA). Both have magazines that I have written for.
Pitch online media outlets. I know a local broadcaster who has a national talk radio show. He occasionally has book authors on. I would use my online web connections to find radio shows and podcasts to do.
Implement social media schedule including Facebook, Twitter, Google Ads, blogs, Enewsletter, Podcast, and YouTube video.
Evaluate and revise my Marketing Plan. So, what worked, what didn’t and why?
Potential Endorsers
The following people are colleagues that I have corresponded with during my doctoral research and who could provide endorsements of my book.
David Carnevale, author of Organizational Development in the Public Sector.
Thomas Cummings, author of Organization Development and Change
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness.
Christopher Worley, author of Organization Development and Change.
Amy Wharton, author of The Sociology of Organizations.
Table of Contents
Preface
About the Author
Acknowledgement
Chapter 1: Introduction. Nature of Change, Organizations and Organizational Psychology
Chapter 2: History of Organizational Change Management
Chapter 3: Models and Meta-Analysis
Chapter 4: PSOCM® 10-Step Model
Phase I: Initiate the Organizational Assessment
Step 1.0 First Steps
Action 1.1 Problem Identification
Action 1.2 Starts at the Top
Action 1.3 Human Dynamic
Action 1.4 Communication Plan
Step 2.0 Kick-Off Program
Action 2.1 Initial Group Meeting
Action 2.2 Setting Ground Rules
Action 2.3 Employee Involvement
Step 3.0 Collect Data/Assessment/Analysis
Action 3.1 Existing Vision, Mission, Strategy
Action 3.2 Cultural Assessment
Action 3.3 Document Review
Action 3.4 Performance Measurement
Step 4.0 Feedback from Stakeholders
Action 4.1 Structured and Unstructured Interviews
Action 4.2 Focus Groups
Action 4.3 Open Houses
Action 4.4 Surveys
Phase II: Implement Organizational Change
Step 5.0 Diagnosis
Action 5.1 Problem Solving
Step 6.0 Design Interventions
Action 6.1 OCM Interventions
Step 7.0 Implement Change
Action 7.1 Process Mapping
Action 7.2 Reengineering Process (BPR)
Step 8.0 Manage Change/Restructure Organization
Action 8.1 Mixed Implementation
Action 8.2 Strategic Plan (strategic, multi-year budget)
8.3 Taking Action
Step 9.0 Lock In Change
Action 9.1 Carrot and Stick
Action 9.2 Executive Leadership Coaching
Action 9.3 Employee Training and Development
Action 9.4 Cross Functional Training
Action 9.5 Customer Service Training
Action 9.6 Team Building
Action 9.7 Procedures Manual & Standardization
Action 9.8 Establish Performance Measures/Expectations
Action 9.9 Performance Appraisal/Management
Action 9.10 Total Quality Management
Phase III: Maintain Organizational Development
Step 10.0 Maintain
Action 10.1 Monitoring Performance/Perception
Action 10.2 Sustaining Change Program
Action 10.3 Continuous Improvement
Action 10.4 Succession Plan for Organizational Continuity
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Quotes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Appendix A – PSOCM® Annotated
Appendix B – PSOCM® Schedule
Sample: Ten Pages