Article

Organizational change: A critical

challenge for team effectiveness

Business Information Review

28(4) 242250
The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/0266382111427087
bir.sagepub.com

Elisabeth Goodman
Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting
Lucy Loh
Owner and Principal Consultant at Lucy Loh Consulting

Abstract
Change is again in the spotlight. Much of the current debate about organizational change is focusing on large scale changes,
e.g. public sector reshaping or the role of the third sector, for example, and many private sector organizations are working
hard on internal efficiencies. All of these bring huge challenges. But what about the people and the teams within these
organizations, who must continue to deliver today as well as achieve changes to their own roles and services for delivery
tomorrow?
This article describes some of the current drivers of change, and the challenges for teams. It highlights a number of
models and approaches which describe the cycle of change and the elements of team effectiveness, and gives practical
advice on how to use those to develop and support teams in a time of change. Our advice is grounded in good practice
gained through real life experience, with practical tips and suggestions. These will help readers to build and rebuild teams
so that they remain effective and the people in them motivated and aligned to the organizations goals.
Keywords
change management, customer value, Lean, Six Sigma, stakeholder management, team effectiveness, team leadership, team
learning

Introduction
Organizations are in a constant state of change, though the
degree and rate of change will vary from organization to
organization. It is important to recognize that all change
involves people: what they do, and/or how they do it.
Although this article is titled Organizational change, it is
the people within the organization who actually change.
One essential point to ensure team effectiveness is sustained
during periods of change, is to recognize that engagement of
the team throughout the process is crucial. As Peter Senge
(1993) said, People dont resist change. They resist being
changed. We believe that it is the uncertainty associated
with change that can be so difficult and painful to cope with;
everyone needs to feel that they have some sort of control
over their situation. Team leaders should value expressions
of resistance as an opening up of dialogue on what people
are thinking and feeling, paving the way for constructive
discussion on how best to go forward.
This article describes some of the challenges facing
organizations during change, and why this topic is more
important than ever. Our intention is to provide ideas and
techniques that both leaders and team members can use
to improve the effectiveness of their team, whatever its

sector or current level of performance. We describe core

principles and general approaches to team development
(often initiated from inside the team) and show how to use
these to address change stimulated from outside the team.
We share ideas on how to diagnose the current state of the
team, whether it is performing well and is strongly aligned
with its customers, or less so. Our own experiences of running courses, seminars, and of generally working with our
clients have given us many examples of the changes that
people are going through and we have written several blogs
and conference presentations relating to this theme (see
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator).
Jay Galbraith, a world leader on organization and team
development, states: Every organization is perfectly
designed to get the results its currently achieving (Galbraith,
2005). We believe that it is critical for teams to design
themselves for effectiveness, to manage the status quo and
to increase their resilience for change.

Corresponding author:
Elisabeth Goodman
Email: elisabeth@riverrhee.com

Goodman and Loh

Challenges Facing Todays Teams

The Big Picture: The Economy
The credit crunch of 2008 has cast a long shadow and is one
of the prime drivers of the change that we see today. As we
write, in the second half of 2011, many global economies,
including the UKs, are undergoing unprecedented change.
These macroeconomic changes are triggering change at all
levels in the public, private and third sectors. The public
sector faces the challenge of having to do more with less.
The private sector is seeking increased efficiencies and
effectiveness, and is looking at innovation of products,
services and the ways in which it does business. The third
sector has the opportunity, and challenge, to take on activities
previously performed by the public sector.
Although todays wave of change has been primarily
created by economic conditions, change is now such a
constant feature of organizational life that this article is
relevant irrespective of the triggers for change.

Impact on Organizations
The economic conditions have created a scale and rate of
change to challenge organizations, and the teams within
them, as never before. Within organizations, some teams
are being downsized, with difficult choices to make about
which people to retain and which to let go. Often, a team
is in the position of waiting and watching as the change
ripples down the organizational layers towards them.
Some teams are being reorganized, revising their priorities,
or making a case for their survival. Teams are being asked
to be more effective than ever, at a time when they are
under more pressure than ever before.
Many people in todays organizations have spent
their working lives in a period of comparative stability.
Their expectations about the emotional contract with the
organization (their future, their working style, and terms
and conditions) may now be challenged, leading to a sense
of uncertainty and instability. Their job content (what a job
comprises, how it is to be done, and how performance is
assessed) may have been stable for years.

Change and Business Information

Managers
Previous Business Information Review articles provide
useful background for this article: Jennine Knight (2009)
described the skills needed by team leaders (or managers);
Sue Edgar (2009) discussed some of the major changes
being faced by corporate information units; and Gina Lane
(2008) wrote about organizational change in its broader
context and inspired us with the title for this article.
In addition, the top strategic priorities in the next two
years reported by the BIR survey respondents in Allan
Fosters (2011) Business Information Survey placed

243
management and organizational issues at the top of the
list. This priority included gaining more staff as a way
of improving the work/life balance.
Other priorities highlighted included globalizing support systems, monitoring new outsourcing arrangements,
harmonizing and integrating services across locations and
within the organizational context, cost reduction and ensuring delivery of value, refining work processes and increasing quality, implementing new systems and programmes.
These are all examples of the types of change being faced
by organizations.

The Impact of Change

Some organizational change is driven by factors outside the
organization, to which it then has to react. In other cases, an
organization can proactively choose to change, interpreting
the changes in customers, services and demand likely in the
future and reshaping itself accordingly. In each case, a particular team may discover that its customers have changed,
or the needs and wants of their existing customers have
changed. This means that the value which the team delivers
to its customers must also change, which in turn alters the
nature of the team itself, its roles, and what good quality
looks and feels like (Figure 1).
In addition, the team members will have a wider set of
established stakeholders with whom they have a good relationship, and whose needs and styles of working they
understand well. As the organization changes, the stakeholders for the team may change, bringing the need to build
relationships with a new set of people.
The UK local government election in May 2011 offers a
vivid example of change in organizational values. A number of councils changed from leadership by one political
party to leadership by another, with a substantial turnover
in the Councillors themselves. The incoming Councillors
held different political views and values (political and
other), and had different manifesto commitments to the
outgoing Councillors. Almost overnight, the local government officers needed to stop working with previous
Councillors, and begin adapting to a new programme of
work as described in the manifesto. This is change at
its most radical: a new direction, new values, new stakeholders, a new programme of work, and new ways of
working, rapidly imposed. For teams, this is the ultimate
requirement: sustain delivery to the teams customers in
parallel with evolving the team and its effectiveness in a
radically new environment.

Change as Renewal
For many individuals, change is demanding, personally and
emotionally, as things which were important in the past are
put aside, and new ways of working take their place.
But change also offers an opportunity for renewal: to look

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Business Information Review 28(4)

Figure 1. The Change Links

Figure 2. The Kubler-Ross change curve

again at what each team does, and to reposition the team to

meet the voice of its customers.
This brings us to our first proposed approach: recognizing reactions to change, and responding to them.

Understanding the Change Cycle: The

Kubler-Ross Change Curve
This approach was developed by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
and was based on her work with people confronting grief.
It illustrates the typical stages that people go through in
response to change. Whether the people concerned view
a change as predominantly positive and to be welcomed,
or as something negative, they will go through some version of this change cycle. In this description, the stages are
named for the prevalent emotion or activity experienced
(Figure 2).
When a substantial change happens, many parts of the
organization are affected and go through this curve and
at different rates. Within any one team, individual team
members go through the change curve at different rates.

How can this model be used to support team effectiveness during change?
It is important for leaders of affected teams to recognize
that they too are travelling through the change curve.
They will need emotional resilience to travel through their
personal change curve quickly. Doing so gives them the
capacity to monitor the responses of their team members,
supporting each one according to where they are in their
cycle, and assisting them if they get stuck at a particular
point. The flexible leader will recognize that whilst some
members will focus on the rational reasons for the change
and view it as a task, others are more likely to focus on the
people impact and the disruption to relationships. Both categories are likely to go through the curve in different ways,
and so each requires a different management approach.
All change involves letting go of something, and it is
important to deliberately create space for this to happen.
In one re-organization where a team was broken up, they
held a celebration party to acknowledge all the learning and
accomplishments they had achieved together. This was
their way of letting go in a positive way, and developing
energy and resources for each of them to move forward.
In another team, where a team member was stuck in depression, the team leader spent time listening to that person and
their sadness about what they were leaving behind, and
then gradually coached them into seeing some possibilities
in the future. Other resilient team members can also support
their colleagues in an informal way.
The people with whom the team interacts (its stakeholders, suppliers and customers) may also be going
through change, and so the same principles apply. At a time
of change, a number of people will not be operating at their
best, and yet much is expected of them. It is a time for
mutual respect and support! Below we present five tools
that we have developed for working with teams on their
change journey:

Goodman and Loh

245

Figure 3. Stages of team development

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Stages in team development

Prerequisites for effective teams
Team temperature checks
Lean/Six Sigma
Dilts Logical Levels of Change

1. Stages of Team Development

We have adapted this tool from Tuckman and Jensen
(1977) and Hersey and Blanchard, and we have used it with
new and established teams, to help leaders and their
members understand the status of their team, and guide
them through its further development. Teams are often
relieved to realize that it is natural and in fact desirable
to go through the forming, storming and norming stages
in order to reach high performance (Figure 3).
Team leaders and members may fear and try to avoid the
storming stage but this is an important time for people to air
their views openly and share their ideas constructively in
order to make the team stronger.
In fact the team leader needs to play a different role at
different stages: one-on-one interactions with team members are especially valuable in the storming stage and a focus
outwards to stakeholders is valuable in the high performing
stage. Through awareness of these different stages, team
members can also support the team leader and other team
members, as well as ensure that they are fully developing
their role within the team.
The renewing (also sometimes referred to as mourning) and forming stages are the ones that will happen most
frequently at a time of change for the team. These are the

stages that require the most hands-on and directive

attention from the leader. For a team going through change
and renewal, it is important for the team leader and members to celebrate the successes of the past (as previously
mentioned), and to take note of what made them successful.
One key role for the team leader is to keep a watchful
eye outside the team to understand how the landscape is
changing. This may include different pressures and opportunities for the wider organization; changes in its strategy
and culture; and other changes in its overall operational
context and its stakeholders. Each of these will have implications for the team: what it needs to accomplish and how.
Structured learning techniques such as discussing other
teams experiences in Peer Assists at the start of a teams
life, conducting After Action Reviews (timely debriefs on
lessons learnt) at key milestones, and holding in-depth
Learning Retrospects at the end of a teams life can be
particularly useful to capture and share lessons learnt
between existing and new team members and others outside
the team (Collison and Parnell, 2004).
During a time of change, it is also important for the team
leader to recognize that not all the team members may fit
the new world. They may need to work with Human
Resources personnel to manage this. Additionally, if new
members join the team, it is important for the whole team
to acknowledge that a new team has in fact been created
and that the entire cycle of team development will need
to be repeated in order to embrace the skills and values
of the new members. Whenever there are further changes,
the team will enter the renewal stage, and will need to go
back around the cycle and re-test itself against the new task,

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Business Information Review 28(4)

Figure 4. Sample output from a Team temperature check

context and stakeholders. Future journeys through the cycle

get quicker as the team becomes more change resilient.

2. Prerequisites for Effective Teams

This is the second tool that we use to support teams through
change and for achieving effectiveness. We have coached
team leaders to use this list of prerequisites as a checklist,
and encouraged them to engage members in the success of
the team by discussing best practices from other teams in
which that they have been involved. The prerequisites are:








Clear purpose and goals share, and commit to, a

mission that provides focus and direction. Team engagement in the development of the mission is crucial to
ensure buy-in and understanding
Trust and support each other believe in each other,
work for each others success, know that you can count
on each other
Open communication continually share information,
ideas, concerns, skills, knowledge (both within the team
and with external stakeholders)
Clear roles know what is expected of you and how
you can best contribute to team success
Diversity recognize and value differences in styles,
ideas, cultures, backgrounds, expertise
Task/Relationship balance balance the need to get
work done with the need for strong, healthy relationships
Decision making exercise effective, clear, structured
decision making
Meeting management hold effective meetings for
the right (and stated) purpose(s), at the right time,
with the right participants, with the desired outcomes
and follow-up
Information management effectively manage
plans, actions, issues, risks, agreements, quality and other
documents.

In a time of change, the context for many of the practices

adopted by the team will also change. Additionally all
interactions (task and people) across the team boundary will be up for review, and the position of the team
boundary itself may change. The team leader, assisted
by the members, will need to revisit each of the elements
of this list in turn.

3. Team Temperature Checks

This is the third of our team tools (Figure 4). We use it as a
diagnostic with the prerequisites checklist to determine the
status of the team at a time of change, and to engage team
members on the priorities to be addressed going forward.
The relative importance of each prerequisite will change
during the life of the team, as will the teams perception of
how well they are performing. Rather than dwell retrospectively on everything that is not working, the team should
focus on the biggest gaps between importance and performance of a prerequisite, and explore the suggestions for
improvement in order to move forward in a constructive
way.
At the request of team leaders, we have polled members
individually to obtain ratings of the perceived importance
and performance against each prerequisite, and to encourage them to make suggestions for improvement to share
at a team workshop. Using an external and objective facilitator can help with this, although the long-term teams can
manage this themselves, e.g. by doing periodic After
Action Reviews in team meetings, or at key milestones.
It may help buy-in to the approach to include one or two
additional criteria or prerequisites which are particularly
important to the specific team and its customers. This may
also be useful if there are criteria which are strongly relevant to the team situation, and which it is important to
track.

Goodman and Loh

247
savings, and embed this approach as a sustainable way of
working.

5. Dilts Logical Levels of Change

Figure 5. Logical levels of change

In a time of change it may also be appropriate to involve

customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in this process.
This will deliver two benefits: getting some external input,
and also building relationships with people of importance
to the team either during or after the change.

4. Lean/Six Sigma
The Lean and Six Sigma process improvement philosophies and tools (developed by Toyota and Motorola respectively, and modern-day representations of Total Quality
Management, Business Process Re-engineering, ISO 9000
etc) can be extremely useful to a team undergoing change.
Many organizations now use a combination of both
Lean and Six Sigma tailored to their own culture and needs;
we have worked with some of them to develop strategies
and implement change in an approach analogous to that
described by Steven Spear (2009):
1.

2.

3.
4.

Identify the value to be delivered, and your teams

goals, in the context of your customers and other stakeholders expectations
Adopt an end-to-end (cross-team/-department/-organization) process orientation, i.e. going beyond traditional
silos to explore how to deliver customer value most
effectively and efficiently
Commit to identifying, solving and learning from
problems
Build capability within the team to perpetuate a culture
of continuous improvement.

We have found that even short workshops around any

one of these steps with a team undergoing change can
already help them to be better equipped to deal with it.
We have worked with an academic library team preparing
to centralize processes for books and periodicals that were
previously decentralized across several college libraries.
An engagement with a pharmaceutical contract research
organization (CRO) has enabled it to engage people across
the whole of its organization, deliver real cost and time

This is our fifth and last team tool and is one that can be
used both as a diagnostic and as a planning tool in a time
of change.
Robert Dilts is a leading figure in the field of Neuro
Linguistic Programming (NLP) who recognized that it is
important for team leaders to act at multiple levels to
achieve change. He developed the Logical Levels of
change model (Figure 5), as a helpful way of understanding
the elements of effective team performance (OConnor,
2001).

Environment
The Environment refers to what is outside the team:
the place and time (where and when) the team works:
the teams customers or stakeholders. The team may be
successful only in specific circumstances or with particular
people: being in the right place at the right time.
The physical layout of the work area, in relation to the
team and also its customers and suppliers, may either
constrain or facilitate the way a team works. It may be that
altering physical workflow is sufficient to respond to a
change well.

Behaviour and Capabilities

Behaviour refers to specific actions: what each team
member does, says and thinks. This will be the outward
display of having successfully introduced new working
practices and so it will also be useful to define the key
expected behaviours for implementing a particular change.
Capabilities also referred to as competencies are
skills, qualities and strategies, such as flexibility and adaptability. They are consistent, automatic and habitual, are
how work gets done in the team and will often need to be
defined, taught and practised in order to support change.
Performance management is an established process for
managing goals for Behaviours and Capabilities in most
organizations.

Values and Beliefs

Values are what an individual or team holds to be important, so they act as the why: the emotional drivers for what
a team member or the overall team does. Beliefs are what
an individual or team holds to be true, and so influences
how the person or team acts.
Values are critical: for most of us, they are key, unconscious influences on how we act. The values demonstrated
by the team leader are particularly important. For example,
a team leader who values harmony could act to reduce

248
tension in the team. In some circumstances, it could be
more important that the team leader values achievement,
and temporarily parks an issue of tension in order to meet
an important deadline.
Within the team, it is vital that the team leader sensitively manages debate on the values which will be important for future team success and meeting the needs of its
customers and stakeholders. These values will not necessarily be those which the individual team members hold most
strongly. Imagine, for example, a team that has been working at the forefront of process change, and values innovation very strongly. Perhaps their success with process
change has been recognized, and the team is now being
asked to replicate process management across a wider part
of the organization. A key value now could be standardization quite a change from innovation.
At a time of change, it is helpful for the team leader to
ask all the members of the team to state their beliefs about
working in the team and to facilitate a healthy debate
about these. For example, a team member may say:
I believe I am empowered to . . . .. This may have been
true in the past; if no longer true, the implications of the
change can be discussed constructively.

Identity
Identity is how a team thinks about itself, the core beliefs
and values that define it, and which provide a sense of
who the team is. Healthcare professionals could have an
identity as nurses, for example. Library and information
professionals might describe themselves as librarians, or
information analysts (there are, of course, lots of other
descriptions they might use).

Purpose
Purpose refers to the larger organization of which the team
is part. It connects to a wider purpose for whom? or what
else? For healthcare professionals, their purpose could be to
alleviate suffering or to provide care. For library and information professionals, their purpose could be to assist others
to locate the information they need and want.

Using the Dilts model

The model helps the team to understand its status, and to
make choices about what to do. The model has a natural hierarchy, and indicates where change is required in the team to
assist its effectiveness in the wider organization. Where the
nature of the wider organization has changed, and the role of
the team has changed within it, then the team would need to
work through all the levels, from identity downwards, to
consider what has changed and to redefine itself.
It may help to think about the model in terms of individual
change. We might for instance want to be fitter or healthier.

Business Information Review 28(4)

Many of us would start with our environment, competencies
and behaviours: we might join a gym, or begin a diet.
We are likely to start with great enthusiasm, but then find
the new behaviour hard to sustain. An alternative approach
would be to consider and explore why we want to be fitter or
healthier and how we would view ourselves or feel in our
new identity. For example, a parent might want to increase
their fitness to be able to be more active with their children,
as part of their identity as a parent, and also to demonstrate
a value about health. Then, each time the parent considered
behaviour which was in conflict with their mental image of
trampolining and bicycling with their children, the parent
is more likely to make a healthy decision.
The same is true when introducing change in an
organization: our first thought might be to put up posters,
or run training courses. When setting out to achieve change,
its tempting to focus activities on the lower levels of Dilts
pyramid, because they are more visible, and easier to act
on. Organization change, for example, (changing the organization chart, reporting lines, which skills are located in
which team), affecting the bottom three levels of the pyramid. But change at these lower levels will not necessarily
affect the higher levels, and each of us can identify
examples where large amounts of energy went into these
activities at the lower levels but little into the identity and
values of the new organization, with poor results. In one
case, a changing organization put much time into building
new role profiles (Capability) and interviewing existing
role holders for those roles, but without engaging the organization in a discussion about the new mission and identity
for the organization (why are we here, who are we now?)
and the values now needed for it to succeed.
We can create more lasting and sustainable change by
working on purpose, identity, values and beliefs. These
higher levels in the pyramid are generally more invisible,
harder to change and harder to assess because they address
the thoughts and emotions of individuals. For lasting and
sustainable change, we need to consider the new purpose
of the team, what the new identity would look, feel,
and sound like, and what the values and beliefs would be
to sustain that new purpose and identity (Bridges, 2004).
It is worth significant effort to engage the organization and
its teams in this as much as is practically possible. This is
the way to change those thoughts and emotions, which will
then motivate changes in capabilities and behaviours.
Training courses and posters could be developed which
re-emphasize the changes in identity and values, while
also developing the capabilities and behaviours needed.
Development of the environment to support the change
would also honour the new identity and values.
The Fire Service provides an example of how a teams
identity might change. Many Fire Services now spend
much time on education (in schools, for example), or on
preventative and audit work (perhaps in a care home).
Longer-serving staff joined the Fire Service as their job title

Goodman and Loh

implies: as Fire Fighters, with an active focus on the
urgency of fire-fighting and saving life and property, and
yet they are spending much of their time on other duties;
truly an identity-level change.
Dilts model of levels of change provides a powerful
tool to visualize and diagnose and assess the impact of
change on a team, and to plan interventions to keep the
team effective and motivated.

Conclusions
Change brings challenges to teams that are delivering
services today and need to evolve to deliver differently
tomorrow. Fortunately, there is a wide range of wellestablished methods of assessing and developing team
effectiveness, and we have described several of them
here. It is critical to make active use of these methods
to retain a focus on team effectiveness, providing a solid
foundation for team members. Although we have not got
the space to mention such approaches as the Myers
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Belbin team roles,
or the Enneagram (Riso and Hudson, 2000) in this article, they are also extremely valuable for understanding
individual members preferred and actual behaviours
within a team so that the reader may wish to find out
more about them.
In a time of change (external or internal to the organization), it is also critical for team leaders to understand the
change and interpret its implications for the team. Then
the understanding of the change, combined with team
effectiveness methods, can be used to develop and position
the team to be effective in its new context and with its new
stakeholders and customers.
Whosoever desires constant success must change his
conduct with the times. (Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince)

For a team to be effective in a time of organizational

change, the team leader needs:
1.

2.
3.
4.

5.

6.

An understanding of the changes and their organizational context, and a clear vision for the future of the
team
A strong engagement with key stakeholders and
customers (internal and external)
An appreciation of the status of the team and of its
members
An insight into the possible blockers and enablers to
achieving the vision, and ideas on how to overcome
and make use of them respectively
A plan for how to achieve the teams vision with
solid action steps to deliver early progress and
feedback
Lots of personal energy and motivation!(Adapted
from Kotter, 1996 and Kotter and Rathberger, 2005)

249
References and Further Reading
Belbin Team Role Theory. See for example: http://www.belbin.
com/rte.asp?id8.
Bridges W (2004) Transitions. Cambridge MA: Perseus Books
Group.
Collison C, Parnell G (2004) Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations.
Capstone (2nd Edition).
Edgar S (September 2009) Is the bell tolling for the death of the
Corporate Information Unit: Can Google really fill the gap?
Has turning east accelerated the demise? Business Information
Review 26: 201204.
Foster A (2011) Business Information Survey. BIR 28(1): 824.
Galbraith J (2005) Designing Dynamic Organizations. Amacom.
Hersey P, Blanchard K Situational Leadership. See for example:
www.12manage.com
Knight J (March 2009) The contemporary library and information
services manager: Skills and knowledge requirements.
Business Information Review 26: 5156.
Kotter JP (1996) Leading Change. Boston MA: Harvard Business
School Press.
Kotter JP, Rathberger H (2005) Our Iceberg is Melting. London:
Macmillan.
Lane G (December 2008) Organizational change: The challenge
of supporting staff. Business Information Review 25: 262267.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). See for example: http://
www.opp.eu.com/psychometric_instruments/mbti/Pages/
default.aspx
OConnor J (2001) NLP Workbook. London: Element.
RiverRhee Consultings website http://www.riverrhee.com
includes case studies and articles on change management,
team effectiveness, Lean and Six Sigma and approaches to
knowledge management including the use of learning reviews.
Riso DR, Hudson R (2000) Understanding the Enneagram.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Senge PM (1993) The Fifth Discipline. London: Random House.
Spear S (2009) Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders
Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies can
Catch Up and Win. McGraw Hill.
Tuckman B, Jensen M (1977) Stages of small group development
revisited. Group and Organizational Studies 419427.

About the Authors

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant
at RiverRhee Consulting (http://www.riverrhee.com), a consultancy that helps business teams to enhance their effectiveness for greater productivity and improved team morale.
Elisabeth has 25 years experience in the Pharmaceutical
Industry where she has held line management and internal
training and consultancy roles supporting Information Management and other business teams on a global basis. Elisabeth
is accredited in Change Management and in Lean Sigma and
is a member of CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and

250
Information Professionals), and APM (Association for
Project Management).
Lucy Loh is the Owner and Principal Consultant at Lucy
Loh Consulting (www.lucyloh.com), a consultancy that
helps businesses and organizations develop their business
plans, and manage change in their organizations and teams
to be able to deliver those plans. She is also a RiverRhee
Consulting Associate. Lucy has 25 years experience in
BioPharma, where she has held management roles in strategy development and all aspects of performance

Business Information Review 28(4)

management, as well as extensive internal consulting. Lucy
has expertise and experience in organization development,
benefits management and in designing and leading business
change. She is a Master Practitioner of NeuroLinguistic
Programming (NLP), which enhances her work in change
management and individual coaching.
Both authors have extensive expertise in team effectiveness
and change management across a number of organizations,
in library and information management as well as other
disciplines.