Adaptive Data Governance: The AT-EASE Change Management Approach - Data Governance: Creating Value from Information Assets - page 152

notion of productive zone of disequilibrium (PZD) in adaptive leadership
provides a useful lens to think about helping people be at ease. The PZD is
the zone where people experience a productive level of tension and can be
mobilized to engage the problem. If the level of tension is too low, people
are comfortable, but they may avoid tackling the difficult issues that the
adaptive change is seeking to address. If the disequilibrium is too high,
people may be overwhelmed and unwilling to engage.
The adaptive leadership lens implies that the level of at ease changes over
time. For many people, the initial focus of change management might be
on helping them cope with stresses and engage change in an adaptive
manner. It may take time for people to develop motivation through under-
standing the benefits as well as through developing the skills needed to
adapt to the change. Viewing change consistently through the at ease lens
and considering ideas, such as the PZD, can shape leaders' mental models
of change management and associated practices. As discussed in later sec-
tions, different models often implicitly incorporate different underlying
notions of at ease. Becoming aware of the underlying notions of at ease
can enhance change management practices for data governance.
The rest of this chapter is organized as follows. The next two sections
distinguish the AT-EASE model from other change management
approaches and discuss the elements of the AT-EASE model. This is fol-
lowed by a discussion of the use of systems thinking tools and practices as a
vehicle for adapting the AT-EASE model to different contexts. The chapter
concludes with a summary and implications for practice.
THE AT-EASE MODEL AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Recent change management approaches recognize that it takes time to
implement and sustain change. For example, Kotter's (1996) eight-step
model of change conveys the long-term nature of change in terms of
“not letting up” and “making it stick.” Kotter's model frames the long-term
nature of change in terms of driving the change deeper into the organiza-
tion through new projects and continued changes to structures, policies,
and processes, and sustaining change through anchoring it in organiza-
tional culture. Like many change management approaches, this model
emphasizes the organizational level of analysis and focuses on how a