Informal Coalitions

This book places everyday talk and role-modelling interactions at the forefront of an alternative change-leadership agenda, and introduces a number of practical approaches to help line managers and organizational specialists deliver this agenda more successfully. It is essential reading for organizational practitioners at all levels.

'Bring together vast experience in managing organizational change, intelligent and critical reflection on how it works, thorough engagement with some exciting new perspectives on organizations, and a belief in the centrality of everyday conversation in organizations, and you will see why I'm excited by Chris Rodgers' s new book.' - David Sims,, Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Associate Dean and Director, Centre for Leadership, Learning and Change, Cass Business School

'Chris Rodgers has that rare quality, a deep and sympathetic understanding of human and organisational behaviour combined with an engineer's analytical nature. His personal insights from rapidly changing organisations have combined with these qualities to produce a book that I would recommend to any leader.' - Andy Duff, Group Chief Executive RWEnpower.

'This book puts structure around what I have been doing intuitively for the past 25 years. It legitimises the informal, conversational style that has served me so well throughout my career. Most importantly, it offers much needed insights into the mystery of why this seemingly disorganised way of managing can have such a powerful impact on organisational change and performance.' - Lord Tunnicliffe, CBE, Chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, past Managing Director of London Underground and Chairman of UK Atomic Energy Authority.

'High performance leadership requires a healthy mix of vision, challenge and support.Chris Rodgers's book offers an exciting new vision of organisational dynamics that highlights the powerful role played by everyday conversations in making change happen. It challenges many of the taken-for-granted assumptions about the leadership of change, and provides practical support in the form of a number of clear frameworks that our consultants and clients have found extremely useful.' - Adrian Moorhouse, MBE, Olympic Gold Medallist and Managing Director of Lane4 Management Group.

'Chris Rodgers's ideas provide for a much richer understanding of why and how change really happens, and more importantly how it can best be managed. I would strongly advocate all managers, not just those with Change in their job titles, to invest in understanding these ideas if they want to give themselves a much better chance of landing long term, sustainable improvements in their businesses.' - Guy Eccles, Board Director of Human Resources, Screwfix Direct, and former HR Director, B&Q

'I found this book very readable. It has the rare merit of being theoretically robust and of great practical value. I would recommend it to all managers whose experience tells them that much of the conventional wisdoms of management do not resonate with their lived reality, but have yet to find a writer who can articulate an alternative perspective, offering practical help which is accessible without being simplistic.' - Bill Critchley, Organisation Consultant and Director of the AshridgeMasters in Organisation Consulting.

'Informal coalitions will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners involved in understanding why change does, or does not, happen in organizations...In sum Informal coalitions is worth reading for insights into how organizational change can be encouraged.' - Undala Alam, International Affairs

'This is a really sensible guide for anyone interested in organisational development...I would recommend it highly to anyone looking to better understand the dynamics of organisational interaction...' - Terry Gibson, Organization and People

CHRIS RODGERS works as an independent consultant and business coach, primarily in the areas of leadership performance, change management and organizational dynamics. He was previously a senior manager in the UK power industry with National Power, during the period of its groundbreaking privatization and commercial transformation. As a consultant, he has worked with a range of organizations in the private- and public sectors, both independently and in association with performance development consultancy Lane4. These include RWE npower, B&Q, UKAEA, Currys, Coca Cola Enterprises and the Cabinet Office. He holds an MSc in managing change and is a member of the Complexity Society.