There are many good books on change management and a number of excellent on-line change management products, and they are not mutually exclusive.
As a regular site visitor or subscriber you will have noticed that I frequently recommend books and articles, and in my view the best way to develop a healthy and balanced perspective on this complex subject is to buy and read as many books and articles as possible.
John Kotter and William Bridges remain my "hard core" favourites, closely followed by Daryl Connor, Jon Katzenbach, Rick Maurer and a particular favourite is Bob Lewis's "Bare Bones Change Management: What you shouldn't not do".
- Granularity
How much low-level detail do you want and need? Do you need extensive detailed and prescriptive checklists?
If this is what you want, then Change First, Prosci and Change Guides are very strong on this and I recommend their materials to you.
Practitioners Masterclass materials are "mid-range" on granularity i.e. not project/task level checklists but more than enough to show you what to do but with greater emphasis on helping you develop a deep holistic understanding and showing you how to think it through.
- Instructive->Prescriptive->Educative
Where products sit on this spectrum tends to be closely related to where they sit on the "Project->Process->People" spectrum (see below).
Thus the more project and process focused - the more instructive and prescriptive.
Most of the featured products tend to be to the left of this spectrum with greater emphasis on instruction i.e. project/task level based with checklists.
My focus in the Practitioners Masterclass materials is more to the right of this spectrum, i.e. more educative.
Change First is also very people centric and seems to me to offer an educative approach.
With my Practitioners Masterclass materials I believe that if I can educate, stimulate and provoke you into understanding and thinking through the multi-dimensions of leading and managing change then you will need less granularity and less detailed instruction.
- Project->Process->People
Change First and my Practitioners Masterclass materials are people centered and, in my view this is a clear differentiator as the other products are very project focused.
This is not a good or bad thing - it just depends on your philosophy of change leadership and management!
- Sophistication of delivery
All products are delivered in e-book format, however Prosci, Change First and Change Guides offer an additional combination of physical product i.e. CD and hardcopy and also offer varying degress of online interactivity. This is undoubtedly an attractive feature and it is reflected in the product pricing.
In my view, a clear differentiator with my own Practitioners Masterclass materials is that they come as a development of, and in the context of, the whole body of work that comprises all of the extensive and free resources of this website and associated email materials.
- Inclusive -> Exclusive Focus
Rather like most (all?) world religions, most of these products tend to be "self-referential" and exclusive in focus. By that I mean that they tend to develop and propogate their own exclusive proprietary methodologies.
To some extent this is commercially inevitable as we all want to create our unique products and to create our own intellectual assets.
However, in my view, no individual or company has the monopoly of insight and understanding on this complex subject.
I believe that a major differentiator here is that Practitioners Masterclass materials are deeply inclusive in focus.
Whilst about 40% of the Practitioners Masterclass is my own created original material, the balance incorporates the best (in my view) of a big cross-section of current thinking.
This is presented with my interpretation and commentary and integrated with my own original material as part of a holistic perspective.
