The Role of Hearts & Minds in Organisational Change

Abstract

The aims of this paper are as follows: 1. To put Hearts & Minds on the map as a key approach to organisational change. 2. To explain the underlying mechanism of Hearts & Minds. 3. To show that Hearts & Minds can be equally successfully deployed for organisational change in the commercial sector. 4. To explain how Hearts & Minds achieves a higher level of permanence compared with other approaches. The paper traces the military origins of Hearts & Minds from the Malayan Emergency and the Borneo Campaign through to the final version in Operation Storm. The method centres around working within the values of the target audience, focusing on the needs of that audience and mimicking the military model. The results from the commercial adaptation are equally reliable as in the military model and permanence of the transformation is equally present. The key reasons why Hearts & Minds is effective and reliable is as follows: • In an inverted way, fixes problems that are important to the target audience, neither the Administrators nor C-suite • Addresses Needs & Wants of the target audience • Allows the target audience to participate • The target audience are given the skills by a Training Team who chaperone them throughout the task • The Training Team always work within the values of the target audience • Achieves a high level of permanence • Dignity is maintained at all times