Can Two Rights Make a Wrong?: Insights from IBM's Tangible Culture Approach

“This is the book for people who never get past page two of a management book—it is as close as the genre comes to being a compulsive page turner. Its main thesis is built on at least three big ideas that are individually persuasive and cumulatively compelling. They naturally fit into an alignment tool that is applied to the range of day-to-day and exceptional challenges all enterprises face, including the Holy Grail of transformational change.”

—Donald Macrae, general counsel and chief knowledge officer, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, England

“Having been in the business of cultural transformation and alignment for many years, I’ve carefully looked for a thoughtful strategy and an intentional approach to bringing about healthy and thriving cultures. Can Two Rights Make a Wrong? is simply the best—it is the most thoughtful and practical work I’ve seen in this growing and critical area. This is a must buy!”

—Dr. Ron Jenson, Future Achievement International, international author, speaker, and consulting and executive coach

“Can Two Rights Make a Wrong? is a superb account of how to manage the ‘soft side’ of mergers and acquisitions, but it has great value for managing many other new business practices as well, such as Open Innovation. It provides a powerful, practical method to identify conflicts, develop alignment, and achieve effective coordination between two parties that would be tremendously helpful in a variety of collaborative contexts, such as alliances, research partnerships, or joint ventures. Moulton Reger and her colleagues at IBM should be congratulated for a thoughtful, insightful book.”

—Henry Chesbrough, professor at University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, author of Open Innovation

“Numbers are neat and clean. Human beings are often messy and complex. If everyone in your organization knew what to do and when, how, where, and—most importantly—why to do it, how would your organizational culture be defined? The authors of Can Two Rights Make a Wrong? have introduced new ways to proactively address culture and, most importantly, tie it to bottom-line benefits.”

—James H. Amos, Jr., chairman emeritus, MBE/The UPS Store “This book is a must read for leaders hoping to change their organization’s culture as well as those attempting to merge firms with uniquely different cultures. Moulton Reger’s insights are grounded in theory and real-world experience. In this unique book, culture change is a complex concept broken down into bite-sized pieces and presented in a way that any leadership team can embrace at its own pace.”

—Merrill J. Oster, author of Vision Driven Leadership, founder Oster Communications, Inc.

“Here at last is a business book that takes culture seriously and isn’t intimidated by it. The method described can be used with practically any type of business problem in any industry, and the book does an excellent job of drawing on research and theory while keeping the focus practical. The three elements of Outcome Narratives, Right vs. Right, and Business Practices are significant ideas in their own right—each is a unique insight. All three ideas have been around in various guises for several years, but have not been as well crystallized or as focused on complex business problems as they are in this book. The authors’ achievement is extraordinary and goes a long way toward making the juicy idea of culture something to be built on and worked with.”

—Peter Vaill,

Sara J. Moulton Reger began the journey of writing this book as the practice executive responsible for IBM Organization Design and Change Management consulting. In 2002, she helped to lead integration of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting acquisition, and later joined IBM Services Research to hone the integration experiences.

Sara has been a management consultant since 1988, specializing in business transformation, organizational change, culture transformation, and governance at IBM and other leading consulting firms. She has published on a variety of topics, including business culture, business complexity, governance, On Demand Business, e-business, communications, project risk management, change management, quality, and financial management. You may contact her at www.tangibleculture.com.

This book includes important contributions from members of IBM Business Consulting Services, IBM Research, and the Institute for Business Value.