Most of us have been involved in activities designed to bring change and strategic planning into our organizations. We've been to training courses, to numerous meetings, and sometimes taken time off for strategic planning retreats. We talked a lot, made some plans, went back to work. We felt that it was a waste of our time. It can be different.
Meaningful change can happen in organizations.
The change involves the entire organization, meeting and working together in one place, at the same time. Learning is no longer just for the individual or unit, but also applies to the entire organization. Responsibility and accountability moves from senior management to a mixture of senior management plus the whole system. The change process moves from incremental change to fundamental, organization-wide change. Dissatisfaction is allowed and encouraged to emerge, to develop a common database of information and an open sharing of ideas.