PREFACE

Too many organizational change efforts result in frustrated leaders, disillusioned workers, and few, if any positive, lasting changes. Fast-changing environments leave organizations struggling to institutionalize new strategies and ways of working, some of which end up being no longer relevant by the time they are implemented. Skeptics complain about “flavor of the month” change efforts—and understandably so—as they continue to see new programs and initiatives launched to do what others have failed to deliver. At some level, leaders and workers alike have learned to live with these sub-optimal results as no better choices seem available. And yet, something needs to be done.

I believe the vast majority of these efforts fall short for a very simple reason—the key people who are interested in and affected by these changes are not included in planning and implementing them. By involvement, I mean engaging these people in deep and profound ways, not just inviting them to a mass meeting to hear someone else tell them how they are going to be doing business differently in the future. Yet engaging the hundreds or even thousands of people who comprise some organizations at this deep and profound level seems like a pipe-dream to most people.

So instead, small groups of well-intentioned—and sometimes even well-supported—people apply themselves with firm resolve to addressing the issues they and their organizations face. Unfortunately, although these same people may bring about remarkable changes in how they do business, they alone cannot shift the future course of the entire organization. In fact, the more progress these small bands of believers make, the worse off the total organization is in the long run. This is because their decisions and actions support their own cause instead of the aims of the larger enterprise. The results are generally the same regardless of whether these small groups are comprised of the top leadership team, a group of front line workers, participants in a pilot project, or even a representative cross-section of the total organization.

This book directly challenges basic assumptions, often unstated, which have long governed these most common approaches to organizational change. I argue in the first chapter that these fundamental assumptions are responsible for the most troublesome and frustrating issues people have to deal with in bringing about change in their organizations. For the past decade, my colleagues and I at Dannemiller Tyson Associates, our clients, and a growing community of like-minded pioneers the world over have been rewriting the story described above. Our efforts have influenced all kinds of organizations that have been challenged to change in a wide variety of ways. Real time strategic change, an approach that involves an entire organization in fundamental, far-reaching and fast-paced change, is the result of our combined explorations and innovations.

The foundation for this approach involves interactive large group meetings, which enable people across entire organizations to collaborate in crafting their collective future. Change happens faster because the total organization is involved in deciding which changes are needed. At the same time, the actions people take on a daily basis throughout an organization are aligned with an overall strategy that they themselves have helped to create. This approach fundamentally redesigns the way organizations change, and it is equally applicable in small organizations numbering as few as a dozen individuals or in large ones representing thousands of people.

My Purposes in Writing This Book

My purposes in writing this book seem lofty to me, yet are ones for which I have great passion. My first passion is to see organizations change the way they change; to redefine what is considered normal, so that a decade from now real time strategic change has become a common way of doing business for all organizations. Second, I have written this book to help organizations, the people who work in them, and those who are served by them to more effectively and efficiently bring about change. Whether your organization needs to achieve faster cycle times, cutting-edge innovation, total quality, entry into new markets, a more empowering and rewarding work environment, expanded or reduced core competencies, growth, product diversity, or any number of other outcomes, real time strategic change supports you in making these changes faster and better than you may currently imagine possible. My third and final purpose in writing this book is to clearly describe the real time strategic change technology and the overall change process in which it is embedded so that you can apply it in your own organization. I wrote this book as a practical, step-by-step roadmap through an entire real time strategic change process. It is complete with conceptual frameworks, tools and techniques, roles key actors need to play, criteria by which custom applications can be developed and the principle-based practices and processes which form the foundation of this approach. You’ll find within these pages a comprehensive description of a proven technology for achieving real time strategic change.

Who I Wrote This Book For and How It Can Be Used

In a broad sense, the audiences for this book are people who find “business as usual” approaches to organizational change too slow, ineffective, or otherwise less than satisfying in the results they deliver. Specifically then, this book is written for four kinds of people:

• Organization leaders and members who want and/or need to significantly accelerate the pace and effectiveness with which changes are implemented in their organizations;

• Both internal and external consultants responsible for supporting various change initiatives;

• Experts in the fields of organization strategy, culture, total quality management, work design, and re-engineering; and

• More broadly, for those whose focus is on social, political, economic, or community issues of change and development.

The book’s design lends itself to three different, yet complementary uses. The first of these is as an overview or broad-based survey course in this powerful approach to change. Using it this way, you should be able to identify whether real time strategic change makes sense for you and your organization. If after taking the survey course, you and others in your organization decide to pursue a path of real time strategic change, this book can also serve as a reference guide through each stage of your change effort. Finally, I hope that you will use this book as a basis for creating your own innovations and applications of real time strategic change.

Another word about the book’s design. You will be joined on your journey through these pages by a whole host of companions who have first-hand experience with real time strategic change efforts. They represent a wide variety of organizations, levels and roles. Their quotes, liberally spread throughout the book, and represented by oversized beginning quotation marks, provide a “behind the scenes” look at the realities, challenges and opportunities you will face by choosing this path. The wide range of levels and roles represented by these people is purposeful: whole system change efforts involve everyone in an organization and each individual’s perspective contributes to building a richer composite view of reality.

The first type of quote represents tips and advice, insights, and the personal experiences people have had regarding particular aspects of an entire real time strategic change process. Woven within the text, they provide a kind of color commentary on the topic discussed. I characterize the second type of quote as individual perspectives on the entire process. Presented between a number of chapters in the book, these individual perspectives offer opportunities to pause and reflect on what it would mean for you and others to apply the technology in your organization. The third and final type of quote appears in the form of case studies which you’ll find in Chapter 9. These stories are presented by key players in their own words, and take you inside five real time strategic change efforts. You will see how the technology was customized to meet unique needs and what results were achieved. Treat the case studies as conversation starters; a place for you and others to begin an inquiry into the potential that real time strategic change may hold for your organization.

How It’s Organized

The book is organized into three parts. Part I, Redesigning the Way Organizations Change, explains why organizations need a better way of changing (Chapter 1); what real time strategic change is and the powerful results organizations can expect to achieve by applying it (Chapter 2); and a question and answer section based on the most common initial inquiries people have about real time strategic change (Chapter 3).

Part II, Moving Further Into the Future, Faster, introduces the conceptual frameworks, principles, and processes underlying this approach to organizational change. This part of the book answers the questions, “What is the real time strategic change technology?” and “How and why does it work?” Chapters 4, 5, and 6 immerse you in an example three day real time strategic change event as a “virtual” participant. These three chapters combine the actual meeting process, individual perspectives and underlying theories into a multi-dimensional experience, which forms the basis for the remainder of the book. In Chapter 7 I discuss the key dimensions of the technology and the magic behind it. Chapter 8 concludes Part II by laying out a step-by-step roadmap through a real time strategic change process. Although each application of the technology is unique, this chapter provides a context for how it fits within the larger framework of an organization’s overall change effort.

Part III, Getting Started in Your Own Organization, shifts gears from providing general methods and models to customizing the technology to meet your organization’s particular needs. Chapter 9 is devoted to the five stories of real time strategic change described above, while Chapter 10 outlines a series of questions which you can use to explore how you might apply this unique and powerful approach. Chapter 11 takes you through a planning process for real time strategic change events, while key roles in the actual events are covered in Chapter 12. Finally, in Chapter 13 I offer a menu of ways in which organizations have institutionalized their real time strategic change efforts. It also includes examples of initiatives designed specifically to support the institutionalization of those new ways of doing business—both critical components in all real time strategic change efforts.

Part IV, Pushing the Boundaries of Real Time Strategic Change looks to the future. Chapter 14 sheds light on three paths that point the way toward realizing the full potential from this powerful approach. The first path is one of application, the second outlines the contributions of innovation, and the third speaks to the need for collaboration. Finally, the appendix provides a detailed day-by-day design for the example real time strategic change event described in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. Although real events are not as neat and tidy as this version might suggest, it offers you a backstage pass to the theater where these large group gatherings unfold.

A Closing Comment

In closing, I invite you to join me on a journey into an exciting world you may not have believed possible. A world that already exists in which entire organizations come together for a common cause; one in which fast-paced and far-reaching change is the norm; one in which your organization’s collective knowledge, skills, and creativity are brought to bear on creating your collective future; and one in which people’s hearts, minds, and spirits are engaged in productive and positive ways, both for themselves and their organizations. This is the world of real time strategic change. May the journey begin…