Deming and Senge Comparison LO9600

Keith Cowan (72212.51@CompuServe.COM)
29 Aug 96 18:33:16 EDT

Replying to LO9468 --

Michael McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk> relates his experience
taking over as CEO from the founder:
Quoting me:
>>.. How can they do (change the culture)that if they are part of
>>and perhaps even created the culture?

>How could they do it if they WEREN'T part of the culture?
>snip>
>The owner, in my first review meeting said, "If you want to have an
>impact here, you have to begin where you are. That is, you have to
>be responsible for the past as if it was your own and you'd created
>it." He was telling me that I had to get completely "inside" the
>organisation and really have it expressed in and through me or that
>it would reject me and my influence would be minor.

Thanks, you are illustrating the point which I was making that the
founding CEO would have had difficulty changing the culture which he
created. You also reiterated a point we discussed before that the
effectiveness of any lasting change is because it comes from within
and is compatible with the current culture, even if the catalyst comes
from an external force. In fact, the movement from the current state
is another of my hot buttons:

A thorough assessment of the current state is critical so that there
can be a meaningful gap analysis when designing the change actions.
Please see my paper on root causes:
http://OurWorld.CompuServe.Com/HomePages/YTI/rootcaus.htm
which presents numerous examples.

So often, change programs are aimed at achieving some vision or new
mission without an honest assessment of the current state of the
organization. Your example is an excellent reinforcement of this
principle....Keith

-- 

Keith Cowan <72212.51@CompuServe.COM>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>