Debbie Broome wrote in LO12470...
> What struck me about this post was the sentence "for that reason I act
> 'hidden' with quite goood success." I was discussing my frustrations with
> my attempts to bring about change in my organization with a good friend
> and former colleague. His advice was to seek to change in small increments
> and only with those willing to go with. He also suggested that bold
> pronoucements (the kind my current organizational culture is prone to),
> never work and in fact scare people. It immediately puts everyone on the
> defensive and nothing really changes because of human nature to resist.
> The organization I previously worked for accomplished change through
> small, quiet steps, but when you looked back at the accomplishment, a lot
> of ground got covered. To me this means that being 'hidden' is very
> effective.
What is also important to know in your organization are the 'influencers'
-- who are the key people in the diffusion of ideas/innovations/change?
By leveraging those individuals[get them on your side!], your increments
may be quite far reaching. If these opinion/idea leaders are 'against'
you[or not 'for you'], then you might as well stop now before you become
totally disillusioned with your lack of progress.
IMHO, the reason many 'bold pronouncements' don't work is that they are
official/formal/prescribed -- and that usually means 'coming from the
outside'. Change seems to work better coming from 'within' the
system[with those "willing to go with"]. That is why it is important to
work with the opinion/idea leaders who are revered _within_ system.
Valdis Krebs
Krebs & Associates
inflow@concentric.net
http://www.netcom.com/~valdisk
--Valdis Krebs <inflow@concentric.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>