Preface
Change is disturbing when it is done to us, exhilarating when it is done by us.
—Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Why We Wrote the Second Edition
In 1999, The Change Handbook provided a snapshot of a nascent field that broke barriers by engaging a “whole system” of people from organizations and communities in creating their own future. In the last seven years, the field has exploded. Robust, international communities of practice grew around many approaches. The pioneers influenced each other’s practices. Inspired by the potential, seasoned practitioners invented a wide variety of creative processes, and people from other fields more fully embraced these ideas and integrated them into their practices. Also, we uncovered practices of systemic engagement emerging through completely different disciplines from strategic planning and process improvement to street theatre and urban development.
Clearly, it was time to capture what was happening.
This second edition of The Change Handbook is a meeting of theory and best practices from a variety of disciplines. Over the past seven years, we have noticed growing influences among several of them:
People who use human methods such as World Café and Dialogue who are seeking a “harder,” results-oriented edge that will contribute to success; |
and |
people who use “harder” methods such as Six Sigma and Rapid Results who want to tap into human energy to fuel success. |
People in organizations who wish to bring some of the democratic practices of community engagement, such as Nonviolent Communication and Charrettes into the workplace; |
and |
people in communities who wish to bring the action-oriented successes of processes that inspire employees, such as Appreciative Inquiry and Scenario Planning, into civic engagement. |
Our research for this edition showed that organizations using methods typically thought of as “hard” or “soft” were most successful when they incorporated aspects of what their method was not. For example, when done well, Six Sigma is an engagement exercise as well as an application of powerful statistical tools that can vault an organization to dramatically higher levels of performance. Dialogue, when done well, spurs people to deploy new strategies, technical tools, and processes to achieve performance levels previously not imagined.
A remarkable convergence is under way as people who developed methods for public participation meet people working in organizational settings. They have discovered their common commitment to broad engagement—of citizens and employees. They are just beginning to learn what they have to offer each other.
Whether your situation, calls for “hard” or “soft” practices, organizational or community applications, we believe you’ll find something that serves your needs.
The core purpose of the book has remained constant:
Supporting people committed to changing whole systems—organizations and communities—in making wise choices for their work and for their lives.
We also remain committed to providing a practical resource. Given that aim, we began by connecting with our diverse audience—the managers, internal and external consultants, academics, community activists, and students who use the book. They told us:
• Interest in whole system change continues to grow
• Keep the current format
• Address four requests:
• Include more methods—bring the rigor of The Change Handbook’s standard format to other processes
• Include more information on outcomes and measurable results
• Include more contemporary stories and examples
• Tell us about mixing and matching methods
What’s Different?
The new edition contains:
• More than Sixty Methods
Up from 18 in the first edition, this book contains 61 processes. Nineteen are highlighted with “in-depth” chapters and 42 others have “thumbnails” to whet your appetite. Some practices are well established; others are quite new. All are approaches that we believe further the theory and/or practice of whole system change.
Most of the in-depth chapters were chosen because they are well-established practices with sizable, international communities of practice: Appreciative Inquiry, Dialogue and Deliberation, Open Space Technology, Technology of Participation, World Café, Future Search, Scenario Thinking, Rapid Results, and Six Sigma. We believe that no book on high-participation, systemwide change would be complete without the pioneering work of Whole-Scale Change and foundational methods based in Open Systems Theory: Search Conference and the Participative Design Workshop. While most of these approaches have their roots in organization development, we widened our reach to include methods of engaging people from other disciplines. Charrettes originated in the world of architecture and urban planning and Playback Theatre has its roots in the performing arts. We’ve also included in-depth chapters on two of the most frequently used supporting practices for change: Online Environments and Visual Recording and Graphic Facilitation. Finally, we’ve added a bit of spice by offering three “young” methods that we believe are exciting contributions to the field: Collaborative Loops, a design-it-yourself practice; Community Weaving, a highly original approach to change that started life in communities; and Integrated Clarity, an exciting application that integrates Nonviolent Communication into work with organizations and communities.
The thumbnail chapters are brief overviews that showcase the range of applications available. Some of the processes are longtime practices; others are new, just finding their “legs,” but bringing something original. A few are innovative hybrids of well-established methods that we believe contribute something original. There are creative adaptations of “foundational” practices. For example, Scenario Planning inspired Large Group Scenario Planning. Appreciative Inquiry is the root of SOAR and the Appreciative Inquiry Summit. Our intent is that the thumbnails provide enough information for you to see what might fit your situation, and visit online to learn more.
• A Guide to Selection
With more than 60 methods, we would be remiss not to provide a road map! Our contributing authors have helped us create a “Summary Matrix” of some useful characteristics to help you find your way among the choices.
• A New Chapter on Preparing to Mix and Match Methods
We spoke with a number of seasoned practitioners about how they approach their work. Combined with our own knowledge, we offer you some insights into this emerging discipline.
• A New Chapter on Outcomes, Sustainability and Measurement
We’ve woven thoughts from our contributing authors with our own experiences to reflect on this important but challenging and elusive subject.
• Completely Revised Chapters Speculating about the Future
As practitioners gain experience and influence each other, how do the practices evolve? These processes introduce increasingly democratic practices into organizations. They provide new highly interactive models of community engagement influencing what it means to be a citizen. How are they changing the way humans organize themselves? We offer three views on the future of the field and what this field means to our future.
We were stunned as we realized how much this field of whole system change has matured in the last seven years! We believe the breadth and depth of the new material is a testimony to the inherent potential in engaging collectives in cocreating their future.
What Is the Book About?
This book is about effective change. It describes methods for changing “whole systems,” that is, change based on two powerful foundation assumptions: high involvement and a systemic approach to improvement. High involvement means engaging the people in changing their own system. It is systemic because there is a conscious choice to include the people, functions, and ideas that can affect or be affected by the work. Whole system change methods help you initiate high-leverage, sustainable improvements in organizations or communities. “High-leverage” is emphasized because in any improvement effort, we want the highest possible value for the effort invested. We believe that involving people in a systematic way is a key to high leverage and that the methods in this book can provide this leverage for you. You’ll need to determine the one(s) best suited to moving your organization or community to the culture you want. We wrote this book to support your efforts.
The book is intended to answer questions such as:
• What methods are available that have proven successful in addressing today’s needs for organizational or community change?
• What are the key distinctions among these methods?
• How do I know if a method would be a good fit for my organization or community?
• How do I get started after I select one or more methods?
To make a good choice, you’ll need some basic information. Rather than provide details of how to do each method, we give you an overview of what’s available and some tools to help focus your exploration. If you’d like more in-depth information, we’ve provided convenient references and a Web site—www.thechangehandbook.com—for learning more.
Intended Audience
This book is for anyone who needs a change that involves people. In particular, we intend it for lifelong students of effective, sustainable change. It is a guide that is useful to readers irrespective of their current functional discipline, community or organizational position, age, country of origin, or educational background. The principles and approaches covered have wide applicability around the world in organizational and community settings for a variety of human conditions. If you are interested in change that involves people, you’ll likely find some of the methods and principles in this book extremely useful. For example, these practices are for anyone who wants people in organizations or communities to:
• Commit to a shared vision of the future
• Operate from the “big picture”
• Make change happen
• Seek responsibility and take initiative
• Use their creative powers to their fullest potential.
This book is written for people in organizations and communities who are seeking dramatic, sustainable change. It supports people focused on achieving better results, higher quality of life, improved relationships, and increased capacity for succeeding in turbulent times. It is intended for leaders who want to create workplaces and communities that foster high commitment through participation.
Among the audience are … |
Who are … |
Middle managers and project managers |
Searching for proven methods to accomplish the daunting task of successful, sustainable change |
Community leaders and activists |
Seeking effective approaches to sustainable development and citizen involvement |
Senior managers |
Meeting an overall responsibility for significant organizational performance |
Internal organization development consultants |
Seeking proven methods for systemic, large-scale change |
Internal Total Quality consultants |
Searching for meaningful, reliable ways to involve the organization in continuous improvement |
Internal business reengineering groups |
Enhancing process redesign efforts with ‘‘the people side of change’’ to increase individual motivation, commitment, and performance |
Project leaders of large information systems projects |
Seeking ways to make the new technology more effective and the people more productive by engaging them in the change process |
Process owners for reengineered processes |
Seeking methods to enhance process performance |
External consultants |
Assisting clients with high-leverage methods that dramatically improve organizational performance and community development efforts |
Students of change |
Learning the range of possibilities for making a difference in organizations and communities |
Table 1. Examples of the Intended Audience
We know that interest in high-participation change is growing, with a diverse audience, as shown in table 1.
Finding and Including Today’s Best Methods
We sent out a call for proposals, attracting over 100 methods for our review. We used ten criteria for inclusion. The first eight came from our review of successful, sustained change efforts. Each selected method:
• Involves people in a meaningful way, improving individual and collective awareness and connectedness,
• Enables people to discover and create shared assumptions about their work processes and ways of working together; fostering the emergence of collective thought and action,
• Has been practiced for at least five years to establish a track record,
• Is a systemic approach to change,
• Achieves dramatic and lasting results with a moderate amount of people’s time and other resources,
• Provides support from multiple sources (e.g., books, articles, Web sites, practitioner networks, user conferences, user groups/communities, training programs and materials, etc.),
• Has been applied in a variety of environments, cultures, and industries, and
• Is grounded in solid theory, and makes strong theoretical and practical contributions to the field of change.
In addition, when considered in totality, the collection of methods:
• Approaches change from a variety of disciplines (e.g., systems thinking/dynamics, quality improvement, organization development, creativity), and
• Reflects international and gender diversity.
While many methods are rooted in organization development, others bring rich traditions from community development, total quality, social science, system dynamics, public participation, the wisdom of indigenous cultures and studies of intelligence, creativity, and the arts. Practitioners from these different disciplines independently embodied the eight criteria in their approaches. The implications for changing organizations and communities are profound, as these practices from different fields have influenced each other and contributed to a rich and growing practice field.
Numerous methods met our criteria. To make the hard choices among them, two factors played a major role: Was there a vibrant community of practice growing around the approach? Was there an underlying generosity of spirit, a willingness to share?
We felt that a multifaceted support base—books, Web sites, formal or informal practitioner associations, training as well as consulting practices—indicated generous access to critical knowledge and support. In a few cases, though proprietary, if we felt the work contributed something important to the theory and practice of the field and there were at least some tools for self-study, we included it. We also included a handful of processes with less than five years of history because of their promise. There were many hard calls! We hope these selections serve you well.
How to Use This Book
This book is designed for quick and easy access to information. It is a tool—a hands-on reference guide that answers questions about high-leverage change. We encourage you to skip around in the book—orient yourself to whole system change through reading the opening chapters, look at the quick summaries (one page for each method), browse through the references that follow each chapter, or simply read about the methods that interest you most. The book is organized into five parts.
PART I: NAVIGATING THROUGH THE METHODS
This section provides a framework for selecting and working with change methods. The first chapter is a “big picture,” offering a taxonomy for thinking about the methods. It contains a “Summary Matrix” that is an overview of some characteristics helpful in making choices among the methods. Chapter 2 guides you through what to consider when choosing among processes and selecting a consultant. Chapter 3 contains insights into preparing to mix and match methods. The fourth chapter reflects on outcomes, sustainability, and measurement.
PART II: THE METHODS
The methods are arranged into five subsections by their basic purpose—adaptable, planning, structuring, improving, and supportive. Within their section, the processes are organized alphabetically in two groups—in-depth descriptions and thumbnails. We offer some questions to consider when determining how each method might work for your organization or community.
Every chapter contains:
A Story of Its Use
• Could we envision this scenario unfolding in our environment?
• What would make it happen?
The Basics: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
• Would the outcomes described be useful to us?
• How would using this method benefit us? Can we articulate a clear case?
• How would we describe our situation?
• What can we learn from the situations described here—even ones that are different from our own?
About the Author(s)
• How do we think the authors’ backgrounds might have influenced their work?
• What does that tell us that might be useful for our situation?
Where to Go for More Information
• How might these resources (books, organizations, Web sites, etc.) help us?
• How can we learn more about this process—by ourselves or with others?
The in-depth chapters also contain information on:
Getting Started
• How can we apply the author’s advice for starting in our environment?
• Do the guiding principles make sense for what we are trying to accomplish?
Roles, Responsibilities, and Relationships
• Are the sponsors ready to assume their responsibilities?
• Do we have skilled facilitators available? Where might we find them, and how much would they cost?
• How effective are outside facilitators in our culture?
Conditions for Success
• Are the conditions for success present in our environment?
• If not, how might they be created? Is it worth the effort?
Theory Base
• How does the theory fit our culture?
• Could we explain whatever is needed to proceed?
Sustaining the Results
• How successful is our culture in sustaining change? What would improve the odds?
• What sort of leadership and associated leadership development are required to sustain the results?
• What are our burning questions?
• What do our burning questions tell us about ourselves?
• What questions can we ask that will make an even bigger difference?
Some Closing Reflections
• Let’s step back and think about what we’ve read. What’s our reaction to it?
• If several methods seem like they fit, what criteria would help us choose?
While the contributors may use different words to describe these sections, you’ll know where you are by looking at their accompanying icons (above).
PART III: THOUGHTS ABOUT THE FUTURE FROM THE LEAD AUTHORS
We’ve gained a lot of insight over the last seven years from our own work and from spending time with the pioneers. We offer you some speculations about the future.
PART IV: QUICK SUMMARIES
We designed a reference tool that provides a snapshot of each method, answering frequently asked questions including: an image of the process, purpose, outcomes, a brief example, when to use, when not to use, number and types of participants, typical duration, and historical context of the work. We’ve also provided a link to more information. There’s a page for each method, in alphabetical order.
PART V: REFERENCES SUGGESTED BY MULTIPLE CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Although each method chapter has a section on where to go for more information, we thought you would be interested in knowing which references were identified as valuable by multiple contributors. They are gathered together in this section. In addition, check out www.thechangehandbook.com to learn more about methods, selection, and to join a community of practice for all who do whole system change work.
WWW.THECHANGEHANDBOOK.COM
It is inevitable in a nascent and growing field that the moment a selection is made, something with significant potential emerges. As this book entered its final stages of editing, a powerful process with a growing community of practice came to our awareness: the “U” Theory, developed by Otto Scharmer. While it was too late to add a chapter, it became a perfect case for establishing the means for continuing to highlight the best work emerging in the field. We invite you to visit www.thechangehandbook.com to see a chapter on the “U” Theory. We expect as time passes that other promising practices will also make their way onto the site.
About the Contributors
The 95 contributing authors have helped businesses, governments, nonprofits, communities, and associations around the world achieve their goals. They have joined us in creating a rich collection of writings on whole system change. Their biographies appear in their respective chapters.
Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady are practitioners of several of these change methods. They bring in-the-trenches experience and consulting advice to some of America’s best-known companies and communities. Peggy conceived the book’s design and kept the practitioner in mind throughout its development. Tom contributed a strong theory base and senior management perspective from his years in industry and consulting. Steve Cady, new to this edition, brought his scholar practitioner perspective to the mix.
Our hope is that the pages of this book will be dog-eared because it is so easy to use and answers your most important questions on change! We hope it speeds you on your way to creating the organizations and communities in which you really want to work and live.
Peggy Holman,
Tom Devane,
and Steven Cady
January 2007