Big Change

"Executive teams that understand the market and industry fracture lines that are driving change are not shackled by beliefs about the way things must be, nor by a fear of what is different."

"The organization itself may be temporary. Venture capital is brought to a professional entrepreneur's idea, before pulling together the requisite processes via the web of networks and servicing a tightly defined market need for a year or two."

"Transformation is comprehensive in that it involves the whole organization and requires an integrated set of solutions."

"Organizations that have achieved systemic innovation seem somehow capable of creating within themselves the conditions of pressure, necessity or adversity that would normally be external."

"Probably one of the greatest hurdles a company faces when it attempts to transform is a pervasive sense of learned helplessness."

"In crisis-driven transformation, big change starts by diktat, not by consensus."

"Agents of transformation frequently face criticism and resistance, bewilderment and skepticism."

"It is not enough to strive just for the new; executives must inflict 'constructive damage to the status quo'"

"Escalated to optimal intensity, conflict produces many social-psychological and organizational benefits."

"Values must be built on the reality of organizational success, not on its promise."

"It would be helpful if a greater number of managers were skilled in the purposeful induction and escalation of conflict."

"Awakening must start when the organization is still strong."

"The watershed is the kick in the pants, the personal jolt to executives, and it cannot be these things unless it has dramatic and symbolic power, acting at both the intellectual and the emotional level."

"The trouble with efforts to awaken the organization is that the messages of big change are totally unconnected from the everyday, short-term nitty-gritty of organizational life."

"Inconsistency between executive behavior and word is the fastest way to destroy purpose."

"Cull projects not on the critical path: anything on the periphery, no matter how important the history of the project, will simply use up the available transformation firepower."

"Project proliferation acts as a palliative to stressed-out executives because the sense of action and general busyness in the firm makes them feel progress is being made."

"Agree on the primary corporate capabilities that will be required in the future organization?then measure the organization as it currently stands against those capabilities. "