Why Change Programs Reproduce What They Were Designed to Replace

Executive Field Note 020

Organizations usually attempt change using the capabilities that already exist.

The same decision structures.

The same relationships.

The same assumptions.

The same ways of measuring progress.

Then everyone wonders why the new organization begins resembling the old one.

A system cannot easily transform what it cannot recognize in itself.

Sometimes the method of change is carrying the old organization forward.

What if the way you are changing is preserving the very thing you intend to change?

Published by Executive Insights. A publication of Axiom Research Press