Organisations are complex...

Organisations are complex social systems and that change is nothing which can be managed in a linear way. The need for change has never been bigger but change management as a discipline has never been more challenged.

What we change practitioners usually do is that we select one or a couple of the manyfold change models that we take as a foundation for our consulting work. It might be based on the work of Kotter, or Senge, or Scharmer, or Cooperrider but eventually we all make choices on how to approach our task. Then, when it comes to implementation, we open our toolbox.

The tricky thing is that the choice of the change models, and the toolbox, has an influence on how we build our assumptions about the organizational change issue. We see what we want to see, and we cannot be bias free. If 60-80% of all change projects fail - could that be one of the reasons?

Dr Helmut Volkmann and his colleague Vesa Purokuru have been thinking of how to build a meta model that helps organisations to construct their own change model and select freely the tools that go along. The result of their quest is the Change Journey (http://www.changejourney.org) , and the tool for designing the specific change model is the Change Journey Map.

The Journey Map is the tool for facilitating a team dialogue on how to create a design for the Change Journey, unique for each organisation. The Map which is based on laws of complexity has 23+ places which symbolize different aspects of change that teams and organisations might need to consider during their journey. For example, some organisations might believe that they have to focus on creating sustainable actions first. Others might want to start with creating trust in teams. Others, in turn, might want to revisit their goal of the change. Only people involved in the change process can answer the question "Where to go next?". This simple question reveals the start of the journey. Once the first steps are defined, change leaders can bring in all their tools to master the specific part of the journey. The Change Journey is neutral when it comes to application of other change methodologies and frameworks. The Map which can be reproduced in different sizes according to your needs comes along with a set of cards which offer questions for deeper exploration of the places.

Read more about the Change Journey at http://www.changejourney.org, or watch their slideshow at http://www.slideshare.net/hnauheimer/change-journey-background-and-intro.