The Technologies of Change
When working with organizational change issues it is important to understand that such change occurs at both the individual and the group level. If individuals begin to change, but the systems in which they are embedded do not change, the individual changes will often become limited or blocked. Many people have stories of taking part in company sponsored training programs where the approach they were taught in the training was not accepted by their own senior management.
On the other hand, if the organizational systems and structures are changed, but the individuals do not change, then one meets with a very different sort of blockage. Basically, nothing happens. Maybe the skills of the people are not up to the task. Or, they don’t agree with the new demands placed upon them. Or, there is a conflict between new company values and individual values and beliefs. This situation often manifests as a form of "civil disobedience".
In order to deal with interaction between individual and organizational dimensions of change it is necessary to work simultaneously with both individual and group change processes.
Individual change occurs most easily and effectively through the application of what we call human change technologies.
