PAIA Section 51 Manual

---  It is vital to consider the need to create change as well as manage it...

(in Human Performance Improvement)

Human performance improvement professionals are often called upon to assist in change management. However, it is vital to also consider the need to create change as well as the need to manage it.

In order to survive, every organization must react to change thrust upon it. As reactive responses to change are operating, change creation is a proactive way to improve organizational success.

Change creation is the process whereby an organization and its people:

§       welcome, create, and accept change as an essential component to achieve future success

§      describe, in measurable terms, the future they want to define, design, and deliver

§      develop and implement a comprehensive transition plan to create the designed future and continuously improve it.

Change creation, while including change management, moves beyond it while dignifying its importance. Together, change management and change creation provide powerful proactive and reactive approaches to successful performance improvement.

So, what should the approach be for performance improvement specialists for dealing with tomorrow? Peter Drucker advises that if you can't predict the future, create it. This is the essence of both change creation and Mega planning, which is planning that starts by asking "What kind of world do we want to help create for tomorrow's child (using our organization as a vehicle)?" 

As performance improvement professionals, we had best be both reactive to unexpected change as well as becoming proactive in our planning and doing, as suggested in the table below. 

Adapted from an article by Roger Kaufman and Dale Lick in Performance in Practice - an ASTD Newsletter: Winter 2000-2001; pp 8-9

For more information:

Managing at the Speed of Change by Daryl Conner, published in 1993 by Villard;

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practices and Principles by Peter Drucker, published in 1985 by Harper & Row; and Mega Planning by Roger Kaufman, published in 2000 by Sage.  Also available is Strategic Thinking: A Guide to Identifying and Solving Problems (revised) by Roger Kaufman, jointly published in 1998 by ASTD and the International Society for Performance Improvement.

Roger Kaufman is a professor and director, Office for Needs Assessment and Planning at Florida State University, as well as a research professor of engineering management at Old Dominion University. He is also a principal with Roger Kaufman & Associates. He can be reached by email at rkaufman@cnap.fsu.edu .   Dale Lick is a professor at Florida State University and the past president of Florida State University, University of Maine, and Georgia Southern University. He can be reached by email at dlick@lsi.fsu.edu

Contact Information:  Telephone: +27(0)124305128     Fax: +27(0)866162088     Cell: +27(0)828233280      e-mail: q3@quantum3.co.za

Contact Information:  Telephone: +27(0)124305128     Fax: +27(0)866162088     Cell: +27(0)828233280      e-mail: q3@quantum3.co.za