Some years ago I had a very bright Australian colleague, Sally, helping with a transformational program. During that effort she accomplished all that I could have asked, and more, and in the process educated me a bit about the notion of beginnings, middles and ends.
This paper in no way captures what she taught me at the time but I remain struck by the notional idea that many organizational programs suffer from failing to recognize that the nature of the transformational program and therefore the tools and techniques used, must in themselves “transform” throughout the course of the program.
The beginnings, middles and ends of an organizational transformation program strike me today as involving three distinct phases:
• Defining the imperative
• Unlocking the current paradigm
• Re-forming to achieve desired outcomes