Top-down isn't the best approach to change

It Starts With One
Changing Individuals Changes Organizations, by J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen
Pearson Education Inc. 2008 192 pp.

According to J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen in "It Starts With One," the key to successful organizational change does not start with the introduction of large, companywide initiatives or top-down policy revisions, but somewhere much smaller. Successful change starts with the individual.

Organizational change is difficult, expensive, and, increasingly, the way of the business world. In the global marketplace, the pace of radical adjustments due to shifting markets, cultures, supplies, and technologies is gathering speed. The typical business response is to look for advice in an "organization in" fashion, where the company as a whole dictates new standards from the top down. Unfortunately, say Black and Gregersen, in spite of many companies' best efforts, more than 50 percent of all change initiatives fail. To address this issue, "It Starts With One" begins with the opposite, presenting valuable change-ready advice from the perspective of the "individual out," and asserting that lasting success lies in changing people first.

Unfortunately, humans are averse to change. Every person creates "mental maps" that guide their actions. Once a "map" is shown to work, the person will travel that procedural route again and again, expecting the same favorable result each time. Redrawing the path is difficult, scary, and replete with barriers. The key is breaking down - and breaking through - these obstacles.

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