Idealized Design: Creating an Organization’s Future

Chapter 1. The Stages of Idealized Design

	“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
	--Yogi Berra

In the Introduction, we saw how the startling declaration by the head of Bell Labs that “the telephone system of the United States was destroyed last night” liberated the creative thinking of an enormous corporation and allowed it to reinvent itself. Of course, the declaration was not true. However, the idea that planning should begin with the assumption that nothing now exists clears the mind to think creatively about the best possible outcome rather than be distracted by finding reasons that “it can’t be done.”

In this chapter, we look at the stages in idealized design because success requires a systematic approach to the process. ...