The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance, Second Edition

Reactive Versus Fundamental Change

The noun change is defined as the process or result of making or becoming different. For example, making your facial expression different is a change. But “different” is not the same as “an improvement.” Developing a change that is an improvement from the viewpoint of the customer is not always easy. It invariably requires that a fundamental alteration or modification be made to the system of interest. The change need not be expensive or time-consuming; it just needs to involve design or redesign of the process, product, or service.

There is an important connection between appreciation of a system and ideas for change. In developing changes, it is useful to distinguish between changes that are needed to ...