A New Accord

A positive change valence enables the transition from push change (planned change) to pull change (learning) and pull to push change. As described in chapter 7, these two types of change are compatible if seen, understood, and managed properly. The conditions that promote this balance are the developmental focus on employees, units, organizations, and enterprises in what we described as the capability for seeking growth. An essential need is increasing the demand for products and services before improvement initiatives yield positive benefits. These results include more capable, aware, and dedicated people at the individual level, better understanding and functioning of processes at unit and organizational levels, and a secure foundation of relationships, establishment of trust, and fluidity in working across boundaries at enterprise levels. The outcomes are improvements in performance and quality, which allow products and service to be offered at higher volumes and lower costs. However, if gains cannot be applied, the employees, their unit and organization, and in total their enterprise processes are underutilized, creating a gap between the ability to produce and deliver products and services and the ability to provide the value to existing and new customers.