Making substantial changes in organizational mission and culture has always presented managers with myriad problems. But the single most difficult problem is the organization’s ability to sustain what it determines is desirable change. Too often the interventions, even if successful in the short run, fizzle in the long run. In that case the effort at best is remembered as a noble cause which failed, but caused no permanent damage save the time and money it wasted.  At worst the failure leaves the organization in shambles, as stakeholders become cynical of change and increasingly competitive as they scramble to amass increasingly scarce resources.

Human services organizations, most absent a profit motive, are particularly prone to such results. Yet change periodically must be considered and when required, but be attempted.

Our experience over  three decades suggests that this is particularly important with respect to organizational cultures that too frequently do not nurture quality management initiatives, including those initiatives related to the pursuit of safe, caring and hospitable environments. In fact, as organizations have matured, many underlying cultures promote less than candid communication patterns that make quality management, properly understood, impossible.