THE 7 LEVELS OF CHANGE

A STRATEGY FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

“Small changes can produce big results --but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious”- Prof. Peter Senge

To get different results -- change -- we must do things differently.
The framework of this model is divided into seven distinct levels -- from easy to impossible - across a spectrum of continual change (continuous innovation) over increasing levels of difficulty.

LEVEL 1: Effectiveness --> DOING the right things
LEVEL 2: Efficiency --> DOING things right
LEVEL 3: Improving --> DOING things better
LEVEL 4: Cutting --> Stopping DOING things
LEVEL 5: Copying --> DOING things other people are doing
LEVEL 6: Different --> DOING things no one else is doing
LEVEL 7: Impossible --> DOING things that can't be done

Each level is progressively more complex, more difficult to undertake that the preceding level.

LEVEL 1: EFFECTIVENESS - DOING THE RIGHT THINGS.
The easiest change to make is to learn the basics - what are the right things to do and how to immediately change enough to become effective in a new job.

LEVEL 2: EFFICIENCY - DOING THINGS RIGHT.
Level 2 changes requires a thorough understanding of all the aspects of the new job or business activity in order to identify and then focus on doing very well those things which have the most important impact and make the largest contribution.

LEVEL 3: IMPROVING - DOING THINGS BETTER.
Change at this level involves thinking about ways to improve or fine-tune -- ways to speed things up, shorten delivery time, increase functionality, reduce downtime.

LEVEL 4: CUTTING - DOING AWAY WITH THINGS.
This level of change involves analysis of core functions and applies the Pareto Principle to focus on stopping doing things - cutting out the 80% of things that only yield 20% of the value.

LEVEL 5: COPYING - DOING THINGS OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING.
evel 5 marks the transition from incremental to fundamental change. Copying, learning from, and "reverse engineering" can dramatically boost innovation at significantly lower costs than starting from scratch.

LEVEL 6: DIFFERENT - DOING THINGS NO ONE ELSE IS DOING.
Change at Level 6 is about either doing something very different or doing something very differently - and transitions into degrees of novelty which not only move an organization "out-of-the- box", they move the organization into areas where nobody else is doing it.

LEVEL 7: IMPOSSIBLE - DOING THINGS THAT CAN'T BE DONE.
"What is today impossible, but if it were possible it would fundamentally change the way you do business?" Joel Barker's famous question reframes thinking extremely well for Level 7.

Any change requires time, resources and personal energy. The higher the level of change, the more time, resources and personal energy the change will require in implementation.

Source: www.thinking- expedition. com