1. What made this experience significant for you?  
2. What did you do to cause the change to have a positive outcome?  
3. How did you know it was the appropriate time to make the change?  
4. How would you suggest someone prepare to make such an experience more expeditious or effortless (to simplify their process)?   
5. Has this impacted your beliefs about future changes and if so how?  
6. What did you use as a support for your transition process?

  PROJECT DEVELOPMENT (initiating organizational change)

"Give up the credit - surrender who gets the idea put forth."  

- Ron Silverman, Esq.

1. I initiated an organizational development program in the firm by sitting down with key leaders and sharing the concept. To my amazement they were receptive to it. It was significant to me because 1) the positive sense that comes from initiating something, taking the risk of being rejected and introducing such a program in a law firm and 2) see it tried and the organization adopt the elements as part of its culture 3) be able to say today, 20+ years later, that it's still a fundamental part of our organization.  

2. I was able to share how we would all benefit from being sensitive to human dynamics and being willing to confront and deal with individual stresses as soon as possible and not simply sweep them underground. We continued to use the hired outside leader for several years and the result was a change in our organization's culture. How could we have possibly measured what difference it would make to the organization? I think that is the huge leap that an organization makes when it brings on a team building or organization development program. It's so much soft data. Chuck Ferguson and Bill Crockett (in President Kennedy's state department) dealt with this lack of measuring up front.   Chuck gave a personal and emotional account of how important (for a large part of his life), every decision he made depended on hard data in numbers and statistics. He finally realized how dismissive he was with his people and came to recognize over a number of years what a mistake that leadership approach was. He shared how critically important soft data was to an individual effort or an organization to move forward.

3. Before our marriage, my wife and I would talk about her job and I was intrigued each time she described the organizational development efforts that this huge publicly held corporation held so dear to its culture. That human approach to running an organization made sense that it could be transferred to any organization. I recognized my firm's stresses and strains and thought wouldn't it be great to deal with these.

4. 1) Feel passionate, truly be sold on the concept before introducing a new idea to the organization. 2) Say to yourself in your own words why this idea makes sense and how it will cause the organization to improve. 3) Recognize who has the power for that decision in the organization. Use the politics to your advantage. I always start small. I start with members, not introducing it in a large meeting. I will go to the key person in a personnel decision. 4) Give up the credit-surrender who gets the idea put forth.

5. Having had success in this endeavor, it's hard to measure, but I certainly consider myself a risk taker and am willing in any organization or relationship to take risks if I feel that the taking of the risk is worth whatever that risk is about. I feel more comfortable today that I did then.

6. I guess the organizational development concept struck such a consistent note with my beliefs about how important it is to value and recognize people, whether their part of my organization or others. It tapped into a core belief. Due to upbringing, religion and activities, I've been exposed to the importance of every human being. I've seen people mistreated and I've always recoiled from that.

-Ron Silverman, Esq.

"We all have to realize that 'no man is an island'. ...not being an island has a purpose. We are connected. Choosing to be responsible in an organization means working with your peers and coming to a collective thinking that is best for all."

- Joseph Montoya

1. I was 26 and just 3-4 years out of college. I was in charge of the City of Pasadena's Redevelopment Agency Planning Section. There were four of us in the department and we were in a meeting. I saw maps and other documents reflect where we spent our money and how we gave public notice.  There was an isolationist attitude. There was no graphic reference to how you get in or out of an area. All we had on the table was our project.  Suggested they extend the map and its boundaries so overtime all documents reflected that other people existed and how the changes freeway entrances, exits, etc. would impact them. ...[It] gave the project a better presentation and showed we were being responsible for what we were doing outside of it.  

2. I have two 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper that show a map as it originally existed and after we were done. When people are at meetings or public hearings talking about this change I feel proud. It gave the community outside the project area a voice, where before on paper they didn't exist.  

3. Over a period of a few months I started noticing those in authority above me began to be more open-minded about our role and considering there were others we should be interacting with. I met with them.

4. We all have to realize that "no man is an island" and it's true, sometimes you have to stand out there by yourself, but not being an island has a purpose. We are connected. Choosing to be responsible in an organization means working with your peers and coming to a collective thinking that is best for all.  It can be a moving target and we're constantly shifting everyday and you have to operate on your own, but you learn when the time is and your ethics will guide you when to go talk to someone.   I chose to say let's start here and in the end it lent itself to a bigger change.  

5. I understand that when you see something and you don't like it, it tells you, you have a choice.   Do I want to get involved and make this better or is it someone else's responsibility? You only have so much time and energy. You can't fight every bottle. It's time to start prioritizing and strategizing.  

6. I sensed something was wrong because my predecessors and mentors had taught me something.   The map became a teaching tool for the younger staff and I was able to assist them with this other way of thinking. I hope they were able to take this process of logic into their future careers and be successful.

1. Most of the time people give me an assignment and I work on it.  I don't have to convince someone it needs to be done. I was happy I was the frontrunner here. They weren't aware of the significance of a test needing to be done on some of our materials. They did not believe some previous results. I convinced them that outside experts/consultants who work with other firms had recommended the testing.  

2. The test had not been done for our particular type of steel. It had been done in the lab for other wire types. Smooth wire takes years to fail so there are no results right away. Notched takes only days to fail.  I wanted our company to do a much more true to life test on the smooth wire rather than wait for student's to prove the results through longer terms studies.

3. I wasn't convinced we needed the test at first, but our constituents wanted to make sure our product would pass that test and we couldn't absolutely say it would, though we didn't see a reason why it wouldn't. I couldn't convince the constituents that my previous work and papers for the past ten years and the theory behind them (notched vs. smooth) was substantive enough for this project. As the corrosion expert, I knew I had to bring this up to the Chief Engineer.

4. Simply because I broached the issue, we were willing to consider the test. I operated from the need, with an underlying long run cost/benefits that weren't immediately apparent.

5. Even though I wasn't convinced of the products viability based on what I knew, others have a different point of view, a different knowledge base and their view was worth considering.  

6. I gathered other opinions over time. It was several engineers that advised the test. More than one customer complaint encouraged me to move forward.   I had a sufficient body of evidence for the work to be done.