Strategies for implementing change: an experiential approach

J. Scott Armstrong, University of Pennsylvania

Article comments

Copyright Sage Publications. Postprint version. Published in Group & Organization Studies, Volume 7, Number 4, December 1982, pages 457-475. The author has asserted his/her right to include this material in ScholarlyCommons@Penn.

Abstract

An attitude survey and a role-playing case were used to identify the typical approaches people use to implement important changes in organizations. This typical strategy, suggested or used by over 90% of the subjects, was not successful in producing change in any of the fourteen role-playing trials. However, with ten minutes of instruction in the "Delta Technique," 86% of the subjects were successful in introducing change in another fourteen role-playing trials. The "Delta Technique" consists of simple rules drawn from half a century of research.