Once senior leaders decide that their organization must change, they define and articulate the boundaries of change and define its focus and direction.
They avoid a general vision statement, but decide:
The Boundaries Of Change describe the playing field of the change effort, what is within bounds what is out-of-bounds. Leadership sets limits to pre-approved and pre-authorized change.
Defining limits:
The Boundaries of Change is a statement to the organization that as long as
individuals stay within the described limits they can make decisions and
implement change without having to work their way through previous, traditional
chains of command.
Senior executives use the Boundaries of Change to release power into the organization for the first time. This is often difficult because once they have defined the boundaries of change; the executives have to permit the changes to happen. They must have faith in the process and in the people who work within the organization. They permit; even encourage failure in change attempts. Once executives release power, they cannot try to reclaim it unless they wish to stop the process. In truly robust change processes, executives are vigilant regarding the boundaries. If a change is out of bounds, it loses the protection of the process. Then, and only then, do the senior sponsors of the process have the right and obligation to halt that particular initiative.
Function of boundaries
The Boundaries of Change function as the Declaration of Independence to make
change. They set the people of the organization free from past history and
from the chains of "the way it has always been done." Giving people
who do the work the right to make decisions about the work they do, and
providing them with the vehicle they need to make the changes, will create the
kind of organization defined within the Boundaries of Change.