Definition: Change, Profound Change, Transformation, Transformational Learning
When something changes, it changes forever. There is no going back. This is true change. However, there are different ways to change. You can change a point of view, or you can change an entire way of thinking about something, and end up changing your behaviour. For example, in a short course on how the brain works, we\'ve seen people change their thinking about how they make decisions, but not change their behaviour. This is called a surface or awareness type of change. This type of change usually does not translate into a change in behaviour. The person still behaves the same way. A deeper form of change requires that both the thinking and the behaviour change forever. A person who knows how his or her brain affects decisions now makes decisions based on this new information. This person makes different decisions that produce different results. This person has changed his or her behaviour.
"The term profound change describe[s] organizational change that combines inner shifts in people's values, aspirations, and behaviors with outer shifts in processes, strategies, practices, and systems. In profound change there is learning. The organization doesn't just do something new; it builds its capacity for doing things in a new way -- indeed, it builds its capacity for ongoing change. This emphasis on inner and outer changes gets to the heart of the issues that large industrial-age institutions are wrestling with today. It is not enough to change strategies, structures, and systems, unless the thinking that produced those strategies, structures, and systems also changes."
Peter Senge et al., The Dance of Change: The Challenges To Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations, 1999