 Matrix: Mental Health System Transformation
Programs and Activities
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Mental Health Transformation State Incentive Grant Program |
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Transformation: A Strategy for Reform
of Organizations and Systems |
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Definition of Transformation |
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Although a dictionary definition of transformation – an act, process, or instance of transforming or being transformed – may appear straightforward, modern theorists have spent decades conceptualizing and describing the complex and unpredictable processes involved in transformation. They have examined transformation as it relates to changing the composition, outward form, or character of living things and inert objects as well as the systems that organize life in our communities and Nation. Research suggests that successful, large-scale transformation requires integration and change in structure, process, and pattern (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2004). It involves forward-thinking, not, as one expert observed, looking backward at reform (Barger, 2004). Transformation is meant to identify, leverage, and even create new underlying principles for the way things are done. It also seeks to identify and leverage new sources of power (Cebrowski, 2002). |
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In recent years, varying types and degrees of systemic change have become commonplace in the public and private sectors. As one expert notes, “the scope of change being undertaken by companies can be placed on a continuum, with incremental change at one extreme and radical (neutron bomb), clean-slate transformation at the other” (At Jasper Associates [AJA],N.D.). Another writer contrasts change with transformation. “Change itself is not enough. Change is merely a variation of a situation, repetitive and cyclical in nature, while transformation is an alteration of its essence. Transformation assumes the need for a fundamental shift to another level of thought and action, a change in consciousness” (Neal & Conhaim, n.d.). |
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Although several terms associated with major organizational or systemic change are used interchangeably with transformation, these do not convey the full vision the transformation process. Some of these terms – total quality management or total quality improvement, reengineering, right sizing, and restructuring – refer to methods for affecting change; however, they imply less-sweeping change than the term transformation. Even reform – often used to describe major change –does not connote the more revolutionary characteristics of transformation (Mazade, 2004). |
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Selected examples of closely related terms and their definitions follow.
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Reinvention. Reinvention implies “something tantamount to changing the very ‘DNA' of public organizations so that they habitually innovate” In this process they are continually improving their performance without having to be pushed from the outside. Reinvention means building an entrepreneurial organization with a built-in drive to improve or “what some would call a self-renewing system.” (Osbourne & Plastrik, 1997).
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Redesign. “Enterprise redesign” also is depicted as revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Related to organizational development, redesign usually requires devising a new strategic vision and competitive strategy, with the concomitant development of entirely new business processes (AJA, 2004).
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Stephen Haines (2004) describes how transformative change is fundamentally different than other change processes:
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It results in a major structural and fundamental impact on the entire organization;
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It is complex and chaotic in nature or will constitute a radical departure from the current state, and is so complex that desired outcomes and approaches to achieve them may be unclear;
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The scale of desired change is large and will result in a significantly different enterprise;
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It requires years to complete, with multiple phases and stages of major changes;
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The rules of the game change, including the norms, guideposts, values, and guides to behavior.
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Thus, while organizations and systems may have initiated change in the past, those that undertake transformation face a significantly more complex and challenging journey. However, the potential rewards of the transformation efforts can exceed dramatically those achieved by more limited changes. (See box, this page.) |
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