We talk about change quite a lot, and have an incredible array of tools at our disposal. But how complete are these tools and how much is left for us to figure out. For example, a common thread in popular change management literature is the need to motivate or ‘establish a sense of urgency’. But in my experience that is incredibly difficult to do no matter how compelling the change. What’s missing?

My proposed answer is the change story, in which the analysis of the organization's problem is connected to choices between the current path which leads to a degradation of performance and an alternate path representing a decision for change leading to a vision. Writing such a story, however, is not so easy.