A Tale of Our Times: the Method and the Fetish.

Faced with the complexity of technology and change, there has been a huge interest in methods designed to help organisations move from one state to another. Sometimes these methods are controlled and utilized by consultants. Sometimes they are passed over to the organisations themselves.

An industry has grown up:
- Systems development methods
- Software engineering models
- Change management methods
- Project management methods

Methods have become an issue in their own right. They have become a complex issue, perhaps adding to the complexity endured by the organisation. Coping with the complexity of the method might even become a way of disengaging from the actual task at hand (i.e. the organisational change project). It becomes a fetish.

What then is the utility of methods? How do you tell good from bad?

This week we will hear stories of organisational change. Please be prepared to bring your own as well. Many of us will have tales to tell.