1.1
Understand the change
What is changing, why, what’s happened already, and what’s been decided?
Orientation Goals
Contact · Bearing · Navigate
Lean Change provides three points of orientation for working with change without prescribing a process to follow.
They aren't phases or a sequence of prescribed activities.
Once oriented, the work becomes continuous: learn from what happens, respond to changing conditions, and adapt what you do next.
Where they sit in the operating system
Contact, Bearing and Navigate are the main view of how you work with complex change. Contact and Bearing happen once — your initial insertion into the change, and setting your direction of travel. From there Navigate runs continuously, and it is where the Lean Change Operating System is activated.
This matters because change agents are often parachuted into changes at various times — you might join during strategy, after the solution has been picked, three weeks before go-live, or after a failed attempt. The system you are entering already has history, relationships, constraints, power structures, narratives, ongoing initiatives and prior interventions. Wherever you arrive, the same three points of orientation apply.
How they work
Each orientation goal holds three general questions you're trying to answer, and the Lean Change elements of change are what help you answer them.
They're sorted by the goal and question where you'd most likely reach for them, and where they tend to help most — but the placement isn't fixed. Any element can be used at any point, as often as it's useful.
Big IdeaToolStanceSelf
1
Contact
Your first contact with the change
Happens once
Understand where you’ve entered, what has happened so far, who is involved, and the conditions you’ve inherited. Get enough orientation to move forward.
You are here if You’ve just joined the change initiative — whether that’s at kickoff, mid-flight, or near go-live. Contact is the first time you begin to engage with the change as a change agent.
1.2
Understand the people
Who is affected, involved, influential, and what are you hearing from them?
Show the elementsHide the elements5
1.3
Understand the system
What conditions, patterns, constraints, history, competing changes, and dynamics are shaping this change?
Show the elementsHide the elements11
- Complex Adaptive SystemsBig Idea
- Organizational DispositionBig Idea
- Organizational PhysicsBig Idea
- 4 Forms of Organizational DesignBig Idea
- 6 Big Ideas of Adaptive OrganizationsBig Idea
- 3 AgilitiesBig Idea
- Culture MappingTool
- Waves of ChangeBig Idea
- DiffusionBig Idea
- RipplesTool
- Change Friction MapalsoTool
2
Bearing
Establish enough direction and structure to begin navigating
Happens once
Establish the next most important outcome to accomplish, and the direction of travel that gets you there. Set enough shared purpose, outcomes, intent and ways of working to guide decisions — and enough structure to start navigating, without having to know the entire journey.
You are here if You’ve made sense of your surroundings and you’re ready to begin taking action on the change.
2.1
Set the strategy
What’s our change strategy — purpose, vision, success, approach?
2.2
Set the horizons
What are our horizons — where we’re heading, what matters next, and what’s actually within reach?
Show the elementsHide the elements5
- Change Friction MapTool
- BIG / NEXT / NOWBig Idea
- BIG ViewBig Idea
- NEXT ViewalsoBig Idea
- NOW ViewalsoBig Idea
2.3
Organize the work
How will we organize the work — the wall, the flow, the cadence, ways of working?
Show the elementsHide the elements5
- Minimum Viable Change ProcessTool
- Big Visible Change WallTool
- Pull vs PushalsoBig Idea
- Project ManagementalsoTool
- Ritual InventoryalsoTool
Training & certification
Learn to run the operating system
Learn how to apply the Lean Change Operating System to real-world change initiatives by enrolling in one of our training programs. More than a certification course, it's an immersive learning experience designed to transform how you think about, design, and lead change in complex environments.
Whether you're new to Lean Change or looking to become a certified practitioner, you'll gain practical tools, proven practices, and the confidence to continuously sense, learn, and adapt as change unfolds.