The Lean Change Playbook

Lean Change Playbook is an interactive body of knowledge for people who do change work. Whereas traditional BoKs focus on appealing to change managers only, we believe everyone is responsible for managing change in some way. We decided to call it a Playbook (Operating System), for starters Playbook sounds much cooler, and also because we believe context is everything.

An operating system is only as good as how it's used. Your approach for change is only as good as how it suits your context.

What it is:

1. A collection of concepts, tools, and patterns you can mix and match
2. A problem-first resource — start with what you're facing, find what helps
3. A living system that evolves based on practitioner experience
4. A bridge between traditional change management and adaptive approaches

What it isn't:

1. A rigid methodology you must follow exactly
2. A certification program
3. A replacement for your judgment and experience

As a reminder, think of this as an operating system. Your computer's Playbook doesn't tell you what to create — it gives you the environment to do your work.

Lean Change Playbook works the same way: it supports your thinking, but you ultimately need to decide on the tradeoff your making by interacting with your system the way you do.

Lean Change Playbook is for anyone navigating organizational change who wants tools they can adapt to their situation.

You'll get the most out of this if you:

1. Do change work in any capacity
2. Want practical tools alongside the theory
3. Appreciate having options rather than one prescribed path
4. Believe context matters when choosing an approach
5. Enjoy learning from what other practitioners have tried

You might be:

1. A change manager or change lead
2. An agile coach or transformation consultant
3. An HR or OD practitioner
4. A project manager handling the people side
5. A leader responsible for making change happen
6. Whether you're new to change or have decades of experience, there's something here. Newer practitioners find the structure helpful. Experienced folks often find language for things they already do intuitively.

There's no required reading order. Pick the path that fits where you are right now:

Facing a specific challenge? → Go to Change Challenges. Find the problem that matches. Each links to relevant tools and patterns.

Seeing something dysfunctional? → Go to Patterns. Browse the 12 Traps — common patterns that slow change down, plus shifts that help.

Want to understand the philosophy? → Start with Core Concepts. The 4 Dimensions, 5 Universals, and Lean Change Engine explain the thinking behind the tools.

Need a specific tool? → Go to Appendices → Tools. Browse canvases and templates with guidance on when each helps.

Building your own approach? → Use Build Your Toolkit (in development). Save items to your Backpack, then generate a playbook for your situation.

Tips:

1. Save things to your Backpack as you explore (in development) — build your personal toolkit over time
2. Come back when your context changes — different challenges surface different tools
3. Ask Mr. Zurkon if you're unsure where to start (in development) — describe your situation and get a recommendation

Structure of the Playbook

We've tried to keep it as simple as possible. This Playbook has parent chapters and sub-sections. The parent chapter will act as an overview and each subsection will contain the details.

Each subsection has an additional reference section. If applicable, there will be a list of Lean Change Elements that go into greater detail. As this Playbook expands, we will integrate all of the stories, comments, feedback, and surveys and other data.

We live in a world where it's hard to distinguish between AI and reality. I always had a vision of creating something that was interactive and based on problem-first thinking versus explaining a method or framework in the hopes change agents could figure out how to shoe-horn tools, practices and methods into a context where it wasn't supposed to fit.

I'm sure the most important question on your mind is, did I create this or did AI. Read on to find out, but for now, enjoy a stroll down memory lane if you're interested in the evolution of how this Playbook came to be.

The shortest version:

1. 2009: I wrote this post which started my down the path of integrating change management and agile.
2. 2011: I read The Lean Startup Method (and my team won the first ever Lean Startup Machine contest).
3. 2012: I released the first iterations of Lean Change Management on Leanpub.
4. 2014: Re-wrote Lean Change and headed out on a world tour until we weren't allowed to go outside anymore.
5. 2014 - 2020: Everything in Lean Change today is based on using the ideas in organizations, exploring patterns and figuring out what worked and what didn't.
6. 2020+ was about synthesizing what is now the Lean Change Playbook.

Thank You Finland

When the 5 Universals of Change were born in Espoo Finland after 2 weeks of workshops it became clear to me:

1. Lean Change isn't in the business of selling certainty, we're in the business of helping people figure out how to unravel gnarly problems in creative ways.

This was the view from the hotel in Espoo where I started working on what I was calling "Modern Change Management" and it was based on patterns I noticed from 7 years of traveling to over 12 countries while consulting and running workshops. Then the ideas were synthesized into the 5 Universals, oddly enough in Helsinki, Finland this time and designed to connect those patterns with all the big ideas, and tools and practices in Lean Change.

Below is where Andrew Annett, Jussi Galla and I merged the ideas from Jussi' Topaasia game with the 5 Universals and the core philosophies around Lean Change.

The core premise followed this flow:

1. Self: Who you are as a human is the most important attribute about how you facilitate change. The inspiration came from the Virginia Satir model and all of the PSL/AYE experiences I attended over the years hosted by Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby, Don Gray, Steve Smith and Jerry Weinberg.
2. Universals over Principles: Principles are human qualities so I didn't want to use that term. Imagine a new neighbour moves in next door to you. Would you google "best practice steps to ensure successful ROI with new neighbour"? or would you walk over with some drinks and a house warming gift? I suspect the latter. Your values and principles are derived from who you are, how and where you grew up and all of your life's experiences.
3. Lenses: Next were thinking about change from different perspectives. We're all biased in some way, the more we can develop empathy and self-awareness, the more likely we'll see change from the perspective of others.
4. Tools & Practices: 1 through 3 greatly influence how we apply tools & practices. That's why LinkedIn is flooded with "my agile isn't your agile" debates, amongst others. If all of your experience is in giant, conservative enterprise financial organizations, there's a good chance you'd use an innovative tool, like an open space, and adapt it by pre-determining topics. That's the "wrong way" to use that tool, but it's not "wrong" if that suits your context better.

The idea was that there is a complex relationship between those 4 points and much more to consider so how could I create something that would help everyone find a starting point for unraveling a hard problem?

1. Some people lead from ego and think it's all about their skills and experience.
2. Some people just need a big idea, then want to be left alone to figure it out on their own.
3. Some people want a new hammer to whack people over the head with.
4. Some people want inspiration and stories from peers.

We're all different and whatever your view of change is, it's not wrong. My dream was always to create something where you can start where you are, pull the ideas that make sense in your context, help you explore trade-offs and then spring you into action.

I did not want yet another 'follow this framework' approach because frameworks don't understand your context, but you do.

The Change Wayfinder

When I released Change Agility in 2020 I used Wordpress of all things to create the Change Wayfinder. I basically created posts, tags and categories to create the relationships between human attributes, tools, ideas, stories, 10 years of change challenges and more to give people different entry points into the Lean Change ecosystem.

But it was still pre-determined logic.

Lean Change Playbook

Finally with AI, it's possible to realize my dream of the Choose Your Own Adventure style approach to facilitating change. Remember those books from the 80s?

That's what this Playbook is and while it is in it's infancy, it'll grow and learn.

AI or Human?

I'm sure everyone wants to know, did humans create this or did AI? Short version: I have thousands of pages of content, diaries, blog posts, and more that I've collected since 2009. All of the content in this Playbook is based on that.

Mr Zurkon, my AI helper, helped organize the ideas and acted as my development partner to build this. I wrote all of the content myself and 'he' helped with continuity, and making suggestions for explaining things. He also made the explainer videos based on the content I wrote.

I trained him using my content, had him analyze my writing style and gave him templates to work with:

1. Example: here are all our change challenges: Here's my content (Jason dumps blog posts, images etc into it) - make sure you use this template to create the content and I will tweak it.