And these new scientific methods at last delivered the goods. We found that, indeed, a decision-maker’s command of complex practical situations can be transformed to an extent which one has a right to expect of any approach claiming to be scientific.
The methods of analysis developed by Interchange Research permit the complexity of any practical situation to be rapidly filtered. Even the most complex and intractable states-of-affairs can be tackled successfully in a matter of a few hours of rigorous inquiry, analysis, and design.
In such a way, some small, catalytic action or actions can be precisely pinpointed which, when taken, would be sufficient to trigger a transformation to the desired state-of-affairs, swiftly and reliably.
The actions identified are always so close to what is already being done that they are capable of immediate implementation. And the transformation which ensues occurs in an all-or-none fashion, as a flip from the existing state to the desired state.
We have found, for example, that major change in corporate performance or in organizational culture and behaviour, across the board, can be achieved virtually overnight through the catalytic effect of such precisely pinpointed actions.
In every case, the analysis eschews abstractions and stays close to the rich, idiosyncratic, concrete details of the practical situation being examined. This enables decision-makers to release latent potentials which can only be identified by staying close to the unique details of what is always a unique situation to be considered afresh, analyzed with scientific rigour.
The upshot of our research is huge—philosophically and scientifically as well as practically—and requires us to shift our whole view of the very fabric of reality. Indeed, much of what we have learned over hundreds of man-years of scientific work on change flies in the face of commonly held assumptions.
Interchange Research consists of four Research Centres, corresponding to our main areas of investigation and professional practice over the past 50 years, and we provide solutions to a vast range of practical challenges in the world of affairs, applying what we have learned from our research.
Among the purely practical findings from our research, here are a few of the things we have found -