Of course, the patterns come from experience.

The secret of effective pattern-matching is filling your head with patterns from experience so your intuition can work its magic. It’s that experience and head of patterns that separates the experienced doctors and fire-fighters from the pack.
.-= J.D. Meier´s last blog ..What 25 Holiday Classics Teach Us About Life and Fun =-.

I don’t exactly have a formula to make change happen, but I do have one method which certainly doesn’t work – announce it to the media and let workers read about it there.

I worked (on a temporary contract) for a government organization back in 2004. Due to very significant problems (relating to financial accountability) within our organization, it was well known it’s future was under review. But we were specifically being told (by senior management), that if anything major were to be decided, that we would hear about it through internal communication channels first, and not via the media.

Alas, just a few weeks after this promise was made, one of my colleagues came around one afternoon, alerting the entire office to a news website. It was there that we read that our organization was to be completely abolished and that the programs which our organization ran would be split up into a number of other government departments. Indeed, not only did we have to read about our entire organization being abolished through the media, but there was never any form of communication about it from senior management at any stage during the entire process.

Everyone accepted that the prior situation had been unacceptable and that change needed to happen. But the lack of respect which staff were shown during this entire process worked to ensure that the process occurred with as much acrimony, ill feeling and lack of productivity as possible.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..Niger Delta Crisis – Big Oil’s Big Lesson =-.