There are six principles of Real Time Strategic Change to guide every choice your organization makes to become—and remain—change-able.

Use them to open up new ways of seeing and new possibilities for action. Use them in daily work as well as change work. They are the solid foundation of all the work we do. And they are flexible enough to fit any situation you face.

• Think and act in real time.
  When you think and act as if you were already the organization you want to become, your desired future happens faster. You can implement new ways of doing business at any point in time—you can be in the future as you plan for it.

• Get clear on your preferred future.
  Create compelling images of where your organization wants to go and how you'll do business when you are there. Decide what needs to stay the same and what needs to change. These shared visions of the future energize and inform collective action.

• Create community.
  Develop an environment where people come together as part of something larger than themselves that they create and believe in. Collaboration flourishes when people feel allegiance to their respective teams and to the entire organization.

• Build common understanding.
  Ensure that key information flows through the whole system while custom information meets unique needs of various parts. The more people know about the big picture and how pieces and perspectives connect, the more they can contribute—to shared meaning and through aligned action.

• Make reality a key driver.
  Resist the temptation to oversimplify. Seek out and make sense of complex, ambiguous, and conflicting internal and external "truths"—those that are most obvious to you, and especially those points of view that differ from your own. You will be much better prepared to anticipate and respond to issues and opportunities.

• Empower and engage.
  Keep asking, "Who are the key stakeholders here and how can we engage them in the work?" When you get the right people working together and asking the right questions, you get the right answers for your organization. Depending on the situation, more direction can be as empowering as broad-based participation.