Jaap Boonstra, in Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning (2004) asks a series of penetrating questions of change agents that help raise self-awareness, challenge assumptions, and identify potential areas for further growth and development.

Read through the list of questions below and see which ones you feel able to answer clearly and which ones you find difficult.

Take time out to review and reflect and then note down your answers and, if necessary, draw up a plan to more fully address the issues that arise:

• Why am I working in the field of organizational change and learning?

• Towards what purpose am I working in change and learning?

• What are my assumptions about organizations, change, and learning?

• What kind of paradoxes and dilemmas do I experience when working in change management and how do I deal with them?

• How do I define success (and failure) in organizational change?

• What is my own theoretical framework and what are the implications for me and others I am working with?

• How do I relate to different theoretical frameworks?

• What are the principles that guide my choices and actions?

• How do I interact with senior management?

• What is the nature of relationship with others in the field of change and learning?

• What roles do I prefer for change managers and consultants?

• How do I view power and resistance in change management?

• What power do I have, how do I use it, and what are the ethical values that guide my choices?

• What do interaction and communication mean for me in change and learning?

• How do I view the notion of participation in change and learning?
• How do I choose specific interventions and why some more often than others?
• What knowledge and added value to my profession do I have to offer?
• How can I contribute to sharing insights and knowledge with participants, practitioners, and scholars?