An astute question to ask about initiatives, strategic plans and prognostications

I like this provocative recommendation from Theodore Levitt, Thinking about Management (Free Press 1991) at 56: “To ascertain the likelihood of a forecasted event, one should always ask, ‘What else has to happen for that to happen?’”

Some examples strengthen Levitt’s suggestion. If you think that setting up an in-house discovery team (See my posts of Oct. 1, 2005 and Feb. 25, 2007 about Pfizer’s team.) will save money and improve quality, what else has to take place? If you want settlement dollars to be in your budget (See my post of May 30, 2006 for this practice.), for you to benefit what else will need to change? If you want to revitalize your legal intranet (See my post of March 12, 2007 about mini-intranet sites embedded on client sites.) what else must change? All change management efforts need to answer Levitt’s question.