Learning how to change: a selective analysis of literature and experience of how teams learn and organisations change

This paper draws on the authors' experience, derived from organising higher degree courses (in health care policy and in education) for practitioners from across the public sector, and from their respective experiences of research on change in higher education and the health services. It highlights the importance of understanding how teams learn to change and what actually constitutes ‘change’, in order to enhance professional effectiveness. Four key texts are identified, and analysed in depth, to focus on the concept of change and the process of team learning, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Common themes from the papers are then elaborated in some detail before the implications arising from these themes are explored Examples, drawn from student experience demonstrate how theory can be used to illuminate and enhance practice. It is shown that it is better to use a limited theory, critically and with discrimination, than to use no theory at all.