Abstract
The commonly held belief that “It's not for us, it's just for them” by senior management often sets up a costly pattern that substantially hinders the success of organizational change efforts.

While senior managers declare the need for change and their commitment to it, they often participate in its implementation in limited ways. Furthermore, they believe that their typically untested assumptions about who and what will change are accurate. Throughout the organization, individuals tend to privately blame each other for the lack of effectiveness.

With coaching from Collaborative Action, a CEO of a mid-sized home health care business was able to exercise a new level of leadership at a strategic time for the company: she was able to "go first" by noting her internal dialogue concerns and her willingness to reflect on her own contribution to producing needed change efforts. She recognized that unless she was more willing to fully engage, and not just give the change efforts "lip service," her company would not be most successful. The willingness of the CEO to "go first" was an important early step in the transformation of the organization's culture. Over time, others in the organization began experiencing the value of the technology through their managers and began requesting to be trained to use Collaborative Action tools and strategies.