Given the magnitude and importance of the changes that are needed in healthcare right now, we cannot afford to waste time, money and human spirit on ineffective change projects, however well-intentioned they might be. So over the next few months, I'd like to offer a series of brief blogs describing some of the most common pitfalls I've observed and how to avoid them.

The topic for this first installment is "how we think about change." The conceptual models and metaphors we use filter our perceptions, frame our planning and shape our expectations in a powerful but subliminal way; we can be entirely unaware of how our thinking is being influenced...