Here's Some Evidence That Change is Possible and Really Happens.

Having been in last place amongst major airlines for on-time performance, US Airways was a sort of pariah amongst fliers in the know. When your brand is that beleagured, in some ways there's no where to go but up.
Instead of mere incremental change though, US Airways has taken its dire performance and turned it on its head. Through a text-book example of strategic goal-setting, planning, operational improvement and some simple but effective ingenuity, they have taken over 1st place.
Southwest Airlines, the usually unbeatable rival, has been dethroned. The systematic approach to making these changes is a great object lesson in the massive strength of lots of small changes made at once, and consistently performed. No single step is Earth-shattering -- but neither was any circumstance used as an excuse for failure. Weather problems that plague the mid-west could have been an impediment -- so could the fuel prices that have forced flight cancellations. But Robert Isom, COO, never relented in his focus on turnaround, nor did he allow the entire organization to fall off the track. Instead, every instant of the chain from conception to flight was assessed, and each moment that could possibly be addressed was transformed from a moment of peril into a positive moment of truth. For detail read the article in the Wall Street Journal. Then extract any of a thousand lessons from this tale to use in your own life or organization's path toward being a high-performance, strategy-focused force of nature.