In the context of the OP's question (which seems clear to me) - asking for a change management exercise for a group that just went through a re-organization - it seems obvious that there must be a need or a desire to have folks experience what change feels like and then discuss various aspects of that. There does not need to be a specified "gap" or existing "deficiency" or "performance problem" to justify doing the exercise. I mean - enough all ready. That's the point I was trying to make. There is a time and place to require "gaps" or "problems" before doing something, but is this really one of them? That's the problem with taking everything we read so literally - we beat it to death and as a result, mis-apply it.

Additionally, how is one to determine an appropriate activity without knowing what gap it is one is trying to address?

A gap --- an opening between where you are and where you want to be. There's nothing magical, mystical or unusual about such a common word. I think that's why it's so bloody useful. It's not techno speak or ISD-babble. It's a common English word that means there's a space between one thing and another. In the context here, it's the space between "this is what we're doing now" and "this is what we should be doing"

I'm really not sure why there is so much resistance to 1) ensuring that the learning opportunity is applicable to what people need and 2) that the learning opportunity is even a solution to the problem in the first place.

Throwing a "change management exercise" at some issue begs the question. What, precisely, is the issue you're trying to address? People don't like change? People aren't handling the change well? Are these things really so unusual that it's impossible to find tomes and tomes of information about what really should happen to manage change in an organization? To that matter, can change be "managed" --- and if it can, will a 30 minute change management exercise fix the issue? ...

I see your point LoveLearning and agree with you on targeted learning. But in this particular case, I just don't see the need to tie that exercise to a specific gap - mainly because that exercise will tie into a LOT of gaps; gaps that are always present since it's universally accepted that change is difficult and resisted by all people everywhere all the time. So it seems to me that there is a silent "standing gap" here and it would do no harm ot do the exercise.

And I agree that a 30 minute change management exercise probably won't fix anything. It's just an awareness thing that has merit all by itself. By definition, awareness doesn't have to result in a behavior change; yet it is still worthwhile becuse it's a starting point for behavior change. Every change has to start somewhere, and without the awareness, could there ever be lasting change?