This paper describes the process through which a troubled junior high school transformed itself into a model middle school. Teachers and administrators used the organizational mapping strategy (Shapiro 1991) to examine and reconstruct their beliefs, perceptions, and organizational traditions. The organizational-mapping strategy generates a professional frame of reference in which objective and rational discussion of purposes, practices, and behaviors occurs. The process involves searching for key issues and concerns, drawing conclusions and implications from these perceptions, looking for underlying themes, and developing potential lines of action/initiatives. The process resulted in increased teacher and administrator satisfaction (as measured by attitude surveys conducted from 1988 to 1991), low faculty turnover, a general increase in student satisfaction, decentralized administrative roles leading to efficiency and effectiveness, an enhanced sense of efficacy for administrators and teachers, and increased faculty commitment to change programs. Appendices contain the questionnaire used to identify concerns and data from student and staff surveys. Two figures and one table are included. Attached are survey results. Contains 14 references. (LMI)