Confronted by a maturing staff, lower teacher turnover rates, declining enrollments, and more sophisticated instructional methods, the Bloomfield (New Jersey) Public School District adopted an ambitious staff development initiative in 1983. This paper describes the planning and implementation strategies used to launch Bloomfield's Teaching Essentials, Styles, and Strategies Project (TESS). Staff development is defined as a symbiotic process of individual and organizational growth through controlled change. If implemented correctly, the process minimizes incongruencies between individual and organizational needs and maximizes internal harmony and equilibrium. The first section describes approaches to managing change and discusses a model for enhancing the TESS project's acceptance. The cycle of change is discussed, along with resistance to staff development initiatives. Section II treats gearing up for change, or districts' need to decide on program content, communicate mission and objectives, and develop readiness. Section III presents a suggested change strategy, including establishing a needs profile and testing the proposition of composite needs. Section IV handles implementation issues and explains the needs hierarchy planning matrix, its application, and various phases addressing teachers' security, social, esteem, and self-actualization concerns. Since its inception, Project TESS has provided over 200 teacher opportunities. Response has been so overwhelmingly positive that a waiting list and lottery selection system have been devised to accommodate the backlog of applications. Included are 15 endnotes and numerous figures and tables. (MLH)