Wednesday 26 May 2010

Creating A System For Change

Creating a System For Change - Organisations That Lack Self Awareness Find It Harder To Do Things Differently

You often hear that change begins at the top. Why is that? Well, think about something you've tried to change recently. The thing that you wanted to change, was it totally under your control? If not, how successful were you in making the changes you wanted?
Typically if something isn't within our control, it's much harder to change.

It's the same in organisations. There is usually a well established system of 'how we do things around here'. And that starts right at the top. Just think about any organisation you've worked for either now or in the past. Guaranteed that you know how people really get on in that organisation - usually in spite of the processes and policies that are in place.

The 'how we do things around here' syndrome has either tacit or explict support from the top - both the formal and informal ways of 'doing things around here'. This becomes the system in which change is being introduced. If the 'true' system is informal and is unconsciously supported by the top leadership any attempt to bring about change is doomed to failure from the start.

So, bringing about change starts with a realistic look and feel around the organisation to really hear what's going on around you and find out how things actually get done. This is the system that will either support or reduce the chances of actually doing things differently. Once you've understood that you stand a better chance of working out what steps you'll need to take to make change work.


Sadly starting at the systemic level in an organisation is usually a luxury which most businesses don't want to fund. In other words they want to get straight to the tasks without really understanding why the tasks are necessary and before they know how those tasks will help bring about change in behaviour. Behaviours are the most obvious way of measuring whether or not something has changed. Are people and processes behaving differently now compared with the time before the 'change'? What organisational habits have changed? What rituals are now practised?


There are two pre-requisites for change: an open mindset and a willingness to explore at a deep level what are the realities of the change. A keen understanding of how the change will improve the organisation and help people within it behave differently is essential as ground work for the change. This is usually because different assumptions are made about:
  • what the current reality is;
  • what everyone will be doing differently after the change;
  • how people will respond emotionally to the change.
In my experience this is more often the case when it's about 'implementing' new technology. The people doing the 'implementing' forget that the new ways of working will mean that the people on the ground will have to leave behind a comfortable routine and sometimes feel like they are left at the 'sharp end' of the implementation stick.



So the two magic ingredients are organisational self awareness and creating a system in which change can positively flourish. Operating new or improved ways of working is about behaviour AND process. The magic wand of change is to see, hear and experience it as a process not as a list of tasks to be completed. That way you open up the possibility to learn and create a spark of momentum.

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