The document summarizes Michael Edson's presentation on ten patterns for organizational change. The presentation draws from Edson's experience over 15 years working to facilitate organizational change. Some of the key patterns discussed include the idea that the internet changes everything, the importance of having a sense of urgency around change initiatives, dealing with disruptive innovations, the role of strategy in prioritizing opportunities, issues that can arise between management and practitioners, and the concept of process maturity for evolving an organization's capabilities over time. The presentation provides frameworks and examples to help organizations navigate organizational change in the current digital environment.

1. Ten Patterns for
Organizational Change
National Museum Publishing Seminar
Washington, D.C.
June 19, 2010
Michael Edson
Director of Web and New Media Strategy
Smithsonian Institution

2. “From law firms to libraries, from universities to
Fortune 500 companies, the organization’s website
almost invariably falls under the domain of the IT
Department or the Marketing Department, leading
to turf wars and other predictable consequences.
While many good (and highly capable) people work
in IT and marketing, neither area is ideally suited to
craft usable websites or to encourage the
blossoming of vital web communities.”
Jeffrey Zeldman
Let There be Web Divisions
http://www.zeldman.com/2007/07/02/let-there-be-web-divisions/

3. Preamble
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
“I am not an official spokesperson
for the Smithsonian Institution”

4. Preamble
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
“I am not an official spokesperson
for the Smithsonian Institution”

5. This presentation draws
Preamble from these slides/papers
(and others!)
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
“I am not an official spokesperson
for the Smithsonian Institution”
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/ http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/go http://www.slideshare.net/edson
michael-edson-brown-university- od-projects-gone-bad-an- m/good-projects-gone-bad-an-
digital-strategy-thermocline introduction-to-process-maturity- introduction-to-process-maturity
1384375

6. This one too! Preamble
Twitter: @mpedson
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
Technology, New Media, and Museums:
Who’s in Charge?
“I am not an official spokesperson
(from AAM 2008 annual conference)
for the Smithsonian Institution”
Text notes: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/aam2009-session-intro-and-notes-who-is-in-charge-v2
PowerPoint: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/new-media-technology-and-museums

7. Premise of this presentation
Premise:
a) You work in--or have a stake in--museum
publishing
b) Your model of … has been disrupted by
digital media
c) You’re interested in--or are struggling with--
how you, your department, or your museum
should change because of (b).

8. “Patterns” can help

9. “Patterns” can help
The seminal patterns
in architecture/urban
design book.

10. “Patterns” can help

11. Software patterns…
“Patterns” can help

12. “Patterns” can help
Once you see a pattern and have a name for it
you can start to communicate about it…
...and hack it.

13. “Patterns” can help
This presentation describes ten patterns I’ve
found over the last 15 years of trying to figure out
how to deal with organizational change.

14. “Patterns” can help
This presentation describes ten patterns I’ve
found over the last 15 years of trying to figure out
how to deal with organizational change.
I hope they help!!!

16. Pattern 1: ICE is real

17. Pattern 1: ICE is real
“ICE” = Internet Changes Everything

18. Pattern 1: ICE is real
“ICE” = Internet Changes Everything
• ~2 billion Internet users
• ~4 billion mobile phone subscribers

19. “Everything we hear from people we
interview is that today’s consumers
draw no distinctions between an
organization’s Web site and their
traditional bricks-and-mortar presence:
both must be excellent for either to be
excellent.”
Lee Rainie
Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

20. “Twenty years from now we’ll look back
and say this was the embryonic period.
The Web is only going to get more
revolutionary”
--Tim Berners-Lee, 2006

22. Pattern 2: Urgency

23. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

24. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
Harvard Business School

25. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
Harvard Business School
40+ years of studying change

26. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
Over 70% of all change
initiatives fail.

27. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
The 30% that succeed share
a single characteristic…

28. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
A sense of Urgency

29. Pattern 2: Urgency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency
Harvard Business Review “Ideacast” with John Kotter
http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1869
A Sense of Urgency (via Google Books)
http://books.google.com/books?id=xCAD8ashi_UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+kotter+sense+of+urgency&source=bl&ots
=WXQnhRPxhb&sig=dkqctdFuUhfG5OUD7Gzl4oihmUU&hl=en&ei=j1EfTPLJLMH-
8Ab0uajCDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
A Sense of Urgency (via Amazon)
http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Urgency-John-P-
Kotter/dp/1422179710

31. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation

32. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma

33. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma
(Via Amazon)
http://www.amazon.com/Inno
vators-Dilemma-
Revolutionary-Business-
Essentials/dp/0060521996

34. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma
Sears was at the top if the world
in the 1960’s

35. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s
Dilemma
Sears was at the top if the world
in the 1960’s
They missed discount retailing.

36. Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation
“You’ve got about three years until you’re
locked into being just a museum of stuff on
the mall”
Executive from a national media/educational
brand, about the Smithsonian’s digital
strategy

38. Pattern 4: Strategy Makes a
Difference

39. In today’s environment, where you
could be doing almost anything,
You need strategy to help you
prioritize tactical opportunities
(or
sense an opportunity that is
beyond their grasp.)

40. Strategy is a tool that “does work”
(or
sense an opportunity that is
beyond their grasp.)

41. “Most organizations don’t get
serious about strategy until
they are afraid or in pain”
(or
sense an opportunity that is
beyond their grasp.) CEO
Leo Mullen,
Navigation Arts

42. http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

43. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

44. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

45. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

46. The strategy talks about an updated digital
experience, a new learning model that helps
people with their "lifelong learning journeys,"
and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—
a new part of our digital presence dedicated to
stimulating learning, creation, and innovation
through open access to Smithsonian research,
collections and communities.
Old Learning Model
New Learning Model
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

47. Balancing autonomy and control within the
Smithsonian.rt of our digital presence
dedicated to stimulating learning, creation,
and innovation through open access to
Smithsonian research, collections and
communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

48. …and the creation of a Smithsonian
Commons—a new part of our digital presence
dedicated to stimulating learning, creation,
and innovation through open access to
Smithsonian research, collections and
communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

49. Smithsonian Web & New Media
Strategy Structure
• Three Themes
– Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience
– Update the Smithsonian Learning Model
– Balance Autonomy and Control within SI
• Eight Goals External Internal
Mission Interpretation
Brand Technology
Learning Business Model
Audience Governance
Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendations
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

50. Web & New Media Strategy
Structure
• Three Themes
– Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience
– Update the Smithsonian Learning Model we
This gives us a language
– Balance Autonomy and Control within SI our
can use to understand
work, what’s important, and
• Eight Goals External change will look like.
what Internal
Mission Interpretation
Brand Technology
Learning Business Model
Audience Governance
Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendations

52. Pattern 5: thermocline issues

53. Thermocline
(a metaphor)
Stratified water temperature
acts as a barrier

54. Thermocline
(a metaphor)
Knowledge, communication,
action models are different
Warm light water
Cold dense water

55. Thermocline
(a metaphor)
Knowledge, communication,
action models are different
Management
Practitioners

56. Thermocline
(a metaphor)
Messages get distorted, lost

57. Thermocline
(a metaphor)
Messages get distorted, lost

58. Thermocline Issues
Focus on Catalyze innovation/
innovation/ discovery
discovery outside the institution
inside the Institution
Joy’s Law: no matter
who you are, most of
the smartest people
work for someone else

59. Thermocline Issues
Provide services Every user is a
to passive audiences hero
In their own
epic journey

60. Thermocline Issues
Provide services Every user is a
to passive audiences hero
In their own
epic journey

61. Thermocline Issues
The Web is a
fundamentally new
way of getting
things done
The Web is
a bigger megaphone

62. Thermocline Issues
“we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in
our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and
to take collective action, all outside the framework of
traditional institutions and organization …Getting the
free and ready participation of a large, distributed
group with a variety of skills has gone from impossible
to simple.”
Clay Shirky

63. Thermocline Issues
The most interesting
You can manage
ecosystems are
technology and content
in “border habitats”
separately
between the two

64. Thermocline Issues
More in…
And…
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/
michael-edson-brown-university-
digital-strategy-thermocline
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/
michael-edson-prototyping-the-
smithsonian-commons

66. Pattern 6: You’re not alone

67. Pattern 6: You’re not alone
I’ve talked to dozens of museums, businesses,
and government agencies in the last year, and
they’re all feeling tension around these issues.

68. Pattern 6: You’re not alone
I’ve talked to dozens of museums, businesses,
and government agencies in the last year, and
they’re all feeling tension around these issues.
Just in the last few months I’ve sensed a greater
sense of urgency around these issues— “we’re
playing for keeps now.”

70. Pattern 7: You get what you
practice

71. Pattern 7: You get what you
practice
• If you tell me you’re training for the Boston
Marathon, and I come over to your house, I expect to
see sweat socks and running shoes in your hallway
and pasta in the fridge.
• Is your executive team working hard enough? Do you
see the tangible evidence (meetings, hires, spending,
focus) that this is important to your organization?
• By the time you need to be good at this, it’s too late
to start training.
• Gladwell’s “10,000 hours”

73. Pattern 8: Process Maturity

74. Pattern 8: Process Maturity
• Evolutionary roadmaps for getting from point
A to point B
• Originally developed to help organizations
figure out what kinds of things they would be
capable of doing in the future
• Five plateaus…

75. Capability Maturity Model
1. Initial – Processes, if they are defined at all, are ad hoc.
Successes depend on individual heroics and are generally not
repeatable.
2. Managed – Basic project management practices are
established and the discipline is in place to repeat earlier
successes with similar projects.
3. Defined – Processes are documented and standardized and all
projects use approved, tailored versions of the standard
processes.
4. Quantitatively Managed – The performance of processes and
the quality of end-products are managed with quantitative
measurement and analysis.
5. Optimizing – Continuous process improvement is enabled by
quantitative feedback from the process and from piloting
innovative ideas.

76. Capability Maturity Model
5. Optimizing
4. Quantitatively Managed
3. Defined
2. Managed
1. Initial

77. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Processes
Measurement
Technology

78. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Success depends on
Processes
individual heroics
Measurement
Technology

79. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
“Fire fighting”
Processes
is a way of life
Measurement
Technology

80. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Relationships between
Processes
disciplines are
Measurement uncoordinated,
Technology perhaps even
adversarial

81. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Success depends on individuals
Processes
Commitments are understood
Measurement
and managed
Technology
People are trained

82. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Project groups work together,
Processes
perhaps as an integrated team
Measurement
Training is planned and provided
Technology according to roles

83. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Strong sense of teamwork
Processes
exists within each project
Measurement
Technology

84. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Strong sense of teamwork
Processes
exists across the organization
Measurement
Everyone is involved in
Technology process improvement

85. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People
Processes
Measurement
Technology

86. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Few stable processes
exist or are used
Processes
“Just do it!”
Measurement
Technology

87. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People At the individual project level,
documented and stable
Processes estimating, planning and
commitment processes are used
Measurement
Problems are recognized and
Technology corrected as they occur

88. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Integrated management and
engineering processes
Processes (how things get built)
are used across the
Measurement organization
Technology Problems are anticipated and
prevented, or their impacts are
minimized

89. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Processes are quantitatively
understood and stabilized
Processes
Sources of individual problems are
Measurement understood and eliminated
Technology

90. Understanding the levels
1 2 3 4 5
People Processes are continuously and
systematically improved
Processes
Common sources of problems are
Measurement understood and eliminated
Technology

91. I’ve seen most organizations follow this basic
path as they mature/evolve their Web and New
Media management processes and structure.

92. 1. Ad Hoc (chaotic)
• web program owned by arbitrary
stakeholders
• Underground, success (but not
repeatable)
• Nothing measured
• Dependent on heroics

93. 2. Managed (Emerging)
• Web program owned by separate
workgroup, still small, position & importance
in organization uncertain (special interest
hobby shop, everyone knows it is important
but not sure to what degree or how it
works).
• Some measurement, explicit responsibility to
somebody, usually lower in the org chart

94. 3. Defined: authority vested in some
semi-logical entity.
• Director level awareness of web importance,
uncertainty over purpose of web & org.
placement leads to internal power struggle,
debate over "who owns", multiple reorgs.
• Mostly based on competence and/or
willingness, without regard to org chart
rationale.
• Lots of matrix and dotted-lines
• Corsely visible in budgets, PD’s, planning,
measurement

95. 4. Quantitatively Managed
• Professionalization of web, greater
awareness of role and key stakeholders,
integral part of organization.
• Formal organization, oversight. Usually in
the Director’s office to someone without
specific background
• Increasing cross-disciplinary
expertise/experience: the team is familiar
and broadly competent with each others
areas of expertise.

96. 5. Optimizing
• There’s Formal ownership in the
executive suite
• Directors engaged (look at their
appointment book)
• Professional, full-time management
• Win/win scenarios with controlled
innovation and experimentation

97. Using the model

98. Capability Maturity Model
Figure out 5. Optimizing
where you
are? 4. Quantitatively Managed
3. Defined
2. Managed
1. Initial

99. Capability Maturity Model
5. Optimizing
Ratchet up
gradually 4. Quantitatively Managed
over time
3. Defined
2. Managed
1. Initial

100. Capability Maturity Model
Don’t skip steps 5. Optimizing
4. Quantitatively Managed
3. Defined
2. Managed
1. Initial

101. Capability Maturity Model
5. Optimizing
Don’t slip back! 4. Quantitatively Managed
3. Defined
2. Managed
1. Initial

102. Capability Maturity Model
Pick projects
Appropriate 5. Optimizing
For your
level 4. Quantitatively Managed
3. Defined
2. Managed
1. Initial

103. Capability Maturity Model
More in…
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/go http://www.slideshare.net/edson
od-projects-gone-bad-an- m/good-projects-gone-bad-an-
introduction-to-process-maturity- introduction-to-process-maturity
1384375

105. Pattern 9: blowing it off

106. Pattern 9: blowing it off
• It seems quite acceptable to blow off making
decisions and moving forward…

107. This was four years ago!

109. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I
wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris

110. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I
wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris

111. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated. "I
wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris

112. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all the time, that the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated.
"I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris

113. "There's no one in the record company that's a
technologist," Morris explains. "That's a
misconception writers make all about might explain a few things is
the where thethat business
This time,
music
the
record industry missed this. They didn't. They just
today…
didn't know what to do. It's like if you were
suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove
his kidney. What would you do?” "We didn't know
who to hire," he says, becoming more agitated.
"I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology
person — anyone with a good bullshit story would
have gotten past me."
From a Wired Magazine interview with
Doug Morris, Chair and CEO of Universal
Music Group
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/
magazine/15-12/mf_morris

114. Smithsonian Relevance?
Unexpected Rivals in Reach (July – Sept, 2009)
Enchantedlearning.com
si.edu
discoveryeducation.com
ocean.com

115. Smithsonian Relevance?
Brand Identity
Brandtags.net
We are the 560th of 928 brands

116. Smithsonian Relevance?
More in…
“Imagining the Smithsonian Commons”
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/cil-
2009-michael-edson-text-version

118. Pattern 10: Any model can work

119. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
YOU ARE HERE
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

120. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
YOU ARE HERE
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

121. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

122. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

123. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

124. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

125. The Road to Success
Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

126. The Road to Success
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

127. The Road to Success
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

128. The Road to Success
Specialization…
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

129. The Road to Success
Most organizations
are here…
Specialization…
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

130. The Road to Success
To get here, use any
effective practice
Specialization…
whatsoever…
BUT USE IT!
Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town Efficient-Development Town
Sometimes-Predictable-Cost-and-Schedule Town
High-Cost/Long-Schedule Town
Classic-Mistakes Town
Reference: McConnell, Steve
Rapid Development, Taming Wild Software Schedules.
Microsoft Press, 1996

131. Success could look like this (?)
The Smithsonian Commons Prototype
http://www.si.edu/commons/prototype

132. Thank You!
Michael Edson
Director of Web and New Media Strategy
Smithsonian Institution