The Change Journey is a radical approach to change. It is based on the paradigm that change in organizations is not a linear path from A to B. As many of us experience, what happens in a change process is largely unpredictable. Our Change Journey Map then helps you to navigate through uncertainty. This Map is inclusive - which means whatever tools and models you are used to can be incorporated. For all of you who are involved in a change process - we invite you to become a fellow traveller! This community is the place to reflect about the journey principles and tools that go along.

1. The Change Journey Map A Tool for Managing Complexity in Organizations

2. We all carry images of organizations in our mind. Most of us still believe an organization is a machine. please watch the following video clip…

3. The reality is different. Organizations are complex social systems. (from: zeno on Flickr)

4. What makes an organization a complex system? All people have individual concerns, purposes, and circumstances. All people in an organization make many unsupervised decisions, every day. All people in an organization are connected in different ways to other people within and without the organization. There is a close to infinite number of external and internal influence factors that shape the destiny of the organization. Social systems have a strong urge to protect their integrity.

5. 1. All people have individual concerns, purposes, and circumstances. Before you continue, please read more about this model of human needs of Manfred Max-Neefhere. Subsistence Freedom from Want (Income/Livelihood) Protection Freedom from Fear andAbuse (Ground Rules) Identity Freedom To BeProud of Yourself(Self-Esteem) Affection Freedom fromRejection (Dignity/Teamwork) Creation Freedom to Create YourOwn Future (New Ideas) Freedom Freedom fromCoercion (Autonomy) Understanding Freedom fromUncertainty (Information Access) Leisure Freedom fromExhaustion (Stress Reduction) Participation Freedom fromExclusion (Inclusivity)

7. How many decisions of my staff can I control?

8. How accurate can I predict the compounded effect of those decisions?

9. What is, honestly, the expectancy range of what will happen tomorrow, the day after, and beyond?Before you continue, please read more about decision making in uncertain times here

10. 3. All people in an organization are connected in different ways image from: Delta7

12. in your community

13. in the local economy

14. in the international economy

15. in politics

16. in families of your organization’s members

17. in your brain

18. …Each of these happenings add to uncertainty. No computer can calculate the effect of these compounding influence factors.

19. 5. Social systems have a strong urge to protect their integrity An organization can be compared with a cell. The main purpose of the cell is to survive and to reproduce. HumbertoMaturana and Francisco Varela called these self-protecting and self-generating behavior “autopoiesis”. Any organization tries to make sure that it is not corrupted, which can easily happen in a change process. This is often felt as “change resistance”, but it is a natural behavior. Here is some reading for you to do before you proceed: Autopoiesis(Wikipedia)Autopoeisis in the business organization (PDF) Autopoiesis in virtual organizations (PDF)

20. How to deal with complexity in organizations? Source: Cognitive Edge Most change processes aresituated in the left quadrant (complex), few are in the knowable sphere, some are in the chaos sphere and none are in the known sphere. This is why the effect of an intervention into a system cannot be predicted. The quicker we accept that, the easier we can find strategies to cope with it.

21. The Change Journey is a radical approach to change. It is based on the emerging new paradigm which assumes that change in organizations does not follow a linear path from A to place B. What happens in a change process is largely unpredictable and rarely plannable.

22. There are hundreds of different change management models. None of them guarantees success. Why don’t you let the organization come up with their own model? The Change Journey is a process that facilitates the design of an organization specific change model.

23. The Change Journey Map is a tool for facilitation of dialogues around a team’s or organization’s specific Change Journey.

25. The Map as 23 places. Each of the places has some questions attached that are meant to inspire dialogue. The questions come along as a card deck. For example: The Mall of Human Needs What do we know about the needs, concerns and circumstances of our people? What prevents people from freely expressing their needs? How do all make sure that concerns, purposes and needs of our people are acknowledged, respected and taken care of? Where do we experience resistance to change which might be an expression of unsatisfied needs? What other questions do we need to ask?

26. As a Change Practitioner, you can use the Map to facilitate a dialogue with a team or a whole organization, let them define their own change model, help them by choosing the right tools for initiating and sustaining a change process. The Change Journey and the Change Journey Map are neutral to other models and methodologies – all of them can be incorporated and applied for the implementation of a specific change journey.

28. Contribute to the knowledge + practice base

29. Come see us at one of our global workshops in summer 2010 (Ammersfort/NL, Brussels, London, Berlin, Sydney, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York). Dates, venues and more places will be announced soon!

30. In our workshops, we will hand out licenses for Map , a soft copy for printing high quality Maps and other supplementary material