This document provides an overview of a leadership development program called "Reframing Leadership". The program is designed for senior executives and business leaders and teaches 21st century leadership skills. Participants will learn how to think differently, challenge assumptions, solve problems in new ways, deliver quick and effective change without disrupting the organization. The program is highly practical and interactive, with participants working to design small changes to address real issues in their organizations. It teaches skills like reframing strategies, overcoming resistance to change, and identifying strengths within the organization to minimize disruption and speed up change.
Growing your business can be hard work. But, it becomes even harder when you continually focus on “areas for improvement”… There is an alternative; it is called a “Bright Spots Approach”.
In this presentation you will learn:
- Why you should focus more on bright spots
- How other companies are successfully using bright spots to grow faster
- Why bright spots focus will also help you fix the weak spots in your company
- How you can get started quickly
The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Moving On".
Growing your business can be hard work. But, it becomes even harder when you continually focus on “areas for improvement”… There is an alternative; it is called a “Bright Spots Approach”.
In this presentation you will learn:
- Why you should focus more on bright spots
- How other companies are successfully using bright spots to grow faster
- Why bright spots focus will also help you fix the weak spots in your company
- How you can get started quickly
The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Moving On".
What does a company do when there is a problem, but the solution is not very clear, a problem that could have many solutions, depending on the situation and attitudes of the people involved/affected? These problems are called “adaptive challenges”. One person with authority or expertise only cannot successfully address them. They require a carefully selected team and someone in the team to lead them. Too many companies have tried to address these adaptive challenges through directives from someone in authority (the person with the title) with no success because of the attitudes, habits, behavior, values, loyalties, hidden alliances and procedures within each front-line group. Asking questions like these help: How do these challenges affect the group? What outcome would be best for it? How much does the group care? What resources can the group control? I looked into this after seeing a lecture on this topic and prepared material on it. Have a look at this presentation. I hope it gives some ideas to handle these complicated challenges.
By John Shook of Lean Enterprise Institute and David Brunt of Lean Enterprise Academy shown at the Lean Summit 2011 - Solving Business Problems on 10/11 November 2011
Projects succeed though people, processes, and tools. People are the basis of processes and tools. Here's one approach to increasing the Probability of Success
Cycles: The simplest, proven way to build your businessBryan Cassady
Scaling up is hard and deadly if done wrong. We would like to help you get it right.
A study by Startup Genome analyzed the results of 3,200 start-ups, they found that of the majority of start-ups failed. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What is more important is they found, 70% failed because of premature or faulty scaling.
In this workshop, you learn about the ABCs method. The ABCs method is a system-based approach to growing your business. It has been proven to build ideas up to 6x faster while reducing risks 30-80%.
A small summery and description of network organization that can be used for large out-scaled agile organizations. Some way to manage the decentralization.
Learn about, the problem solving method, problem definition, generating solutions, analysing and selecting solutions, planning your next steps, recording lessons learned,
Onboarding Freelancers LinkedIn Group Deck Business901
Would you contribute to empowering Freelancers in your work environment?
Please consider joining this LinkedIn Group:
https://lnkd.in/eRuGzsm
As the use of Freelancers proliferate across organizational departments new ways of thinking are required. We have created instances of success in employee onboarding but often we have similar expectations of Freelancers in very condensed cycles.
This group is intended first and foremost to create awareness of these issues and elaborate on ideas for enhancing the flow of work between the stakeholders.
Lean Scale Up: Lean as a Growth StrategyBusiness901
The Lean Scale-Up ebook has been a handout and lead generator on my website for several years. It was created with the understanding that if you can build a culture of PDCA, a culture of learning, growth becomes part of everyone’s job.
It is this aspect I have always believe that separates good companies from great companies.
Here is where management giving directives fails. A manager cannot order his staff to be more creative. He can't order people to be motivated. He can't order people to care more. Generally, applying pressure or offering financial incentives fail. So, if directives don't work, what should the manager do? How can he mobilize engagement, desire and attention? It seems that creating an environment around support in three areas has shown good results. One is offering autonomy, encouraging mastery and promoting purpose seem to show good results.
Several years back I studied this issue and prepared a presentation on it. Have a look at the attached it might generate some management strategies for you.
What does a company do when there is a problem, but the solution is not very clear, a problem that could have many solutions, depending on the situation and attitudes of the people involved/affected? These problems are called “adaptive challenges”. One person with authority or expertise only cannot successfully address them. They require a carefully selected team and someone in the team to lead them. Too many companies have tried to address these adaptive challenges through directives from someone in authority (the person with the title) with no success because of the attitudes, habits, behavior, values, loyalties, hidden alliances and procedures within each front-line group. Asking questions like these help: How do these challenges affect the group? What outcome would be best for it? How much does the group care? What resources can the group control? I looked into this after seeing a lecture on this topic and prepared material on it. Have a look at this presentation. I hope it gives some ideas to handle these complicated challenges.
By John Shook of Lean Enterprise Institute and David Brunt of Lean Enterprise Academy shown at the Lean Summit 2011 - Solving Business Problems on 10/11 November 2011
Projects succeed though people, processes, and tools. People are the basis of processes and tools. Here's one approach to increasing the Probability of Success
Cycles: The simplest, proven way to build your businessBryan Cassady
Scaling up is hard and deadly if done wrong. We would like to help you get it right.
A study by Startup Genome analyzed the results of 3,200 start-ups, they found that of the majority of start-ups failed. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What is more important is they found, 70% failed because of premature or faulty scaling.
In this workshop, you learn about the ABCs method. The ABCs method is a system-based approach to growing your business. It has been proven to build ideas up to 6x faster while reducing risks 30-80%.
A small summery and description of network organization that can be used for large out-scaled agile organizations. Some way to manage the decentralization.
Learn about, the problem solving method, problem definition, generating solutions, analysing and selecting solutions, planning your next steps, recording lessons learned,
Onboarding Freelancers LinkedIn Group Deck Business901
Would you contribute to empowering Freelancers in your work environment?
Please consider joining this LinkedIn Group:
https://lnkd.in/eRuGzsm
As the use of Freelancers proliferate across organizational departments new ways of thinking are required. We have created instances of success in employee onboarding but often we have similar expectations of Freelancers in very condensed cycles.
This group is intended first and foremost to create awareness of these issues and elaborate on ideas for enhancing the flow of work between the stakeholders.
Lean Scale Up: Lean as a Growth StrategyBusiness901
The Lean Scale-Up ebook has been a handout and lead generator on my website for several years. It was created with the understanding that if you can build a culture of PDCA, a culture of learning, growth becomes part of everyone’s job.
It is this aspect I have always believe that separates good companies from great companies.
Here is where management giving directives fails. A manager cannot order his staff to be more creative. He can't order people to be motivated. He can't order people to care more. Generally, applying pressure or offering financial incentives fail. So, if directives don't work, what should the manager do? How can he mobilize engagement, desire and attention? It seems that creating an environment around support in three areas has shown good results. One is offering autonomy, encouraging mastery and promoting purpose seem to show good results.
Several years back I studied this issue and prepared a presentation on it. Have a look at the attached it might generate some management strategies for you.
Certificate Global Business Leadership Brochure - GlobalNxt UniversityGlobalNxt University
This program provides participants with high-value skills to lead global teams and pioneer effective business strategy.
Employees will develop a keen understanding of current markets and operations in an increasingly dynamic and competitive business environment. Our comprehensive six-module approach covers topics that range from strategic management to global leadership.
Uploading certificate with oracle wallet manager and orapki utilitiesÖzgür Umut Vurgun
Uploading certificate with oracle wallet manager and orapki utilities Articles .... OTECHMag Fall 2015
http://otechmag.com/magazine/2015/fall/ozgur-umut-vurgun---orhan-eripek.html
This report is about how and why young Chinese women are using e- commerce and social media to make their shopping choices.
We conducted ethnographic research with 10 young women who are avid online clothing shoppers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing.
This report is all about young women and clothes, but the conditions and drivers behind the behavior have implications well beyond cheap and cheerful online fast fashion.
Because what we see is that for young consumers in China, the starting point for shopping is shifting from advertising, brands, and retailers… to people.
If you are working for making a change in your business or organization, you need to know that making plan for change requires both effectiveness and efficacy. effectiveness would be an external parameter and the other is internal. you lead the organization to an improvement for having a more effectiveness, but you need to work on its efficacy which maintain the effect of change more stable and also help them to make a new mindset which they need to make more changes by themselves.
Much of the time, we view innovation through a lens of total newness, but teachings from a variety of industries and professions might hold the key to defining successful strategies, and positively influence the way innovation is executed in the enterprise space.
Transitions are a critical time for leaders at all levels. Missteps made during the crucial first three months in a new role can jeopardize your success.
In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of taking on a new role — no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, also addresses today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face more frequent changes and steeper expectations when they start their new jobs.
Whether you’re starting a new job, being promoted from within, or embarking on an overseas assignment, this is the guide you’ll need to succeed in your first 90 days — and beyond.
Many of us in government want to change the way our agencies work. These changes can take many forms. Some of us may want to fix a process or change/eliminate counterproductive rules. Others may wish to shoot for more ambitious goals that require a change of culture. The current push to expand the use of collaboration tools like Web 2.0 technologies is one example of a big and important culture change.Effecting change in a large organization is difficult. Those difficulties can be magnified greatly in the public sector. Entrenched rules and structures pose many obstacles. Resource limitations often seem to be the things in greatest abundance. And the possibility of criticism from senior bosses, Congress and the media tends to make many managers risk averse.So how does one overcome all these obstacles to bring about significant positive change? Here is the 12 step guide.
Are we Prepared for Scrum Master’s Role in COVID-19 Outbreak?Invensis Learning
No one was ready for COVID19! With a back to back lockdown months affecting the entire business verse globally. According to a PwC survey, 72% of respondents believe their companies will be more Agile going forward and 68% believe they will have flexible work environment to better equip in the long run.
In this regard, know how the Scrum Masters help thousands of teams all around the globe to collaborate? Do you feel that you are prepared for Post-COVID19 changes the way we work? How to deal with the disruptive changes?
#scrummaster #agile #covid19 #agileprojectmanagement #scrum #itmanagers #projectmanager
Areas covered:
1. Who is a Scrum Master and why we need a Scrum Master
2. How Scrum Master helped the teams in COVID19 to align and maximize value.
3. Why this is the high time for us to know about the role.
4. How can you be a good Scrum Master?
Who’ll benefit:
* IT Professionals
* Project Managers
* Delivery Managers
* QA and Testing Professionals
* Scrum Team Members
* Aspiring Scrum Masters
* Anyone who might be interested to know or oppose the idea all together
Speaker Profile:
Satyavrat Nirala is one of Asia’s youngest trainer and coach with certifications of CSM, CSPO, and CAL1, CAMS certification. He has been training and coaching Project management teams, Scrum teams internationally for the last 7 years. Started his career as a project technical analyst, Satyavrat has traversed through various roles in his journey including that of a self-thought coder, software team member, Business Analyst, SME, Scrum Master, Process Consultant, Project Management and Agile guide and coach and Mentor over a span of 14+ years.
For more information please visit our website: https://www.invensislearning.com/
RICS APM Project Leadership Conference Feb 2016Donnie MacNicol
Slides used in a highly interactive session using materials from Project Leadership 3rd Edition. Delegates were provided with the opportunity to walk between rooms and discuss the questions.
What is culture? What kinds of culture are there?
2. What are the key methods used to describe cultures? What are the additional determinants of cultures?
3. How does culture impact local business practices and how does cultural understanding apply to business
negotiating?
4. What is global business ethics and how is it impacted by culture?
5. How do ethics impact global businesses?
Organizational Change Management: Game Changer or Flavor of the day?Deepak Babbar
This abstract reflects some of the practical challenges organizations undergoing business and information technology (IT) transformations face in today’s rapidly changing environment. When organizations embark on these large-scale initiatives, increasingly they are adding organizational change management (OCM) to the mix. This is, perhaps, an acknowledgement that previous initiatives have not met the mark because the people side of change was underestimated or not factored in.
“Everyone keeps telling accountants that they need to change their focus from the historic and the backward-looking, and to start being proactive and offering future-focused advice – but no one tells them how. The beauty of the Anticipatory Organization program is that it actually gives you a set of tools to harness the hard trends that are shaping the future, and use them to create new value for your firm and your clients.” - Daniel Hood, Editor-in-Chief of Accounting Today (when recognizing AOAF as a 2016 Top Product in Learning
The competency of “anticipation” actually includes a number of competencies included in many of the top companies of today.
Across these models, you'll see a common theme of “strategic thinking," "innovation" and “leading change."
Many of these organizations build (and validate) fantastic competency models and know what they want people to do.
The top five skills and competencies identified for CPAs, accounting and finance professionals are:
1. Strategic and critical thinking;
2. Communication;
3. Anticipating and serving evolving needs;
4. Inspiring and motivating others;
5. Collaboration and mobilizing consensus
The beauty of the Anticipatory Organization model is that it offers a clear process that makes highly-abstract leadership competencies attainable and trainable. Using nano-leanring in very short 3-4 minute single concept videos (imagine a series of shirt Ted Talks) with rapid application exercises to immediately apply the concepts to the job, and visual job aids to reinforce and remember the learning. Add a team implementation and collaboration guide and you can create a shared language and culture of being anticipatory and proactive.
If an organization wants to make "strategic thinking" or "innovation" a core competency, we can provide clear, trainable activities that can be targeted to a wide range of learners (from individual contributors to senior leadership). We provide the bridge between the competency model and the desired observable behaviors.
For more information visit www.blionline.org/ao or contact Tom Hood tom@blionline.org
1. LIGHT TOUCH CHANGE
REFRAMING LEADERSHIP
A highly interactive program designed for senior executives
and business leaders who want to learn the crucial
21st century leadership skills that are critical for all leaders.
2. LIGHT TOUCH CHANGE
REFRAMING LEADERSHIP
This is a highly interactive program designed for senior executives
and business leaders who want to learn the crucial
21st century leadership skills that are critical for all leaders.
So many leaders are facing situations and challenges they have
never faced before, the old ways of doing things are being
fundamentally challenged, the established rules no longer apply.
They know if they don’t find a way forward, it could severely
jeopardise their organization. We can see this in politics,
business and our universities — they are all facing threats not
seen before.
All this in a society of rapidly evolving change that is threatening
to leave anyone behind who can’t adapt fast enough.
Reframing Leadership teaches you the core skills in how to
adapt, change and think differently to compliment and enhance
your existing quality leadership skills.
1
Daniel Kahneman Thinking, Fast and Slow
What you will learn is:
l To think and look at things differently
i.e. be able to truly innovate and see new
opportunities
l To think; and I mean really think hard,
new and challenging ideas — what
Daniel Kahneman1
calls ‘Slow Thinking’
l To be able to solve problems and address
issues not encountered before without falling
back on what has been done in the past
— and do it fast.
l To actually deliver appropriate change quickly,
that delivers the desired outcomes without
wrecking the organisation.
This program is highly intense and practical,
participants will be actively working on core
business issues throughout the program and
should leave the program with clear next steps
that need to be taken to achieve their goals.
The aim of this program is to give you the skills
of designing small, highly significant change
interventions that will allow your strategies to be
implemented quickly, smoothly and faster than
you were expecting. You will be learning these
skills by simultaneously working to design highly
targeted yet small change interventions to your
current strategies you can implement quickly and
safely back in the workplace.
3. Reframing Leadership 3
Specifically you will learn how to:
l See the world differently: By learning
a methodology and mindset to challenge
assumptions, open your blinkers and see
new opportunities that you have previously
not seen.
l Innovative and elegant thinking: This can be
described as a Kahneman Slow Thinking
Session on steroids — we call it ‘Hasten Slowly’.
l Take your strategy apart and re-build it:
Reframe it and turn it into something doable
and useful.
l Challenge and remove assumptions:
To find elegant solutions that were previously
ignored or overlooked.
l Design small nudge changes to big issues:
Learn how to change behavioural patterns that
allow a whole host of new opportunities to
become available.
l Design small, fast, elegant solutions: Learn
how to find the small, elegant, clever tactics
to large long standing strategies or issues that
deliver results quicker safer and easier than
previously thought.
l Design out resistance: The more you get rid
of resistance the more effective you’re going
to be.
l Use a new ‘lens’: To look critically at situations
that challenges and flushes out assumptions.
This can be easily and simply used with
individuals through to whole leadership teams.
l Identify and build on strengths: Find strengths
(usually not seen or available before) within an
organization to minimize disruption and speed
up change.
Innovative
and
elegant
thinking
4. Expectations of the Program
You are expected to have the core mainstream
leadership and management expertise under your
belt already. This program does not cover this
material — it is assumed knowledge.
Be prepared to have some of your assumptions
challenged and be open to new ideas. Some of this
you will have heard of before, the full combination
you won’t have.
You will receive a phone call from the session
leader before the program to answer any questions
and to get clarity about the issue you are bringing
to the program — most of the time the issue you
want to work on is not big enough.
The key criteria is:
l You have to be responsible for achieving the
strategy or resolving the issue
l You have to have enough detailed knowledge
of the situation so we can work on it
After the program you will receive an individual
two-hour follow up session with one of the
facilitators to ensure you are comfortable with the
material covered as well as the implementation of
your strategy.
This program is designed not to be a cost. You are
expected to get a significant Return on Investment,
not purely from the skills and knowledge gained
but from the strategy/issue you resolve.
“The best training program I have ever been on”
Bill TOYOTA
“The material and skills were highly effective and way beyond
what I thought possible—I walked away with
a way forward to a million dollar plus issue that I really did
not think was possible”
Margarite HEAD OF A LARGE FAMILY BUSINESS IN CANADA
DAY
AM
What is change and how can it be most
accurately defined?
Psychological blinkers — how to view the
world differently.
Linguistics: including how language constructs
our world and how to use video descriptive
techniques.
Psychological frame and frame analysis.
l Behaviour = control
l How to identify what people
are controlling for
Introduction to benevolent scepticism,
Challenging Assumptions: Techniques to
provoke thinking
Not letting that be the problem:
Problem Solving Mountain: Negotiating the
problem and defining ‘What Really Needs
to be Different?’
PM
Working in pairs
Participants working on their strategy with
each taking turns to define in as much detail
what needs to be different in order to achieve
the strategy.
Coaching will be provided throughout the
process. At the end, they will have developed
version one of what they want to be different.
Reframing Change,
Thinking Differently
1
5. Reframing Leadership 5
I’m still extraordinarily thankful for the work you did as
a facilitator with myself and my team three years ago.
It wasa great experience. One of the most beneficial and
professionally delivered courses I have experienced.
Couple a great presenter with relevant worthwhile content
and you have an extremely high standard of course.
Kelly IBM
Phil is my secret weapon. David TOYOTA
His great strength is that he helps you find your own answers
by asking the hard questions. His greatest skill is that without
prescribing ‘the solution’ he enables you to identify the
flaws in your initial formulations of how to handle complex
situations.
John UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
DAY DAY
AM
Review of where each person is up to with
the implementation design of their strategy.
Pattern theory, including:
l Pattern = culture
l Constraints
l Exceptions
l Contexts and context markers
l Identifying contexts of competence
l ‘Always’ and ‘never’ triggers
l Predicting and disassembling patterns
l Crow bar techniques to shifting
the viewing
l The ‘surprise list’
Negative Description Design techniques
and practice session.
AM
Review of where each person is up to with the
implementation design of their strategy.
Introduction to Shimmering and Contrario
Planning.
Contrario = Constraints + Scenario Planning.
This includes:
l How to design resistance out
l Catherine the Great principle
l Identify and risk checking tactics
l Bench testing for unrealised constraints
and unintended consequences
PM
Working in pairs:
Using the new knowledge and techniques
to keep defining and redefining “what really
needs to be different” and what that looks like
in video descriptive detail.
It is assumed that participants will develop
version two and three of the desired outcome
which will become more and more specific.
PM
Working in pairs:
Contrario Planning Session
Shimmering back and forth from the desired
state to the current situation, participants
carefully explore different scenarios by
inserting and/or removing constraints to
bench test possible solutions.
‘Buttering’: This is the active solicitation of ‘yes
buts’ to assess the viability and effectiveness
of possible solutions.
Shifting Patterns
and Contexts
2 3Elegant Solutions
6. How can major change can be brought about
by taking small actions?
When it comes to change, it is the quality of change
that is critical, not the quantity.
Light Touch Change works on the assumption that
any problem or issue, no matter how long standing
or challenging can be resolved with small, highly
targeted tactics. There is over 50 years of research and
practice to back this up. The core philosophical work
underpinning Influential Leadership challenge many of
the long held, but incorrect, assumptions about change.
By challenging these assumptions, new options and
possibilities are opened up that previously have not
and in fact could not, be considered.
With successful change what you don’t see is the
‘Big Bang’ or the ‘Big Launch’. Profound lasting change
happens quietly and effectively. Only afterwards do
people realise that things are now different and working
so much better. Resistance and fight back become a
thing of the past.
In Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, at the point when
their target companies began their meteoric rise, none
of the leaders instituted any ‘big-bang’ type of change
program. There was no blinding flash or turning point.
There was just a constant series of highly effective
tactics that achieved extraordinary long-term results.
Those leaders were good thinkers and analysts.
They were purely interested in achieving their goals
as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Why are you so pedantic about words and language?
Everyone thinks they are being practical and focusing
on reality. In fact reality can be described in a myriad
of different ways depending on the assumptions and
language used. You will hear people use phrases like,
“teaming”, “re-engineer”, “processes”, “value add”,
“effective communication”, “increase profits”, “customer
focus”, “work/life balance”, etc. The problem is that
while we think we understand what it means, the reality
is that they are mid to high level abstractions and can
mean a multitude of different things.
They are all high-level abstractions with many ways of
interpreting them. The challenge is to be able to get
down to a factual description of the situation, to identify
what can be known to be true and what is just an
interpretation. The risk of not doing this is assumptions
never get identified and inadvertent misunderstandings
prevail. There is a skill and a discipline in being able
to focus on this level of detail and facts because
most people spend so much time living in a world of
abstractions and misunderstandings.
Why is Benevolent Scepticism so important?
Benevolent Scepticism is a critical part of being this
work. In order to get through the assumptions and
abstractions that are influencing us all, good leaders
actively do not believe the situation until it can be
indisputably demonstrated to be the way it is described
— invariably of course it isn’t. Benevolent Scepticism
is an active stance and is probably one of the most
difficult things to do — it takes much practice. Active
scepticism is not saying the other person is stupid or
incompetent; it is saying that assumptions need to
be checked and that there are other ways to view the
situation. It is one of the most effective ways
of identifying assumptions and finding new solutions
to a situation.
The importance of this cannot be under estimated.
What is meant by releasing change?
The reason that things are as they currently are,
is that there are a whole lot of tangible and intangible
constraints operating. Things like, the local repeating
patterns, the unconscious assumptions that people are
working on guiding their behaviour, issues that people
assume are important, the local cultural rules, etc.
In many ways this can be summarised as the informal
rules of how we behave in a particular context. All these
are operating to maintain the status quo; whether this
is good or bad, it is just the status quo.
By not addressing these local rules very little useful
change actually happens. Many traditional change
strategies only address the formal ‘rules’ or ‘structures’
rather than “what really goes on around here” and
therefore make little real impact.
However if we do address the constraints holding the
local rules in place then change is released; think of
moving the log in a logjam that allows the rest to move.
Influential Leaders spend a great deal of time focusing
on what the local constraints are and then identifying
how to move them to ensure that the desired change is
released with minimal downside.
What is Primary Change and what is Secondary
Change?
According to Watzlawick et al, Primary Change is all the
things that we do, large and small, cheap and expensive,
complex or simple that at the end of the day fail to
achieve our desired outcome.
By contrast, Secondary Change is all the things that we
do, large and small, cheap and expensive, complex or
simple that deliver the outcome.
Primary change usually occurs when people have not
done their analysis well enough and have not worked
out in enough detail what part of the repeating pattern
needs to be changed — hence despite lots of energy
and time being put in — nothing really changes!
Light Touch Change FAQ
7. Reframing Leadership 7
How much executive time is spent unintentionally
achieving Primary Change?
In reality, effective change is always dependent upon a
person’s perception. What this means in practice is that
change interventions are designed so that those who
need to see a change do so and are happy with it. At the
same time, in order to reduce resistance, there will be
people who must not see a change or must interpret it in
a very different way. Interventions are then simultaneously
designed to that this happens and therefore resistance
is reduced to virtually nothing — this is at the heart of
Tactical Analysis work
Why is there such an emphasis on patterns?
Personal and organisational behaviour is very patterned
— in many ways we are very predictable, however change
the context and the patterns change. You know you’re in
a pattern when you get that sense of ‘here we go again’,
the ‘same old same old’… If the ‘same old same old’ is fine,
and often it is, then don’t fix it. However, when we do need
things to be different, ie, that vicious cycle creating havoc,
the correct ‘key’ to the pattern needs to be found to
change it in such a way that it cannot be the same again.
It is important to not only focus on identifying the negative
patterns, but how to intervene in them simply and quickly
so they lose their power.
The challenge with patterns is that all parties involved
believe, with conviction, they have done “everything they
can”. When you actually count these, the number of things
tried usually numbers less than 10! And all 10 provoke the
same type of reaction in the other party (primary change
at work) and of course the pattern carries on.
The secret to pattern intervention is identifying a small,
seemingly insignificant, behaviour that is different from
the original ones and which provokes a different and more
desirable behaviour in the other party (secondary change).
Identifying the secondary change tactic can only be done
by looking at the situation very differently and in a highly
detailed manner — this is where benevolent scepticism is
critical.
Why not use models of leadership or organisations?
No leadership or organisational model can ever provide
information with the required level of specificity or
relevance to the current situation. Leadership frameworks
may provide an indication of the ‘type’ of action that may
be required, for example, coaching, being a role model,
focusing on the bottom line, driving change, but there
are many, many different ways of ‘coaching’ and ‘driving
change’. Getting this detail right is crucial to success.
Equally, getting it wrong can and often does lead to not
much being different.
This is the difference between having a broad strategy and
knowing the specific tactics to effectively implement it.
The shift that needs to be made is to stop following sets
of rules. Stop with the recipes, forget the ‘in this type of
situation you do X’ or ‘in this type of situation you do Y’
type thinking. All this does is lead to very automated,
clumsy and ineffective change.
What is being suggested is that good leaders remove
their blinkers, challenge the prevailing assumptions and
develop skills in being able to analyse each situation with
its unique patterns, contexts, constraints and personalities
as it is. From this they are then able to identify what is the
best way to intervene to achieve the desired outcome with
minimal fuss and downside.
Basically, trade-in the models of what organisations
should do, the latest fads and ideas, trade them in for
good thinking and analysis. People should be thinking
about what will really make a difference to the situation
in a way that helps people do their job and achieves the
organisation’s goals.
All the information is at hand in our heads and also in the
heads of people who work for us — if we are but prepared
to tap into it.
Alexander the Great, possibly the most successful military
commander in history, demonstrates this well. When
he was being educated, by Aristotle no less, as well as
learning military tactics and leadership, his key learning
was how to think, debate and analyse well. It was clear
that he and his future commanders were going to be in
situations that were completely unpredictable and that
no previous knowledge, models or experience was going
to be much help. Therefore his ability to think about
what was required for each specific situation, using and
analysing the information at hand to the maximum, was
the premium skill required.
He went on to conquer the known world by the time he
was 33.
Surely desperate times call for desperate measures,
large restructures, transformational leadership etc?
This is fine as long as the leader is prepared to see the
company go to the wall when one of the ‘desperate
measures’ backfires because it was a stupid thing to do.
So often, leaders limit themselves to a few, often crude,
methods that don’t deliver and in fact do more damage.
At the end of the day much of this is common sense
isn’t it?
Yes — but not common practice!