Changing something by choice and design is different than change that is mandated by another. Organizations make decisions to change some aspect of structures, processes or systems all the time. Those changes are declared by a leader and the organization then sets about to implement the change. Most of these efforts fall short of the intended outcome but we can take that issue up later.
Personal choice to make a change is a powerful starting point for a person. But it is only the start. As mentioned yesterday, the challenge of change is that the rewards are in the future and the hard work is immediate. The gap between these two elements frame the challenge. Our ability to cross that gap defines and reflects much about who we are in the moment.
Purpose for change is a useful conversation to engage. As I write this entry, it is almost the middle of 2009 and in reviewing my goals for the year, I see that I'm hitting some and missing others. Mostly I feel like I am more in response to events than I am designing and producing outcomes. My tendency is to lose contact with the big picture when the events of today become turbulent. If the first part of 2009 has been anything; it is has been turbulent. In all of this chaos, I see that I've not so much lost my way as I have been exposed for not having a more clearly defined purpose. Without a clear purpose, I have been seduced by "other" events. Then boom, the time slips away and impact is lost.
I believe a focused purpose leads to big results. I realized a few weeks ago that I was attempting to do too much, be too much and sought too much. Too much of anything is a move away from focus. I think that the economic turbulence is a perfect opportunity for clarifying purpose. It is essential to determine what aspects of my life, how I spend my time and energy, needs to be eliminated now?
So in re-addressing my purpose, I have started to eliminate projects, type of work, and activities that do not support impact and distract me from my purpose. As a consultant to individuals and organizations, my usefulness is to reflect, integrate and facilitate the best change practices and processes for my clients that build their community. Relationships are central and everything else is derivative.
Before you get moving too far down your change path, get clear on your purpose. What is your purpose for being here? Who benefits from you being on purpose? What are the consequences to you and others when you lose your way? These are questions that need to be addressed and answered. Much has been written in the last year about how we have lost our way, that our priorities have been lost, our values mixed up. That could be so. Getting back on track starts with being clear about my purpose.
5.21.2009
5.20.2009
Why Changing is a Challenging
Changing anything is difficult for several reasons. A reason: the reward we seek is in the future, sometimes way out in the future and what we have to do and experience (discomfort, frustration, work and daily persistence) must start immediately. We are not a society of delayed gratification so for most of us, changing something about ourselves starts as a challenge within a challenge.
Another reason: We are giving up something we know well when we change. Generally we don't resist the change (it usually makes logical sense to us), we are resisting loss. The stepping from the known into the unknown.
Another reason: We have a pretty good idea that this step into the unknown must be permanent if we are to achieve the coveted change. Permanent; that is like forever, for all time. When we fully understand that time concept, it is not logical, it becomes emotional. Permanent loss is not something we think, it is something we feel. It can cause much resistance, denial, anger and pain.
Another reason: Getting across the "goal line" takes longer then most of us think. A common fail point of change is people's grossly underestimating the time and effort it will take to make the change. We stop too soon. Often we stop within sight of the goal.
So in the face of these reasons why change is challenging, how can we navigate the process? That is the next post.
Another reason: We are giving up something we know well when we change. Generally we don't resist the change (it usually makes logical sense to us), we are resisting loss. The stepping from the known into the unknown.
Another reason: We have a pretty good idea that this step into the unknown must be permanent if we are to achieve the coveted change. Permanent; that is like forever, for all time. When we fully understand that time concept, it is not logical, it becomes emotional. Permanent loss is not something we think, it is something we feel. It can cause much resistance, denial, anger and pain.
Another reason: Getting across the "goal line" takes longer then most of us think. A common fail point of change is people's grossly underestimating the time and effort it will take to make the change. We stop too soon. Often we stop within sight of the goal.
So in the face of these reasons why change is challenging, how can we navigate the process? That is the next post.
3.30.2009
What Changes When IT Changes? (The Prologue)
I've been away. While away I've been paying attention to all the fuss in the economy and to my own responss to that fuss. I read the Financial Times every day because it is a great newspaper. It is proving its worth now as it covers the complexities of the recession. The depth and width of change that is happening everyday is breath stealing.
All this change is Burning Platform of Change (BPC). It is the change that is forced on a person or a company or an industry or a country or a planet when events on the ground gives one no other options. It's either death by fire or you take your chances jumping from the high platform into ocean turbulence.
While this activity is change, it is rarely the type of change we seek. It never occurs at the right time or at a pace that we can absorb. BPC comes at us like water shot from a fire hose and surviving is our primary strategy. As this global recession rolls forward, we are witnesses destruction as many entities do not survive and the people associated with them suffer real loss. It's been said that people do not fear change, they fear loss. There is a great deal of both moving through lives today.
This creative destruction is being forced on us by large structural and process failure in organizations and governments. Most of us are moving through these occurances with a "response strategy." We are working to make the most out of the pieces that are left after the descruction has hit us. This response strategy is useful in the short-term but it has no legs to carry us for the long-run.
This is one of the great historical moments in modern history. We are living each day of this long moment when the order of so many structures and processes are being trashed and tossed aside.
To be replaced by what?
The answer to this question lives in the act of creating. Creating new structures and process demands change but it is change by design, not BPC. I'll explore this change by design over the next few days because while it is the best type of change, it is also the most difficult to pull off. Having a strategy to execute that change is helpful. Stay tuned.
All this change is Burning Platform of Change (BPC). It is the change that is forced on a person or a company or an industry or a country or a planet when events on the ground gives one no other options. It's either death by fire or you take your chances jumping from the high platform into ocean turbulence.
While this activity is change, it is rarely the type of change we seek. It never occurs at the right time or at a pace that we can absorb. BPC comes at us like water shot from a fire hose and surviving is our primary strategy. As this global recession rolls forward, we are witnesses destruction as many entities do not survive and the people associated with them suffer real loss. It's been said that people do not fear change, they fear loss. There is a great deal of both moving through lives today.
This creative destruction is being forced on us by large structural and process failure in organizations and governments. Most of us are moving through these occurances with a "response strategy." We are working to make the most out of the pieces that are left after the descruction has hit us. This response strategy is useful in the short-term but it has no legs to carry us for the long-run.
This is one of the great historical moments in modern history. We are living each day of this long moment when the order of so many structures and processes are being trashed and tossed aside.
To be replaced by what?
The answer to this question lives in the act of creating. Creating new structures and process demands change but it is change by design, not BPC. I'll explore this change by design over the next few days because while it is the best type of change, it is also the most difficult to pull off. Having a strategy to execute that change is helpful. Stay tuned.
2.17.2009
Patty Stonesifer and Adaptive Leadership
Patty Stonesifer shares her leadership growth experiences during her time as leader of the Gates Foundation. Her interview with Bridgestar is a nice experienced based road map for how to deal with wicked problems.
This turbulent time is the result of many factors but one aspect that has avoided scrutiny is the specific failings of global leaders to see the future and find the courage to make difficult decisions.
The work of Ron Heifetz and his Adaptive Leadership frameworks are essential leadership competencies for these times. We all must step up our competency to lead. Turbulence is now a way of organizational life and knowing how to make progress in these conditions is the leadership moment of truth.
This turbulent time is the result of many factors but one aspect that has avoided scrutiny is the specific failings of global leaders to see the future and find the courage to make difficult decisions.
The work of Ron Heifetz and his Adaptive Leadership frameworks are essential leadership competencies for these times. We all must step up our competency to lead. Turbulence is now a way of organizational life and knowing how to make progress in these conditions is the leadership moment of truth.
A Development Strategy for a Lifetime
I am a collector of structures and processes that hold the possibility of self-development, organizational improvement and dare I say global health. My collection of structures and processes includes approaches that most would agree are proven. Six Sigma, Systems Thinking and Model I/Model II to name a few. At the other end of the development spectrum, there are processes like Encounter and
I reject stuff that will not hold up across broad groups, different organizations or at the individual level. As a collector I feel free to cherry pick these approaches for strengths while leaving behind the non-useful parts. I then attempt to put these pieces together new forms of development and test them on myself. If they show promise, I share them with others.
This approach to development is a bit edgy at times but it can be rich in discovery. At the same time, I am always seeking simplicity. I’m looking for the development equivalent of Danish design: clean, simple, and highly functional. I discovered just such an approach and wouldn’t you know it, I found it living with the Buddhists. Seems we can count on Eastern wisdom to give us simplicity and challenge all wrapped together.
Here is a Buddhist approach to self-development, organizational improvement and global health in five simple but not-so-easy-to-implement steps:
- Confess My Faults
- Approach What I Find Repulsive
- Help Those I Think I Cannot Help
- Anything I Am Attached To, Let It Go
- Go Places That Scare Me
In my next few entries, I’ll talk about what I have learned about myself while practicing this development strategy. For now, consider how these five “interventions” might play out for you. Oh and these things often make me crazy.
1.29.2009
Managing the Work Avoidance
Congress is in the middle of passing its latest bailout package. Watching their process is so hard. We are only a few days into President Obama's term and we are seeing quickly the limited reach he has to lead from the front. His mandate from the people doesn't have enough currency to effect congressional behavior. By many accounts, this 825 billion dollar package is not finally tuned to address the needs of the moment. Rather it represents an amalgamation of special local politcal projects that are more about paving the way for congressional re-elections then the good of the order today.
In effect Congress in passing this package, has effectively avoided the real work by reverting to the customs and practices of old. Today a reporter on NPR's Morning Edition said that after President Obama visited the congress to get both bi-partisian support and a more specific focus on the spending, he was over-heard to say "Old habits die hard."
I believe it is this work of changing old habits that will be President Obama's biggest challenge and his hardest work. And it looks like it starts just up the street with his former collegues in Congress. When a leader is unable to solve a problem on his or her own using proven strategies, it's a clear indication that the problem is wicked in nature. The common strategy that followers employ when facing a difficult situation is to avoid the issue and return to old work using old strategies.
Solving the financial crisis is a true wicked problem and it will require more and different approaches then have been used in the past. Most of these different approaches are unknown and have not yet been created. Mr. Obama's challenge is to wake congress up to the difficult reality they face now and do the hard work of inventing new solutions to a new kind of problem. If he is not able to do that, he will fall victim to the congressional strategy (which is implied and never spoken) of seducing the President with his own power-of-the-presidency and effectively give back to him the problem they were elected to solve.
As of today it looks as if Congress is leading this dance. Leadership in turbulant times is difficult.
In effect Congress in passing this package, has effectively avoided the real work by reverting to the customs and practices of old. Today a reporter on NPR's Morning Edition said that after President Obama visited the congress to get both bi-partisian support and a more specific focus on the spending, he was over-heard to say "Old habits die hard."
I believe it is this work of changing old habits that will be President Obama's biggest challenge and his hardest work. And it looks like it starts just up the street with his former collegues in Congress. When a leader is unable to solve a problem on his or her own using proven strategies, it's a clear indication that the problem is wicked in nature. The common strategy that followers employ when facing a difficult situation is to avoid the issue and return to old work using old strategies.
Solving the financial crisis is a true wicked problem and it will require more and different approaches then have been used in the past. Most of these different approaches are unknown and have not yet been created. Mr. Obama's challenge is to wake congress up to the difficult reality they face now and do the hard work of inventing new solutions to a new kind of problem. If he is not able to do that, he will fall victim to the congressional strategy (which is implied and never spoken) of seducing the President with his own power-of-the-presidency and effectively give back to him the problem they were elected to solve.
As of today it looks as if Congress is leading this dance. Leadership in turbulant times is difficult.
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