Infinite Power: #5 of Eight Disciplines for Planned Change
INFINITE POWER
Traditional change management approaches often call for identifying the person or people who are not in accord with a change project and fixing or replacing them with people who are. This process typically leads to a series of finite, win/lose power struggles that change little and waste much systemic energy on non-productive activities. Noting that win/lose processes will, in the long run, always generate lose/lose results, an alternative approach would be to focus on infinite, win/win change goals and strategies.
An important aspect of playing infinitely is to focus on changing the quality of relationships within the target system rather than trying to change or fix members who do not seem in accord with a proposed change. This is directly related to the processes of conflict management and team-building mentioned in previous sections.
Focusing on changing the quality of relationships rather than trying to fix or change people or groups of people minimizes the need for power struggles. When open, collaborative decision-making processes are used, most individual needs can be met while focusing on developing strategies and tactics aimed at the change goals.
I remember a situation in a high-value, light manufacturing company. The head of manufacturing was upset with the head of sales for bringing in an order that she couldn’t fulfill by the date promised with the personnel to which she was limited by a budget crunch. The sales manager insisted that that was what the customer wanted and that he was under pressure to increase revenue flow. Their boss, the general manager, gave me the job of helping them resolve their issues. I asked the boss if either of the constraints could be eased. He said, “No,” very politely, but firmly. I interviewed both parties to help get them into a listening mode by my listening extensively to them, so that both were feeling heard before meeting together. It took awhile for them to get past their self-righteousness and figure out that if they worked together they could short-circuit the issues they had with each other. The detail of “working together” was interesting: They decided to do monthly forecasts together and that a manufacturing representative would go along on customer meetings involving potential sales over a certain amount. Yes, it took three hours including lunch to work all of this out, and we created a process through which both could win in addition to the organization winning! With persistence, patience, and enough passion, infinite solutions are most always available!
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Feedback: #4 of Eight Disciplines for Planned Change
Feedback is needed for effective and efficient goal attainment. That should make it important to us and something that we would want to seek out on a regular basis. To the contrary, feedback in human systems seems to have a particularly bad reputation. What goes through your mind when someone says to you, “Can I give you some feedback?” Time to duck? Regardless of its unpopularity we use it all the time. When driving somewhere in your car you use landmarks as feedback that tells you that you are headed in the right direction. Unusual noises in your car are feedback that tells you that something may be wrong and that it’s time to take it to the mechanic. Those are just two of many, many ways that feedback is important to us. It seems to be feedback from other people that we often find problematic. We think that such unpopularity comes from our misunderstanding of it. So let’s set the record straight.
Feedback is information from our environment about how it is responding to us. With that information, we can judge if we are on target or off target toward whatever goals we may have within that environment. It is sound and current data that is available to us at all times, though we are often paying insufficient attention to notice it. Feedback allows us to evaluate to what extent the impact of our behavior is congruent with our intentions. The more we can fine-tune our behavior to be in sync with our intentions the greater will be our effectiveness.
People often attempt to use feedback as a direct means of changing someone’s behavior. In fact, it is not very good at that. Feedback offered from that intention is often heard as criticism, which, as often as not, generates defensiveness and resistance rather than the desired change. Hence, when someone says to you, “May I give you some feedback?” Duck!
As important as feedback is, managing it effectively calls for understanding three principles:
- Feedback always says something about the giver, not necessarily anything about the receiver. Consequently, let your initial response be curiosity about what’s going on with the giver, then decide what your next course of action might be.
- What is done with feedback is solely in the hands of the receiver. Consequently, be curious about why you are choosing to react the way you are, and then choose a response that might more effectively get you what you want.
- Feedback related the goals of the receiver is more likely to be accepted than feedback related to the goals the giver has for the receiver.
Kurt Lewin offered the formula: Behavior is a function of people in an environment Bf(P+E). Too often we attempt to manage our behavior solely on data from our internal belief systems (ignoring feedback from our environment) only to find ourselves with results we neither wanted nor intended. Effective goal achievement and change management call for paying close attention to the feedback from our environment (including of course the people in it) so that we can adjust our behavior to get the response we wish from those around us.
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Sound and Current Data: #3 of Eight Disciplines for Planned Change
An efficient and successful change process needs good information for effective planning and decision-making. Such a principle, though obvious, is sorely needed as a reminder against mistaking our assumptions for accurate information. Our needs for being “right,” being seen as “smart,“ for not wanting to rock the boat or upset the boss often overwhelm our need for sound and current data. Accordingly, many change efforts suffer from insufficient and inaccurate information while others fall prey to power struggles having to do with whose information is right and whose is wrong. A related pitfall occurs when the need for conformity inhibits needed information from coming to the surface.
An environment of openness, straight-talk, truth, and honesty can be built from effective conflict management and team-building processes. In these ways a safe environment can be created which is the only environment in which sound and current data can openly exist.
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Systems Orientation: #2 of Eight Disciplines for Planned Change
A fairly pervasive approach to change and problem-solving in human systems defines a goal, then sets out in as straight a tactical line as possible to get there. Such an approach tries to ignore or run-over any intervening or obstructing variables like the fact that achievement of the goal will cause problems in other parts of the system. And/or, that such an approach often provides an expedient solution that does not get at the root cause of the problem which will accordingly return sooner or later. A systems orientation to change management looks at human systems holistically. It understands that any change within a system will reverberate throughout the entire system and impact even seemingly unrelated parts of the system.
Using a systems orientation we…
a. Understand that systems are comprised of constellations of forces that must be aligned for efficient and successful change projects.
b. Widen our perspective from our immediate goal to one that considers the entire system.
c. Orchestrate several coordinated change actions simultaneously.
d. Develop feedback loops sufficient to staying in touch with the impacts of our change strategies and their specific actions.
Here are some other thoughts to help you think systemically:
The Nature of Human Systems
1. Everything is connected to everything else—beliefs, processes, thoughts, feelings, and actions.
2. For a system to be doing what it is doing everything in that system must be doing what they are doing; therefore, responsibility is always mutual.
3. The members of systems are diverse. Innovation is dependent on the effective use of diversity.
4. Change in human systems is constant regardless of our desire for stability.
5. The behavior of a system is driven by the collective behavior of its members. The behavior of the members of a system is driven by their individual belief systems that were created from their experiences in previous systems.
Some Characteristics of Human Systems
1. Goal achievement is the primary purpose of any system. Clarity is paramount for effectiveness.
2. Feedback loops (such as metrics) regulate the behavior of systems and keep the system on target toward its goals. Performance data, rewards, penalties, and permissions are examples of feedback.
3. The effectiveness of human systems over time is proportional to the quality of the relationships within those systems. Trust is a primary indicator of high quality relationships.
4. Any member of a system will consistently succeed (or fail) only with the support of the system.
5. The behavior of leaders (as collectively interpreted by followers) has a significant impact on the behavior (collaboration, competition, conformity, anarchy) that occurs within human systems
The Quality and Productivity of Human Systems
1. The quality and productivity of human systems are directly proportional to the quality of the alignment, engagement, and connectedness among the members of the system.
2. Systems that attempt to create alignment through (1) win/win collaborative, synergetic strategies perform better than those that attempt to create alignment via win/lose strategies such as suppression of differences (conformity) or (2) contention (power struggles, turf battles).
3. Patterns of preferential treatment can mitigate engagement of members and groups of members and, consequently, mitigate system quality and productivity.
4. For systemic problem solving determine the subsystem that contains both the problem and the solution. Look to a larger system definition when problems seem intractable.
5. A problematic human system will mitigate the effectiveness of related human, mechanical, or electronic systems. Failure to frequently attend to the quality of a human system is costly in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
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