Over the past year and particularly the past several months, I have talked to a good many professionals and seen many papers published, that assert the key to change and transformation is a singular approach of ‘this or that’… depending on perspective and discipline. This is not a critical comment as most of us initially engage in this way providing distinctiveness and a deeper level of insight. This is very positive. Also… having such a variety of perspectives that are owned and mined at some depth does provide building material for options and choices which are foundational to navigation.
Purpose for Publishing
So the purpose of this piece is to firstly honour much great work. And then I want to suggest, that we as a community of leaders, professionals and developers need to go further. In this complex and unprecedented time we are living and trading in, I see a need for a more integrated approach drawing on a multiplicity of thinking, feelings and understanding.
Currently
As mentioned at present, some writers put forward Emotional Intelligence as the key that will unlock successful change. Others say it is about Data and being Information led. Some say it is about Character and others Culture. Digital Transformation is the answer for some and the ‘race to the cloud’ is the only game in town for others. I know some in academia are beginning to say that algorithms will become ‘the new leadership’. Empathy, Process Analysis, OD, Resilience, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning, AI, Story Telling, Poetry, the Arts and Neuroscience have all been put forward as the breakthrough and the answer.
And of course all of these provide a wonderful lens and perspective into what is a complex activity. I love the research, the opinion and the passion that many of my colleagues bring to the table. It also seems to me that we might be falling into yet another trap of singular thinking…
Perhaps, the way forward is a ‘yes’ to all of the above but in an intelligent combination… creating an approach to change that is truly integrated.
In 30 Years the Success Rate has Stayed Constant
We know from credible and quantitative research (IBM and Atticus) that the success rate of change in delivering full and real advantage… is low… at around 20%. Other programmes miss by a little and some by a lot. We know too that this figure of success has not changed much over the past 30 years despite a vast ‘change management’ industry having been created. So it is clear that at this unprecedented time in human history… with at least 4 ‘named storms’ of COVID, Digital Transformation, Climate Change and ‘Brexit’… all creating their own tsunamis… just repeating the ‘old’ approaches probably wont work. So I understand and give a ‘thumbs up’ to the many ‘answers’ being put out there. And yet in one sense, this is all we have been doing over the past 30 years as we have swung between the latest ‘on trend’ thinking.
So my plea is for greater integration.
A Potential Rich Picture
This isn’t asking for a pursuit of the bland or the colourless or about losing potency …. but is about creating a picture which is vivid and has just the right amount of harmony and discord. Indeed in the areas where our thinking doesn’t fit with that of others and where real disagreements exist…. maybe we will discover that in the tension, a dynamic possibility resides, providing for a greater range and maturity of choice.
For all of us who are leaders or who are connected to and have passion for, seeing change deliver great outcomes for all stakeholders and communities, there is a need to see us work together in an increasingly connected way. Change-Able enterprises are connected… is what the research tells us. This journey will be marked by humility and some courage. It may well take us from functional Cooperation, through real Collaboration and who knows… we may end up working Concordantly with one heart, mind and effort.
Navigating Uncharted Waters
The World Economic Forum in 2017 said that Leaders have to increasingly ‘navigate in uncharted waters’. This assessment was way before COVID… and probably didn’t take much account of Climate Change or any other of the storms that are brewing. How more relevant therefore the observation is today!
At the heart of navigation is a continual activity of finding a way through a landscape or seascape towards a future place. Such a place may be clearly defined or emergent. This journey relies therefore, on the quality, the trade offs, the relevance and timing of choices that are being made. When I was a commercial ferry captain, my team and I continually drew on a vast amount of information from many sources most of which had some bias and error. We collected it, displayed it, put it together, triangulated it, made sense of it from a systemic perspective, extrapolated both the ‘so what’ and ‘what if’ questions which then formed a dynamic strategy for the journey ahead.
In other words navigation is wholly dependant on a fully integrated approach.
This is also true for any organisation trying to figure a route through these extraordinary and uncharted times.
Our Shift Therefore
So maybe the first shift for us all will see a move away from combative discussion around which single approach is right. Sometimes these ‘percussive’ engagements are just about people trying to find the weakness in another’s point of view in order to assert their own. However if we are able to hold our truths firmly (without strangling them to death)… being prepared to let go at times and are inquisitive too of others perspectives, perhaps we can then truly begin a transformative dialogue.
I know this has been tried so many times before as the history of failed or only partly successful ‘joined up’ programmes would indicate and I know this is a big ask… but it is still worth the asking.
For those commissioning Change Programmes perhaps a way forward is an intentional inclusion of quite different disciplines like Data Analysis, Emotional Intelligence and say Story Telling. For fellow developers, maybe it just starts with conversations and enquiry with those from an entirely different viewpoint. And who knows, perhaps in this may reside real breakthroughs.
