Monitoring Change Effort Progress - IT Solutions

In July, Elizabeth and I asked for some advice of a few of our associates. We wanted some feedback on our Roadshow ideas, but we got more than expected (see our blog entry on July 17. 2010). Simply put, it was to enter the new age of e-commerce with a high priority. Our intent was to "come of age" as a business with a drastically modified Internet presence. We knew a bit, but not nearly enough. It seemed that the first step was to decide what media we would use, do some "get started" research and begin to experiment. We bought Dummies books for the most popular services and signed up.

Twitter - LinkedIn - Facebook - YouTube - our two web sites (ltodi and qualityofworklife) and this Blog, all up and running to some degree. None to the depth and breadth we had in mind at the beginning. But we keep making small progress.

These are fragments on a half dozen services of our early entry into this new form of doing business. It's been hard at best to break the mold of doing business as usual - the good old fashion way. But we've started and learned a bit. There have been a half dozen attempts to set up a monitoring system that would allow us to keep track of our progress. Thus far, we've not achieved what we set out to accomplish - and it appears to be more complex than originally conceived. Old habits die hard, new habits form with difficulty. It has been a labor of some frustration to be sure but we see glimmers of success that have helped us learn what to do differently.

Stimulate Organizational Change with Natural Metaphors

We have been using the metaphor as a catalyst for understanding complex change issues for years. But our recent travel has exploded our use of this linguist multiplier (ability to use language to convey our understanding of change quickly). This new approach uses our Facebook site - Quality of WorkLife Consultants - to bring many of these insights to our practitioner network by linking a picture to an appropriate metaphor.

So, what's a metaphor? A metaphor is a way of associating something familiar with something that might be relatively unknown or unfamiliar using a specific language structure. Here's an example: "Learning something useful is like a breath of fresh air." The word like is critical because it links the familiar "a breath of fresh air" with something unfamiliar "learning something useful."

To multiply the impact of the metaphor, we:

Generate metaphors from participants in our RGB Foundational Workshop. One exercise common to all RGB foundation workshops concludes with a challenge, "So, how is playing SPOONS like working in your organization?" By answering this question, participants create a metaphor that can be easily used to show that all organizations have common issues. A common answer to our question is usually, "Some people don't play by the rules." The unstated metaphor is, "People breaking rules playing SPOONS is like people breaking rules in our organization." This is a common issue that now gets validated attention. Some organizations have these issues more prominent than others, but human systems have commonality. It is useful for people to know that they are part of a pattern of humanity rather than a uniquely negative oddity. As long as all organizations have these oddities to some degree and some organizations are far more productive than others, one can draw a reasonable conclusion that less-than-ideal conditions can be improved with well designed effort. That concept is often refreshing to participants that may not have the hope they need to make improvements.

Locate metaphors in our RGB Roadshow travels. We try to visit sites in our Roadshow travels that have a connection to other collections of interest to us. For example, we collect: coins (that attest to a specific time period), photographs of Colonial historic sites (that have meaning in the quest for Liberty), celebrity autographs (that capture a character(s) being played that dramatize specific points), and other special memorabilia (that helps to connect with our classical organization development work). When these interests can be combined, there is even more synergy. For example, when we visit a colonial historic site such as the Minute Man Memorial in Concord, Massachusetts and link that to the State Quarter from Massachusetts, we've really hit a home run. There are connecting stories here that can be fresh to the realities of work today - "Sometimes it's important to take a stand like the Minute Men in Massachusetts did when they launched a revolution."

Embed metaphors in our RGB Technology with CODE WORDS. When we use the CODE WORDS "Council of Colonels" we are using a shortcut metaphor that represents a group of senior officers that report directly to the commander in a military unit. In addition to being effective gatekeepers, they also perform the function of filtering information, often to the degree that there is an undercurrent of subversion to their activities. In it's worst case scenario their loyalty is to the commander rather than to their oath of office and the very military culture they are sworn to defend. These same characteristics are often found in civilian organizations. When this happens those deep in the organization get to the point of futile subjugation. There are many more CODE WORDS in our technology used as shortcut phrases between practitioners. Some are linked to sites we visit and are referenced on our Facebook site. Can you imagine what the CODE WORDS "Carpet Land" referenced in one of our client systems?

Link metaphors with our ongoing user Educational Mission. Many of these metaphors are used in our educational literature and occasionally constitute at least one item on RGB Certification examinations. Many of those in our informal network of RGB Practitioners depend on each other for reciprocal support when larger teams are needed for specific work. Being able to use a language unique to the specific work we do for clients has enormous time saving utility. It also puts that language into a formally universal context.

Reward users with gifts as part of a fun Metaphor Scavenger Hunt. Users are eligible for significant gifts, such as week-long vacation condos or network computers, if they are able to answer questions about our CODE WORDS shorthand metaphors. This adds one dimension of fun to the equation as well as continues the education even after Certification. The real benefits reside in the work we do for our client organizations. The more in sync we are as practitioners, the better the quality and consistency of the services we offer. Over 15 years ago a small contingent of practitioners worked hard to design and install a SERVUS program (now a CODE WORD) that has evolved into a specific meaning - customer service in a public school system.

Beliefs, Rules, Evidence and Stories - Leverage Points!

For over a score years the BRES mental model has provided insight into organization behavior, but our most recent 10-D intervention of nearly two years brought this insight into sharp new relevance.

Beliefs. Whenever we encounter pervasive beliefs like, "We can't be changed. Others have tried and failed," we've taken it with a grain of skepticism. Underlying this challenge is the knowledge that change can happen, it just takes a reliable system to get it done - and the time to let the system work. Beliefs are a strong mental superhighway to progress or an equally defiant roadblock to movement of any kind. When an organization repeatedly states the belief that "change can't help them," it is a message worth heading. Find a reliable methodology that will work and be persistent in whatever it takes to overcome the roadblock. Pay attention to the rules the organization has constructed to survive any change. The following are just a few of the beliefs that keep whole organizations hostage:

• There is no real commitment to change at the top.
• The leadership team is not united in this effort.
• The boss will never force this effort on those that matter.
• Our jobs are protected.
• There's no benefit to change.

Rules. Rules are created to sustain the status quo under the most severe circumstances. In this respect they guide our decision-making through a firm conviction that some deep truth is guiding our destiny. When people behave in accordance with rules, for example, established by their religion, they have a fundamental belief that they will be held accountable for misdeeds by their benevolent God. The rules support the deeply-held belief. In organizations, the same is true. If there is a deeply held belief that things can't change for the better, people begin to create the rules they need for their own survival. These self-destructive rules might include the following examples:

• You might have to show up, but don't really participate.
• Be less than encouraging of others' participation to stay clean.
• Spin behavior at least two ways to show both engagement and distance.
• Don't take a stand on important issues of change.
• Create an illusion of going along to get along.

Evidence. The police have a difficult time when comparing the impressions of witnesses to any incident. People often see or hear what they expect to see or hear. Evidence is difficult to compile when it comes to organizational change efforts because "believing" the evidence being presented has compound and complex filters in each observer. If numbers can be applied to any significant element in a change effort, so much the better. This is especially true if the internal change agent team creates the numeric model and applies it. Numbers, although the best in many ways, is riddled with it's own underlying skepticism.

• Numbers can say anything you want them to say.
• Statistics can't be trusted.
• Truth is elusive - I have one truth, and you have another.
• We've done this before and nothing happened - nothing changed.
• Those who made it this way, aren't about to change anything.

Stories. People will tell a variety of stories that support whatever position they have had in the past UNLESS they are committed to change that will benefit their own situation. What's needed even more than the right evidence are the "right" stories to support that evidence. In one client system recently, an over-zealous supervisor, convinced that change just couldn't happen, was overly vocal in refuting the survey results we had offered as evidence that change was possible - and actually happening. This scene took place in a public area of the annual Data Fair where it was overheard by a reasonably large group of coworkers. But presenting the evidence was not enough to make the difference. The supervisor left the room, but returned about an hour later with an apology and a commitment. She had been approached by one of her team members that had overheard her remarks and taken the risk to let her know that she had been off the mark. As the stories continued, our supervisor was informed with numerous stories about the change effort that had been working and had fed into the increased survey scores. She came back to us with an apology and a pledge to renew her effort to help make this change effort realize it's potential for her part of the organization. Stories as a transmitter of evidence seemed ultra important to us. Here's a few of our conclusions:

• Once you have numerical evidence, search for stories that support the shifts.
• Design and implement specific strategies that will produce changes to the believes that are encountered on initially entry.
• Stories told to you by the formal change agent team are far less credible unless supported outside that group.
• Do things that will foster the creation of off-line stories such as forming front-line groups for one-time outcomes.
• Wander around deep in the organization and listen carefully for stories that support progress and (with permission) publish those stories widely.

Summary

BRES is a mental model that permits a practical approach to diagnosing what is going on and designing a potential course-of-action to overcome lost capacity. Never underestimate the power of stories transmitted between people deep in the organization. The credibility of stories will vary significantly between those responsible for change and those non-formalized-change-agents that must contend with the new "state" after the change has taken place. Finally, these informal stories that are transmitted deep in the organization are the most powerful leverage point in any organization.