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.