written, illustrated & performed By Gar Mac Críosta - CITAP
Lean & Capable Change in Action
(and anticipation)
@aspiringarc
Your job today
1. Find me 2. Share a story 3. Challenge or support
my views
Over the past 3 years I’ve been watching patterns emerge
River, clouds, boat, me
everywhere I look organizations are grappling with
Complexity Confusion
Complicatedness
“The Real Battle is against ourselves against our complicatedness”
Yves Morieux
one day my phone rang
Of course… let’s meet Can you help us develop a
vision & strategy?
On the one hand I was really excited to get to work with this company
On the other hand… I had bitter memories
My work had previously been orphaned
Orphaned Strategies
I was scarred by this experience
I resolved never to let this happen again
There was no way I was going to leave YADD
‘yet another dusty document’
I also did not want to cause a strategy related accident
Or induce another powerpoint related coma
Please I beg you no more!
Does this sound familiar?
But first…our hero’s story
An organization emerges after the financial meltdown
This is an organization with a long history and tradition
In 2010 they began to rebuild
They had many adventures along the way
They bravely fought many battles and bested many foes
And for a time peace prevailed
the era of capability
enlightenment
But things that should never have been forgotten were lost
Time marched on they got better at balancing & measuring
But rumour grew of a shadow rising in the east
the fellowship were once again called into the fray
And back to me… my phone rang not once but twice
Of course… let’s meet
Can you help us develop a vision & strategy?
Can you do an Exec Assessment
on …
I won’t labour the details but to say
the outcome everything lined up
And the moment came…the ‘but now what’ question
‘but now what’
Part 2: A tale of 2 Futures
FUTURE 1: A dystopic Reality
The year is 2017 and we are still fighting a war that has cost us heavily
We aren’t sure precisely when it happened or when the temporal glitch emerged
What we do know is how it started; in the beginning we were united
We took brave steps forward
Strategy Plan
Crack Team
Do stuff
but we started to lose ground and began to fail
We went back to the drawing board and started again
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
It felt like we were going in circles
What the …?
“denial is the most predictable of all human emotions”
But why did we fail? What went wrong?
As with any ‘system’ there is no simple answer
my questions & thoughts……
Is *ACS holding you back? *ACS - Anti-capability Syndrome
An aside: Change Anti-Patterns
Change Anti-patterns
1. You’ve got change
2. Reality Proxies
3. Prediction predilection
4. Change Zombie Attacks
Anti-pattern 1: “You’ve got change” Changing the organization by email is impossible
You’ve got
change
A desk is a very dangerous place from which to view [change] the world
John Le Carre
Anti-pattern 2: Reality Proxies A KPI is only a proxy for reality
*Yves Morieux BCG http://goo.gl/LEjFgS
All OK
“A KPI is a proxy for reality”
Yves Morieux
Anti-Pattern 3: Prediction Predilection Our predilection for prediction and the certainty of uncertainty
Based on those
assumptions
Of course
“The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.”
Daniel Kahneman
Anti-Pattern 4: Change Zombie Attacks
CHANGE RAGE
MORE CHANGE
NOT A CURE!
Just one more little change and you’ll be right in no time
“Why does change, which can be so exciting and lead to so many great opportunities, burn so many people out? The short answer is: change efforts are all too often unfocused, uninspired and unsuccessful. Our research shows, 70% of transformation efforts fail.”
John Kotter
Did we engage in brain friendly change?
Our biases & us
“We assume that others brains work like ours ”
David Rock
Hofstadter's Law Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Semmelweis Reflex Semmelweis Reflex. This is a professional reflex to reject new evidence that in some way threatens established norms or firmly held beliefs.
Availability Heuristic We are more likely to ascribe a higher probability to events that we actually hold in our memories.
Framing Effect Framing Effect says that the wording or the context in which options are presented directly impact (or frame) our selections.
Reactance is cognitive bias that manifests itself in a tendency to push back against reductions in perceived or real freedoms..
Anchoring Bias & Sacred Cows A fixation on
repeatability leads to anchoring and the creation of ‘sacred cows’ strongly held
beliefs
“A reliable way of making people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.”
Daniel Kahneman
I heard the cry OK Stop! We get it
FUTURE 2: A Utopic Future
This time I made the call?
Do you want to try something new
What are you thinking?
Attention: Please mind the gap when boarding the strategy train
Step 1: Become Capable & Close the Gap TOOLS | MODELS| MINDS
Another short aside
ITCMF & Business Architecture
Back on track
Step 2: Learn to tell stories & be visual
Step 3: Experiment, Iterate & Learn
ITCMF & Lean Change Capability
Improvements
POMS - Practices POMS+
POMS Outcomes
POMS Measures
Some closing thoughts
Key Takeaways
1. Don’t forget about the brains
2. Become Capable
3. Keep it lean & learn
Is this the end? No this is only the beginning
Part 2 Opens in September
…
“To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often”