reflective principal retreat: leadership, self organisation and change

chris.jansen@canterbury.ac.nz

1

Leadership, self organisation and change Reflective Principal Retreat

13-16 May 2014 – Upper Hutt

3

Chris Jansen

4

5

6

www.ideacreation.org

Overview

• a road map for leading change

• exploring complexity thinking and

self-organisation

• creating an organisational hybrid

• polarity mapping

• culture and engagement

• system thinking to determine

education levers

7 www.ideacreation.org

8

BAU New BAU

Context Shifting Context

Shifting Context

A history of 70-80% failure Positive and sustainable

change? Why? Threat?

Opportunity?

Where? …are we heading

to?

Who?...do

we collaborate with?

How?…do we

design our journey?

What?…steps

do we take?

www.ideacreation.org

A road map for leading change

change is changing…

9

“The greatest challenge for future leaders is the pace of change and the complexity of the challenges faced….”

….”perpetual white-water”…

10 www.ideacreation.org

“Our organisations are not equipped to cope with this complexity…” (IBM study – 1500 CEO’s)

Technical challenges “can be solved with knowledge and procedures

already at hand”

Adaptive challenges “embedded in social complexity, require behaviour change

and are rife with unintended consequences‟

11

Requires leader to identify priorities, project manage and ensure stakeholder engagement

Requires leader to do all of the above and generate and trial multiple solutions

www.ideacreation.org

12 www.ideacreation.org

Complexity / Change / Uncertainty / Ambiguity

Paradox / Lack of Control / Unintended consequences

Adaptive challenges

Leadership capacity

Organisational capacity

Self organising, adaptive, innovative, flexible, nimble,

responsive, creative and resilient

13 www.ideacreation.org

14 www.ideacreation.org

“There is no them and us…

…there’s only us” Press letter to the Editor 2012

…a dynamic of experimentation and innovation…

25 www.ideacreation.org

31 www.ideacreation.org

CHCH101: Rebuilding Christchurch: An Introduction to Community Engagement in Tertiary Studies

Is leadership changing?

40

…self organising…

41

Self organisation…

a collective of independent agents that self-organise in a dynamic manner in order to create emergence—a patterned higher-order

response to a threat or opportunity…

42 www.ideacreation.org

43 www.ideacreation.org

44

How does self organisation work?

• independent agents • interactions with neighbours • decentralised control • an attractor - motivated by threat or opportunity

Self organisation leading to emergence

Complexity thinking, complex adaptive systems, adaptive leadership

www.ideacreation.org

Machine Living organism

Hybrid?

+Efficient, reliable, strong +innovative, responsive, nimble

-Inflexible, slow to respond -messy and spontaneous

45 www.ideacreation.org

.

.

.

Leaders vs leadership? Position of a leader vs action of leadership

Hierarchies and Networks

www.ideacreation.org 46

The Starfish and the Spider…

The unstoppable power of leaderless organisations

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom

47 www.ideacreation.org

“It is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organisation... Its just not possible any longer to figure it out from the top, and have everyone else following the

order of the ‘grand strategist’. (Senge , 2002)

48 www.ideacreation.org

49 www.ideacreation.org

Can leaders foster self organisation?

Adaptive leadership: fostering self organisation

Conditions for self organisation Leadership role

1. independent agents 1. Proactive mentoring of individuals

2. interactions with neighbours 2. Foster interaction and shared learning

3. decentralised control 3. Distribute power + decentralise control

4. an attractor - motivated by 4. Explore and articulate shared vision threat or opportunity and values

50 www.ideacreation.org

……..get your goo glasses on – when you walk into a room put aside the programme, cut out the strategy – see the history, interactions, how wired they are, the group dynamics - look for the living breathing thing and then that’s the stuff that grows….” Duane Major

51

“A key concept is Goo – like primordial soup, you can see it moving and growing – it involves people, relationships, you can’t control it but you can notice it and foster it…it changes and evolves – its living and breathing….

Culture eats strategy for lunch…

…and structure creates culture

Complexity / Change / Uncertainty / Ambiguity

Paradox / Lack of Control / Unintended consequences

Adaptive challenges

Leadership capacity

Organisational capacity

Self organising, adaptive, innovative, flexible, nimble,

responsive, creative and resilient

Distribute power and decentralise control

Explore and articulate shared values and vision

Foster interaction and shared learning

Proactive mentoring of individuals

53 www.ideacreation.org

Machine Living organism

Hybrid?

+Efficient, reliable, strong +innovative, responsive, nimble

-Inflexible, slow to respond -messy and spontaneous

54 www.ideacreation.org

“Either or”…..”both and”

• competition & collaboration

• cost & quality

• flexibility & structure

• action & reflection

• stability & change

• individual & team

• planning & action

• idealistic & pragmatic

• centralised & decentralised

• internal & external focus

• top down & bottom up

55

• task & relationship

• freedom & accountability

• short term & long term

• work & home

• controlling & participative

• individual & collective

• effective & efficient

• activity & rest

• mission & margin

• rational & intuitive

• customise & standardise

Mapping a polarity - impacts

• Define the challenge

• Name the poles (the two extremes)

• Brainstorm the upsides & downsides of each pole

• Upsides – benefits of focusing on this value

• Downsides – harmful effects of focusing on this value to the neglect of its pair

• Suggested order l-, r+, r-,l+

56 www.thinkbeyond.co.nz

Healthy, Thriving Organisation

Failing Organisation

Short-term Long-term

• Continuity

• Grounded

• Consistency

• Clear core ideology

• New directions

• Expanding

possibilities

• Freedom

• Lack of freedom

• Stagnation

• No new ideas being

generated

• No continuity

• Chaotic confusion over

what is happening

and Stability Change

Mapping a polarity - actions

• Identify early warning signs and list these in measurable terms

• Brainstorm all the actions you could take to stay above the line. Identify the ones that will add most leverage and record these as action steps

• Discuss how you will use this to manage the polarity

58 www.thinkbeyond.co.nz

Healthy, Thriving Organisation

Failing Organisation

Short-term Long-term

• Focus on what you

do well & amplify it

• Articulate what we

stand for

• Monitor key result

areas (dashboard)

• Clear targets, plans &

accountabilities

• Complaints of “being

stifled”

• No new ideas being

researched/developed

• Try lots of stuff and

keep what works

(bullets before

cannonballs)

• Celebrate

successes

• Fail safely

• Complaints of

“mixed messages”

• Complaints of things

“falling through the

cracks”

• Projects late or not

completed at all

• Ideas created but no

targeted actions

• Continuity

• Grounded

• Consistency

• Clear core ideology

• New directions

• Expanding possibilities

• Freedom

• Lack of freedom

• Stagnation

• No new ideas being

generated

• No continuity

• Chaotic confusion over

what is happening

Action Steps Action Steps

Early Warnings Early Warnings and Stability Change

Advantages of managing polarities • less caught up in power struggles

• more able to lower resistance to change

• greater ability to productively engage with allies and opponents in co-creating robust decisions

• once a polarity has been mapped insights and epiphanies rise to the surface

• Appreciate each others’ perspectives.

The leaders role • validate both options

• to hold the tension rather than try to resolve it,

• avoid representing one end of the tension

• foster dialogue to create new thinking and actions

• create a hybrid which is the ‘best of both worlds’

61

BAU New BAU

Context Shifting Context

Shifting Context

A history of 70-80% failure Positive and sustainable

change? Why? Threat?

Opportunity?

Where? …are we heading

to?

Who?...do

we collaborate with?

How?…do we

design our journey?

What?…steps

do we take?

www.ideacreation.org

A road map for leading change

Systems Thinking…

….is a way of making

sense of a complex (complicated?) system

…is the ability to see the world as relationships and connections

...allows us to influence a complex system

62 www.ideacreation.org

“Where the world is dynamic, evolving and interconnected, we

tend to make decisions using mental models that are

static, narrow, and siloed.”

63 www.ideacreation.org

Seeing connections instead of parts…

“You can never understand anything

by analysing it.”

“We have to understand the whole before

we can understand the parts - what

matters is their interaction.”

Russell Ackoff

64 www.ideacreation.org

65 www.ideacreation.org

Student behaviour

issuesQuality of alternative

programmes

S

O

Programme appeal to

other students

S

B

R

“Causal loop diagrams provide a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than events, for seeing

patterns of change rather than snapshots”

Senge

66 www.ideacreation.org

The Iceberg Model Four levels of thinking

Events

Patterns

Systemic structure

Mental models

Maani 2010

67 www.ideacreation.org

System thinking tools – affinity process

1) Clarify the question

2) Determine influence factors

3) Map connections

4) Identify leverage

5) Act with clarity

68 www.ideacreation.org

What are the indicators of a successful

school?

What are the factors that contribute to this?

• What influences that?

• What influences that?

• What influences that?

69 www.ideacreation.org

Cognitive

Social and emotional

Spiritual/values

Resilience and wellbeing

70

71 www.ideacreation.org

72 www.ideacreation.org

Annual Goals 2012

1. Advancing student achievement through effective use of data

2. Continue implementation of school curriculum document

3. Consolidating a positive school wide culture for learning

4. Enhance presence in and engagement with community

5. Sustained improvement in school wide leadership, systems and processes

73 www.ideacreation.org

What factors promote positive student behaviour?

Questions focussed on parts of organisations…

What factors effect powerful professional learning in schools?

What processes build effective collaborations with communities?

How could embracing technology impact achievement?

“How have I moved forward in my thinking?

What difference will people notice in my work place?”

75