Make or BreakThe Challenge of Change in Exponential Times

Hamish Duff – BSc, Msc, MBAPrinciple Consultant

What am I covering today?• Exponential change• Five Challenges• Comprehension• Culture• Complexity• Disruption• Relevance

• Creating a culture of change• Incremental change• Principle based management• Building change resilience

Change is a constant?• All very exciting!• Lots to be enthusiastic about – potential limitless• Positive feedback increases rate of change even further• Same change every hour as in first 90 years alone

• However:• The near future is increasingly hard to predict• Our organisations are geared towards constant change

We must build change capacity and capability

Five Challenges Human Comprehension

Organisational Culture

Disruption

Complexity

Maintaining Relevance

Challenge - Comprehension• Humans think in constant rates of change, straight lines, predictable • Human timescales – 50 years is a long time

• We can’t comprehend the impact of simple changes• Let alone exponential change

• What is the main reason for IT Project failure?• Within our organisations critical problem• What happens when we deal with many changes at once?

Change =

DANGER

Challenge - CultureThe patterns of shared values, behaviours, habits and beliefs

• Threats to these patterns are actively resisted• Typical change management frameworks approach this with a linear

process• However we are humans – we are not linear

Challenge - Disruption• Not so much WOW, cool technology

But WOW – what happened to our industry

• No industry is immune• Often disruptive changes as a result of a intersecting technologies• Almost always fundamentally focussed on• The customer as the centre of the business• Reinvention of the “way things have always been done”

Challenge - Complexity• IT staff love complexity

• We love to geek out• We love to be specialists, valued, irreplaceable• We love to make IT work!

• Business staff want results• The “wish list” of features• Long term ad-hoc process development

A millstone of complex legacy systems• Unable to move quickly

Complexity often means planning to change is too complex

Challenge - Relevance• IT as the Department of “NO”• We don’t have the capacity• We are seen as a cost centre

• Stop trying to keep up with expectations• You are NOT Google• We can’t possibly keep up

• How does an internal IT team stay relevant?

So how can we prepare our organisations?(and ourselves)

• Build change capacity and capability• Increase flexibility and adaptability• Establish valued foundations for change

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but rather that which is most adaptable to change”

Ruthlessly cull complexity/bureaucracy• Bureaucracy reduces service quality• Re-engineer your business, trim your dead wood• If your customers are not satisfied, they WILL go elsewhere

• Hierarchical management moves too slowly• Management by committee gives mediocre results

• Customer must be the focus of re-engineered processes

Enable and engage - Principle Based Management

Top down thinking bottom up action • Establish clear goals and objectives• Define value to your customers• Ensure priorities are clear• Establish guiding principles for decision making• Encourage incremental innovation at all levels

Reinvent yourself• Policies constrain innovation• “Policies are organisational scar tissue… they are collective punishment for

the misdeeds of an individual” (Fried)• Manage exceptions and individuals instead

• Frameworks reduce initiative and trust• Create an illusion of control• Apply pragmatically, in the context of the organisation

• Challenge the status quo• “The way things have always been done”

Tip the balance towards flexibility• Specialisation comes at a cost to flexibility; generalisation comes at a

cost to efficiency.

Diversity brings strength• Distribute and delegate leadership• Multi-skill team - cross pollinate with the business• Multi-disciplinary approach leads to better solutions• Encourage diverse thinking

Establish good rootsGet your priorities right

Foundations for successful change• Fundamental Services• Authentication / Integration / Information / Automation

• Focus on value to your customers• Focus on value to your business staff• Focus on meeting specific needs in the context of your organisation

Where do you start?Incremental Change• The 1 % rule

Incremental Change• Easy to adapt and adopt• Builds momentum• Demonstrates flexibility and responsiveness• Allows engagement and innovation• Demonstrates progress – a great motivator

Incremental change changes culture

Establish Cycles• Biological systems all exist in cycles• Equilibrium based on feedback

• Incremental change provides positive and negative feedback quickly• Failure is useful as long as we learn• Establish a learning organisation• Don’t repeat your mistakes

• Encourage feedback and adjust accordingly

Understanding• Understand your specific context• Identify your constraints• Know your complexities• Share experience across organisations• Engage external perspectives for objectivity• No stake in the status quo• No axe to grind• No politics

Are you capable of making the changes you need to?

It's a question of survival

Hamish Duff