Change Management or Change Facilitation? by Greg Jenkins
What term is most appropriate? Are we managing or facilitating change?
It’s time to get the definitions right. Change Management is ubiquitous and is used to describe all sorts of change situations. There are numerous definitions of change management whereas change facilitation is a relatively new term encompassing a diverse set of tools’ that have emerged in the past decade. Many of these tools may have already been used from time to time within a change management context.
Whilst change management has been the dominant paradigm ample evidence points towards resultant high levels of corporate pain. Everyone in corporate life has stories about failures in change management. It is widely believed that a majority of change management processes either fail or fail or significantly blow out in cost and time.
Change Facilitation on the other hand works on a ‘low pain’ formula through building trust and engaging at all levels. Change facilitation involves giving up ‘corporate ego’, which probably explains why it is not yet mainstream.
It is now time to separate change management and change facilitation and highlight the differences.
Change Management is a top down approach to driving strategy with an expectation of clear measurable results within tight manageable boundaries in a clear timeframe. 13 definitions of Change Management
Change Facilitation enables sustainable change where boundaries are blurred or open, the timeframe is imprecise, there are broad qualitative measures, and outcomes are unconscious and all stakeholders both inside and outside the organisation are involved.
Change facilitation enables all stakeholders to be engaged regardless of position, education or experience where the person least likely may contribute the idea that will save or make millions.
Leaders and change practitioners need to work out whether Change Management or Change Facilitation tools are the most appropriate in their circumstances.
To request an information sheet ‘The Six Pillars of Change Facilitation’ email info@tincanlearning.com.
2 November 2005
2 October 2005
What is a Community of Practice?
What is a Community of Practice?
“Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share concerns, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. (Wenger 2002)
In a CoP, Members typically:
*
Share information, insight and advice
*
Help each other solve problems
*
Discuss situations, aspirations and needs
*
Ponder common issues, explore ideas and act as sounding boards
*
May create tools, standards, generic design, manuals and other documents
*
Develop an understanding of what they share
In a nutshell, in a community of practice people accumulate knowledge and become informally bound by the value in being together. Communities of Practice are everywhere – most are invisible.
Etienne Wenger et al. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School Press. Etienne Wenger web site http://www.ewenger.com/
“Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share concerns, a set of problems or a passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. (Wenger 2002)
In a CoP, Members typically:
*
Share information, insight and advice
*
Help each other solve problems
*
Discuss situations, aspirations and needs
*
Ponder common issues, explore ideas and act as sounding boards
*
May create tools, standards, generic design, manuals and other documents
*
Develop an understanding of what they share
In a nutshell, in a community of practice people accumulate knowledge and become informally bound by the value in being together. Communities of Practice are everywhere – most are invisible.
Etienne Wenger et al. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice. Harvard Business School Press. Etienne Wenger web site http://www.ewenger.com/
Peter Senge - The Next Discipline
Peter Senge - The Next Discipline
Abstract of an interview with Peter Senge by Mike Hanley. Published in AFR Boss Magazine August 2005.
Peter Senge wants to save the earth. Now, with the rise of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, Senge thinks it’s time for a global awakening of consciousness. unless companies understand the impact they have on the world, and use that understanding to create a deep and lasting sustainability, we are all, literally, doomed. Senge compares modern corporations to a cancer, expanding blindly, Businesses, he says, cannot afford the kind of narrow ideologies that have driven them in the past. They need to engage with other parts of society with a systems view in order to survive.
The idea is to create a world that is no longer “governed primarily by habit”. Senge argues that habit prevents people, companies and societies from making radical change. Systems thinking is a way of imposing a wider perspective on our everyday actions and he has developed a number of tools, one of which is the concept of a systems archetype – a way of viewing patterns of interdependence.
The art of conversation is something that people spend their lives developing. Fifty or a hundred years ago, what did people do at the end of the day? They talked, they sought out each other’s perspectives. In real conversation, we not only discover each other, we also discover ourselves. whereas when one person ‘tells’ another they are making a demand for obedience.
Senge’s research is based on the principle that fundamental change happens because people decide to make it happen, and organisations can inhibit or enable that change. He is convinced that real changes are created by maybe 5 to 10 per cent of people and organisations over time.
Read full article: http://www.afrboss.com.au/magarticle.asp?doc_id=24915&listed_months=1
Abstract of an interview with Peter Senge by Mike Hanley. Published in AFR Boss Magazine August 2005.
Peter Senge wants to save the earth. Now, with the rise of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, Senge thinks it’s time for a global awakening of consciousness. unless companies understand the impact they have on the world, and use that understanding to create a deep and lasting sustainability, we are all, literally, doomed. Senge compares modern corporations to a cancer, expanding blindly, Businesses, he says, cannot afford the kind of narrow ideologies that have driven them in the past. They need to engage with other parts of society with a systems view in order to survive.
The idea is to create a world that is no longer “governed primarily by habit”. Senge argues that habit prevents people, companies and societies from making radical change. Systems thinking is a way of imposing a wider perspective on our everyday actions and he has developed a number of tools, one of which is the concept of a systems archetype – a way of viewing patterns of interdependence.
The art of conversation is something that people spend their lives developing. Fifty or a hundred years ago, what did people do at the end of the day? They talked, they sought out each other’s perspectives. In real conversation, we not only discover each other, we also discover ourselves. whereas when one person ‘tells’ another they are making a demand for obedience.
Senge’s research is based on the principle that fundamental change happens because people decide to make it happen, and organisations can inhibit or enable that change. He is convinced that real changes are created by maybe 5 to 10 per cent of people and organisations over time.
Read full article: http://www.afrboss.com.au/magarticle.asp?doc_id=24915&listed_months=1
2 September 2005
“You’ve got to find what you love” – Steve Jobs
“You’ve got to find what you love” – Steve Jobs
This is text taken from the commencement address at Stanford University by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
Steve Jobs, college drop-out, entrepreneur, cancer survivor, fired and rehired by Apple Computers tells Stanford University students of his life experience which he places into three categories: Connecting the Dots, Love and Loss, and Death.
Connecting the Dots describes Steve’s early years of dropping out of college and his journey to creating Apple Computers. He believes that you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. That is, many of the things you are doing may not make sense until later when you look back. So you have to trust in something – your gut, destine, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference” says Steve.
Steve’s second theme, Love and Loss describes his feelings of rejection when he was very publicly fired by Apple. He had lost the focus of his entire adult life and found it devastating. He felt like he had let down the previous generation of entrepreneurs. He realized that he still loved what he did and decided to start over. His success with Pixar and NeXT were created as an aftermath of his departure from Apple. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and Steve returned to Apple. He realized that being fired by Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. The heaviness of being successful was replaced with the lightness of being a beginner again. “It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of his life”.
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only one thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love”. Steve adds, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle”.
In Steve’s final topic, he talks openly about death. He asks himself the daily question, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” About a year ago, Steve was diagnosed with what the Doctors believed to be an incurable cancer. Later that afternoon, it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. Steve had the surgery and is fine now.
His brush with death made him realize that “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new”.
Steve’s final advice to the University students is not to waste your life by living someone else’s life, not to be trapped by dogma nor let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice, but to have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. He leaves them with a farewell message, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”.
Read the full text http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
This is text taken from the commencement address at Stanford University by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
Steve Jobs, college drop-out, entrepreneur, cancer survivor, fired and rehired by Apple Computers tells Stanford University students of his life experience which he places into three categories: Connecting the Dots, Love and Loss, and Death.
Connecting the Dots describes Steve’s early years of dropping out of college and his journey to creating Apple Computers. He believes that you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. That is, many of the things you are doing may not make sense until later when you look back. So you have to trust in something – your gut, destine, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference” says Steve.
Steve’s second theme, Love and Loss describes his feelings of rejection when he was very publicly fired by Apple. He had lost the focus of his entire adult life and found it devastating. He felt like he had let down the previous generation of entrepreneurs. He realized that he still loved what he did and decided to start over. His success with Pixar and NeXT were created as an aftermath of his departure from Apple. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and Steve returned to Apple. He realized that being fired by Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. The heaviness of being successful was replaced with the lightness of being a beginner again. “It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of his life”.
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only one thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love”. Steve adds, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle”.
In Steve’s final topic, he talks openly about death. He asks himself the daily question, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” About a year ago, Steve was diagnosed with what the Doctors believed to be an incurable cancer. Later that afternoon, it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. Steve had the surgery and is fine now.
His brush with death made him realize that “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new”.
Steve’s final advice to the University students is not to waste your life by living someone else’s life, not to be trapped by dogma nor let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice, but to have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. He leaves them with a farewell message, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”.
Read the full text http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
2 August 2005
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings
The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings
Fast Company Magazine April/May 1996. Has anything changed since 1996?
The seven sins of deadly meetings
People don't take meetings seriously
Meetings are too long
People wander off the topic
Nothing happens after the meeting - no action
People don't tell the truth
People aren't prepared for meetings -critical data missing
Meetings never seem to improve
Read the full text http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/02/meetings.html
Fast Company Magazine April/May 1996. Has anything changed since 1996?
The seven sins of deadly meetings
People don't take meetings seriously
Meetings are too long
People wander off the topic
Nothing happens after the meeting - no action
People don't tell the truth
People aren't prepared for meetings -critical data missing
Meetings never seem to improve
Read the full text http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/02/meetings.html
POWERPOINT: IS IT KILLING YOUR BUSINESS?
POWERPOINT: IS IT KILLING YOUR BUSINESS?’
Extract from “The phluff factor” by Luke Collins in the Financial Review BOSS magazine, 8th July 2005.
PowerPoint is more ubiquitous than ever in today’s workplaces. Microsoft estimates that about 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made every day with over 400 million users of the software globally. Now that’s a lot of mind-numbing presentations. Has this tool and other technological advances really helped us to communicate more effectively?
Yale University Professor Edward Tufte is not a fan of Microsoft’s PowerPoint software which he declares is so “stupid” and “evil” that no “serious person” would use it. PowerPoint can turn good communicators into “droning commentators”.
Tufte compares PowerPoint to a designer drug with serious side effects such as: making us stupid, degrading the quality and credibility of our communication, turning us into bores and wasting our colleagues’ time.
We have become so reliant on PowerPoint, that it has become a costly expense to companies. One example mentioned in the article was when NASA’s Columbia Investigation Board was forced to endure several PowerPoint sessions, which failed to address vital information which should have been investigated prior to the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia crash.
Another example is when the audience has broken into spontaneous applause not when PowerPoint presentations begin, but when the equipment fails.
We at TinCAN agree whole heartedly with the author. All our programs are PowerPoint-free zones which enables maximum cross-pollination learning and engagement.
Read the full text http://www.afrboss.com.au/magarticle.asp?doc_id=24773&listed_months=1
Extract from “The phluff factor” by Luke Collins in the Financial Review BOSS magazine, 8th July 2005.
PowerPoint is more ubiquitous than ever in today’s workplaces. Microsoft estimates that about 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made every day with over 400 million users of the software globally. Now that’s a lot of mind-numbing presentations. Has this tool and other technological advances really helped us to communicate more effectively?
Yale University Professor Edward Tufte is not a fan of Microsoft’s PowerPoint software which he declares is so “stupid” and “evil” that no “serious person” would use it. PowerPoint can turn good communicators into “droning commentators”.
Tufte compares PowerPoint to a designer drug with serious side effects such as: making us stupid, degrading the quality and credibility of our communication, turning us into bores and wasting our colleagues’ time.
We have become so reliant on PowerPoint, that it has become a costly expense to companies. One example mentioned in the article was when NASA’s Columbia Investigation Board was forced to endure several PowerPoint sessions, which failed to address vital information which should have been investigated prior to the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia crash.
Another example is when the audience has broken into spontaneous applause not when PowerPoint presentations begin, but when the equipment fails.
We at TinCAN agree whole heartedly with the author. All our programs are PowerPoint-free zones which enables maximum cross-pollination learning and engagement.
Read the full text http://www.afrboss.com.au/magarticle.asp?doc_id=24773&listed_months=1
2 July 2005
Your company’s secret change agents
‘Your company’s secret change agents’
Harvard Business Review May 2005
Change Management, say the authors, is more about bridging the gap between “what is happening and what is possible”. Traditionally, this involves digging out the source of the problem, hiring experts and assigning the change challenge to a strong leader.
But there is a better way. Search out the “positive deviants” in your organisation and copy their example. These insiders are already practicing the answers to corporate problems. The “positive deviant” model is about channelling their creative solutions into standard organisational practice.
Six steps are recommended.
1. “make the group the guru” (promote bottom-up team leadership).
2. “reframe through facts” (use hard data to challenge orthodoxy).
3. “make it safe to learn”.
4. “make the problem concrete”.
5. “leverage social proof” (seeing is believing).
6. “confound the immune defence response” (allow the natural popularity of positive deviance to defeat cynicism).
A challenge for positive deviance is persuading leaders to become followers. Such role reversal is unpalatable to many traditional leaders who as a result victimize positive deviants. No wonder they are shy.
Abstract by Professor Malcolm Rimmer, head of La
Article in Harvard Business Review by Richard Tanner Pascale and Jerry Sternin
Order a print of this article R0505D from Harvard Business Review OnPoint www.hbr.org
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