Stop Managing Change – Start Doing It! How organisations DO change and how we can help them with it

It ain´t what you don´t know that gets you into trouble It ain´t what you don´t know that gets you into trouble. It´s what you think you know that ain´t so that does. Mark Twain 2

You only learn what you tinker with yourself. Ernst von Glasersfeld 3

SF: a conversational model of OD useful for effecting a change of “culture” 4

Focus in SF on direct interactions: “What happens between the noses?” 5

What are useful therapy conversations? - 1-on-1 or with small groups 6

OD settings: What are useful 1-on-1 conversations? Formal & contracted: Individual coachings Briefings & de-briefings, “interviews” (1st and 2nd sessions) “Shadow consulting” “on-the-job-coaching” … Informal & spontaneous: Spontaneous informal chats (Intentional) informal conversations (re-framing, complimenting, asking,…) 7

What are useful conversations with teams and large groups? 8

OD-Settings: Multi-layering of conversations Main Client (Sponsor, Project Owner/s, ..) Internal Co-Consultant Managers (at various levels, management teams, …) Diagonal-cut groups (TF, CoP,..) All staff (Large group interventions, Town halls,…) Stakeholders (BMs, SBs, HR, Governing Board, Staff Council, …) 9

What else do SF OD workers DO? Contracting with a lot more people and groupings, with different kinds of clients All together describe the preferred future and start on a journey there Consultant and sponsor need to plan how to engage the organisation in conversations around the preferred future, what works, signs of progress, and around what to do Respond to the responses from these conversations in a continuous dialogue over time, taking turns! 10

Dialogic OD: Gervase Bushe & Robert Marshak 11

How can I have or facilitate useful conversations with people I have no direct contact with? 12

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Conversations with myself 14

How can I have useful conversations with myself? 15

What are useful conversations with myself? Mental discipline of maintaining a positive bias towards the client What is working in the organisation? Where do I see resources? What do I appreciate most in the people I am dealing with? etc. 16

What else? How would I deal with my client if s/he were already in her/his preferred future? > And then do it! 17

What else? What are my own best hopes (in terms of the client´s PF) from this conversation? 18

What else? What seeds do I want to plant in my next interactions? yes and… what else? Best possible… 19

Cherish my SF assumptions about organisations and change 20

Views of change Episodic change Emergent, continuous change 21

Organisations seen as networks of fluid and evolving relations in close interaction with their contexts 22

Change the conversations. Change the organisation. 23

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What does the SF OD coachultant do in “laying down pathways” that is different to having conversations? 26

Initiating conversations, and then stepping back… 27

…to allow lots of self-regulated conversations to occur… 28

… in order to energize, inspire, and authorize the people present to do what they think is best to make the change occur. 29

The Art of Creating Pathways Quality of questions!! – often co-created with client Right mix of people Person who is inviting and their style of hosting the event(s)!! Attitude of “serious play”: a probing, experimental, “playful” attitude combined with a “we mean it” message from the sponsor 30

SF change is not run like a project because… We are not just implementing or executing something pre-defined We need to discover what exists already (motivations, ideas, initiatives,…) Of emergent practices Of different power relations Of needing to take time to build coachultant – sponsor – change agent relationships Of needing to engage and inspire the members of the organisation 31

Principles of SF OD work Work in a probing, experimental mode Work in phases: evaluate outcomes, re-contract Quickly abandon trials that don´t work Start work with a “good enough” vision, work out the details later with different stakeholder groups Recognize the importance of imagination! – get people into a resourceful mode/frame of mind 32

What else can we do to foster the “ripple effect” of change in organisations? Build SF concepts / tools into organisational programmes / systems /…such as: performance reviews, talent review processes,… Identify and support change agents Start the work in a promising corner of the organisation Build communities of practice What else? 33

The Power of Generative Images new words, wordings or phrases, texts, pictures, objects, symbols… 34

“Best (Possible) Parliament” 35

“Best (Possible) Parliament” 36

Supreme Court of Justice 2015 Highest possible quality of decisions Organisationally top Presentation to the public 37

Modernisation of the Supreme Court of Justice – some years later 38

PLEASE have a conversation about: What do you do – or have observed others doing – that works in order to foster the ripple effect of change in organisations? 39

Let´s be inspirational rather than instructional Let´s be inspirational rather than instructional. Let´s connect our clients to a sense of possibility rather than constraint. 40

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