1. IS 788 14.21 IS 788 [Process] Change Management  Lecture: Change management: People issues in BPR, 3 of 3  Presentation and Discussion – “Enslavement or Empowerment” –

2. IS 788 14.22 Thriving on chaos (Tom Peters)  When you introduce change into an organizational group via changed processes you inevitably change the structure of the group. (No matter how highly structured the organization was, change morphs the structure.)  Knowingly moving the group into the CAS zone (by setting the size of the container, # of interactions, etc.) gives it the opportunity to self organize.

3. IS 788 14.23 Self organization is maximally adaptive  The process actors themselves ‘lurch’ toward the best fit with the new environment.  Many authors and executives who have used the technique feel it superior to any amount of forced (and expensive and slow) planning and control.  However, CAS are non-deterministic. The group and the organizational power structure must become comfortable – at least temporarily – with uncertainty.

4. IS 788 14.24 CAS vs. traditional planning  The only way to constrain uncertainty after change is to constrain interactions and structure time and tasks.  This presumes an omnipotent planner if success is to guaranteed.  The more complex the change and the process, the more likely planning is to be inadequate.  Part of the job of the change agent is to help the group and its supervisor(s) let go of the myth of certainty.

5. IS 788 14.25 Self-organizing is not chaotic  Staged models of growth are useful between periods of self-organization (following intense changes in environment or process)  Even in self-organizing mode, the speed of adaptation can be changed Enlarge the container to slow, contract it to speed up. That is, give the group more or less to control or adapt to.

6. IS 788 14.26 Skunkworks  An example of speeding up change and process Small team Specific task Confined physical space Isolated from normal organizational BS Sense of urgency Examples: Boeing, Monsanto, DEC, Apple Macintosh development+, PARC

7. IS 788 14.27 History and Expectations  Guidance on the pace with which a group can self-adapt can be found in its history  Changes in the recent past are an indication of how much energy the group has  Changes in the distant past show patterns of behavior under CAS conditions

8. IS 788 14.28 Practical notes on managing change  Use an iterative approach – experiment, observe, try again  Smaller groups are easier to manage and observe  Act and respond. Don’t be drawn into “analysis paralysis”.  Change agents move a system from certainty to uncertainty and back again (cf. Lewin – freeze, unfreeze, refreeze)

9. IS 788 14.29 Decision making under uncertainty Where most managers want to be. Where non-trivial process change takes you. The ERP zone ;-) Inverse uncertainty

10. IS 788 14.210 Decisions and uncertainty  High certainty decisions depend on familiar environments and tested methods  Low certainty decisions are inevitable with new methods and/or unfamiliar environments  The size of each area of the model varies with the degree of structure of the organization

11. IS 788 14.211 Categories of decisions  Rational: High predictability and few alternatives. Efficiency and stability  Preference: High predictability and many alternatives. Making a decision in this domain often requires negotiation, compromise or politics.  Good Luck: Low predictability and one or few alternatives – the “Hail Mary pass in football

12. IS 788 14.212 Categories of decisions (2)  Random: Low predictability, many alternatives. Like searching the universe for signs of life by monitoring radio waves ;-)  Self-Organizing: Intermediate predictability, intermediate number of alternatives. The sanest decision approach here involves a high level of interaction between empowered organizational agents.

13. IS 788 14.213 Visioning  Overused and rightly maligned, visioning has a use.  CAS respond well to visions, especially when the arise from the group itself  The “good enough” vision Stop analyzing, start acting Begin meetings with just enough agenda to get started Many things are important, but focus on just a few Push information out, even if it is incomplete

14. IS 788 14.214 Change at Mercedes-Benz credit  Bottom up reorganization  A few simple rules Attack issues in teams Cut costs Every job, every procedure is open to be changed No fear! (A guarantee of employment even if you helped eliminate your former job!)