are new approaches to strategy development and issue resolution through participative conferences, events or meetings
Why the need for new approaches?
During the past decade the operating environment has changed fundamentally. Some of the factors driving this change are:
• Pressure to do more with less
• Increasing sophistication of other managers
• Instant global communications
• The impact of IT and technology in general
• New legislation
• The relentless explosion of information
• Consumer power
• Globalisation of markets and economics
• Retailer dominance
• Westernisation of developing countries
• Demographic changes
• Increased competition
• The European Union and the Single Currency
• Fragmentation of markets
• Changing values and aspirations
• Media pressure
• Environmentalism
• The changing role of women
• New science (quantum mechanics, chaos theory, systems theory, etc.)
The pace of change is so fast that many managers feel that they cannot cope. It’s like living on the edge of a precipice.
Conventional planning systems can’t cope with so much uncertainty and with so many unexpected leaps and chains of reaction. Planning doesn’t work any more because the thinking process is out of date. The paradigm that underpins most people’s thinking is based on the science of reductionism — we try to understand the world or the problem by breaking it down into its component parts, and attempt to predict the consequences of actions through a mechanistic cause and effect model.
But the world today is not a simple cause/effect model; it is a complex web of interconnected causes and effects, some instantaneous, some with a long time lag. To make sense of this shift and to ensure our organisations survive and prosper, we must begin to take a more holistic view of what is happening — to adopt a systems thinking approach as outlined in Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation. We need to ensure that:
• The rate of learning is faster than the rate of change
• Internal flexibility is greater than external turbulence
• Internal collaboration is greater than internal conflict
• Clarity of vision rises above the information explosion
• Corporate mission is stronger than disintegrative forces
• Innovative proactivity predominates over conservative tendencies
• Quality supersedes quantity as the basis of achievement
• A wide sense of the complex takes precedence over narrow perception
• We think global, act local; think local, act global
Under the old paradigm, the way is to plan the strategy then implement it. This approach has never worked particularly well:
• The strategy is usually devised by an unrepresentative group cut off from the rest of the organisation
• The planning process is linear
• The world will not stand still while the planners do their planning
Once devised, the strategy is then communicated to the rest of the organisation through a ‘cascade’ method, which is also flawed:
• It is too slow
• The message gets diluted and distorted as it moves down the pyramid
• It is a passive tell or sell process resulting in low levels of commitment
• There is no feedback loop to provide for organisational learning
New methods
New methods of devising strategy, holding meetings and communicating need to be used to overcome these barriers. The new technologies: Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, Real Time Strategic Change and Open Space allow everyone associated with the problem or organisation to be involved. They replace the passive ‘tell and sell’ model with high levels of participation and co-creating. The slow, cascade communication is replaced by simultaneous involvement of hundreds, if not thousands of people — there is no need to get ‘buy in’, the participants are the joint architects of the initiative, which means they are highly committed and motivated. And by focusing on positive outcomes and best practice, participants in these events experience enjoyable ways of working that release creativity and breakthrough results.
| 5 MODES FOR CREATING A SHARED VISION |
TELL
|
SELL
|
TEST
|
CONSULT
|
CO-CREATE
|
|
|
Demand compliance
|
Seek buy-in
|
Invite response
|
Request input
|
Collaborate
|
|
Does vision, strategy or
plan already exist?
|
Yes (final form)
|
Yes (final form)
|
Yes (draft form)
|
No
|
No
|
|
Who decides on the final
vision, strategy or plan?
|
Boss
|
Boss
|
Boss
|
Boss
|
Everyone
|
|
Communication flow
|
One way
|
One way
|
Two way
|
Two way
|
360°
|
|
Level of engagement
|
Low
|
High
|
Developed from The Fifth
Discipline Fieldbook, Nicholas Brealey, 1994
Very often, there is a combination of these modes in an
organisation’s strategy. For example, in mergers and
acquisitions, the vision for the integrated business is in
the hands of the board, the wider community might not be
able to participate in this decision for legal and
financial reasons. They will sell this plan to the
workforce to get buy-in. But the development of the
detailed strategy and implementation plans for that vision
can use a combination of test, consult or co-creation
methods. The greater the level of involvement, the greater
the level of commitment to action, and therefore the
greater the level of success. Similarly in large
organisations, whilst the overall vision may be set, local
visions and plans can be co-created that are in line with
the general direction of the corporate strategy. Once
again, there is a greater sense of ownership and commitment
to local plans than to those cascaded from above.
The technologies of involvement represent far more than
useful techniques for restructuring meetings and events.
They represent a completely new way of working, a whole new
way of doing business:
•
Change the way people behave at work
• Shape corporate mission and strategy
• Find new strategic directions
• Rethink structure and redesign jobs
• Integrate merged or acquired companies
• Re-engineer business processes
• Generate ideas for new products, initiatives or services
•
Resolve complex problems
For Roger Harrison, long time
consultant and writer on business and organisation
development, encountering these new technologies was a
blinding flash of the obvious
— “It
suddenly seemed so simple and clear, that if we wanted
people to work together to change things, we need to get
them working from a common appreciation of how things
are... If we want them to cooperate in planning and action,
we have to find common ground between them on how they
would like things to be different in the future, and we
have to give each of them a stake in a shared vision of
that future.” Roger Harrison, Consultants
Journey, McGraw-Hill, 1995
If you want your organisation to be Delighted, Decisive and
Dynamic about the Downsizing, Delayering and
Decentralising, and not feel
Disgruntled,
Displaced and Dispossessed then these technologies are for
you!
Large
group intervention technologies
A large group intervention is a
participative conference, event or meeting where a large
number of participants comprising a diverse cross-section
of an organisation’s stakeholders, come together to work on
real organisational issues of strategic importance. They
facilitate the organisation’s response to the ever-changing
environment in which they operate.
Large group interventions enable hundreds, even thousands,
of people to gather together for the purpose of planning
strategic change and exploring its implications. Having the
‘whole system’ in the room creates a broader information
base and improves cross-functional working.
In summary the Large Group Intervention methods have some
major advantages over conventional meetings and
conferences:
•
Ability to accommodate very large numbers in a
participative process, allowing everyone in the
organisation and key external stakeholders (customers,
suppliers, collaborators, partners, community) to be
covered by one, or a small number of events
• Short lead times
• Very fast results
• Participation by stakeholder groups facilitating whole
systems change
• Maximum involvement, high motivation
• Creative forces are unleashed
• Events designed by a team that is a microcosm of the
whole, so change begins even before the event
• High degree of self management
• Identification of common ground and alignment with a
shared vision
• Participants take ownership of their problems and find
their own ways forward
• Commitment to implementation
• A database of strategic information is built
• Power issues are reduced to a minimum
• The
event sends a strong message to the organisation that
things are really changing
Future
Search/Search Conferences
Future Search follows a progression of events approach from the past into the future, whereas Search Conferences are more concerned with finding the best fit between the system and its environment.
A typical Future Search conference lasts 2-3 days with up to 64 people and uses the following steps:
• Map the present in all its messy complexity. Examine the current events, trends and developments outside the organisation that seem to be shaping the future. Understand the strengths and characteristics of the organisation. Generate lists of 'prouds' and 'sorries', the things about which people feel good or bad.
• Focus on the future. Developing ideal future (5-20 years) scenarios describing the state of being there, not the process of getting there. Find common ground and develop a shared vision.
• Reflect, learn and act. Prepare suggested action lists for oneself, the group, and the whole organisation in order to bring closer the future that has been described.
The Search Conference has the following content over 2-3 days:
• Learning about our turbulent environment. Identifying the changes affecting the future of the system and imagining the probable and desirable global future.
• Learning about the system. Developing a picture of the system’s functioning, and creating a list of what to keep and change.
• Action planning. Taking the strategic objectives for the system and developing implementation plans.
The scenarios painted are richer in content than conventional presentations because they emerge out of the diverse contribution of people who reflect the whole system and it is is more productive than a problem-solving workshop because people are energised to find new solutions to fresh situations than to struggle with limited options to old problems.
Real Time Strategic Change
Real Time Strategic Change is a change in the way the organisation works and makes decisions. This is because it focuses on simultaneous planning and implementation.
Open Space
Open Space Technology was
devised by Harrison Owen whose insight was that
however good the conference design, the best sessions
(the ones most relevant to the participant’s needs)
were the self-organised ones around the coffee breaks.
So he developed a design that was an extended coffee
break!
An Open Space event is a meeting where the participants create and manage their own programme of parallel sessions around a central theme. The theme needs to be one of central concern to those involved, and in an organisational context is often one like “What are the issues and opportunities facing the ABC Company?”
The guiding principles of Open Space are:
- Participation is voluntary (Whoever comes are the right people)
- Be relaxed about timetables and agendas (Whenever it starts is the right time)
- Don’t have fixed expectations (Whatever happens is the only thing that could happen)
- If there’s no more to say, move on. (When its over, it’s over)
- If you find yourself not contributing, go somewhere where you can learn or contribute (The Law of Two Feet)
The outcomes are highly participative and energising sessions that can integrate a wide diversity of stakeholders and produce creative and collaborative actions.
Appreciative Inquiry
We know from research in a number of different fields that if we think positive, then positive things happen. e.g. the Pygmalion Effect, where the belief of the classroom teacher regarding the ability if the pupil is reflected in practice; and the placebo phenomenon where between one-third and two-thirds of all patients will show marked signs of physiological and emotional improvement through the belief in the treatment, even if that is only a sugar pill.
It has also been shown that a double negative does not have the same effect as a clear positive image. For example, in golf to visualise hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway was much more effective than telling yourself not to hit it into the woods. The mind does not know how to negate a negative, so ‘not the woods’ actually focuses the mind on ‘the woods’ and the ball travels there with unnerving accuracy.
Appreciative Inquiry builds on this research. By focusing on the successful examples in the past and present, we build a picture of the themes and ideas that we know we can do, and that work. We develop an individual and collective mindset of what we are capable of that is grounded in reality. It is a definite shift from our traditions of education, training and institutions where the concentration is on what is wrong.
Appreciative Inquiry is based on dialogue. The first step is to collect opinions and observations of everyone involved through telling stories of what has been and is successful. These observations are then shared in a workshop format to identify the themes and topics that run through the stories. Finally, a selection of the most important of these themes forms the basis for building a series of provocative proposition that describes how the organisation will be.
