I thought I would write a bit again and my source of inspiration this time are the guiding principles of organisational change that I follow (most of them learned from other people, of course). To change aficionados it probably seems a bit trite to start with this principle, considering that perhaps the most famous word in the change dictionary, if there was one, would be kaizen, meaning “good change”, often interpreted as “continuous improvement”. But nevertheless, I see so much of other kinds of thinking so I think starting here is motivated.
Here’s an interesting fact I read: About 1 million of your body’s cells die every second, which totals about 1.2 kg(!) each day. The article assures us not to worry because it’s part of the body’s recycling of cellular building blocks and is actually a precondition of life. Our bodies need to change continuously for us to survive and prosper.
This is certainly true for humans and I believe it’s true for organisations also. An organisation must also gradually unlearn things that aren’t working any more and give birth to new capabilities as the world around it changes. At least if it wants to survive in the long run. To accomplish this, successful organisations build change into the organisation itself, into its structures and processes and into the mind of every individual. They have shifted their mindset from change being a threat to be a source of learning and opportunity.
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”
— attributed to W. Edwards Deming
Some say the world is changing faster than ever. I don’t know about that, I think we tend to lose perspective sometimes. But certainly, especially in software, the time for product innovation is shorter. Leaders love talking about a VUCA world, it being volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. To avoid becoming dinosaurs, most organisations try to keep up with their time. If customers are on TikTok, then so should we. If customers expect self-service, we should offer that.
Organisations skilled in change may even use this ability as a competitive advantage, like a speed boat racing an island ferry in a regatta. If a competitor loses its pace, we buy them. It a technology becomes feasible, we’ll innovate with it. This is business agility, which is all the rage today. But business agility rests on continuous improvement. Just like a ballet dancer, you can’t be agile without the discipline of continuous improvement.
One way to think about this is that we have two parallel processes[1] going forward at the same time: 1. The delivery of value to our customers, and 2. The improvement of delivery process itself. The second process works on the first. These two processes must co-exist and we should work on both every day. In many organisations and teams, the first process has crowded the second to almost extinction.
Perhaps it’s obvious but I will say it anyway: Continuous change needs to be sustainable. You need to be able to keep it up indefinitely. You need the right structures in place, the right mindset of your people, the right culture, leadership and behaviours, and something that fuels the engine of change. It must not feel like a burden to people but rather like a puzzle to ponder and a source of achievement to enjoy.
Many organisations use change projects or programmes to change. To them, change starts at a certain date and ends at another. I think this is misguided. Stopping and starting change initiatives is exhausting to people. Furthermore, it confuses change for something merely complicated, where an expert might conceive of a plan we can simply execute[2]. But organisational change is mostly complex. The connection between cause and effect is not possible to deduce, except perhaps in retrospect. It will resist any attempt to plan it in detail and it won’t be successful. I think we need to stop viewing change as something special that needs a project and start building this capability into our organisation instead.
Not equally bad but nevertheless troublesome is the use of words like “transformation” or “journey” for your change. Certainly I have been guilty of this myself. The first one overpromises and both sound like they have a date when they are done. This will not be the case so they mislead us. Improvement should never stop. The only reasonable route is to build change into the DNA of your organisation.
Nothing ever lasts but change.
[1] Hat tip to my friend Peter Tallungs who first explained this to me.
[2] See the Cynefin framework