The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

Muhammad Ali

Remember the good old days when change management was explained as the only alternative to murder in the first degree? There was no doubt about what one was supposed to think: either you are a saint caring for your people, or you are a jerk pushing everything down their throats. The choice was really obvious and the drawing to explain it was simple.

I guess it must have been revolutionary at that time because ‘change management’ started to make sense from a ROI (Return On Investment) perspective. Have a look at the back-of-an-envelope calculation below to see how both approaches translate in terms of ROI:

Boardroom convinced? Bring in the consultants. Or… wait… did we miss something. Yes you did.

Albert Einstein once said that everything should be made as simple as possible – but no simpler. The curse of this model is that we think the hard work of figuring out what to do is over once we voted for the first approach. Unfortunately it turns out that when we allow transition – in other words: when we decide to bring an organizational change practitioner on board – implementation rears its ugly head.

You will run into a great number of choices and you will need to decide the balance between an authority based approach, a behavior based approach or an identity based approach.

A brief explanation about the differences:

1. Authority based: this is a mathematical approach where change management is reduced to the diagnosis of the organization by measuring and surveying all dimensions that have been outlined in the business case. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – right? Next, the implementation comes down to executing each action that is listed in the benefits realization handbook. The change is implemented ‘upon’ the people. They are merely spectators. For the record: you can claim you did change management because the issues for benefits realization where tackled during the execution of the project. But what will happen once the project team adjourns?
2. Behavior based: this is the approach whereby you want to influence the behavior of the people by shaping the path of their behavior. We should make it easier for people to act and behave in a certain way. We can do this with rewards, statuses, achievements, competition, badges, etc. But what will happen when the initial excitement fades away and old habits kick in? Think about the diet or the fitness you started some time ago… still doing it? Or did Mr. Habit take over? Again…
3. Identity based: The one thing we should remember is that behavior is not the problem, identity is. As long as we think behavior is the problem, our actions will be focused on rewarding punishing or, at best, shaping or reducing context. What we should search for instead is the gateway to identity in order to shape rituals and habits. They are the ultimate context to anchor sustainable behavior change. This is a tough one because it will require people to identify with the future state and all peers to act accordingly.

This is the real choice we need to make as an organizational change practitioner. Note that the first choice will keep you closely aligned with the project management approach. So if you want to play safe, this is the one to pick. The other two approaches are more grassroots initiatives. You’ll get to know what really makes people tick. Unfortunately you will also learn that your actions are less backed by the specialists who want to implement the project by the book.

So where are we most of the times with our projects?
(No, don’t answer that. I’m afraid to hear the answer.)

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

Anais Nin

The Path to Social Architecture

If your organization finally decides it’s time to go social (after realizing that the cost of denying it has outgrown the fear of doing it), you are most likely to pass through the following stages. The model below is the path that pioneer companies are going through right now – so give and take a little by the time other organizations get there.

Level 1: Presence

• What you will be doing: you are present on different social media platforms;
• What will happen: you are receiving different signals from different channels;
• The challenge: interpretation. How on earth are you going to make sense of what’s on your dashboard?

Level 2: Conversation

• What you will be doing: you are having conversations with ease;
• What will happen: it seems like the everyone is angry at you. Conversation seems to attract disgruntled followers in the first place;
• The challenge: promises. You will be making the difference with the way you respond to unhappy followers / customers. Of course this will require making commitments, so the next challenge you are looking at is involving your team into the commitments you are making.

Level 3: Co-Creation

• What you will be doing: this is the stage where you are involving the community in the creation of your projects, be it a video, a research, a puzzle to solve,…;
• What will happen: you are experiencing unexpected creativity from an angle that you never thought of before;
• The challenge: momentum. How will you make sure that the level of engagement does not deflate?

Level 4: Collaboration

• What you will be doing: this is when you have found a way to work together with communities in the long run, i.e.: across multiple initiatives. Their engagement is high and they have a sense of belonging;
• What will happen: you will soon discover that you can’t manage it all. You will need to delegate and get out of the way;
• The challenge: organization. The big question you have at this point is ‘how do we keep it organized and goal-oriented?

Level 5: Integration

• What you will be doing: awesomeness. You are now connecting social media platforms to your back-office systems since they are more up-to-date, create less double entry and provide more accuracy (no kidding – I am not smoking pot – for example: look at the accuracy of LinkedIn versus your Applicant Tracking System – it’s a losing battle)
• What will happen: a better and more effective use of data that has always been there (you will find yourself saying ‘Duh’!);
• The challenge: systems integration and privacy. Segregation Of Duties, SOX, FDA and all other nightmares. No worries – this is the fifth level. You will have supernatural power by the time you get here.

Of course, like in a real game you can only reach a certain level when you won the challenge of the previous level. This means that you will have built a social architecture. This is the social fabric of communities on top your organization chart. It’s the lattice through which works gets done and communities are nurtured.

So on the next question you may have: ‘where to we start?’ The answer: where you stopped the last time you analysed the soft stuff of communities. Remember we used to refer to them as stakeholders? Exactly.

The AAA Approach to Social Architecture

Here’s the approach you should follow in order to get from stakeholders to communities. Unfortunately managing stakeholders has deteriorated to the level checking boxes and complying with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) audits. Let’s take it to the next level with our AAA approach to Social Architecture.

Step 1: map your Ambitions

For each of the stakeholders that you have identified as important for the future of your organization it is time to ask to which level you are prepared to take them. Talk about it, work it out with your colleagues, debate it at all levels, but you will need to decide on the level of engagement you are prepared to take each stakeholder. Which platform will you offer them?

Step 2: find the Ambassadors

The next question you should ask is who could be the ambassadors for these stakeholders. Ambassadors can be customers, suppliers, colleagues, neighbors, etc. who represent a larger community. Remember: communities exist already. The point is to find their ambassadors and to deserve to become their platform.

Step 3: Access the Community

This comes down to asking yourself what kind of platform you want to create: one that promotes technology, products, services, deliverables, etc? Or rather one that connects human beings? You will need to become aware of the fragile fabric that human relations are made of. At the same time you will be amazed at the results that can be achieved when trust is created.

In the end it’s not the years in your life that count; it’s the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

A recent experience of a small project in our own house reminded me of the difficulties of tying it all together. Our kitchen has been installed by a company with a crisp and clean brand image and very skilled people. However at the end of the day we are not satisfied with some features that were promised in the beginning and got lost along the way. Or so we thought.

The trouble with projects is that communication gets lost along the way and needs evolve over time.

A kitchen, like any other project, is something that looks simple and straightforward from the beginning. List the requirements, make a plan, verify the plan, produce the parts, ship the parts, assemble the parts according to the plan. And this is exactly what they did. However, as the project was unfolding, different parties got involved (sales, planning, production, logistics and construction) and we (the customer) got a clearer picture of the destination.

Who’s to Blame?

Looking closer at my kitchen nightmare (watch the language I start using as a disgruntled customer) I have to admit there is no one to blame although I am not satisfied with the end result.

• The sales person held his promises;
• The project manager held on to deadlines and budget;
• Planning screwed up a bit , but then owed up for that mistake and corrected it,
• Production and logistics did what was expected of them – within the deadlines
• The builders worked according to the details of the plan

Have a look at the below drawing to see how this translates into our own world. In fact, it is an old cartoon that has been going around in many variants and it pops up every now and then.

Image taken from: http://www.projectcartoon.com/

The point is that if everyone continues to be a specialist in their discipline, pushing their skills and service mindedness to a maximum, we may still have poor customer satisfaction.

That’s When it Hit Me

When I compare this situation with the way we run our organizational change projects I have to admit that we cannot outsmart the team that installed our kitchen. We are as guilty as them in “delivering the specs” and at the same time not satisfying our customer.

That’s when I thought of the interview I did some time ago with Dr. Debra France from W.L. Gore. At a certain moment we talked about a role they have: the Product Mother. A Product Mother is what other organizations would call a Product Specialist or a Product Manager. Rather than providing an exhaustive function description for this role, they have chosen for an indication that suggest a high level of vigilant attention and nurturing that a product needs in order to become successful.

This makes sense, because this is exactly what is missing in our lousy kitchen experience. Worse: this is what is missing in the way we deliver projects as well! What we need is Project Mothers instead of Project Managers.

Why a Different Label Makes Sense

You may think it is just a different label, but it’s not. The word mother changes everything. A mother cares about the development, the well-being and the future of her child, whereas a project manager will only feel accountable for the birth.

Granted, birthing is a big thing and I won’t underestimate the conditions that project managers need to cope with, but the way we run our projects is as if we are surrogate mothers. A Project Manager will do what is best for birth. A Project Mother will do what is best for the child, now and in the future. This includes the preparation and planning of the future environment and the stakeholders.

In other words: a Project Mother combines the work of a Project Manager and the work of Change Manager in a nurturing way. By using this new label it will become impossible for project managers to say “Here I’ve done my job on time and in budget; now it’s up to you – dear change manager – to sell it to the organization”. We all know that this is a lost battle, because a delivered project – like a baby – needs nurturing. Not lecturing.

Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones – with ingratitude.

Benjamin Franklin

As I was flipping through my notebook, I came across the notes I made at the latest Human Capital Summit, where Tony Schwarz presented the Energy Project. The Energy Project offers organizations a detailed blueprint for fueling a fully engaged workforce.

Schwarz has a very simple and effective model for assessing how we deal with our energy. His insights are based on the common sense that a Porsche without fuel is no longer a high performing vehicle. Likewise, we can be high performing human beings, leaders, evangelists, managers, etc. But without the proper fuel we won’t be going very far.

It turns out that we can become wiser about managing our energy when we map it on two dimensions: quantity and quality. Have a look at the notes (including typos) that I made during his speech.

Obviously, as in all two-dimensional diagrams, the goal is to achieve the Nirvana of the top righthand quadrant. This diagram is no different, so the question becomes: how do we get and stay into the quadrant of the Performance zone?

The first thing you can do is taking an energy audit (and get really depressed ) because it can give you the starting point on the energy map. The energy audit is full of tips and sobering insights on how we are treating our own levels of energy and be more conscious about what it takes to sustain high performance.

Finally, Schwarz revealed some myths that are worth talking about.

Myth: We can run like computers 24/7
Reality: human beings are rhythmic. We have an energy ebb and flow. Therefore we need to pay attention to the pit-stops, because high performance racing requires regular pit-stops. In terms of the above diagram, this means that we need to move to the lower righthand quadrant of the Recovery zone intentionally and regularly.

Myth: Multitasking increases productivity.
Reality: The human brain is not capable of multitasking. It would be much healthier for us to work and live like sprinters who are focussed on one single sprint at a time. Therefore we need to chunk our work into sprints which all have a clear and visible finish-line, because this is what focusses performance.

Maybe you are an energy zombie like me, running on emergency fuel most of the time. In that case I’d recommend to check out the work of the Energy project. At least it will create some awareness about our condition and you can even analyze how serious your condition is.

I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.

Pablo Picasso

The title of this article almost sounds like one of the latest trends in fitness. Not quite. The last time I was over in Atlanta I interviewed Daryl Conner on the use of degrees and certifications for our profession. He got me thinking about the difference between what we do and who we are as an organizational change practitioner. Our presence as an organizational change practitioner matters. What do we represent when we are working for a customer?

Are we committed to doing what the customer tells us to do, or are we practicing our craft? At first sight this is an either / or question, but when we look closer there are some moments when it becomes an ‘and’ situation. That is: when practicing the craft, consciously – and satisfying our customer come together. In the below drawing I have indicated it as ‘Flow’.

Our job is not to make the lives of our customers easy. Our job is to help them make informed decisions. That is what practicing our craft is about. The drawing helps me to clarify that there are three areas that I can find myself in when I am working with a customer. They are:

1. Strength Of Character: this is the term that I borrowed from Daryl Conner. To me it comes down to having the courage to confront the customer with the facts of my analysis. But it goes deeper than that. It’s also the pursuit of an attitude of humble inquiry.
2. Flow: This is what happens when all the values I embody as an organizational change practitioner are in resonance with the customer’s intentions. It’s the definition of a fulfilling workday; a feeling of having contributed topped with the feedback that it mattered.
3. False Yes: saying yes when we should have said no. This is what gets us and/or the customer into trouble in the long run.

Clearly, the ‘Flow’ part is what we are after every day. But how can we make sure that we spend most of the time in that zone and how can we keep ourselves out of trouble when we get out of that zone?

Being conscious of the zone we are in is a good starting point. All customer engagements are different and the challenges are complex – most of the times, this is why the customer hired us. If we want to practice our craft, it’s essential to develop an internal GPS that tells us what zone we are in. We all know that it’s not easy to keep our head bove the clouds. The question we should be stalking ourselves with is: what am I being in service of right now? Am I practicing the craft?

Finally, it’s important to involve the customer in this journey from the beginning. Be explicit about the relationship you are trying to foster. Be clear about the fact that a relationship of trust does not automatically mean that you will be in agreement all of the time. Establishing a relationship of trust that allows for disagreement will increase the time you will be spending in the flow zone.