[Sažetak] 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change – Esther Derby

“If people won’t change, you change the people” izreka je koju sam nedavno čuo. Da li je to ispravan način uvođenja promjena – nisam uvjeren. Velikom rotacijom ljudi u organizaciji stvara se određena doza nesigurnosti i straha. Također, gubi se znanje i iskustvo ljudi koji odlaze iz organizacije. S druge strane promjene ljudi uvode nove ideje i, potencijalno, pozitivne promjene. Kako god, smatram da je ta izreka primjenjiva kao zadnja opcija.

Od kada sam pročitao knjigu Black Box Thinking, drugačije gledam na pojam marginal gains. Mala poboljšanja mogu puno značiti kada se sumiraju. Autorica knjige, “7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change – Micro Shifts, Macro Results”, bavi se baš tim efektom. Mali pomaci, veliki rezultati. Kroz 7 pravila – više smjernice nego pravila – približava nam kako malim pomacima se mogu dogoditi značajne promjene. Štoviše, sugerira da se uspješnost velikih promjena znatno povećava kroz puno malih promjena nego jedna velika.

Ukratko, uživao sam čitati ovu knjigu. I svaku promjenu koju ću pokušati provesti u budućnosti – provoditi ću primjenom ovih 7 smjernica.

7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results

Introduction

“Cynefine identifies five domains: obvious (until 2014 referred to as simple), where best practices exist and apply-, complicated, where there is at least one right solution and expertise applies; complex, where new approaches must be invented; chaotic, where the best advice is to stabilize quickly; and disorder, which is a state of unclarity, not knowing which domain applies”

“Any given change maybe positive for some people, and a negative for others”

“Change is a social progress”

“Skill and will aren’t always the problem. When they are not, focusing there can prolong an undesirable pattern”

“Training may be useful and necessary, but it’s not sufficient”

“Standardizing nonstandard work may make matters worse”

“Long feedback loops delay learning and improvements”

“Observed patterns result from many underlying influences”

Chapter 1 – Change by Attraction

“Most people, whatever their position in the organization, would prefer that their experience of change be “above the line”, where they have a choice, they learn and grow, and they have a sense of control and personal agency”

“A willingness to ler people gat their fingertips on a change orients an organization toward no su much the specific change but rather a comfort with uncertainty and complexity”

“The irony is, people live in complexity and engage in complex changes all the time”

“We are all experienced at living with uncertainty and managing complexity. Until we go to work”

“To use a very common example, when people use war metaphors to describe business activities – collaboration is less likely”

“At best, coercion, rewards, and positional authority result in compliance, not engagement, and certainly not in creativity”

“Change by attraction is the opposite of “driving change””

“Change by attraction has the opposite effect: resistance fades because there is nothing to push against; there is only something to move toward, by choice”

“The 7 rules are not a stepwise process. Use the one that will help generate a movement in the moment”

“Rule 1. Strive for Congruence. Congruence is the foundation of integrity and open communication in times of change”

“Congruence is the foundation for change by attraction, and in contributes to referent power”

“Rule 2. Honor the past, present, and people. Paradoxically honoring the past helps people let go of it”

“Honoring the past contributes to referent power by reinforcing respect”

“Rule 3. Asses what is. People think change starts with a vision, but it really starts from where you are now”

“Assessing what is increases the chance that an intervention will fit the context and will fix or at least improve the problem”

“Rule 4. Attend to networks. Work – and change – happens through webs of relationships”

“Pay attention to networks, which rely on referent power”

“Rule 5. Experiment. Little changes limit disruption and allow people to learn”

“Experiment enable people to use their own power to think and learn, and they make people agents of the change”

“Rule 6. Guide and allow for variation. Empower reasonable deviation and new possibilities”

“Encouraging people to think deeply about what variation (within boundaries) best fits their context increases not only the like hood that a change will fit but also ownership of that change. It also allows for the possibility of creative new solutions, again tapping into people’s own power”

“Rule 7. Use your self. You are your most important tool for change”

Chapter 2 – Strive for Congruence

“Congruence, in the sense I use it, is an alignment between a person’s interior world of thoughts and feelings and the exterior world of their social and physical reality”

“Incongruence is a stress state. It is response to feeling or threatened. For many people that’s a perfect description of change”

“Stress also affects cognitive and emotional processes; it manifests as mental slowness, confusion, and an inability to concentrate. Emotionally, stress leads to irritability, apathy, and a sense of being overwhelmed”

“Congruence is an anti-stress state”

“Congruence is an individual matter, but it contributes to psychological safety, which is a group level phenomenon, and is tightly tied to group learning”

“Demonstrating empathy means you listen, acknowledge, and accept feelings and points of view as legitimate. Empathy is fundamentally about respect”

“This is the key: people rarely change because someone has a bright new idea; they change to save something they value”

Chapter 3 – Honor the Past, Present, and People

“When I talk about honoring the past, I’m not suggesting nostalgia or deference to “We’ve always done it this way”. I am talking about respect for some basic fundamentals”

“People aren’t likely to change just because someone shows up with a good idea or snappy presentation. It comes down to making human connection – understanding where people are coming from and what their challenges and aspirations are”

“Most people want to improve, but few want to hear from an outsider, or from anyone else for that matter, that they are wrong”

“Logical arguments, data, and persuasion may work for simple changes or those that don’t threaten belief, habits, status or identity”

“When people are holding on tightly to the past, it’s because there is something they value and they have no idea what might replace that in the future”

“When a change connects to value, people move toward it without pushing”

“Transformational conversations happen when people seek to understand rather than to convince”

“Demonstrate that you are willing to listen, engage, and understand other’s points of view”

“If you are looking to change something, it is worthwhile to pay attention to the quiet wheels too – the things that aren’t the current focus of your fixes”

“In every organization there are things that work well, good ideas that need a nudge, and people who deeply understand the problem at hand”

Chapter 4 – Assess What Is

“Progress happens through learning, diffusing ideas, adjusting constraints and structures, and dampening and amplifying differences, as well as through interpersonal exchanges and network influences”

“The formal structures shown on the [organizational] chart affect how work gets done – but so do structures that are not visible”

“CDE [Containers, Differences, Exchanges model] describes the three conditions that determines the speed, direction, and path of a system as it self-organizes”

“What people do about these concerns [clarity, conditions, constraints] depends on where they sit in the organization, perspectives that I call Steering, Enabling-and-Enhancing, and Making domains, or the SEEM model”

“The Steering domain has to do with directional decisions that affect the entire organization”

“The Enabling-and-Enhancing domain is about funding and prioritizing work so that it flows smoothly into teams (clarity), makin sure teams have what they need to do their work and are actually functioning effectively”

“Quality is an amorphous concept that can mean different things to different people”

Chapter 5 – Attend to Networks

“Overlooking networks and inadvertently breaking one costs time and usually money”

“Networks don’t rely on positional, reward, or coercive power.They form based on relationship, trust, and expertise”

“When I’m working on a project, I generally want to know two things: whose opinions are trusted and respected and whom people go to for advice”

“While there is no doubt that we are all connected through chains of personal relationships, however remotely, influence does not persist through all these steps”

“Understanding existing networks can speed the flow of information and identify key people to include early on”

“During times of uncertainty and change, emotions surge. In the absence of information, people will fill any information gaps with their worst fears”

“Rumors telegraphs what people are worried about. Paying attention to rumors enables tuning communication to allay concerns”

Chapter 6 – Experiment

“Big changes are often perceived as threats. Big changes are also big bets”

“Working small on influencing factors is often the only way to make progress on big problems”

“As I’m using the term, experiments are tiny interventions intended to learn about how a system respond, to nudge things in a better direction, and to suggest what to experiment with next”

“Keep an eye on the end goal, but keep experiments small, even tiny”

“The key is to find something you can act on now, without the budget, permission, or an act of God”

“Every experiment should have a rational hypothesis, informed by what has happened in the system up till now, and difference that is desired”

“Design experiments to manage risk, not to eliminate it”

“The following questions were tested by dozens of coaches and consultants to aid them in forming that lead to learning (and limiting disruption):

  1. What factors may contribute to the current problem or situation?
  2. Which factor can you control or influence?
  3. What is your rationale for choosing this experiment?
  4. What questions are you trying to answer?
  5. What can you observe about the situation as it is now?
  6. How can you detect the experiment is moving in the desired direction?
  7. How might you detect that the experiment is moving in an undesirable direction?
  8. What is the natural time scale?
  9. If things get worse, how will you recover the situation?
  10. If things improve, how will you amplify the experiment?”

“Experiments do no come with a guarantee of success, unless learning is the goal. Learning and innovation both require stepping into unknown. Mistakes happen”

Chapter 7 – Guide, and Allow for Variation

“Standardize for simple problems where best practices apply, simplify and call on experts for complicated ones, and allow for local variation and emergence when problems are complex”

“Boundary stores provide a way to avoid mandating when it is unnecessary (and potentially harmful) and achieve desired outcomes”

“In complex systems, however, change happens and new patterns form through small evolutionary steps”

“Change involves modifying conditions and adjusting constraints, structures, and policies”

“Complex change is impossible to predict, and frankly messy”

“Try something, observe, adjust, and keep moving forward until the way becomes clear”

“When people have freedom to bring their own knowledge, experience and intelligence to refining a change, they own it. They aren’t victims, but co-creators. That’s a success story”

Chapter 8 – Use Your Self

“Change is a social activity, and how you show up matters”

“There are several skills that will serve you well in change (and in life in general): empathy, curiosity, patience, and the ability to observe”

“It is [empathy] a foundation for applying these other skills”

“Curiosity seeks out factors that contribute to a situation so that they can be mitigated or ameliorated”

“Framing your questions can help fill in the gaps. Hone your question-aksing skills with who, what, when, where, and how questions to learn more about the environment”

“I try to avoid why questions. Why questions may cause people to feel defensive or that they have to come up with a cogent explanation when they don’t have one”

“Even if we can’t generate results in complex systems, observations can inform and support a rationale for experiments and interventions”

“Empathize and be curious; that will help activate patience. Then observe to enable informed experiments”

Dodatne poveznice

GoodReads: 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results

Amazon: 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results

Blackwell’s: 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results

Esther Derby: https://estherderby.com/

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