Innovation, Collaboration, Learning & Leadership
How can an organization encourage innovative ideas and allow them to move through the system? The answer is that you need to create little pockets of chaos within the larger organization.
You need a little chaos to create room to move.
When we confront large scale transformation, the scope and beauty of the outcomes we seek can be overwhelming. Crystals grow molecule by molecule. Bring about your large scale change action by action.
Big Change is Daunting
Discussing large transformative change you will often hear people refer to how daunting it is to consider the entire idea of the change. Richard Martin has eloquently described the work of building our future responsive organisations as like the construction of a cathedral that will be completed beyond our lifetime. Mary Freer wants to change health and social care for the better through Change Day. Eddie Harran seeks to understand the role of nomadism in shaping the lives of digital nomads. These are but a few of the large scale ideas that challenge our understanding of how to move forward.
Just conceiving of a perfect endpoint for the change can be a barrier to getting started. The pressure for perfection of this final vision can come from many sources. We want our goals to as well as ordered as a crystal and with a fine gemlike finish as well. Too many people spend their time polishing the gem of an idea and never get started.
To lead large scale change, we need to unlearn the desire to know the exact shape of the endpoint. Instead of focusing our attention on the perfect gem of an end goal, we need to focus the process by which the crystal of change gets formed.
A Crystal Grows Molecule by Molecule
The crystals that we later polish to create gems are formed when a seed attracts molecules from a saturated solution or gas to form a solid structure. There are a number of parts of this crystallisation process that apply in change as well:
Seed – First Action: There needs to be a first point for a crystal to attach. Somebody needs to begin the process of change and create the first action. This action can be as simple as declaring a need to change or organising the first connections.
Saturated solution – Ready Network: Super saturation of the solution with molecules drives the formation of a crystal. Change needs networks that are connected and rich enough in change agents to sustain connection and action. If that saturation falls between minimum levels, change stops. Action is one key way to keep change agents engaged.
Nucleation – Small Experiments: Before crystals form, the molecules connect in solution. Consider this the experimental efforts to form a crystal. Only when conditions are right to achieve stability do they connect to form a crystal. Every successful change initiative finds that there have been previous unsuccessful attempts to achieve stable change and that others are working on change in parallel. Don’t see these are barriers or disappointments. Recognise that the key is helping these experiments connect together at scale.
Crystal growth – Open Structure: Crystals form in structures because there are clear points and structures for new molecules to attach. Large scale change needs an open structure that allows those who are ‘transformation curious’ to connect and engage with the change in their own way.
Impurities – Embrace a little chaos: The dynamic nature of the process and environmental conditions when forming crystals attracts minor impurities and irregularities. These are just part of the process. Large scale change is never perfect. Accept that things will have a few rough edges, but keep working to grow the change around them.
Time: Most crystals grow gradually molecule by molecule. This gradual process reflects the process of change where people make new sense of their world and add new actions slowly step by step.
The Lesson from Crystals
Start acting now with the first experiments in a connected network of change agents and allow others to connect and shape the work as it moves forward.
Thanks to Eddie Harran for the conversation that gave the idea of crystallisation somewhere to connect
Now is when you thought of it.
Now is when you want to do it.
Now has energy, passion and surprise.
Now is spontaneous and infectious.
Now lets you solve for the real problems of now.
Now means momentum.
Now isn’t easy or sure of success.
Now lets you do.
Later is when you must remember it.
Later is when you will need to remember why.
Later has doubts, processes and predictability.
Later is ambiguous and vague.
Later lets you solve for the imagined problems of later.
Later means delay.
Later isn’t easy or sure of success.
Later lets you wait.
Your call.
There is too much emphasis on methods and tools, and not enough on the people using them.
Organisations often treat compliance with policy as an outcome. This approach confuses the tool and the result. Policy is guidance, should allow for exceptions and should change to deliver the best results.
When I began my career as a banker, an experience colleague introduced me to Lending Policy 100. Numbered to sit at the beginning of a long list of lending and credit policies, the purpose of Lending Policy 100 was to remind bankers that policy is merely a guideline for action and people should always exercise judgement. To put it in simple terms, Lending Policy 100 was a policy to explain that policies are only policies.
This was bureaucratic absurdity but a useful tool. Lending Policy 100 came in handy when you needed to ask someone to exercise judgement. Appealing to another policy gave people the wriggle room to escape the strictures of another policy that would otherwise be poorly applied. Lending Policy 100 enabled you to turn the conversation away from the tool and back to the result.
Policies are just tools. They are guidelines to help people do their job in an efficient and compliant way. Tools require application to specific circumstances and employees need to make judgement calls to interpret and apply the policy in each circumstance. No tool is always effective. What matters is how it is applied.
When organisations mandate policy compliance they have confused the tool and the result. Organisations fail to achieve their outcomes when they refuse to acknowledge that you can’t anticipate every circumstance, that things change and that employees need to be trusted to exercise discretion in cases to get the right outcome.
Focusing on perfection in policy compliance leads directly to your employees saying “But that is our policy” the next time they need to explain a bad decision to a customer, employee or other stakeholder. Zero tolerance for exceptions is zero tolerance for the reality of your customer’s world. There is no better way to show indifference to customers.
Responsive organisations accept that policy must work to achieve the desired outcomes. They focus on employees commitment and capability to achieve these outcomes, not compliance with policy. They allow for exceptions and they allow for people to ask for changes in policies when required. Policies can be a useful tool in organisations (even if only for legal reasons), but they must be applied as an agile and responsive tool.
If you needed a sign, this is it.
Working out loud is an important practice to escape the sense of social media as a challenging exercise of pitching yourself.
Many people struggle with the feeling that blogging and other forms of social media is self-promotion, bragging or a claim to expertise. Reluctant to pitch themselves publicly these people sit on the sidelines. As a result they and their networks miss the value of their contributions.
John Stepper has made the point that everybody works so working out loud is accessible to all of us. There is a humility that is essential to joining in the process of sharing partially completed work. There is no need to pitch when the process is a simple as:
Working Out Loud = Narrating your work + Observable work
The work need not be perfect. It should not be finished. Working out loud is a process of learning and collaboration. The idea that you would share work in progress to invite discussion presupposes you don’t know everything and don’t have all the answers.
The benefits of working out loud don’t always arise from a single post. However, working out loud is an application of the the Formula for Awesome. Working out loud supplies the humility, generosity and collaboration.
All you need to add is some purpose, urgency and persistence. Your daily work challenges should give you more than enough for these three. If you sustain the practice of working out loud, you will learn more approaches to working out loud, you will gain comfort in social collaboration and you will build trust with your colleagues.
A side benefit of working out loud is that you will develop an authentic reputation for both the work you do and the generosity of your collaborative style. That’s far more powerful than a sell job that everyone views cynically. Build a reputation for doing, not talking.
So here’s your next challenge. Work out loud each day for 99 days. Don’t worry about the Pitch. Just share and reap the rewards of collaboration.
PS With apologies to Jay-Z. Thanks to Ross Hill and the many Do Lectures conversations about social collaboration for the inspiration.
An ongoing project of documenting the inspirations from Do Lectures Australia.
Mindfulness was a common theme of discussion at the first Australian Do Lectures. Many of the speakers referenced the importance of their practice in some way. Many of the attendees were practitioners of one technique of mindfulness or another.
In one discussion, we explored the many mindfulness techniques that people did not even consider a practice. These ranged from a deep breath at frustration, to a long morning walk or the powerful time alone with your thoughts when swimming.
Why would an event of doers be so focused on discussion of meditation, yoga, reflection and the other practices of mindfulness and reflection?
Mindfulness is a precondition to presence and focus. A mind that is not present and that is cluttered with thoughts and emotions will struggle to focus on the opportunities for change. Irrelevant thoughts, distractions and doubts eat at the capability to deliver and create change.
The simple practice of being mindful can help you to help make the world a better place. Importantly, it will change you in the process too.
