Category: Organisational Change
Integrate a change and it will be embedded. Success in change, is success in integration. Success in integration is due to elegance in design. Elegance in design is based on recognising the whole system that the change impacts.
There is no way a system will reject a missing piece that makes it whole and valuable.
To be successful in change therefore, first understand the bigger system. Many change efforts are managed in isolation. That is why most change efforts fail because they don’t get embedded into the bigger system.
What is the bigger system in which you are doing the change for?
Your success relies on your ability to grasp that big system. You then understand how your piece of the big jigsaw puzzle completes the picture of the system. No matter how small the change, your piece has to fit into the jigsaw. If not, whatever change outcomes you are achieving, these will just be rejected by that bigger system.
Respect the system. Have enough discipline to understand it and to always keep that big picture in mind.
Different systems, same pattern…
Every system is unique, and yet the pattern of organisation is the same: there is always a fundamental building block. Every system is created from the aggregation of fundamental units or building blocks. Every system functions uniquely depending on the patterns in which the small units are put together. This is design.
The human body is a system. The building block is the DNA. DNA builds chromosomes and cells, which builds tissues, which builds organs and builds a whole living organism. A change in DNA will dramatically change the type of living system.
Matter is a system. The building block is the atom. Atoms build elements, which combine to build chemicals, which then, combined a certain way, produce physical matter. A simple tinkering of the atom, will dramatically change the chemical composition of a matter. Remove H (hydrogen) from H2O (water) and you have oxygen (O2 or air).
A business or an organisation is a system. The building blocks can be broken down from divisions, departments, units, teams and individuals. Change the individuals and you change the system. You remove, you add, you re-group, you modify and change happens. You do these according to a design of a fully functional system, and change is sustained.
Jigsaw puzzles are fun. So is change. The two are not that different.
The trick to completing a jigsaw puzzle is to have a clear vision in your mind of the complete picture. What are the
missing pieces? Where do they fit? What are the clues that lets you know which pieces go together?
No matter how small your piece of the puzzle, the whole system will not realise its full potential until it is complete, until you provide that piece that fits. So when you do find that piece, design that piece, and deliver that piece. It will be very clear what value you have created.
How Does a System Look Like
The diagram above is a (sanitised) example of an enterprise management system that I developed for one organisation. It’s based on the concept of a value chain. This helped the COO appreciate the connections amongst strategy, projects, change, operations and business results. It also created a distinction between what a project is as opposed to operations (or business as usual). This is a very high-level, simplified representation of an enterprise. In real life, there will be feedback loops all over the system and there is so much more detail you could zoom into.
Cyndy Khouri says
keep up the fantastic work , I read few content on this website, and I believe that your website is really interesting and has lots of great info .
admin says
Thanks Cyndy!