Tag Archives: change management

5 Tips for Leaders Navigating Uncertainty

From Executives at P&G, CVS, Hannaford, and Intel

5 Tips for Leaders Navigating Uncertainty

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

“We have successfully retained the opportunity for improvement.”

When the CEO said this to kick off a meeting, I knew we were in for an adventure. He smirked at the corporate double-speak, paused for the laughter, then outlined all the headwinds facing the business. But the only thing I remember from that meeting was his opening line.

I think about it all the time. Because it seems to apply all the time.

And despite the turmoil brought on by a pandemic, a war, and an economic slowdown, we have successfully retained the opportunity to improve how we deal with uncertainty.

That isn’t to say we haven’t improved over the past three years. In fact, at an event sponsored by NextUp, four executives from P&G, CVS, Hannaford, and Intel shared what they learned and how they changed while navigating uncertainty.

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Dave DeJohn, Director of Operations for Hannaford, talked about the importance of listening deeply and constantly to employees, especially those on the front lines. Consistent with its core values of family, community, quality, and value, store associates are trained that the customer is always right. However, as incidents of verbal abuse increased during the lockdowns, employee satisfaction and mental health declined. By closely listening and observing what was happening in stores, Hannaford’s leadership modified their customer service approach to “the customer is always right, within reason” and empowered employees to stand up for themselves and each other when faced with hostile shoppers.

Stronger relationships lead to stronger results

Every executive shared stories from the early days of working from home – technical glitches, kids invading calls, and even cats positioning themselves awkwardly in front of cameras when the human stepped away. Far from being signals of a lack of commitment or professionalism, these moments transformed roles and titles into human beings, juggling all the things humans must juggle. Once people started seeing others as fellow humans versus bosses, peers, or subordinates, they connected on a human level and formed genuine and trusting relationships. Those relationships led to better collaboration, more effective troubleshooting, and better business results.

Concise concrete communication is critical

In periods of uncertainty, information is power. But it’s also constantly changing. For that reason, constant communication is a must. But in a large organization, communication often comes from multiple departments – employee relations, HR, health and safety, operations, and marketing, to name a few – and that can be overwhelming. For this reason, DeJohn learned that keeping every message concise (ideally the length of a tweet but no more than a short paragraph) and concrete (specific, tangible, tactical rather than high-level platitudes) proved critical to keeping people aligned and moving forward.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you need to

Keris Clark, VP of Sales at P&G, spoke about the drastic shift in her work/life balance when she could no longer travel to see customers or attend meetings. Instead of taking the first flight from Boston to Seattle for a meeting and then a red-eye back home, she suddenly had time to work out, cook, and spend time with family. As travel became safer and invitations to far-away meetings came in, she thought more critically about whether or not to book the tickets. Like most of us, she still travels for some things, but it’s no longer the default option now that more people are used to video calls and other ways of working.

We can do things differently and still deliver

COVID’s effect on the supply chain is well documented, and Tiffiny Fisher, Chief of Staff and Technical Assistant for Intel’s America region, gave us a view into Intel’s situation in the earliest days of the pandemic. With fabrication, assembly, and testing sites throughout Asia, Intel had to work quickly to figure out how to continue operating while staying with government lockdown guidelines. Ultimately, hundreds of employees volunteered to leave their families and live in hotels near Intel facilities so that they could continue operating. It was a huge sacrifice by employees and probably not one that anyone would want to make again. Still, it proved that Intel, with the support of its employees, could quickly make massive changes to its operations while continuing to deliver results.

Uncertainty can be deeply uncomfortable, even frightening, even though we face it every day. Building the skills to navigate it and learning lessons about what works and doesn’t can make it easier. But if you still struggle, don’t worry. It just means you’ve successfully retained the opportunity for improvement.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Change Management Best Practices for Maximum Adoption

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Change Management Best Practices for Maximum Adoption

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Change is inevitable but so often dreaded in the workplace. A successful transition requires planning and execution, and the ability to adapt quickly to those changes. Change management involves planning around a change to ensure its successful adoption. A well thought out and properly planned change management strategy can help ensure a successful and cost-effective transition to a new process or system.

First and foremost, it is important to manage expectations. Make sure people understand how the change will impact them, and how they can benefit from the change. It is essential to address any perception the stakeholders may have about the potential outcomes. Hopefully, they will all become supporters of the change and get on board with the goal.

Once expectations are managed, it is important to strive for maximum adoption of the change. This means understanding the people impacted by the change and their likely reaction. It’s tempting for leaders to rush the adoption but patience is necessary. Here are a few best practices to ensure change is adopted quickly and easily:

1. Start with communication

When introducing a change, communicate the “why” of the change. Explain why it is necessary, what the expected benefits are, and how it will help the organization succeed. This will help employees to understand the importance of the change and motivate them to get on board.

2. Involve the impacted stakeholders

It’s always helpful to involve those who will be impacted by the change from the beginning. Involving the impacted team in the change planning will encourage them to take ownership and help drive the adoption. They can provide good insight on potential pitfalls and how best to roll out the change.

3. Provide training

Good training can make the transition to the new process, system, or way of working much easier. Provide training before the change is rolled out to ensure everyone is on the same page. This will minimize confusion and eliminate any skepticism in the employees.

4. Have a plan

Effective change management involves having a solid plan for roll-out and clearly defined goals. Implementing a well-thought-out plan means not having to go back and re-do things as you roll out the change. A plan will help make sure everybody is in sync and on the same page.

5. Monitor progress

Monitor the progress of adoption and measure the impact of the change. This will allow you to make any necessary changes or adjust any existing plans. Monitoring progress is essential for ensuring a successful transition and adoption of the change.

There are many different approaches to change management, depending on the situation and what is needed for successful adoption. However, these best practices can be applied to most changes and greatly increase the likelihood of success.

To illustrate this, here are two examples of successful change management.

Case Study #1

A large manufacturing firm needed to replace their legacy accounting system with a new automated system. The company first involved stakeholders in the change planning process and held a series of workshops to ensure everyone understood the needs of the change. Training was provided to the stakeholders involved in the transition and a detailed plan was put in place outlining the steps to implementation. As the project moved ahead, progress was regularly monitored and feedback was sought from employees. The project was completed successfully with minimum disruption to business processes and no unplanned hiccups.

Case Study #2

A mid-sized consulting firm needed to change their customer relationship management (CRM) software. They went the extra mile and identified all key stakeholders in the transition process and clearly outlined the “why” of the change. They also created a timeline for the project to ensure all actions were taken in the right order. They provided extensive training and allowed employees time to get familiar with the new system before implementing it. The project was completed ahead of schedule and the transition was smooth, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Change can be a difficult transition, but by following the change management best practices outlined here, you can ensure maximum adoption of the change and successful transition to the new process or system. From communication and involvement of stakeholders, to monitoring progress, these are just a few practical change management best practices that can help you manage successful transitions.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Basketball, Banks and Banana Splits

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Is failure everywhere?

Basketball, Banks and Banana Splits

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

When asked to describe his test for determining what is and isn’t hard-core pornography, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart responded, “I know it when I see it.”

In that sense, pornography and failure may have a lot in common.

By accident, I spent the month of April thinking, writing (here and here), and talking about failure. Then, in the last week, a bank failed, two top-seeded sports teams were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, and the New York Times wrote a feature article on the new practice of celebrating college rejections.

Failure was everywhere.

But was it?

SVB, Signature, First Republic – Failure.

On Monday, First Republic Bank became the third bank this year to fail. Like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, it met the definition of bank failure according to the FDIC – “the closing of a bank by a federal or state banking regulatory agency…[because] it is unable to meet its obligations to depositors and others.”

It doesn’t matter if the bank is a central part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, is on the cutting edge of new financial instruments like cryptocurrency, or caters to high-net-worth individuals. When you give money to a bank, an institution created to keep your money safe, and it cannot give it back because it spent it, that is a failure.

Milwaukee Bucks – Failure?

Even if you’re not an NBA fan, you probably heard about the Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s interview after the team’s playoff elimination.

Here’s some quick context – the Milwaukee Bucks had the best regular season record and were widely favored to win the title. Instead, they lost in Game 5 to the 8^th-ranked Miami Heat. After the game, a reporter asked Antetokounmpo if he viewed the season as a failure, to which Antetokounmpo responded:

“It’s not a failure; it’s steps to success. There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me? It’s a wrong question; there’s no failure in sports.”

If you haven’t seen the whole clip, it’s worth your time:

The media went nuts, fawning over Antetokounmpo’s thoughtful and philosophical response, the epitome of an athlete who gives his all and is graceful in defeat. One writer even went so far as to proclaim that “Antetokounmpo showed us another way to live.”

But not everyone shared that perspective. In the post-game show, four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal was one of the first to disagree,

“I played 19 seasons and failed 15 seasons; when I didn’t win it, it was a failure, especially when I made it to the finals versus the (Houston) Rockets and lost, made it to the finals for the fourth time with the (Los Angeles) Lakers and lost, it was definitely a failure.

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I can’t tell everybody how they think, but when I watch guys before me, the Birds, the Kareems, and you know that’s how they thought, so that’s how I was raised.

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He’s not a failure as a player, but is it a failure as a season? I would say yes, but I also like his explanation. I can understand and respect his explanation, but for me, when we didn’t win it, it was always my fault, and it was definitely a failure.”

Did Antetokounmpo fail? Are the Bucks a failure? Was their season a failure?

It depends.

College Rejections – Not Failure

Failure is rarely fun, but it can be absolutely devastating if all you’ve ever known is success. Just ask anyone who has ever applied to college. Whether it was slowly opening the mailbox to see if it contained a big envelope or a small one or hesitatingly opening an email to get the verdict, the college application process is often the first time people get a taste of failure.

Now, they also get a taste of ice cream.

Around the world, schools are using the college application and rejection process as a learning experience:

LA: Seniors gather to feed their rejection letters into a shredder and receive an ice cream sundae. The student with the most rejections receives a Barnes & Noble gift card. “You have to learn that you will survive and there is a rainbow at the other end,” said one of the college counselors.
NYC: After adding their rejection letters to the Rejection Wall, students pull a prize from the rejection grab bag and enjoy encouraging notes from classmates like, “You’re too sexy for Vassar” or “You’ve been rejected, you’re too smart. Love, NYU.”
Sydney, Australia: a professor started a Rejection Wall of Fame after receiving two rejections in one day, sharing his disappointment with a colleague only to hear how reassured they were that they weren’t alone.

“I know it when I see it” – Failure

I still don’t know a single definition or objective test for failure.

But I do know that using “I’ll know it when I see it” to define failure is a failure.

It’s a failure because we can define success and failure before we start.

Sometimes failure is easy to define – if you are a bank and I give you money, and you don’t give it back to me with interest, that is a failure. Sometimes the definition is subjective and even personal, like defining failure as not making the playoffs vs. not winning a championship, or not applying to a school vs. not getting in.

Maybe failure is everywhere. Maybe it’s not.

I’ll know it when I define it.

Image credit: Pixabay

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How to Fail Your Way to Success

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How to Fail Your Way To Success

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

“Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly”

It’s a meme and my new favorite euphemism for getting dumped/fired (as in, “There was a rapid unscheduled disassembly of our relationship.” Thank you, social media, for this gem)

It’s also spurred dozens of conversations with corporate leaders and innovation teams about the importance of defining success, the purpose of experiments, and the necessity of risk.

Define Success so You Can Identify Failure

The dictionary defines “fail (verb)” as “be unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal.”

But, as I wrote last week, using your definition of success to classify something as a failure assumes you defined success correctly.

Space X didn’t define success as carrying “two astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon,” Starship’s ultimate goal.

It defined success in 3 ways:

Big picture (but a bit general) – Validating “whether the design of the rocket system is sound.”
Ideal outcome – “Reach an altitude of 150 miles before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii 90 minutes [after take-off].”
Base Case – Fly far enough from the launchpad and long enough to generate “data for engineers to understand how the vehicle performed.”

By defining multiple and internally consistent types of success, SpaceX inspired hope for the best and set realistic expectations. And, if the rocket exploded on the launchpad? That would be a failure.

Know What You Need to Learn so You Know What You Need to Do

This was not the first experiment SpaceX ran to determine “whether the design of the rocket system was sound.” But this probably was the only experiment they could run to get the data they needed at this point in the process.

You can learn a lot from lab tests, paper prototypes, and small-scale experiments. But you can’t learn everything. Sometimes, you need to test your idea in the wild.

And this scares the heck out of executives.

As the NYT pointed out, “Big NASA programs like the Space Launch System…are generally not afforded the same luxury of explode-as-you-learn. There tends to be much more testing and analysis on the ground — which slows development and increases costs — to avoid embarrassing public failures.”

Avoiding public failure is good. Not learning because you’re afraid of public failure is not.

So be clear about what you need to learn, all the ways you could learn it, and the trade-offs of private, small-scale experiments vs. large-scale public ones. Then make your choice and move forward.

Have Courage. Take a Risk

“Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward,” Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator.

“Great risk” is scary. Companies do not want to take great risks (see embarrassing public failure).

“Calculated risk” is smart. It’s necessary. It’s also a bit scary.

You take a risk to gain something – knowledge, money, recognition. But you also create the opportunity to lose something. And since the psychological pain of losing is twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining, we tend to avoid risk.

But to make progress, you must take a risk. To take a risk, you need courage.

And courage is a skill you can learn and build. For many of us, it starts with remembering that courage is not the absence of fear. It is the choice to take action despite fear.

When faced with a risk, face it. Acknowledge it and how you feel. Assess it by determining the best, worst, and most likely scenarios. Ask for input and see it from other people’s perspectives. Then make your choice and move forward.

How to know when you’ve successfully failed

Two quotes perfectly sum up what failure en route to success is:

“It may look that way to some people, but it’s not a failure. It’s a learning experience.”- Daniel Dumbacher, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a former high-level NASA official.

“Would it have been awesome if it didn’t explode? Yeah. But it was still awesome.” – Launch viewer Lauren Posey, 34.

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of May 2023

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of May 2023 Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are May’s ten most popular innovation posts:

A 90% Project Failure Rate Means You’re Doing it Wrong — by Mike Shipulski
‘Innovation’ is Killing Innovation. How Do We Save It? — by Robyn Bolton
Sustaining Imagination is Hard — by Braden Kelley
Unintended Consequences. The Hidden Risk of Fast-Paced Innovation — by Pete Foley
8 Strategies to Future-Proofing Your Business & Gaining Competitive Advantage — by Teresa Spangler
How to Determine if Your Problem is Worth Solving — by Mike Shipulski
Sprint Toward the Innovation Action — by Mike Shipulski
Moneyball and the Beginning, Middle, and End of Innovation — by Robyn Bolton
A Shortcut to Making Strategic Trade-Offs — by Geoffrey A. Moore
3 Innovation Types Not What You Think They Are — by Robyn Bolton

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in April that continue to resonate with people:

A Global Perspective on Psychological Safety — by Stefan Lindegaard
Customer Service is a Team Sport — by Shep Hyken
A Flop is Not a Failure — by John Bessant
Unlocking the Power of Imagination — by Teresa Spangler
Reasons Change Management Frequently Fails — by Greg Satell

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last three years:

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What is Failure?

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What is Failure?

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my hatred of failure while acknowledging that there are things I hate more (inertia, blind allegiance to the status quo, unwillingness to try) that motivate me to risk it.

In response, I received this email from my friend and former colleague Daymara, now the Founder & CEO of Rockin’ Baker in Fayetteville, AR (shared here with her permission)

I’m the opposite. I love failing! That’s when I learn the most, that I question what and how I could better, question more and more. It triggers my brain to look back, re-evaluate, assess and spring forward. I wouldn’t be here today if I had not risked. I don’t think anyone starts anything thinking when they’d fail. But some of us aren’t afraid or hate it. I wouldn’t be here if I hate failing, wouldn’t have left my country looking for a safer place, wouldn’t have launched RBI because I didn’t have any entrepreneurial experience not even in the hospitality industry, wouldn’t have switched to focus on neurodiversity and so much more.

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Because I came to the US, I got to meet you. Yes, I failed at seeing the signs & lost over 60% of my savings just 2 weeks before leaving Venezuela. I could’ve decided to stay because maybe it was going to be harder and the risk of failing in a country I didn’t know higher. I had a plan. If it didn’t work, come back home & start all over again.

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I started RBI understanding that I could fail. I told myself, if I did, at least I would have an answer. Yes, I’m failing terribly at making this social enterprise work. Yet, I’ve gained so much knowledge about humanity, our differences, the unfairness that neurodivergents have to live daily, running a social enterprise and so much more. If I had hated failing, I wouldn’t be sharing my experience with other entrepreneurs so they don’t make the same mistakes I made. I wouldn’t be advocating for more equitable places for all, including women.

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Failing feeds me to do better, to ask more questions, to explore more, to lead me to become better. I don’t love failing, I welcome it.

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My first thought was, “Wow, this is so healthy! I wish more people felt and acted this way!”

My second thought was, “I wouldn’t apply the word ‘fail’ to any of these situations. You’re trying, learning, changing, and trying again.:

Just because you don’t get the expected outcome the first time doesn’t mean you failed.

Or does it?

What the Dictionary Says

According to Oxford Languages, “fail” (verb) means

Be unsuccessful in achieving one’s goal, “he failed in his attempt to secure election.”
Neglect to do something, “the firm failed to give adequate risk warnings.”
Break down; cease to work well, “a truck whose brakes had failed.”

True but contextual:

If success is defined as launching a new product, but customer feedback proves there’s no demand or willingness to pay, is shutting it down a failure?
If you neglect something that isn’t important or doesn’t have significant ramifications, like not eating breakfast, did you fail or simply forget, run out of time, or make a mistake?
If something works but not well, like an expense reporting system, is it a failure or just burdensome, a pain, or a necessary evil?

Also, incomplete.

What People Say

“Fail” has so many definitions and meanings in Daymara’s telling of her story. In addition to some of the dictionary’s definitions, she also uses “Fail” to mean:

Take smart risks, “I could’ve decided to stay because maybe it was going to be harder and the risk of failing in a country I didn’t know higher. I had a plan. If it didn’t work, come back home & start all over again.”
Get new information to facilitate learning,
- “I’m the opposite. I love failing! That’s when I learn the most, that I question what and how I could better, question more and more. It triggers my brain to look back, re-evaluate, assess and spring forward.”
- I started RBI understanding that I could fail. I told myself, if I did, at least I would have an answer.
Adapt and change based on learning, “wouldn’t have switched to focus on neurodiversity”
Grow, improve, evolve, “Failing feeds me to do better, to ask more questions, to explore more, to lead me to become better. I don’t love failing, I welcome it.”

What Do You Say?

Like “Innovation,” “Failure” is a word we all use A LOT that no longer has a common definition. In the dictionary, failure is bad and to be avoided. To Daymara and scores of entrepreneurs and innovators, failure is wonderful and welcome.

Progress, either towards or away from failure, requires us to define “Failure” for ourselves and our work and agree on a definition with our teammates.

So, tell me:

What is failure to you?
To your team?
To your boss?

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When Innovation Becomes Magic

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When Innovation Becomes Magic

GUEST POST from Pete Foley

Arthur C Clarke’s 3rd Law famously stated:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

In other words, if the technology of an advanced civilization is so far beyond comprehension, it appears magical to a less advanced one. This could take the form of a human encounter with a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization, how current technology might be viewed by historical figures, or encounters between human cultures with different levels of scientific and technological knowledge.

Clarke’s law implicitly assumed that knowledge within a society is sufficiently democratized that we never view technology within a civilization as ‘magic’. But a combination of specialization, rapid advancements in technology, and a highly stratified society means this is changing. Generative AI, Blockchain and various forms of automation are all ‘everyday magic’ that we increasingly use, but mostly with little more than an illusion of understanding around how they work. More technological leaps are on the horizon, and as innovation accelerates exponentially, we are all going to have to navigate a world that looks and feels increasingly magical. Knowing how to do this effectively is going to become an increasingly important skill for us all.

The Magic Behind the Curtain: So what’s the problem? Why do we need to understand the ‘magic’ behind the curtain, as long as we can operate the interface, and reap the benefits? After all, most of us use phones, computers, cars, or take medicines without really understanding how they work. We rely on experts to guide us, and use interfaces that help us navigate complex technology without a need for deep understanding of what goes on behind the curtain.

It’s a nuanced question. Take a car as an analogy. We certainly don’t need to know how to build one in order to use one. But we do need to know how to operate it and understand what it’s performance limitations are. It also helps to have at least some basic knowledge of how it works; enough to change a tire on a remote road, or to have some concept of basic mechanics to minimize the potential of being ripped off by a rogue mechanic. In a nutshell, the more we understand it, the more efficiently, safely and economically we leverage it. It’s a similar situation with medicine. It is certainly possible to defer all of our healthcare decisions to a physician. But people who partner with their doctors, and become advocates for their own health generally have superior outcomes, are less likely to die from unintended contraindications, and typically pay less for healthcare. And this is not trivial. The third leading cause of death in Europe behind cancer and heart disease are issues associated with prescription medications. We don’t need to know everything to use a tool, but in most cases, the more we know the better

The Speed/Knowledge Trade-Off: With new, increasingly complex technologies coming at us in waves, it’s becoming increasing challenging to make sense of what’s ‘behind the curtain’. This has the potential for costly mistakes. But delaying embracing technology until we fully understand it can come with serious opportunity costs. Adopt too early, and we risk getting it wrong, too late and we ‘miss the bus’. How many people who invested in crypto currency or NFT’s really understood what they were doing? And how many of those have lost on those deals, often to the benefit of those with deeper knowledge? That isn’t to in anyway suggest that those who are knowledgeable in those fields deliberately exploit those who aren’t, but markets tend to reward those who know, and punish those who don’t.

The AI Oracle: The recent rise of Generative AI has many people treating it essentially as an oracle. We ask it a question, and it ‘magically’ spits out an answer in a very convincing and sharable format. Few of us understand the basics of how it does this, let alone the details or limitations. We may not call it magic, but we often treat it as such. We really have little choice; as we lack sufficient understanding to apply quality critical thinking to what we are told, so have to take answers on trust. That would be brilliant if AI was foolproof. But while it is certainly right a lot of the time, it does make mistakes, often quite embarrassing ones. . For example, Google’s BARD incorrectly claimed the James Webb Space Telescope had taken the first photo of a planet outside our solar system, which led to panic selling of parent company Alphabet’s stock. Generative AI is a superb innovation, but its current iterations are far from perfect. They are limited by the data bases they are fed on, are extremely poor at spotting their own mistakes, can be manipulated by the choice of data sets they are trained on, and they lack the underlying framework of understanding that is essential for critical thinking or for making analogical connections. I’m sure that we’ll eventually solve these issues, either with iterations of current tech, or via integration of new technology platforms. But until we do, we have a brilliant, but still flawed tool. It’s mostly right, is perfect for quickly answering a lot of questions, but its biggest vulnerability is that most users have pretty limited capability to understand when it’s wrong.

Technology Blind Spots: That of course is the Achilles Heel, or blind spot and a dilemma. If an answer is wrong, and we act on it without realizing, it’s potentially trouble. But if we know the answer, we didn’t really need to ask the AI. Of course, it’s more nuanced than that. Just getting the right answer is not always enough, as the causal understanding that we pick up by solving a problem ourselves can also be important. It helps us to spot obvious errors, but also helps to generate memory, experience, problem solving skills, buy-in, and belief in an idea. Procedural and associative memory is encoded differently to answers, and mechanistic understanding helps us to reapply insights and make analogies.

Need for Causal Understanding. Belief and buy-in can be particularly important. Different people respond to a lack of ‘internal’ understanding in different ways. Some shy away from the unknown and avoid or oppose what they don’t understand. Others embrace it, and trust the experts. There’s really no right or wrong in this. Science is a mixture of both approaches it stands on the shoulders of giants, but advances based on challenging existing theories. Good scientists are both data driven and skeptical. But in some cases skepticism based on lack of causal understanding can be a huge barrier to adoption. It has contributed to many of the debates we see today around technology adoption, including genetically engineered foods, efficacy of certain pharmaceuticals, environmental contaminants, nutrition, vaccinations, and during Covid, RNA vaccines and even masks. Even extremely smart people can make poor decisions because of a lack of causal understanding. In 2003, Steve Jobs was advised by his physicians to undergo immediately surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Instead he delayed the procedure for nine months and attempted to treat himself with alternative medicine, a decision that very likely cut his life tragically short.

What Should We Do? We need to embrace new tools and opportunities, but we need to do so with our eyes open. Loss aversion, and the fear of losing out is a very powerful motivator of human behavior, and so an important driver in the adoption of new technology. But it can be costly. A lot of people lost out with crypto and NFT’s because they had a fairly concrete idea of what they could miss out on if they didn’t engage, but a much less defined idea of the risk, because they didn’t deeply understand the system. Ironically, in this case, our loss aversion bias caused a significant number of people to lose out!

Similarly with AI, a lot of people are embracing it enthusiastically, in part because they are afraid of being left behind. That is probably right, but it’s important to balance this enthusiasm with an understanding of its potential limitations. We may not need to know how to build a car, but it really helps to know how to steer and when to apply the brakes . Knowing how to ask an AI questions, and when to double check answers are both going to be critical skills. For big decisions, ‘second opinions’ are going to become extremely important. And the human ability to interpret answers through a filter of nuance, critical thinking, different perspectives, analogy and appropriate skepticism is going to be a critical element in fully leveraging AI technology, at least for now.

Today AI is still a tool, not an oracle. It augments our intelligence, but for complex, important or nuanced decisions or information retrieval, I’d be wary of sitting back and letting it replace us. Its ability to process data in quantity is certainly superior to any human, but we still need humans to interpret, challenge and integrate information. The winners of this iteration of AI technology will be those who become highly skilled at walking that line, and who are good at managing the trade off between speed and accuracy using AI as a tool. The good news is that we are naturally good at this, it’s a critical function of the human brain, embodied in the way it balances Kahneman’s System 1 and System 2 thinking. Future iterations may not need us, but for now AI is a powerful partner and tool, but not a replacement

Image credit: Pixabay

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A Tipping Point for Organizational Culture

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A Tipping Point for Organizational Culture

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

Like millions of others globally, I watched with fascination, the sensational and striking spectacle of the ceremony, significant symbolism, spectacular artifacts, and rituals at the recent King of England’s majestic coronation. At the same time, I allowed my mind to wander and wondered how this visually stunning and unrivaled British ceremony would impact the nations and realms’ culture and leadership, today and in the future, wondering if, indeed, it is at a cultural tipping point.

Where it is believed, by some, that the coronation made “two statements of great importance for today’s world about the place of religion in public life and the importance and meaning of the nation”. Acknowledging that such a monumental and marvelous event is indicative of a cultural tipping point, not only for the people it embraces but also for organizations, nations, and realms as a whole, to search for what is meaningful and valued by its people.

Making the connection

My mind wandered and made some obvious connections between the core and common elements that embody both organizational, and national cultural realms – the values, beliefs, assumptions, and mindsets that drive key behaviors and deliver the common implicit messages. As well as the disciplined systems and processes that deliver the results, the rituals that are enacted, and finally, the artifacts whose symbols represent what the culture values.

Maintaining relevance and engagement

Like the monarchy, what do organizations need to do to maintain relevance and engagement to thrive in unstable and uncertain times, especially when their existence and legacies are being questioned and evaluated by the people they serve?

At a pivotal time when new sets of global, societal, and organizational demands are being made, largely as a result of the fourth industrial revolution, encompassing the convergence of exponential technologies impacting all of us globally.

At the same time, we are all still affected by the consequences of the global pandemic-induced lockdowns, impacting every fabric of our social and civic structures in our world today.

A case study for leveraging cultural tipping points differently

The coronation of King Charles III provides us with a great case study of an outstanding and remarkable display of English cultural attributes.

This enables us to ask some serious questions about how national and organizational cultures and leadership in times of exponential change, like today, might thrive with uncertainty and co-create solutions to some of the most complex global challenges, by leveraging the range of cultural tipping points differently.

A range of organizational cultural tipping points

We are in effect, experiencing globally a range of cultural tipping points:

At the macro level, according to a recent article here in Australia, where King Charles still resides as our head of state, the local SMH states that this realm is in a state of flux:

“The King is head of state in 15 countries. More than half of the so-called “realm states” are in the Caribbean and most of them are bailing out. Barbados two years ago, Jamaica probably next year. Belize, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are planning their exit as well”.

At the micro level, according to Mc Kinsey & Co, in a recent article “New Leadership for a new era of thriving organizations” stated that organizations and leadership are also in a state of flux:

“Organizations such as Allianz, Haier, Microsoft, and Nucor are transforming their industries with a new organizational approach that seeks to be open, fluid, and adaptable; unleashes the collective energy, passion, and capabilities of its people; reimagines strategy; and focuses on delivering greater value to all stakeholders”.

“Their cultures support a more open, collaborative, and emergent way of working. And the shift to this new kind of model changes the way businesspeople must lead”.

Going back to culture and leadership fundamentals

Because culture and leadership are, according to Edgar H. Schein “two sides of the same coin and cannot understand one without the other” we have to be in charge and focused to intentionally, constructively, and creatively manage their interdependence.

He also states that culture matters because it is a “powerful, tacit, and often unconscious set of forces that determine both our individual and collective behaviors, ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values”.

If we do not intentionally and strategically take charge, focus, and leverage these forces, we will simply always be at the effect of them, as they take us down the path of least resistance, remain implicit, and will not deliver the results we want and need in a disruptive world.

Going back to culture and leadership fundamentals

Sharing the key messages

My mind then wandered and considered what might be the key messages being communicated by this incredible series of marvelous events, and wondered how relevant and engaging they might be to people today:

A coronation signals the conferment of God’s grace upon a ruler,
A coronation appoints the king as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
A coronation is a joyous and celebratory event.

Back to the SMH “The people got what they wanted. The cheers in the Mall, the boulevard built for the adoration of royalty, were real, even if the masses were down on those for the Queen’s Jubilee.”

Impacting the future

It remains to be seen if this powerful, majestic, memorable, and significant once-in-a-lifetime ceremonial event will ultimately help unify or divide the English realm. Which it seems, is facing its own range of unique challenges and a controversial cultural tipping point, ultimately and seriously impacting its future viability.

Back to the SMH “But Charles’s big show might be his last great day. The last dance of a wheeling, brilliant circus that has entertained and beguiled but which soon enough, in its distant realms, will stutter and shrink and reel no more.”

Why does this matter?

This matters today because we are individually, and collectively at a range of social, civic, and organizational cultural tipping points.

Where our organization and leaders are also dancing many of our “last dances”, and “stutter and shrink and reel nor more” because, according to some, we are not strategically focussed on leveraging the culture and leadership basics:

Implicitly clarifying values that focus on delivering value that improves the quality of people’s lives that they appreciate and cherish and explicitly making them an active part of corporate life.
Ensuring that leaders role model and enact behaviors that demonstrate the values in action, where people are accountable and rewarded by rigorous systems and supportive disciplined, and agile processes.
Co-creating powerful sets of rituals, symbols, and artifacts, aligned to the values, that deliver the “new architectures” to create permission, safety, and trust that drive collaboration, experimentation, innovation, inclusion, and sustainability.
Communicating engaging and inclusive messages that resonate creativity, respect, and appreciation for people, profit, and the planet.

Shifting the organizational cultural tipping points

It’s time to transform leadership to transform organizations, in ways that are self-aware and inspiring, meaningful and purposeful, equitable and sustainable, with increasing speed, resilience, and efficiency to guide organizational cultures and leadership that:

Helps people navigate and balance in-person and remote work, be mentally healthy and well, and make the way for both applied AI and human skills development.
Develops new rules for attracting and retaining people, close the capability chasm and walk the talent tightropes to better equip, empower and harness people’s harness collective intelligence to make both the organization and the world better places.
Creates, invents, and innovates new ways of thinking, and acting that ultimately shift the range of cultural tipping points to meet new sets of global, societal, and organizational demands and challenges emerging in the 21^st century, and lets go of what is no longer relevant to better serve humanity as a whole.

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation™

Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, presented by Janet Sernack, is a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, which can be customised as a bespoke corporate learning program.

It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique innovation context. Find out more about our products and tools.

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3 Innovation Types Not What You Think They Are

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But They Do Determine Your Success

3 Innovation Types Not What You Think They Are

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

The Official Story

When discussing innovation, you must be specific so people know what you expect. This is why so many thought leaders, consultants, and practitioners preach the importance of defining different types of innovation.

Clayton Christensen encourages focusing on WHY innovation is happening – improve performance, improve efficiency, or create markets – in his 2014 HBR article.
The classic Core/Adjacent/Transformational model focuses on WHAT is changing – target customer, offering, financial model, and resources and processes.
McKinsey’s 3 Horizons focus on WHEN the results are achieved – this year, 2-3 years, 3-6 years.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the options and worry about which approach is “best.” But, like all frameworks, they’re all a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and the best one is the one that will be used and get results in your organization.

The REAL story

Everything in the official story is true, but not the whole truth.

“Innovation” is not peanut butter.

You can’t smear it all over everything and expect deliciousness.

When doing innovation, you must remember your customer – the executives who make decisions, allocate resources, and can accelerate or decimate your efforts.

More importantly, you need to remember their Jobs to be Done (JTBD) – keep my job, feel safe and respected, and be perceived as competent/a rising star – because these jobs define the innovations that will get to market.

Three (3) REAL types of innovation

SAFE – The delightful solution to decision-makers’ JTBD

Most closely aligned with Core innovation, improving performance or efficiency, and Horizon 1 because the focus is on improving what exists in a way that will generate revenue this year or next. Decision-makers feel confident because they’ve “been there and done that” (heck, doing “that” is probably what got them promoted in the first place). In fact, they’re more likely to get in trouble for NOT investing in these types of innovations than they are for investing in them.

STRETCH – The Good Enough solution

Most like Adjacent innovation because they allow decision-makers to keep one foot in the known while “stretching” their other foot into a new (to them) area. This type of innovation makes decision-makers nervous because they don’t have all the answers, but they feel like they at least know what questions to ask. Progress will require more data, and decisions will take longer than most intrapreneurs want. But eventually, enough time and resources (and ego/reputation) will be invested that, unless the team recommends killing it, the project will launch.

SPLATTER – The Terrible solution

No matter what you call them – transformational, radical, breakthrough, disruptive, or moonshots – these innovations make everyone’s eyes light up before reality kicks in and crushes our dreams. These innovations “define the next chapter of our business” and “disrupt ourselves before we’re disrupted.” These innovations also require decision-makers to let go of everything they know and wander entirely into the unknown. To invest resources in the hope of seeing the return (and reward) come back to their successor (or successor’s successor). To defend their decisions, their team, and themselves when things don’t go exactly as planned.

How to find the REAL type that will get real results.

“You said you want X. Would you describe that for me?” (you may need to give examples). When I worked at Clayton Christensen’s firm, executives would always call and ask for our help to create a disruptive innovation. When I would explain what they were actually asking for (something with “good enough” performance and a low selling price that appeals to non-consumers), they would back away from the table, wave their hands, and say, “Oh, not that. We don’t want that.”
“How much are you willing to risk?” If they’re willing to go to their boss to ask for resources, they’re willing to Stretch. If they’re willing to get fired, they’re willing to Splatter. If everything needs to stay within their signing authority, it’s all about staying Safe.
“What would you need to see to risk more?” As an innovator, you’ll always want more freedom to push boundaries and feel confident that you can convince others to see things your way. But before you pitch Stretch to a boss that wants Safe, or Splatter to a boss barely willing to Stretch, learn what they need to change their minds. Maybe it will be worth your effort, maybe it won’t. Better to know sooner rather than later.

Image credits: Pixabay

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Reasons Change Management Frequently Fails

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Reasons Change Management Frequently Fails

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

In 1983, McKinsey consultant Julien Phillips published a paper in the journal Human Resource Management that described an “adoption penalty” for firms that didn’t adapt to changes in the marketplace quickly enough. His ideas became McKinsey’s first change management model that it sold to clients.

So it is notable, to say the least, that in 2015, more than 35 years later, McKinsey found that only 26% of organizational transformations succeed. It’s not hard to see why. While traditional change management models offer sensible frameworks for fairly obvious changes, truly transformational efforts almost always encounter fierce resistance.

That’s an important distinction that leads to a significant difference. As I found when researching my book, Cascades, successful transformations identify resistance from the start and effectively plan to overcome opposition. Clearly, today, when change is so often a matter of survival, traditional change management models are no longer enough.

Preparing For Resistance

The change management industry was developed to solve a particular and discrete problem. While there were clear and coherent models for other critical business functions, such as marketing and finance, there was a relative dearth of models to help drive change. Phillips’ model and those that came after sought to fill that gap.

Yet as the McKinsey data clearly shows, those models have not been widely successful and it’s not hard to see why. Much as any competitive strategy that doesn’t anticipate the response from competitors is doomed to failure, any transformation strategy that doesn’t take into account those who oppose change is unlikely to succeed.

In my research, however, I found that when resistance is anticipated and accounted for, transformational efforts can achieve astounding results. At Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the team implemented lean manufacturing techniques across 17,000 employees and cut costs by 25%. At Experian, CIO Barry Libenson shifted its entire technological infrastructure to the cloud and improved profitability across the entire company.

What made the difference is that in both cases, those leading the transformation didn’t assume that the changes would be embraced. In fact, just the opposite. They expected resistance and built a plan to overcome it.

Mapping The Terrain

Traditional change management models start with steps that encourage communicating the need for change and building a sense of urgency. Yet that can often backfire. While communication efforts can and often do excite many about the prospect for transformation, they also alert the opposition to step up their efforts to undermine change.

So the first step is to map the terrain upon which the battle for change will be fought (and make no mistake, any significant transformation effort is always a battle). There are two tools, borrowed from nonviolent political movements, that can help you do this: The Spectrum of Allies and the Pillars of Support. Both have been battle tested for decades.

The Spectrum of Allies, helps you identify which people are active or passive supporters of the change you want to bring about, which are neutral and which actively or passively oppose it. Once you are able to identify these groups, you can start mobilizing the most enthusiastic supporters to start influencing the other groups to shift their opinions. You probably won’t ever convince the active opposition, but you can isolate and neutralize them.

The Pillars of Support identifies stakeholder groups that can help bring change about. Some of these may be internal stakeholders, such as business units or functional groups within an organization. However, some of the most important stakeholders are often external, such as customer groups, industry associations, regulators and so on.

At this point, you are still planning, rather than implementing change. Most of all, you are listening and remain respectful of others who don’t hold the same views you do. The information you gather in these early stages will be critical for overcoming resistance later on.

The Myth of A Quick Win

One of the key tenets of change management is the need to achieve some quick, short term wins to help build momentum. The truth is that these types of objectives are often not meaningful to many, if not most, key stakeholders. In fact, they can often signal to those skeptical of change that the initiative is not serious.

In my research, I found that every successful transformation I studied identified a keystone change which had a clear and tangible goal, involved multiple stakeholders and paved the way for greater change down the road. Because these require the involvement of multiple stakeholders, they are never quick or easy.

For example, in the Wyeth transformation noted above, the keystone change was to reengineer factory changeovers, a difficult and complex task. In Experian’s shift to cloud technology, the keystone change was to build internal API’s. During Lou Gerstner’s historic turnaround at IBM in the 90s, he sought to shift the company from a “proprietary stack of technologies” to its “customers’ stack of business processes.”

In each case, key constituencies in the Spectrum of Allies were mobilized to influence key institutional stakeholders in the Pillars of Support. That takes time, patience and no small amount of effort. In some cases, it took a few tries to identify a keystone change that could succeed.

Every Revolution Inspires Its Own Counter-Revolution

Many change management efforts start with a large kickoff, complete with a vigorous communication campaign designed to create a sense of urgency and rally the troops. What’s often overlooked is that these efforts often alert those who are opposed to change that they need to begin undermining change efforts before they gain momentum.

As the change efforts gain momentum, these undermining efforts may quiet somewhat, but they very rarely disappear, even after the goals of the transformation have already been achieved. For example, at Blockbuster Video, initial efforts to address the disruptive threat posed by Netflix were successful, but that strategy was quickly reversed when a new CEO came aboard.

That’s why it’s crucial that you set out from the beginning to survive victory and you do that by rooting your efforts not in specific goals or objectives, but in common values. As Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a key player in IBM’s historic turnaround, told me, “Because the transformation was about values first and technology second, we were able to continue to embrace those values as the technology and marketplace continued to evolve.”

Perhaps most of all, you need to remember that there’s a reason that the vast majority of transformational efforts fail: Change is hard and it can’t be easily managed. Yet history has shown that it can be achieved, even under the worst conditions and against the greatest odds, if you learn to anticipate and overcome those who would seek to undermine it.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credit: Pixabay

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