Hack:
Skate where the Organizational Change Puck will be

By Luc Galoppin - COO at MedeMerkers

March 5, 2012 at 8:48pm

Moonshots

Reinvent the means of control

Retool management for an open and borderless world

Transcend traditional management trade-offs

Summary

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.
-- Wayne Gretsky

This article is aimed specifically at organizational change practitioners. By using the ice hockey metaphor I point out where our profession should be today, and the direction the puck will be heading tomorrow. Organizational change practitioners cannot expect everybody else to adapt to the digital economy and at the same time work with outdated tools, techniques and perspectives. We need to be the change we want to see in the world - and frankly: we suck at it.

Problem

When we look at how the digital economy is shifting the world of work it is strange to see that the profession of Organizational Change Management has not evolved since the past 30 years or so.
My suggestion is to look for where our skills will be needed today and tomorrow.

Solution

First things first: what are we talking about when say ‘organizational change management’? The way I see it, our work comes down to the management of 4 elements that are important during a transition; four ‘containers’ if you will. They are: Communication, Learning, Organization and Performance. Have a look at the below video to see what’s inside each of these containers.

Each container represents a specific need that people have during a change.

Communication: people need an identity to hang onto so they can see what is in it for them. Constructing an identity for your project is necessary in order to provide an answer to the question “What’s In It For Me?”.
Learning: People need to know what is expected of them in terms of attitude, knowledge and skills. A part of this is provided in the form of classroom-trainings (the know-how), but the largest part of the knowledge transfer will take place in practice, during the testing phase and the phase of problem-solving. That is why the learning work is never restricted to the classroom and – most of all – we need to carefully build a network of local ambassadors for the project.
Organization: this is the need to know “Who does what?”. This means that the setup of the future roles and responsibilities needs to be clarified upfront. Next, the support structure in the long run needs to be setup, i.e.: the community of ambassadors who will be responsible for the sustainability of the solution.
Performance: Finally, people need to know what exactly will change in practice and how this will affect their working habits and usage of time. This includes a detailed follow-up of the chronology of tasks and the creation of a uniform procedure that is shared among all departments.

So if we are going to skate where the puck of organizational change is going to be, we first need to acknowledge that an organizational change manager needs to master all four containers at the same time, because eventually they integrate into one single result, i.e.: ownership and accountability over the future situation.

Practical Impact

Now here is the thing: when the digital economy is changing the laws of gravity for business, there is no way organizational change practitioners can stand aside and pretend that their methods and tools should not be reviewed. What’s more: social media are specifically affecting the core of our business. In other words: the anatomy remains the same, but the focus needs a radical change.

In an earlier article I have underscored the need to upgrade our organizations to a social architecture. To the same extent and with a slightly higher sense of urgency, I am calling organizational change practitioners to action. I’m on a mission to change organizational change management. We desperately need to upgrade the way we do our work.

With the manifesto of Social Architecture in the back of my mind, this is how each of the change management work-streams will need to shift: the skaters remain the same, but the game is being played on a different level. We need a different puck. Have a look at the below drawing to see what an upgraded puck looks like.

On the left-hand side of the drawing above, you can see what organizational change management meant before the digital economy got any traction:

Communication: broadcast your messages to stakeholders (‘Message & Audience’)
Learning: manage the curriculum (‘Content & Collection’)
Organization: top-down (‘Hierarchy & Position’)
Performance: push harder (‘Control & Compliance’)

As we are witnessing the end of the Industrial Revolution, we discover that leadership and workplace dynamics are no longer hierarchical. That game is over. Compliance is no longer the shortest path to productivity. Relationships are no longer hierarchical, they have become tribal. This means that the upgraded puck of Organizational Change looks like this:

Communication: listen and trust the process (‘Story & Community’)
Learning: learning is in the network (‘Context & Connection’)
Organization: become a platform for change (‘Social Architecture & Roles’)
Performance: balance push and pull (‘Trust & Co-creation’)

Finally, let’s take this metaphor one step further and see if we can answer the initial question: where is the puck of our profession, and where is it going to be?

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March 7, 2012 at 8:47am

Edmund Ie

Great hack Luc! Big fan of your Social Architecture Manifesto. I am trying to be that change agent in our department and I find your postings to be quite motivating. Looking for more insight from you. Thanks!