You are here: Home / Archives for social change

Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed

March 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In the movie Jerry Maguire, Renee Zellweger’s character tells Tom Cruise that he had her at the first hello. Well, this warning to the book “Getting To Maybe: How the World is Changed” had me at the first page:

Warning: this book is not for heroes or saints or perfectionists. This book is for ordinary people who want to make connections that create extraordinary outcomes.

What riveted me to this book on social innovation:

  • The authors fascinating yet easy to understand application of scientific complexity science as a way to understand social innovation.
  • The book’s thorough research and presentation of patterns of social innovation
  • The compelling stories of diverse social innovators – what triggered them to start, how they navigated their journeys, and the shared patterns of those diverse journeys
  • The use of poetry to ground each chapter, counterbalancing the art of change with the science of systems change.
  • More thoughtful, original, and thought provoking insights than I usually find in a professional book.
  • Many, many practical ideas that I can see how to apply both to my professional organizational change management work and my responsibilities as a trustee on non-profit organizations.
  • How relevant it is in today’s world with nations in the Middle East transforming and our school systems, unions, health care institutions and governments undergoing complex, profound and needed change.

The yellow highlights in my book are too numerous to list, but here are some of my takeaways.

Getting to maybe vs. concrete, measurable outcomes

“Maybe” comes with no guarantees, only a chance. But “maybe” has always been the best odds the world has offered to those who set out to alter its course…”Maybe” is not a cautious word. It is a defiant claim of possibility in the face of a status quo we are unwilling to accept.

Why complexity science?

  • Traditional methods of seeing the world compare its workings to a machine. Complexity science embraces life as it is: unpredictable, emergent, evolving and adaptable.
  • Connections or relationships define how complex systems work; an organization is its relationships not its flow chart.
  • Using insights about how the world is changed, we can become active participants in shaping those changes.

Being heard: speaking the vision and passion

Effective and innovative organizations keep alive the that vision and passion, that sense of calling…Part of the challenge in being heard is to hone what you have to say and practice saying it in a way that connects both emotionally and intellectually, both affectively and cognitively

Working with powerful strangers

  • If the system is to be transformed as opposed to overturned, collaboration between the radical and the establishment must be created.
  • In any discussion of power and its redistribution, link the issue directly to the organization’s mission and keep it in that context.
  • Power dynamics will surface in connection to mission fulfillment; which is appropriate; there it will challenge those in power to examine the depth of their commitment to real change.

Evaluation, measurement, accountability

  • Set information targets, not just performance targets.
  • Use developmental evaluation, charting a changing path of innovation by providing rapid feedback.
  • Frame changes from you’re learning as developments, not just improvements, and a key difference in perspective. Especially with funders.
  • Support learning as a meaningful outcome – and reporting on learning as a form of authentic accountability.
  • The highest form of accountability is internal. Are we being true to our vision? Are we dealing with reality? Are we connecting the dots between here-and-now and our vision?  Are we walking the talk? How do we know if we’re not?

Scaling innovation

Scaling up is rarely a linear process that involves doing more of the same.

A different approach to strategic planning

  • Make big-picture, strategic thinking an ongoing part of decision making, not something done only periodically in retreats.
  • Devote resources to identifying and tracking important trends. Make strategic analysis about the connections between local efforts and major trends a regular part of your work.
  • Develop a fierce commitment to ongoing reality testing, especially seeking and being open to critical feedback and standing still to see the bigger picture.
  • Instead of cheerleading, cultivate the skills of rigorous pattern analysis and reality testing.

Quotes I loved

  • Thinking is a form of action.
  • A goal helps to channel the energy but doesn’t create it.
  • Keep the goals front and centre –  let the means emerge.
  • Hell is not failing, hell is delusion.
  • It takes courage to act in the absence of certainty and clarity. But to not engage, to not connect does not mean we protect ourselves from uncertainty.

I’m a voracious reader, and highly recommend this book by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Quinn Patton — especially for those involved in innovation, organizational change and social transformation, or for those who wonder and perhaps worry about how we can solve today’s seemingly insolvable social issues.

Filed Under: Activating change, Innovation, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Egypt erupts: leadership lessons in the six freedoms

January 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As I watch Tunisia and Egypt erupt, I’m reminded that leaders — of countries and of companies — can be extraordinarily successful or dismal failures by how they involve people in creating change.

Management consultants Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom believe that there are six conditions for the liberation of power in organizations — and as we’re seeing today, for liberating power in countries.  The “six freedoms” are:

  1. The freedom to be heard.
  2. The freedom to dream in community.
  3. The freedom to choose to contribute.
  4. The freedom to act with support.
  5. The Freedom to be positive.
  6. The freedom to be known in a relationship.

Social communications are activating and empowering people  in  countries, in companies, in government, in activist organizations.  Whether you agree or disagree with Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, it’s another example of how  social technologies are  liberating power when there is a desire for these six freedoms.

Great leaders always ask an essential question: What of the dreams of the people?

Extraordinary leaders involve people in making those dreams real. They create corporate or civic cultures that encourage and support these six freedoms.

My hopes and dreams are for the people of Egypt today — that they  can quickly and peacefully begin the collaborative journey to the type of country they dream of.

________________________________

To learn more about Diana and Amanda, check out their excellent book, “The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change.”

Filed Under: Activating change, Leadership, Political communications, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , ,

Social media expose: the passion problem

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Supergirl

Social media is exposing a problem in business: many, many employees and customers don’t care much about the business; they’re not flocking to  join Facebook fan pages, participate in employee communities, add comments to blogs.

Take a look around and you’ll find the evidence everywhere.  After all the worries about what employees might post,  working for months with legal to get guidelines in place, and putting that corporate blog and Facebook page in place,  there’s a thunderous echo of nothingness.

The reason? Most people are just not that into their companies.  Sure, their companies may be good places to work, opportunities for professional advancement may be decent, and the company is probably a responsible corporate citizen.  But the passion is missing.

Social media is exposing a significant business problem: bland corporate cultures.  I would suggest that we should be spending far more time on the culture problem than on social media. Of course, the more you spend on the latter, the more vivid you’re likely to see the cultural issues.

In most corporations processes, rules, and values, e.g., integrity and  truthfulness, are clear and understood, but people don’t care about  the company with their head and their hearts.  (Do companies even use the word “love” or talk about feelings?)  The primary reason for this lack of passion is because companies’ purpose beyond making money is unclear.  There’s no meaningful cause or purpose that everyone in the company is together aspiring to achieve.

Pick your study or expert and you’ll see the quantifiable value of a strong corporate culture.

  • Financial growth/profitability: Companies with strong cultures returned 1,026 percent for investors over 10 years compared to a 122 percent for the S&P, according to the business school authors of  Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit From Passion and Purpose.
  • Speeding change, adopting new strategies: “You must create a culture  that motivates people to execute the strategy — not to the letter but to the spirit. People’s minds and hearts must align with the new strategy so that at the level of the individual, people embrace it of their own accord and willingly go beyond compulsory execution to voluntary cooperation in carrying it out.” Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. (Notice the head and heart term again?)
  • Bringing humanity to work: “What we need is not an economy of hands or heads, but an economy of hearts. Evert employee should feel that he or she is contributing to something that will actually make  a genuine and positive difference in the lives of customers and colleagues. For too many employees, the return on emotional equity is close to zero. They have nothing to commit to other than the success of their own career. To succeed today a company must give its members a reason to bring all of their humanity to work.” Gary Hamel, Leading the Revolution.

We’ve heard so much about the potential of social media and enterprise 2.0 to bring  people together in new ways to brainstorm, collaborate, build deeper relationships, eliminate barriers, bring new ideas to market faster.

But if people don’t love your company, don’t expect to reap the big benefits of social media.

The good news, however, is that most companies have a bigger reason for being, a purpose more significant  than simply growing financially.  Someone just has to step up and lead the charge to uncover that purpose and focus the organization around it.

It could just be the most rewarding challenge of your career.

Filed Under: Activating change, Innovation, Leadership, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , , , , ,