What colour pen are you using?

I was sat having lunch and attempting to draw some of the detail of buildings around the central 'Place' of Monpazier in SouthWest France when this little gem struck me - "With a black pen, you can only draw shadows". Now I am no artist, so to some of you that might be no great revelation, but to a change specialist it reminded me of the need to use the right tools for the job.
When exploring how to go about designing and implementing change, one starting point might be to establish whether or not the big challenges are going to be about redesigning the technology or about the people - they need fundamentally different approaches, black pens or coloured pens.
The black pen on a white background might well be appropriate for procedural/processual redesign of how a task is to be done - and PRINCE2 might even be an appropriate tool. There is right and wrong involved, process optimisation, rational decision making and all that stuff that keeps some very expensive large consultancies in business.
Conversely, no matter how good the process you design, without the support of the people involved it can and most likely will fail. There is plenty of evidence about change efforts (including mergers and acquisitions) failing to deliver their stated goals - and almost universally the reasons quoted relate to human issues not technical ones. The mindsets, and tools, associated with technical process design are not necessarily appropriate when the challenge is to engage and motivate the people involved. Any change agent who thinks that people's attitudes, organisational cultures and the like can be changed to a timetable - "it's Thursday so it must be Module 17b" - is doomed to failure. The tools of organisation development have many more colours than black and white!
It's no good using black and white media when you need to paint a coloured picture.

On avoiding procrastination

I have just said goodbye to a friend who lives in the most wonderful location across the river from Edinburgh - her (big) front window looks across the estuary into the heart of the city, spectacular on an evening. As she left, the usual stuff came out of my mouth "We should come up again...". I just know that all I have to do is ask and the door will be open and I also know that it was just 2 minutes' work to get out our diaries and arrange something there and then, yet we didn't, we procrastinated.

Why? What is it that leads us to say "I should..." and then not do anything about it?

Well, I can also think of other times when I managed to get huge amounts done in a limited time - typically those last few days before a holiday when the 'To Do' list shrinks at a rate of knots, or when there is some other drop-dead deadline. What can these times tell us about how to make more effective use of our time?

It seems to me that the difference is something to do with committment. The drop-dead deadlines (which, of course, includes catching that flight to the sun/snow/sand...) somehow generate that sense of 'must do' which has a more compelling force than 'should do'.

So perhaps there are (at least!) two things to think about when deciding what do do with your time:

1) How important is this appointment/meeting/day out/etc to me? The more important it is, the more likely the job is to get done and the more likely I am to start early just in case something comes up at the last minute. I am saying yes becasue it seems like a good idea, or because someone else thinks it is important - or because it meets my needs?
2) Am I hoping for something better to come up? Maybe the reason we did not arrange that weekend in Scotland was that we were not willing to commit in case something else came up that was more compelling. And of course if something else does not come up then we have missed an opportunity!

Whatever I face, if it matters enough to me I will organise around it. So decide what really matters, get those things in your diary first (Stephen Covey's large stones) and then arrange everything else around those personal committments.

Unless you know where you are, a map is no use...

I recently posted this age-old piece of wisdom on Twitter and found myself challenged by someone who wrote:

I disagree Geoff. There are many times when we've been lost but by looking at what is around us and comparing it to what is shown on the map, we are able to ascertain where we are. This holds true for both physical and emotional contexts.

This really got me thinking...and my initial response was:

OK then...Where you ARE is independent of any map.
Reference to physical (or emotional!) objects and translating them to an appropriate (and that's important) map will help locate yourself on a map, then you can use a map to plan out a way ...to get somewhere else.

There are all sorts of maps - physical and virtual - and we constantly create and update our own maps of the world. None of these are true - remember that Korsybski said that "The map is not the territory" - yet they generally prove helpful. The map of the London Underground is nothing like a physical geographical representation of the locations of lines and stations, yet it is successfully used daily by millions of travellers. You can drop a traveller in any station and they can very quickly, by reference to where the trains in that station are going to/from and without looking at the station name on the platform, figure out where they are and then how to get to their destination. And of course, that map alone is of limited use if I am on Green Park station wanting to find out how to get to Birmingham. Birmingham is not on the Tube map! I need another map, one in my head that says "go North young man" or some knowledge that trains to Birmingham depart from Euston, or some other way of knowing that I can only get part of my route planned form the tube map.

When we think of organisational change, what maps do we use to understand the current state of the organisation? What maps do we use to define our destination, and is that destination necessarily on the same map as we used for diagnosis - or even any map at all!? What maps and other tools (e.g. an Oyster Card or ticket for the Tube) do we need to plan the journey?
Are you sure that your map is up-to-date? Using an Underground map from 25 years ago before the Jubilee Line was built will significantly extend my journey times. Using an organisational map based on 14th Century theological principles or early 20th Century behaviourism would be of little use in an early 21st Century organisation.

Pick Your Battles

There once lived a great mathematician in a small country village. He was often called by the local king to advice on matters related to the economy. His reputation had spread far and wide. So it hurt him very much when the village headman told him, "You may be a great mathematician who advises the king on economic matters but your son does not know the value of gold or silver."

The mathematician called his son and asked, "What is more valuable - gold or silver?" "Gold," said the son. "That is correct. Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, and claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who has failed to educate his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son."

So the son of the mathematician told his father the reason why the village headman carried this impression. "Every day on my way to school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, and everyone makes fun of me. And then I go to school. This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver."

The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin. "Why don't you pick up the gold coin?" he asked. In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a box. In the box were at least a hundred silver coins. Turning to his father, the mathematician's son said, "The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop; they will stop having their fun and I will stop making money."

Sometimes in life, we have to play the fool because our seniors and our peers, and sometimes even our juniors like it. That does not mean we lose in the game of life. It just means allowing others to win in one arena of the game, while we win in another arena of the game.

We have to choose which arena matters to us and which arenas do not.

What are you missing?

Opportunities are all around us - if only we can see them and take action...

I was just watching a National Geographic TV programme about African wildlife, specifically watching a black-headed crane diligently searching in the grass for the grubs etc that it eats. I noticed a large fly, or maybe flying insect, buzzing around the crane's head while the crane continued foraging. SUDDENLY the crane flicks its head up and snaffles the tasty treat that had been buzzing around it. The incident left me wondering...

...what opportunities might I be missing that are there all around me but I do not notice because I am so focussed on my current task?

Had Alexander Fleming thrown away that Petrie dish containing the penicillium mould just becasue it was not the desired outcome, who knows how many more people would have died of curable ailments before someone else discovered penicillin? We need to work with the paradox of focussing on a clear outcome whilst remaining open to all and any posibilities.

Bring some wonder into your life

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard this quotation from Will Fyffe, an early/mid 20th century music hall entertainer "You are about to see something wonderful - a Scotsman doing something for free". He was performing for the troops in the 2nd World War.
It left me wondering about what I do that is wonderful, the things that I do (or would do) for free because they inspire me so much; the things that bring joy into my life; the things that really feed my core values.
When we are doing these things we come alive, we can focus for hours on end, we just know that we are making a difference, we do not need any external motivation it's all coming from inside ourselves.
So - what is it that YOU do that is wonderful?
How can you find ways to do more of these things?
How would life be if your 'job' was about doing the stuff that was wonderful?

Change is emotional

A recent incident at home reminded me of the sometimes extreme challenges of change. I won't go into the incident but it helped me to recollect that individuals change at their own pace.

The business case my be compelling, the organisational rationale all-encompassing etc but at the end of the day individuals have emotional attachments to what currently IS. It is those emotional attachments that we ultimately have to address - the pain of changing has to be lower than the pain of staying put, otherwise what does the rational person do but stay put!
Remember also that sometimes it is the pain of the process, rather than the end-point, that is the challenge. This is an arena not for rational dialogue but for comfort, support and belief that the individual will find their own way through their own pain.

Always remember that effective change leadership is more about the people than the process!