Change happens continuously and unpredictably. It’s not a state described at one point in time, and it doesn't come about as a neat progression along a continuum inscribed with benchmarks. It’s indifferent to our strategic efforts to control it, yet its path can sometimes be discerned and influenced. It can be perplexing, maddening and scary, yet sometimes playful and delightful.
For these reasons, even though it’s all the rage, we do not have a “theory of change” – an abstract set of ideas and templates to apply to any and all situations – removed from the practice of change. We have a “model of change” – a set of simple tools and practices drawn from the extraordinarily diverse and dynamic processes of the natural world of which we are a part. This model is more about how we transform ourselves and our organizations in order to adapt to change and survive constructively, than about how to “create” or “manage” it.
We believe most change initiatives fail because they are forced into non-adaptive templates described as “road maps” or “frameworks” or “pathways” or, worst of all, “plans”. We can certainly dream about outcomes, and indeed, we must. And we can set short, medium and long-term goals – as long as they are contained within a larger strategic vision and we are willing regularly to adopt new goals that more readily fit the ever-changing environment.
Instead of specifying interventions as part of a plan, we prefer to recognize that:
(1) all human activities occur within the context of Complex Adaptive Systems;
(2) the single most important characteristic of these systems is that their behaviors are “emergent” and cannot be precisely predicted or controlled; and
(3) there are ways both to influence these systems and to configure our organizations so they can successfully adapt to unanticipated events, and even turn those to competitive advantage.
We therefore help groups forge a “good enough” strategic vision and optimize goal-seeking behavior. We help them become “constructive networks” capable of reconfiguring themselves as necessary to survive “black swans” and nasty surprises, and even see them as opportunities.
Our experience tells us that organizations contain within themselves the necessary knowledge and genius to imagine and achieve the kind of future they desire. Our contribution is to help them gain new perspectives – to expand their “option space” – and surface that often untapped or underutilized insight, in alignment with those values and purposes most deeply held.
Our toolbox first and foremost provides skills for relationship building. We believe that trusting relationships deflect conflict into positive avenues for healthy creativity. Second, our toolbox provides good process skills for self-organization, networking and self-facilitated dialogue. Finally, our toolbox provides methods for encouraging leadership to emerge and distribute throughout the organization, in order to tap group wisdom and enhance the requisite variety needed for creative problem solving. This recipe, we believe, delivers good outcomes, even though we may not know what those outcomes are when we set out.
Using these tools and perspectives helps groups become “self-facilitating” so that they can identify and undertake appropriate interventions for their desired outcomes. We are co-learners more than outside experts in this. We work in concert with groups as we mutually discover ways to operate that are more effective, more creative, more humane, and more playful and delightful.
We measure success not by metrics, but by capturing and learning from those intended and unintended consequences that result from our interventions. Do the emergent outcomes that our activities influenced support our desired future? Is our system surviving the “hits” that we could not predict? Have the “fog” and “friction” associated with our interactions declined, while the excitement, trust and creativity of our people have increased? Is the organization more vital and robust?
Most important, have our skills and processes moved – like those of a good martial artist, musician or dancer – from practice to mastery to meditation? Have we adopted this model as a way of being, rather than a strategy, tactic or template?
If so, our interventions are successful. We have become architects of our future rather than its victims.
