Have you ever actually seen a whirlpool? If you have then I'm willing to bet that part of what kept you standing and staring was the way the vortex maintained its shape even as gallons of water rushed through it. Or have you ever marvelled at a motorbike cornering at speed with perfect control? Or maybe you've felt the sensation, the push of the g-force and sweep of the road.
Fast and stable in nature inspires awe in all of us and to actually be fast and stable is the holy grail of athletes and games players the world over. And there's no reason that organisations shouldn't aim for the same breath-taking grace and speed in the changes they undertake. But how?
Most organisational changes are more like spooning water from one bucket to another than a whirlpool; more like kicking a can down the road than cornering a motorbike. And when change initiatives do attempt to inject speed they all too often wobble precariously, swerve uncontrollably and collapse in on themselves. What's needed is a culture that has the capability for fast and stable change built into its DNA. So here's a short guide for those seeking an exhilarating, balanced, vortex-like approach to change.
1. Question continuously
Step one in the journey to becoming an organisation with rapid change embedded in the culture is to question things. Question everything. All the time. The more the status quo is investigated, probed, queried and generally made to work for its right to be the status quo, the more likely that opportunities for change will be spotted. Challenging, potentially disruptive questions should be the lifeblood of the organisation that embraces change.
Take the Brazilian company Semco for example, where the leadership team decided to eschew the day-to-day business of executives in favour of becoming 'custodians'. Their job was to roam the organisation, question the way things were done and to encourage others to question it too. By acting as role-models for an enquiring mindset they set Semco on a course to continuous improvement that has seen revenue rise steadily from $4 million in 1982 to $212 million in 2003.
Questions are not just something to ponder when the pressure is off. They are the key to success, your best weapon in the battle to embrace change. And the more you spread them throughout your organisation the more innovative you can become. Think of every noticeboard in your organisation's building. Think of all the posters, notes, memos and pictures, all the information that insists on its own importance, that insists on informing, that insists that it has an answer. What if they were all taken down and replaced by a single question "How can we be better?" with blank space for people to write their answers? Would the potential for change go up or down?
2. Dual operating system
The next important step in adopting a vortex approach to constant change is to stop ramping up and ramping down change initiatives from scratch and start running a constant, 'low simmer' change network. This means having a permanent change-focussed network of people within the organisation who are constantly cultivating new ideas. They operate in parallel to the delivery-focussed side of the business which is then left free to concentrate on delivering the current set of products or services.
John Kotter's dual operating system - an example of a permanent change network operating in parallel to a delivery-focussed structure
Working on the change-focussed side of the business might be something that people do as a small part of their 'day job' or it could be somewhere that people are regularly seconded to for a period of time. It doesn't matter as long as the network is permanent, free to explore the widest possible range of opportunities and populated by people who actually work in the business. This is much, much more than the kinds of change networks that are set up on specific projects for set periods of time.
Firstly the permanent change network is free to consider the what-ifs and make connections between teams. Remember the questions you have been seeding in step one? Well the permanent change network is your mechanism for growing them, harvesting them and bringing them to life in what you actually deliver to your customers. And like any mass propagation of seedlings, some will thrive and some will fail.
The organisation that really wants rapid change will allow failure, celebrate it and encourage it to happen again, and happen faster. As Samuel Beckett (not someone you normally see popping up in a blog about change management) put it, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Secondly, the permanent change network is your reserve army of change agents who can be mobilised at short notice if a major transformational opportunity is spotted. As people who are already in your organisation and who are likely to have played a key role in developing the transformation concept, they will be ready and raring to go from day one.
3. Articulate a positive rapid-change self-image
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the organisation needs to absorb the idea of rapid, stable, beneficial change into its self-image. Constant questioning has become the norm, a permanent change network is in full swing and now it is time to articulate, embed and celebrate what the organisation has become. It is time to name it.In this final step the organisation needs to start seeing itself as a whirlpool or a motorbike, or whatever other metaphor fits the collective imagination of the people working there. Rapid change needs to be understood as not just a current strategy or a convenient pose but as a fundamental part of who we are. And the development of that self-image needs to come from the people in your organisation not a brand agency or an executive away day.
Think of Honda's 2004 Grrr campaign which launched a new diesel engine via a catchy song that had the refrain "Hate something, change something, make something better!" (and if you haven't seen the ad I really recommend you look it up for an example of outstanding advertising). In that and other campaigns, Honda showcased their blazing pride in tearing apart the status quo, in hating things that didn't work. What would that look like in your organisation? What would you hate? What song would you sing?
And remember that the development of that self-image needs to come from within. The concept for the Grrr campaign came from an anecdote about Honda's chief engine designer, Kenichi Nagahiro. The anecdote was well known within the company and often shared as part of the self-written mythology of Honda. Nagahiro was famous for the way he hated the noise, smell and appearance of diesel engines. When Honda asked him to design their first diesel engine he agreed on one non-negotiable condition, that he was allowed to start completely from scratch with no limits on his ambition. In another company he would have been asked to leave for his inflexibility, at Honda his stubbornness became cause for celebration.
