A bias toward action .... and the Isle of Conclusion

I talk a lot about organizational change from a practitioner’s point of view – from the perspective of someone who is paid to shape and support change. That’s kinda logical, since that has been what I’ve done for some time and what most of the folks who read what I wrote do.

But it seems useful to shift perspective for a bit and see if I can talk – on a superficial level – about change from the perspective of an internal executive who needs or wants change. What would I advise my clients to see, and think, and do?

First understand your “why” for change very very clearly. It’s legitimate to say that ‘we need to change our organization to attract better talent’ or ‘our competitors are doing this and seem to be doing better than we are.’ But it will go far better if you spend some preliminary time doing research (and assessment) and understand a few things. Some of the obvious ones would be: ‘what do folks who work here really think of this place?’ or ‘what have our competitors done that was better than we’ve done – and what can we assess about why and how they did it?’ and to go further, it can be incredibly useful to align on ‘what are our most pressing opportunities or problems?’

Why do this? Because knowing the question or problem is the single most critical step toward actually solving it - what if employee retention has nothing to do with not suing Scrum but is about a lack of career paths or compensation gaps? And because we typically don’t take the time to know and just jump to the Isle of Conclusion.

Most folks in leadership get there because they have a bias for action. They like to do things – and organizations have a bias for filtering folks who act and rewarding them. As a side note, my overall experience is that organizations do a much worse job of measuring the outcomes of these actions. Action is good – an imperfect plan, executed quickly absolutely beats a perpetual planning process and no execution. But action is best when it is informed and directed at something that is both specific and true.

Years ago, I was hired by a mall owner who wanted to build an ‘intranet for tenants’ so they could deepen their relationship with their tenants and get early warnings of tenants who might be having issues (either business issues or unhappiness with the mall issues). I walked around talked to a bunch of tenants, ate a bunch of food court food, and came back recommending that they not build the system at that point. It would be cheaper and more effective, I suggested, to hire a few new BA / MBA grads, give them clipboards and have them contact the tenants on a slightly irregular cycle (to keep it from feeling too rote). The real problem the tenants had was feeling a lack of concern / connection with the landlord – and logging into a web page wasn’t going to give them that.

Similarly, understanding what the problem is as best you can and then planning action to deal with that problem is probably the best way to approach change.

Saying ‘darn, I’m overweight and not very fit’ is a great motivator (it has been one for me!) – but it doesn’t tell you whether you should jog, cycle, lift weights, start BJJ, or just go walk around the neighborhood. And while ‘just do it’ and getting started is better than staying on the couch – impulsive resolutions do not stick well. The ones that are tied to the issues you are excited or worried about stick – and sticking to change matters more than anything. Setting a goal that actually ties to something you want or worry about is going to be something you’ll stick to far better than riding the new Peleton you bought because there was an ad on TV.

So the path I’m suggesting is one that takes our New Years’ resolutions to get better, adds some investigation and thought to decide what ‘better’ really means and which parts of ‘better’ we want to start with. Then – go shopping for a gym, exercise equipment – or a consultant.

And if they don’t want to make sure you have concrete goals and tailor their approach to your real goals, keep shopping.