3 Keys to Shift From Resisting To Embracing Change

"Clear at the core, messy at the edge."

Change is not an event you plan, a process you build like you would a machine, or a capacity you need to learn and teach. We all read about the established number of 70% of change failures. It isn't a Truth to take for granted. It reveals how change is processed incorrectly, using a mechanistic view of organizations instead of a self-organized, living view.

When a problem appears at the level of behaviors, processes, or structures; like taking too much time to respond to a new market trend, two departments not getting along and stalling each other's performance, high turnover in a team, increase in accidents because employees do not follow the security protocols... The leadership reaction is to change behaviors, processes, or structures: they impose a new approach to go to market, they define a new way to relate between the two departments, they set up a retention program, and they adapt the security protocols and teach it to every team. It might work for a week or two; then, people revert to their old habits. In other words, when a problem occurs at the edge and the response is provided at the edge, the core stays intact, and resistance to change emerges. It is not a fatality; just a signal that leaders expect a different outcome using the same process that created the problem. Some call it insanity.

Resistance to Change Stems from Mechanistic Views of Organisation

Since the 17th century, we have viewed people and organizations like machines. They have parts that are put together that can be fixed or corrected; they are lifeless and driveless; they need to be pushed, motivated, punished, tested, and controlled. This paradigm propels leaders to hold all the knowledge, power, and vision to design, drive, lead and correct the change projects they then impose on others. Considering people and organizations like machines led to the management theory of command-and-control. People are demotivated, distracted, and unskilled; they need to be controlled, tested, and corrected. Are they?

It is an outside-in approach that generates resistance. How do you like someone telling you you are lifeless, unable to drive your life or your work, that you should speak louder in meetings, quit smoking, or start working out and imposing a new routine? You'd hate it! So why do organizations persist in using a mechanistic process of correcting a problem by working only at the edge?

Systems Are Naturally Creative and Adaptative

We only recently remembered or noticed that all systems are naturally creative and adaptative. When you consider an organization as a living, self-organized system, it behaves like one. Look at your body; you don't need to tell your cells to fight a virus or collaborate with bacteria to sustain balance and live. It happens naturally; cells (that you can see as small teams) are self-organized and are driven to make sure the body works and adapts to its environment using a variety of processes and structures. Something happens at the edge, and the core is implicated.

When you trust your body, you listen to it when it tells you you are thirsty or need to work out when you puff at each step on a staircase. You will grab a glass of water without needing someone to tell you which path to take to the next head of water, defining KPIs along the way, controlling your every move and performance, and correcting the course when you derail from the plan. That would be non-sense. Systems are self-organized with the primary purpose of adapting to their environment to ensure survival over time. Nothing is planned; a lot is sensed, communicated, and exchanged. All the systems parts collaborate to reach the same goal without any question. This inside-out process is the source of motivation and sustainable change.

The 3 Key Elements To Embrace Change

I borrow from Margaret Wheatley and her work on leadership in uncertain times (source: Finding Our Way). When you trust that any system (a team or an organization) can navigate change because it is self-organized, you relieve leaders from pressure and employees from much resistance. Let's have a look at what defines the success of self-organized systems.

In this new paradigm, when a problem occurs at the level of behaviors, processes, or structure (the edge), you understand it is a signal of a dynamic occurring in the domain of identity, information, or relationship (the core).

1. A Shared Sense of Identity

When people (and cells) decide to get organized, it is in the hope of reaching more significant goals, creating a valuable purpose. They understand that collaborating is the only way to go (or survive, instead of fighting for the fittest). As a collective, each member is vital as it defines the essence of the system's personality. When Paul, Marie, and Charlotte decide to collaborate to launch a new business, their partnership is unique. When one is missing, the atmosphere and skills are modified. If Erik joins the team, the personality shifts again. We say that each member is the voice of the system (source: CRR Global).

When each voice contributes to the system's identity, making the core very clear to everyone, anyone can operate co-independently from the others without needing to notify, ask permission, or validate a budget. How? With a clear view of identity, any member can make decisions based on what is happening at their level. Like the skin will react to cold by sending the message to the brain to add a layer. The lever is not implicated, and the decision was made based on the shared agreement that the purpose of a living body is to stay alive. No need for an executive board to happen; the decision is made in the moment by reacting to events happening on the field.

When resistance or problems occur in the system's members' behavior, check their perception of the system's identity. If needed, take the time to redefine it by implicating new members. If security is not respected anymore, it might be due to the new hires and the sense of shared identity getting lost.

2. Access To All Information

Information is the vehicle of change. Without communication between the environment and the system, nothing can happen. Information shapes the system; the in-formation provides data to and from the environment so that each part can adjust its position to maintain the system alive, leaning on a clear sense of identity.

It is a straightforward process, even in the most complex of organizations (like the body, our world)—a cell or a team member exchanges information with their direct neighbors, not more. By exchanging information with their immediate neighbors, they can assess what is happening right now, considering where they are and what they are doing while evaluating how it helps the purpose, the identity. A sales representative in contact with the market through prospective clients can decide to adjust parts of the sales process or even the product to respond both to the client's needs and the desire for the company to stay relevant and trustworthy to its purpose.

It is a natural process that does not require meetings or planning to drive actions. When you work out, your brain does not summon each body part's head to discuss and decide whether you need to sweat. You merely sweat to avoid over-heating. The skin and the glands know precisely what to do. There is a natural intelligence in the system regarding change processes. Signals emerge from the edge, and each part knows how to move and adjust when the identity is shared and apparent.

3. Facilitating Relationships

As human beings, we share the innate drive to connect. Our brain is wired mainly to guarantee survival through connections to others and the environment. Where the mechanistic view of systems tries to control by adding policies and standards to cap people's relationships, self-organized systems facilitate them.

Once a system is organized, relationships emerge naturally. They serve the purpose of the system by casting roles. In a complex world, diversity is needed to better adapt to the fast-moving environment. Systems need various skills to adjust to the new, which comes with inclusion and safety, of course. When you allow the freedom to relate and connect, the system can fluctuate, shifting its shape and form as new needs emerge or old ones become obsolete.

There is a paradox here, as only individuals can endorse roles, their actions serving the greater good of the system. Instead of laser focusing on individuals (through individual performance reviews) or organization only (behave in a standard way because that is the organization's identity), leaders need to "live within the paradox (...) Our communities must support our individual freedom as a means to community health and resiliency. And individuals must acknowledge their neighbors and make choices based on the desire to be in relationship with them as means to their own health and resiliency" (source: Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way. Leadership For an Uncertain Time, p49).

Clear At The Core, Messy At The Edge

When the three elements exist in a system, change operates from its edges. At first, it receives messy signals, like disagreement in a team, high turnover, or a lack of clients. When information flows freely, the parts or neighbors collect that information and decide to adjust. After a while, a new shape can emerge when a critical amount of back-and-forth has made the signals clear towards which direction to take. For example, when you organize enough meetings to understand the disagreement, hearing all the voices up until you see a picture emerging of the new needs for the team, maybe by redefining the identity through the enrichment of the new voices.

Instead of setting a plan to define a straightforward process to shift the edge, just let the mess create the adjustment. It means leaders need to let go of control, embrace a bit of chaos, trusting that in every chaos, there is always order. Like in the video on my YouTube Channel, I use the example of traffic, especially in Asia where rules are looser. By collecting information from people coming from the right and the left only, driven by the clear desire to pass a crossing safe and sound, will you be able to adjust your speed and direction? You don't need to collect the data from everyone at the intersection and define a clear plan to proceed. Just trust that the edge will know what to do because, at its core, every system member wants to co-create, contribute, survive and thrive.

Sara Bigwood - PCC - ORSCC - Mindset & Development coach