Balanced Diversity Revisited

Back in 2010, as a result of my interest in sustainability for IT, I came across a body of research that I soon realized had far-reaching implications for those of us leading change.

 Although the focus of the research was on embedding sustainability into organizational culture, my examination of the research results clearly showed that the findings could be related to embedding any type of change into an organization.

On discovering this research, I contacted the Network for Business Sustainability(NBS), who had commissioned the research, to request permission to reference the material in a white paper that I was keen to write as I knew I had uncovered something that was going to transform the way we look at introducing changes related to IT service management into our organizations.

Having been kindly given permission, I soon had to return and ask whether that permission would be transferable to a book. The white paper had evolved into what would become my first publication and I was an accidental author.

Of all the books published by The IT Service Management Forum International, during the time it had a publishing arm, it was the best seller and widely acclaimed in service management circles.

Ten years on, I am excited to announce that a revised edition of Balanced Diversity; A Portfolio Approach Organizational Change has just been released.

Don’t panic

Fans of the original publication, and I know there are many, do not have to panic. The Balanced Diversity framework remains untouched. Those A3 posters of the framework adorning so many office walls, are just as relevant today as they were back when.

The difference is that first publication presented the framework as detailed in the original research and demonstrated its practical application to IT service management.

The revised publication presents the framework as detailed in the original research and demonstrates its practical application in relation to any industry.

This edition is targeted to a much wider audience—everybody.

It also recognizes that the delivery of change within organizations has also evolved. Not only is change a constant, it is also disruptive, unpredictable, uncertain and ambiguous. The complexity of change has dramatically increased over the past ten years and will continue to do so.

In the first edition of this book, I embedded the Balanced Diversity framework into a structured organizational change management (OCM) methodology, which I now believe is outdated. So, a major change in this edition is the approach in application of the Balanced Diversity framework while managing change.

The framework

For those readers who have not heard about the framework before, let me introduce it.

In 2010, NBS commissioned a large-scale systematic review of both academic and practitioner resources related to embedding sustainability into organizational culture.

The research team, led by Dr. Stephanie Bertels, identified 13,756 academic and practitioner articles and reports related to the topic. A detailed review then narrowed this down to the most relevant 179 to be included in the systematic review. (Bertels, Papania, & Papania, 2010)

The extensive analysis of these sources revealed a multitude of ways that organizations can work to embed sustainability into organizational culture. In the end, the research team identified 59 distinct practices and grouped them in way that they anticipated would be meaningful to businesses.

These practices can be used to embed any type of change into any organization.

The framework provides a wide-ranging and diverse set of practices that can be used for successful transitions. The key is that they have been divided into informal and formal practices. They have then been grouped into those that will help the organization deliver on current commitments (referred to as fulfillment) and those that will help the organization move further along the path to change (referred to as innovation).

The result is that the framework provides four groups (quadrants) of practices from which leaders of change need to select a balanced portfolio of practices to make their transition a success.

Practices need to be selected from each quadrant and used together to achieve sufficient penetration and traction to achieve the desired outcomes.

The research determined that the key to successful change was to have a balanced selection of practices from each of the quadrants.

The 59 practices identified by the research are grouped into 20 categories across the four quadrants. The categories are shown in the following diagram.

The 59 practices across each of the categories are shown in the following diagram. The detail in the framework may make it difficult to read in this format.

A downloadable version of the Balanced Diversity framework can be accessed here:

https://karenferris.com/blog/2020/6/14/balanced-diversity-framework-download

Application

As already mentioned, organizations should draw practices from all four quadrants of the framework in the effort to embed changes.

Similar to the need to consume food from each of the food groups for good health, it is a balanced approach, and uses a wide and diverse range of practices that will achieve successful organizational change.

Those working to embed change into the organization need a portfolio of practices at their disposal. The portfolio of practices creates a balanced diversity to ensure successful change.

The approach can be used for strategic, tactical and operational change. It can be used for small, medium and large changes of varying complexity and priority. It can be used to increase resilience in the face of constant change.

Summary

I am excited to have made this framework accessible and applicable to organizations of every shape and size and in every industry sector through the publication of this revised edition.

The book describes in detail how the framework was constructed; how it can be used to address the challenges of change; how to select the right practices for each change; and applying it to both current and future changes.

The objective of this edition is to present a framework that enables organizations to successfully transition people through change. This objective has not changed since the first edition.

The focus, however, is more on using the practices to build resilience to change within the organization as opposed to overcoming resistance to change.

The book can be ordered from most online book stores and at [email protected]/store.

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I am an organisational change management rebel with a cause. 

I am an author, sought after keynote speaker, coach mentor and facilitator. My latest book "Balanced Diversity: A Portfolio Approach to Organizational Change (Revised Edition 2020)" is available now.

I am passionate about enabling individuals and organisations to triumph in the face of constant and disruptive change and I do so through programs regarding organisational change, resilience, agility, leadership, transformation and adaptation.

To inquire about me working with you or your organisation please contact me here