My little secret: if you want change, tear down the organizational fabric

I have been in and around organizations for 30 years. I have studied them and I have consulted them. There is one little secret I would like to share today.

One of our strongly held beliefs when we deal with organizational change is the primacy of action, and therefore actors. To put ii simply, it means we believe that change is more or less intentional. Humans involved in a change can take stance on the basis of their respective interests and can deliberately act to favor or obstacle change. It can be the case that some of them might not interfere, avoiding to take sides. The sum of these intentional forces plus the rationality of the course for change tend to be considered the most important levers for change.

There is nothing wrong with this belief, which at face value is more than reasonable. And it is a belief that helps managers and consultants assign meaning to all the efforts they put in "managing" change. Endless steering committees, brilliant reports on the state of change. breathing all the optimism of the savior who not only can make it happen, but have figured out where the organization should go. There is some aura to it. I agree. And I have been there so many or maybe too many times. So I share the blame. You know why?

Traditional change management is so rational, comprehensible, logical, and even epic but for one reason: it is not real!

Different organizational theories demonstrate that our over reliance on actions (and actors, particularly the most prominent and visible ones, like the CEOs) is senseless. It is reasonable to assume that for any Steve Jobs there is an Elizabeth Holmes and for any Jack Welch we should get also a Jeff Immelt. Only that their fates might be reversed in one of the parallel universes we live into, just because it is not about actions, but fabric, tissue, context of what they inhabited.

Organizations are structurally designed to reduce ambiguity and uncertainty in how people within them should react to any stimulus and in any encounter. It is their essence to limit change and unpredictability. Whenever they are used to promote change or innovation they end up with those trivial idea competitions that aim at internal start-ups and end in nothing. Our over reliance on actors induces us to think it is because of the wrong people. It is not. The vast majority of organizational dynamics repeat themselves in time because the interplay between organizational design and organizational culture reinforces repetition. Many argue it is because of the power of culture. My point is that it is because of the power of design and space.

Humans adapt to space, use space to determine how to behave. Space and vision are key elements for our interactions. Culture evolves after we make sense of spaces we inhabit. And many times features of those spaces become cultural artefacts, but only later in time. Space determines our interaction patterns to a greater extent than we recognize. If you insert different people in the very same place, most of the time you get very similar interactions. There is come kind of difficult-to-observe isomorphism at play there. We are not fully aware of how this happens.

If you have had the patience to follow me to this point, I can now share with you my little secret. The only way to facilitate change (without the ability of directing it ex ante, though) is to tear down the organizational fabric, which is the physical web of connections between objects and people. If you are a CEO, separate teams, divide offices, move people far away one from the other, produce a Big Bang in the head quarter, dismantle it. Have your executive board meet constantly at different places. Show up unexpectedly at meetings and operations. Remove any ability to predict what your actions will be or where you will be. Create chaos. Force people in a different environment. This is the way! Worry you cannot direct change? I am sorry to reveal the obvious: nobody actually directs change. The sense of direction is in the constant effort to portray reality according to a framework. Most change management consultants are not aware fo the fact that they do not have any control of the reality in the organization: their powerpoint and gannts are just an illusion. Worse than that is that if they do not act on space and context they will portray not only the illusion of direction, but the even worse illusion of change.

I know it is hard to believe. And such an ambiguity is difficult to bear. But this little secret of mine can save your day. Instead of betting your budget on rational (but fairy) change management actions, divide it in two. Part of it shall be used to physically alter the organizational space. The other part shall be invested in those few consultants who ride the waves of change instead of pretending to direct the waves. I am not a surfer, but I know that the best surfer ride the actual waves, having studied them for long in the most difficult conditions. Those who direct the waves can be found in aquaparks, but what they do is not actually surfing, is it?

So come and surf with OrgTech