Pull and fling change dynamics

This is a sidebar really that explores an aspect of change and its management, to go with how these topics are helpfully discussed through LinkedIn and other valuable resources. Hope it makes for a nice distraction, and allows for ideas about change dynamics.

A long long time ago in another institution far far away, a most sagacious and inspiring professional services leader who I worked for wrote a 'letter paper' for the institution's governance fora. The paper was a signal moment in that it heralded a new era away from the then use of a vice-chancellor's group towards an established executive committee that coordinated the institution's strategic management.

The paper was written as an 'argument', and it used the words 'centripetal' and 'centrifugal' to characterise the experiences and perceptions of many at the time for how and where institutional change and development emanated.

A centripetal force is one that makes a body follow a curved path, and the direction of the force is always orthogonal to the motion of said body. It is a 'real' force, such as the gravitational pull of our Sun that keeps our Earth orbiting around it.

A centrifugal force however is sometimes labelled a 'fictitious' force. It is that sensation if you're in a car and it turns around a bend, and you feel a force pushing you away from the turn. If you're watching the car from the outside, you'd see the car lean inward to the circle of the bend. The feeling inside the car is different, but it is really the same inward centripetal force keeping you from going off on a tangent, spinning off the curve.

The enterprise

The roundabout pictured above is probably rare to find these days but were around when I was a kid. Importantly for this sidebar, different designs and structures give different experiences and fuel different expectations of those experiences, whether or not one has been on any particular roundabout before.

But this particular kind of roundabout came to mind in thinking about the 'pull and fling' dynamics of change - its initiation and its ongoing management - prompted by this echo from the past of centripetal and centrifugal in a paper about institutional strategic management.

One might say that the roundabout represents an enterprise within its operating environment, or perhaps a programme or major project within an enterprise. This particular roundabout has a central point, with inner and outer rings to sit on connected by spokes which can also be sat on. In fact, the risk-hungry roundabout user (usually aka 'kid') can make use of this particular structure in all kinds of ways - some patently sensibly, others patently less so.

Most times, there'd only be a few kids on it but there were times when a lot got on. You could start it off from within by pushing with your feet, or by standing in one of the middle gaps and run until you jumped on. Or you could be standing outside and either pulling it round or running forward with it until you let go or also jumped on.

So the energy to move this thing at all could come from within, or externally. You might know who was providing that energy and be comfortable, or not know the source at all and have some uncertainty of intent.

Keeping the roundabout spinning was either by someone on it continuing to push with their feet, or someone standing outside of it and occasionally yanking the outer ring onwards or running with it for a bit to give an extra push. Stopping the spinning was easy enough; wearing flip flops not recommended.

This way of talking about this particular design of roundabout can be abstracted to talk conceptually about the progress of an enterprise or a project on its development path. While the roundabout is fixed to the ground, it could 'easily' be a 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' or a spiral galaxy where the whole rotating 'system' is moving in its wider 'institutional context' or 'operating environment'.

The roundabout represents an entity with a structure and people; with a purpose ('to go round') and a vision and strategy for how to use/play; and an ambition (faster!) for delivery of a lived experience through managed (or not) risk; and with potential character- and fun-filled benefits (or not).

Pull and fling

The main thing is that if you're on this kind of roundabout, there's no mistaking the physical reality of the experience. There's no mistaking the sense of the forces being felt - both 'real' (the centripetal) and 'perceived' (the centrifugal).

Sometimes in discussions about change of whatever concept, there's a need to import the sense of impact that change can have on those subject to it from a position of inertia vs those driving it and/or already tied to the path. The mind's eye could maybe exploit this visual of a roundabout to give additional feel to those stakeholder engagement analyses.

How quickly the roundabout builds up and sustains spin (change) depends on the amount, consistency and timing of effort of pushing and/or pulling. One could argue that the primary responsibility of leadership is to set the angle, pace and tone of change, whether directly or mediated through others.

The sense of pull and fling is amplified by the direction of one's gaze. Look inwards and slightly downwards, and a sense of control and balance can be maintained...look upwards and/or outwards, and dizziness and a near sense of being thrown off greatly increase. This is far more pronounced for those on the outer rings.

Those around the centre or on the inner ring may all be looking inwards to the centre... perhaps the executive committee. Whilst feeling the forces, they may likely feel in control and want more speed, cos it's fun right? But, if they look up even to each other, or outwardly, the background is whizzing round and the sense of centrifugal forces is much increased.

Anyone at the centre can feel comparatively steady if looking down since their orbit is the smallest...look outward and/or up and instantly get dizzy. It's not for nothing that ballet dancers and figure skaters learn the secrets to amazing pirouettes and spirals.

Those sitting increasingly outward from the central increasingly 'feel' centrifugal forces... clinging on for dear life is how natural inertia is overcome because one is attached to the rotation. Looking outward from this far-flung position absolutely raises the fear of involuntarily letting go. More effort to hold on is needed the greater the spinning, and the more terrifying or exhilarating the experience gets to be depending on the ability (or technique) to hold on.

Harnessing pull and fling

'Clinging on' then could be conceived as change management at work. One is actively and continuously transforming natural inertia to stay on the roundabout by holding on (aligning, adopting, adapting).

The frame for our particular roundabout becomes a metaphor for the governance, leadership and management arrangements for change (robustness of structure, of processes, etc.), whilst sense-making the operating environment (the park) and the integrity of internal controls (holding on) to achieve transformation.

The more pushing or pulling from the inside or the outside, the more effort to stay on and keep in control with constant risk and issue management. How to keep everyone on the roundabout safely whilst delivering a positive and transformational change experience; or at least prevent risk of real harm by knowing when to adjust even if it means helping someone off.

At some point, energy to spin depletes, and so the fun slows down...or someone pleas for it to stop...or someone falls off. The experience from start to however it ends shapes the collective memory of that time and the appetite (risk appetite) for more, provided that those memories feed lessons learned on how to make the next time a better experience.

That next time might be more risky (adventurous) from the speed of spin or the manner of being on the roundabout (sitting different place, different direction backwards to direction of spin or outward or lying down etc). Each experience builds up change resilience against a sense of flight or fight response, but always with real physical risk.

Learning what pull and fling feel like

Not everyone gets back on either after the first spin (walk away, had enough, want something different such as a swing or a slide or an ice cream, or a figure skating death spiral).

Some roundabouts evolve through design and creativity into fairground merry-go-round rides with lights, music, different ways of riding (a horse or a spinning box) or even more into thrill rides involving different planes of rotation and movement.

Different rides reflect different risk appetite, and different ride structures reflect different forms of change governance, controls, risk & issue management; and with different means of communication to ride users (stakeholders) regarding the means of change (the ride) for the intended experience and benefits.

The roundabout might still be there to get back to for another go in the future or with different people...until it is deemed no longer for use perhaps because of accidents, or the park falling into disuse or closing. The setting of the ride reflects the operating or business environment; how that changes or brings an influence onto how the ride is known about, seen, used and experienced; and how the ride is kept ready for future use in ways that leads to positive (even if challenging) experiences and no disastrous mishaps.

In these ways, pull and fling change dynamics can be harnessed to best effect for those subject to them in realising the intended benefits from change.

Thank you for reading thus far and hope the sense of this ride was a nice one.