Reflections from the Campfire Conversation (August 2024): The disconnect between ideation and implementation in complex projects

During this campfire conversation, we came together as a group of 8 people to explore the disconnect between ideation and implementation that often appears when people are working on complex projects: At some point, people come together to talk about a problem they want to solve, they come up with some seemingly great ideas and feel excited. But when it comes to implementing those ideas, confusion and frustration become the prevailing feelings. This happens especially quickly if the people who came up with the ideas are not the same as the ones who have to implement them, which is often the case.

To start the conversation, Gianne shared a story of a complex project that she has worked on. In this case, the people at the top of the organisation had decided that change was needed and came up with some ideas. These ideas were then handed down through multiple steps in the hierarchy, until they reached the people who actually had to implement them.

At that point, a lot of the "why" behind those ideas had been lost, therefore these were some of the reactions of the people who were supposed to implement them:

"THEY should fix it!", "No one ever tells me anything!", "I don't understand why this is necessary!", "I don't have time for this!", "This is not my problem!", "No one ever listens to me.", "I don't feel capable of doing this.". This caused a lot of resistance to the implementation of these ideas and meant that the people at the top had to work hard to push them through.

This story was very relatable to the others in the group, who had experienced similar things.

One person brought up the two loop model: the need for a clear sense of urgency and finding ways to hospice the old. You can read more about the two loops model in the Si Guide on Systems Gardening.

Other aspects that were brought up are the fear of uncertainty and status quo bias. We discussed that resistance tends to grow when change is being imposed, instead we need to design together what we are aspiring to and give people the autonomy to change something themselves.

Instead of introducing something as "the new way", we could also talk about how we can build upon the existing system. At the same time, we also talked about how sometimes a shakeup could be a good thing.

At the beginning of the project, we should become aware of the biases of the people involved as well as how it relates to the values and purpose of individuals.

One more reasons we touched upon why projects can get stuck in the implementation stage is due to the very specific expectations of people, who can believe that their specific niche is the most important one. Therefore it is important to help the group widen their individual perspectives at the beginning of the project.

Throughout this conversation, we also touched upon the topics of respect and arrogance. One person mentioned that people lower within the hierarchy of an organisation had literally been told: "You are not paid for thinking!" when they questioned a decision that had been made higher up. We discussed how this lack of respect is likely part of the reason for the shortage of staff in that field. When people do not feel listened to at this extreme level, they quickly reach the end of the "Resistance Line" and either revolt or walk away. You can read more about the resistance line here.

The group also brought up a couple of books that relate to this topic:

“Hospicing Modernity” by Vanessa Machado De Oliveira

"Managing Transitions“ by William & Susan Bridges

"Immunity to Change" by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey

This was a very rich topic and we are considering to continue the conversation in a longer workshop.

The next Campfire Conversation will take place in a couple of weeks. Join the Si The Hague hub if you would like to receive a notification when the next Campfire Conversation and the workshop have been scheduled.