Solving the puzzle of Change – Just find the picture on the box!

My friend, Jack Hardie, got me hooked on Jan van Haasteren jigsaws.? Drawn by the Dutch comic strip artist, they are close to impossible to complete. Hundreds of characters, acting out chaotic scenes like a modern-day disjointed but happy Brueghel-the-younger painting.? Fortunately, some characters crop up in every puzzle, the octopus, the troupe of boy scouts and the tax inspector… making the unintelligible feel familiar.

The insane challenge I set myself is never to look at the picture on the box. In that way I transform a painting-by-numbers change activity into a more ‘foggy’ one. That better fits my project Leadership Preference- SquarePegTM profile.? Everyone prefers leading a different type of change.? When we have to lead a type of change that is not our favourite, we don’t do a great job; Quest-Pioneer, Paint by Numbers-Adapter, Movie-Craftsman, Fog–Innovator.

As an Innovator, I relish the unclear so all I know when I start is that I have a 1000 or so pieces. How do they fit together? How should I organise them? In a big pile? Which one should I pick-up now??

You may face an analogous challenge but perhaps not by choice.? For many of us, over the years or through training, we’ve acquired hundreds of pieces; lead by example, critical paths, delegation, project planning, team engagement, programme assessment, stakeholder engagement, transformation embedding, role clarity, agile retrospectives change management, risk management, benefits delivery, work breakdown structures, decision making, the list goes on and on and on and fills doorstop sized Body of Knowledge books. ?

Recently, I’ve been told that we could train an Artificial intelligence as a ‘butler’ bringing you the appropriate tool as needed.? But if you know anything about Ai you will know that it has no memory, no ethics and routinely makes stuff up.?? Would you want the success of your project to be dependent on that?

Can’t we just outsource the problem of finding the right piece to Ai?

Unless you are amazingly lucky, chances are your change challenge will involve other people.? Other people, not you of course, are notoriously creative in finding ways to disrupt the smooth flow of change and resist it.? Stakeholders get to define success but can be forgetful and indecisive. I believe human ingenuity in making your life tough, still outstrips Ai’s ability to propose patterns.?

But, some skills, concepts and frameworks seem to crop up in every project; stakeholders, team leadership, planning coordination & risk removal, learning and review… Foggy projects focus first on Stakeholders, Paint by numbers on Planning, Quests on Leadership and Movies on Learning so we all know which pieces to pick first.

But what of the others?? Without the box picture, do you, like me, have to gingerly try out each piece to see if fits and experience the dismay and extra workload when it doesn’t?

I found the project puzzle box picture!

So, imagine my joy when I found the box picture. ?The image is a sort of map of an underground system.? Out in the ‘suburbs’, is the ‘Zone of No Hope’ with concentric zones towards the centre each increasing in the likelihood of success up to the ‘dead-cert’ centre.?

You can see it here!? https://QUBE.cc/HowTheyFit

There are eight lines to choose from – but it’s probably worth starting down the blue line – The Purpose and Change Type line.? Climb aboard at the Reason for Change Terminus.? Travel through the Change Type Identification, the Value and Benefits, the Scope Check where you ensure that the project activity is actually the solution to the identified challenge, Future Proofing where the project is shaped so it doesn’t create unintended bad consequences, to select the best Approach depending on the Type of Change you’re tackling.? Then move to the next line.? With a Foggy project as we agreed previously, you’d probably start with stakeholders.

The green line – the Stakeholder line: ?Starts at Stakeholder Identification passing through Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Risk, Hard-Success Criteria Setting, Prioritisation, Soft-Success Criteria Setting.? You can change at Setting and Agreeing Ground Rules for the white line - the Organisation line.? If you continue to Securing Budget, Decision and Risk Resolution and past Expectations Management you reach success!

The other lines are: the brown – the Learning and Review line that takes you from a Just-in-Time Healthcheck of your current professional capability to success, the red - The Planning and Risk line from Overall Risk via Catching up on Late or Overspent Projects to success. And the yellow - Circle of consolidation line.? The black - Leadership and Teams line begins with the Leader’s Preference Audit.

Yes, you guessed right. That’s how I know I’m best suited for Foggy projects.? Now it’s your turn to find out about yourself.? https://QUBE.cc/SquarePeg

Will you, like me, turn out to be an innovator?

The best thing about the map is it not only tells you where you are but what to do about it by suggesting the very best fit People Engagement Tool (PET)

The best thing about the map is it not only tells you where you are but what to do about it by suggesting the very best fit People Engagement Tool (PET).

And if you wand more on the map, you can listen to me explaining how I put it together at one of my Salon readings of the new edition of the book All Change! Register at https://QUBE.cc/Events/AllChange and pick up a discounted copy of the book.