Translating to the tactical level

Although the progress-loop can work great, each process at the tactical level will differ from organization to organization and will, therefore, need to be set up in more detail. Some teams like to work in a structured way, others want as much chaos and creativity around them as possible. Per team, thinkers, doers (creators), salespeople and improvers will also contribute to a positive output: a greater capacity for change for the entire organization.

Each main process of the progression-loop can, in any case, be divided into three chronological sub-processes. An employee or department always does something to prepare a process, carries it out (now) and then learns from the consequences of those actions (after). This sequence of activities should lead to continuous improvement. The more extensive variant of the (internal) progression loop looks like Figure 4.3.

As indicated earlier, the processes of 'invent', 'create', 'sell' and 'improve' can also be interpreted as 'explore', 'execute', 'share' and 'modify'. In this respect, you need to grab this freedom and use verbs that fit the dominant process of your organization. Whether this is writing a book, preparing a presentation, mapping out your services or describing a production process. How the progression loop at a tactical level could work for an organization is shown in table 4.2.

The elements of imagining, creating and selling table 4.2 can also be read as developing:

● ???? a vision: 'We foresee that this will happen based on the inspiration that we have gained about expected trends or analyses of our big data'.

● ???? the mission (purpose): 'That's why we're going to do this or make this.' (Or: 'That's why we're gonna resist this and stop it.')

● ???? (Sales) targets to make the mission measurable: 'We must achieve these sales numbers to achieve the desired growth, based on the business plan'.

If an organization provides good insight into its main and sub-processes and also collects manageable and continuous feedback, it can continuously gain insight into what is going in the right direction and what is not. Then what is going in the right direction can be continued, and what is not going in the right direction can be improved or terminated.

More detailed interpretations of each subprocess differ per organization, which we won’t cover here. If the progression loop for an organization is set up properly, ‘change processes/projects’ will eventually disappear, because change has become a constant (i.e. part of the organizational process). In that perspective it is better to not talk about change management, but about 'increasing the capacity for change' - or in short: improving.

Translating to the operational level

At the executive level, you can also 'improve' the process every week. Take a moment each week to think about as a team, or in a one-on-one situation, what can be done better and how. To keep your scope focused, in a month you could think about:

1. the staff: yourself and team members;
2. the properties: contextual factors, such as office, materials and resources to do your job;
3. the process: doing the real thing and working together;
4. the product: the perceivable result.

The GameStorm method is - again - an ideal tool for quickly coming up with improvement proposals together. You can play it weekly in one hour with two people. The main question for the GameStorm is then: 'What objective do you come up with to improve personnel, properties, processes or products?

For example, your goal could be: 'I want to improve [a choice of p1, p2, p3 or p4]’. As soon as this objective has been formulated, you will start thinking about why this is not possible at the moment (the challenges). Out of everything you can think of, you then choose the three most dominant things, i.e. that have the most impact on wanting, knowing, being able to or daring. Then you start thinking about how you - or someone else, but I like to keep it to myself - have maintained those obstacles so far. After about half an hour you turn it around: you change the negative words to positive statements. These are the nine change actions to achieve your goal in that week.

Finally, you can calculate the possible impact of these change actions, but for a weekly cycle, this can become a bit much.

At the end of the week you look at the progress you have made. Were these nine actions successful? Which ones weren’t? Why not? If an action is too big to carry out in a week, do it with a colleague or delegate. So the order for the hour is:

● ???? Formulate a weekly target focused on personnel, properties, process or product.

● ???? Define the most important obstacles: is there a lack of wanting, knowing, being able to or daring?

● ???? Why is that? Write down three actions per obstacle that stop you and three actions that get you started.

● ???? Stop immediately with the most pointless action and start with the nicest and simplest action. Plan your actions in your diary in order of weight or with a tension curve: simple, easy, tricky, difficult, very heavy, difficult, easy, simple. In the second example, the heaviest or most difficult task is on a Wednesday. I always do the nasty and heavy actions in the morning. Also, block for each activity an hour of preparation (before) and elaboration (after). Many people forget this, but every consultation moment and every action requires preparation and follow-up.

It is just as important to stop some tasks as it is to start with them. Many organisations are constantly developing new elements and tasks, without things disappearing. But to increase an organization's capacity for change, it is necessary to focus on the most important and impactful things. It is not a pursuit of perfection (100 percent good), but a pursuit of an optimal result within the given time and other restrictions. Then 80 percent of perfect can be an optimal state as well. The least constructive - or even destructive - actions must be replaced by actions that you expect to be more constructive. You have to dare to experiment, let go and learn.

Level up - Summary 4.1 The internal progression-loop

In summary, one could say that as a result of the increasing experience, inventing, making, selling and improving, these should always take place at a higher level. The progression-loop can be set up at any level: strategic (long term), tactical (quarterly and annual plans) and operational (weekly actions). Each process has a 'before', 'now' and 'after'. You will have to prepare work (before), carry it out (now) and learn from it (after) by measuring whether what you came up with beforehand has succeeded afterwards (check). The 'after phase' is one of the most important mechanisms of games if you interpret it as giving feedback on actions. Now, feedback from colleagues and friends is often meant to be friendly and non-committal, but feedback from customers and non-buyers is a prerequisite for a good reputation and continued growth of the organization. So you'd be crazy not to do anything with it. Let's, therefore, look at the external processes that influence the improvement capacity of organizations.

Practice the GameStorm yourself with your team, or - if you need guidance - give me a shout and I can train your employees to execute themselves. It's fun ánd functional, believe me. And over 1.000 professionals have done it before you, so don't be shy! ;-) #gamification of work

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