What is BTFA?

The acronym BTFA is relatively new, having been coined by David Bovis as part of his research into?the inhibitors of organisational transformation.

In my third book, Leading Lean by Living Lean, I’ve detailed out what is probably the most important part of becoming a Lean Leader, which is living and practising what you preach. To do this you must believe in what you’re doing, understand what it means and what you need to do, and then really do it every day.

In this regard I’ve been influenced by David's Believe-Think-Feel-Act (BTFA) model, which has helped the engineer in me, comfortable with the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model of Deming / Shewhart, to understand why logic and facts are very often not the principal players in the game of change and to explore a different way of dealing with change, that factors in both the eminently logical, and the less tangibly emotional.

Many readers will already be familiar with the Deming / Shewhart, or PDCA, cycle, which explains how change is a cycle of:

• Plan: Plan the change activity, understanding what the underlying issues are that need to be addressed and determining how to best address them.
• Do: The implementation of the change, whereby the effort is made to execute the plan as effectively as possible.
• Check: During and after the change has been implemented, the efficacy will be assessed to understand if the anticipated result was achieved.
• Act: Based upon the check, either adaptations will be made and / or standards put in place to establish the new practice.

Whilst this is very logical, and especially attractive to those of us who are engineers, scientists, accountants, or other professionals who tend to deal in 1+1 = 2 types of problem solving, what it doesn’t adequately demonstrate is how the humans in the change process react in reality, which ironically includes those of us who pride ourselves in the application of logic.

What the Bovis cycle helps to explain is that, as we run through the logical PDCA cycle, there is an emotional BTFA cycle also at play:

• Believe: As we go through the problem solving and planning of the change, there must be a belief created that it is the right thing to do. We sometimes refer to this as stakeholder management, forming a guiding coalition, or other approaches which accept that change requires the acceptance of the people involved.
• Think: Whilst the plan is being implemented, it is experienced and processed by the people involved. What do they think about the process of change? How does it affect them?
• Feel: As the people experience the outcome of the change, what it means to them and how it impacts their world will evoke an emotional reaction, they will feel the impact of the change.
• Act: Logic should drive the actions taken as an outcome of the success or failure of the change. However, in reality it is often driven emotionally and often will be contrary to what logic might suggest.

It explains why new ways of working, new theories or practices, which are strongly rooted in logic and fact, can take years, if not decades, to be fully accepted and adopted. It’s also worth mentioning at this stage that the BTFA cycle isn’t a sequential, or one-way, cycle. The brain, triggered by fear or other stimuli, can run either in the BTFA or AFTB direction.

Consider ideas such as the Earth being spherical (rather than flat), Heliocentrism rather than Geocentrism (the world revolving around the sun rather than the other way around), universal suffrage (the democratic vote for all), or the equality of all people under the law. All of these concepts have sound evidence and logic behind them, which was well known over many decades of unacceptance, denial and outright opposition by many in the establishments of the Aristocracy, Government, Industry, Media and Religion. In fact, a great number of lives have been lost over the centuries because what was logically right was not emotionally accepted due to vested interest or, simply, complete denial.

I’m certain that you will have your own experiences of this kind of inertia, where changes that seem clearly to be the right thing to do are either not implemented, inexplicably modified, or take an inordinate amount of time to adopt, and I hope that as you read Leading Lean by Living Lean you will see how you can transition to some new behaviours that will not only help you to live your life better but also to help others to do so too.

Interested to learn more? Click on the following links to read the introductions or buy one of my books:

• Leading Lean by Living Lean: Changing how you lead, not who you are
• The Simplicity of Lean: Defeating Complexity, Delivering Excellence
• Leading with Lean: An experience-based guide to Leading a Lean Transformation

Feel free to visit?my Website at:?LeadingwithLean?and?my other?LinkedIn posts?may be found?at this link.

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