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Actionable Insights

Getting the Best Out Of Experts

February 5, 2024
Actionable Insights, Antimatter principle, Article, Capability development, Collaboration, Experts
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Getting the Best Out Of Experts

While many organisations instinctively “push” niche expertise onto various teams, whether relevant or not, and whether needed or not, a pull model where teams can tap into specialist support when truly needed is more effective. By enabling on-demand access to experts – both from inside and outside the company – organisations can empower teams to pull specialised knowledge to solve pressing problems as they arise. And avoid the all-too-common scenario where teams don’t beging to understand the experts and advice being foisted upon them.

Maximise Visibility of Specialists

Organisations might choose to maintain an intranet portal that profiles in-house and out-of-house experts across domains like user research, UX, supply chain analytics, product architecture, analysis, design, coding, quality, and emerging tech. Enable teams to easily identify and connect with relevant expertise.

Equip Access Channels

Setup dedicated collaboration tools like Slack channels, internal discussion boards, and email lists connecting experts to front line teams. Enable the just-in-time asking of questions, without gatekeepers or bottlenecks, for when specific challenges and needs emerge.

Identify External Partners

Research specialised firms or freelance consultants that can provide on-demand expertise for when in-house skills gaps exist in key areas. Develop preferred provider networks and put in place in advance the necessary contracts, terms, budgets, etc. for making this provision as frictionless as possible.

Incentivise Timely Support

Monitor internal/external experts via responsiveness and accountability metrics. Ensure incentives exist for them to provide timely and effective support.

Summary

This pull-based integration allows expertise to target real needs rather than being arbitrarily imposed from the top-down. Support happens in the flow of work not in a vacuum. The organisation facilitates access, teams pull when they really need it. This on-demand model maximises the application of niche expertise effectively, at the exact point and time of need.

Agile Is The New Opiate Of The Masses

February 4, 2024
Actionable Insights, Agile, Agility at Scale, Antimatter principle, Article
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Agile Is The New Opiate Of The Masses

Over 160 years ago, Karl Marx famously declared religion to be the “opiate of the masses.” He believed faith’s promise of future redemption pacified oppressed workers to accept current suffering. Today, it is software methodology, not theology, dulling pain amidst dysfunction. Agile has become the new opiate of the masses.

New Religion

Like a new religion, Agile enchants followers with visions of empowerment, progress, and salvation. Its rituals claim to surface hidden dysfunction while promising to heal broken processes. Yet its addiction may be the deepest dysfunction of all.

New Blinders

Behind the rhetoric of transparency and adaptation lies a new set of blinders. Insisting myopically on timeboxed cycles cements local efficiencies while inhibiting long-term and system-wide change. Making work visible addresses symptoms not root causes. Embracing uncertainty masks risk and reactive thinking.

Velocity Displaces Validity

Like any local optimum, Agile optimisation constraints flexibility – “You can only make changes within the software development silo”.

Guided by output metrics not outcome objectives, velocity displaces validity and busyness disguises futility. By valorising action over purpose, standups and retros distract from the void at Agile’s core: why and to what end?

Dogmatic

The deepest irony is that a method premised on adaptation insists dogmatically upon iteration models, work crystallisation, and prescribed mindsets. In promising liberation, it imposes yet another rigid straighjacket. No prescribed framework fully grasps software’s complexities.

Summary

Might we better choose to dispense with the trappings, and orient to attending to needs, rather than process perfection? Might we choose to see method as a compass, not a map? Iterative delivery and feedback cycles can certainly guide teams. But when blindly systematised and followed slavishly, Agile risks making the “perfect” the enemy of the good enough. Behind grand sounding transformation lies mere pacification and opioid stupour. Before seeking reform through new methods, might we first get clear on folks’ needs?

Individual Mindsets vs. Collective Mindsets

February 2, 2024
Actionable Insights, Article, Capability development, Culture change, Innovation, Organisational effectiveness, Organisational Therapy, Paradigm shifts, Quintessence, Systems thinking
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Individual Mindsets vs. Collective Mindsets

We often talk about the need for individuals to change their mindsets – their assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes – in order to create positive change. But as human beings, we don’t exist in isolation. As the saying goes, we are social animals, shaped by the groups and cultures we are part of. So perhaps we might choose rather to shift more of our focus to addressing collective mindsets rather than just individual ones.

Schein On

Organisational psychologist and author Edgar Schein argues that culture stems from a group’s shared basic assumptions and beliefs. These collective ways of thinking and being manifest in organisational policies, processes and behaviors. If the culture has dysfunctional aspects, it perpetuates dysfunction. Merely helping individials adopt more productive mindsets without addressing the surrounding culture is an uphill battle.

For Example

Take a common example – trying to promote more innovative thinking in a risk-averse bureaucratic workplace. Telling individuals to “be more innovative” often backfires. When people attempt new ways of doing things, they get pushback for not following protocols. and Interesting ideas get shut down quickly by naysayers. There are no systems or incentives to support innovation. So you end up with frustrated employees, not actual innovation.

Organisational Psychotherapy To The Rescue

In contrast, #OrganisationalPsychotherapy seeks to invite folks into uncovering and transforming collective assumptions and beliefs – the mental models that shape systems and culture. By facilitating more awareness of existing culture and defining desired culture, interventions get better traction. Collective mindsets shift to be more supportive of stated goals, like innovation, making it easier for individuals to adopt those productive mindsets as well.

Summary

The key insight is that individual mindsets are downstream of collective mindsets. Without addressing dysfunctional aspects of culture and systems, individual change efforts face resistence from the surrounding ecosystem. This highlights the need to focus on group mindset factors first and foremost. Of course, individuals still have agency in driving any kind of change. But we’d do well to spend more time examining and evolving the shared beliefs and assumptions on which any organisation is built. For cultural transformation, that’s likely the most high-leverage point of intervention.

Postscript – Donalla Meadows’ Twelve Points of Leverage

In her influential article “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System,” systems thinker Donella Meadows articulated 12 places within complex systems where a small shift can lead to fundamental changes in the system as a whole. Her framework offers guidance on how to approach system-level transformation, whether in organizations, societies, or beyond.

Meadows proposes 12 leverage points ranked in order of effectiveness, with the most high-leverage interventions at the top. The higher the leverage point, the easier it is to make major improvements to the system with minimal effort. Her list starts with more superficial leverage points around details like subsidies and incentives, then moves deeper into the fundamental goals, paradigms, and transcending purpose that underpin why a system exists in the first place.

The most powerful leverage points require a deeper, more courageous transformation. But they allow us to redefine the very reason a given system exists, enabling revolutionary redesign rather than incremental improvements. Meadows urges change agents to have the wisdom and patience to address the deeper paradigms, values, and purpose driving systemic behavior. As she concludes, “People who have managed to intervene in systems at the level of paradigm have hit a leverage point that totally transforms systems.”

In examining Meadows’ hierarchy of leverage points, we gain an appreciation for the depth of change required for true systems transformation. It inspires a more radical reimagining of what’s possible. The framework continues to provide guidance to sustainability leaders and organizational change agents seeking to effect large-scale improvements in business, government, technology, education and beyond. In this critical era facing many complex, planetary-scale challenges, Meadows’ words ring truer than ever as we work to create fundamental shifts towards more just, resilient and life-affirming systems.

The Appeal of SAFe

January 31, 2024
ABC, Actionable Insights, Agile, Agility at Scale, Article
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The Appeal of SAFe

SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) has become one of the most widespread scaling agile frameworks adopted by large companies and organisations. Despite numerous criticisms and many documented failures, its appeal continues to grow, with enterprises willing to invest massive sums in training and disruption to implement SAFe. This seems surprising given the minimal tangible benefits realised by most SAFe adherents.

So why does SAFe remain so appealing to large, complex bureaucracies? In a word: comfort. While marketed as a way to enable agility and leanness, SAFe appeals precisely because it does not challenge the status quo nor the entrenched beliefs held in many slow-moving, hierarchical organisations.

Criticisms of SAFe

To understand this dynamic, let’s first review common critiques levelled at SAFe:

  • Overly complex and prescriptive – SAFe has endless prescribed roles, processes, artefacts etc. This bureaucratic overhead hinders agility.
  • Hard to tailor – The intricate nature of SAFe makes customisation impractical. Organisations must reshape themselves to fit the framework.
  • Promotes “waterfall” thinking – The emphasis on upfront planning and budgets feeds an outdated sequential mindset rather than adaptiveness.
  • Reduces team autonomy – The multitude of coordination points, cadences and preset workflows leave little room for teams to self-organise.
  • Lots of overhead – The multi-layered structure requires innumerable meetings, planning sessions and documentation with little obvious value.
  • Focused on software – Challenging to integrate with hardware-based development.
  • Failure to change mindsets – By not focusing enough on culture and psychology, old ways of thinking persist.
  • Poor results for small teams – The coordination needs overwhelm lighter-weight groups.

And the big one:

  • Fails to deliver promised benefits – Despite claims around quality, speed, alignment etc., SAFe often delivers no measurable improvements.

Why So Appealing Then?

On the surface, we might be forgiven for thinking that these weaknesses would temper interest in what looks like an over-engineered, bureaucratic and exploitative approach. Yet SAFe resonates precisely because it neatly aligns with the innate orientation of lumbering enterprises.

Importantly, the traditional command-and-control assumptions underpinning these organisations are fundamentally incompatible with the collaborative dynamism essential for collaborative knowledge work (CKW) like software development. Still, decision-makers inevitably cling to what they know.

Organisational psychotherapy techniques can help transition teams to more adaptive behaviours, but this level of innovation is unknown to most executives.

Social Psychology

Instead, SAFe taps into the underlying psychology of social systems both enamoured by and resistant to change simultaneously. It allows decision-makers to signal adherence to “agile” thinking for PR purposes while actually fortifying traditional beliefs around command-and-control. It fosters the myth that adding scaffolding and rituals atop dysfunctional structures and ineffective ways of working can enable high-performance.

By wrapping waterfall-era assumptions in trendy Agile terminology yet never challenging obsolete ideas, SAFe holds tremendous appeal as it lets organisations feel as though they are evolving without actual introspection or change. For entrenched companies desperate for innovation yet terrified of losing control or certainty, SAFe’s contradictory promise proves irresistible. The disappointments come later. When admission thereto have become way to embarrasing to air.

ABC

Approaches like Agile for Big Companies (ABC – open sourced and in the public domain) aim to bridge this gap by enabling greater agility without upending incumbent structures and assumptions. Yet true transformation requires a willingness to surface and reflect upon long-held organisational axioms. For those unable or unwilling to fundamentally remake themselves, SAFe offers a tempting façade of progress.

The Era of Collaborative Knowledge Work

January 30, 2024
Actionable Insights, Antimatter principle, Article, Business, Collaboration, Culture change, Fellowship, Improvement, Management, Organisational effectiveness, Quintessence
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The Era of Collaborative Knowledge Work

Work dynamics have been evolving rapidly in recent decades. Back in 1959, management expert Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge work” – jobs focused more on expertise application versus manual tasks. Today, many observe the economy shifting from industrial production to innovation through agile collaboration.

Fundamentally Different

The nature of work has fundamentally changed. We have shifted from an industrial economy largely based on manual labour to a knowledge economy increasingly based on intellectual collaboration. This transition invites a new way of looking at work, focused on both recognising and facilitating collaborative knowledge work (CKW).

In this model, cross-disciplinary teams come together to brainstorm and refine breakthroughs iteratively. Silos give way to fluid circles of contribution. Motivation stems intrinsically from the shared mission, not extrinsic rewards. Experimenting with unconventional ideas bears lower risk when paired with constructive peer feedback.

But embracing the CKW paradigm depends on adopting a distinctly different approach to work. How can groups establish norms where everyone feels comfortable contributing without fear of judgement or rejection?

Autonomy, Mastery and Shared Purpose

Part of the solution links back to aligning clearly around higher purpose. When autonomy coexists with shared accountability, inspiration untaps. Structuring reciprocal mentorship allows members to develop emotionally and motivationally while exchanging honest developmental guidance.

This differs drastically from the hierarchical command-and-control management style of the past century that was well-suited for manual labour but proves limiting for knowledge work. Managers can no longer simply dictate tasks and expect compliance. For collaborative efforts to thrive, managers must nurture a culture that empowers teams with autonomy while providing direction, support, and facilitation.

What About Management?

Those in the know recognise the incompatibility of CKW and the traditonal management paradigm. Yet, organistions intent on making the best of CKW are faced with transitioning away from the concept of management towards e.g. sefl-managing teams and fellowship. In essence, we’re talking about culture change. Here’s some guidance in that regard:

Guidance for Old-Guard Managers

For managers used to traditional modes of top-down management, adopting a collaborative approach invites a paradigm shift. Here are key ways to enable more participatory and productive knowledge work:

  • Provide transparent context and clarity around broader goals while giving teams discretion in determining how goals are achieved.
  • Cultivate constructive exchanges where all team members feel comfortable contributing ideas without fear of judgement.
  • Ask probing questions, identify gaps, and point to resources, not dictate solutions.
  • Focus on facilitating the collaborative process through conflict resolution, dialogue around communication norms, and adaptive coordination.
  • Champion new ideas that arise from the team and rally support across the organisation.
  • Evaluate performance based on the effectiveness of collaborative processes and quality of outputs.

Advice for New Managers

For those assuming their first management role, the collaborative approach may feel more intuitive. Still, translating intent into impact invites concerted learning. Here are some areas for new managers to consider:

  • Foster emotional intelligence to nurture relationships, understand different working styles and motivations, and resolve interpersonal friction.
  • Hone facilitative teambuilding techniques like liberating structures, engagement through powerful questions, and conversation mapping.
  • Promote inclusion by valuing diverse voices, ensuring equal opportunity for contribution, and mitigating dominant perspectives.
  • Develop fluency in digital collaboration tools and appropriate applications for remote and hybrid work settings.
  • Elevate and practice orchestrating for collaborative work.
  • Pay attendtion to the quality of interpersonal relationships and the overall social dynamic.
  • Attend to folks’ needs.

The CKW paradigm brings substantial promise and possibility but requires managers themselves to transform. By embracing this challenge, leaders can unlock unprecedented potential from today’s knowledge workers.

The future lies in fully unleashing human potential by connecting talent to shared missions. But practical change management matters. How might we reinvent team rituals and processes to make this vision an everyday reality? The answers will come collaboratively, through commitment to the journey of learning together.

Step Back to Step Forward: The Importance of Reflecting on How We Spend Our Time

January 24, 2024
Actionable Insights, Article, Busyness
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Step Back to Step Forward: The Importance of Reflecting on How We Spend Our Time

Day in and day out, we run feverishly like hamsters on a wheel – busy, busy, busy without getting anywhere meaningful. We churn through email inboxes overflowing with messages that pull our attention in countless directions. We rush between back-to-back meetings, never catching our breath long enough to seriously question if all this busyness is necessary or beneficial. We plow through long to-do lists, tickets and kanbans crammed with obligations as if crossing off more items will somehow lead to happiness or fulfillment.

The truth is, few of us step back to thoughtfully examine whether our daily activities actually serve our longer-term aspirations or values. We fail to evaluate whether we even want all the things we exhaust ourselves chasing. We assume being crazy busy means we’re living life to the fullest, while any space to relax or reflect feels almost lazy.

What If?

But what if we’re getting it all wrong?

What if pausing to seriously assess how you spend your precious time and mental energy is the wisest and most essential habit for building a life you love? One aligned with your true priorities rather than society’s flawed assumptions?

Regularly taking this pause offers three key advantages:

  1. It tunes you into your inner wisdom. Slowing down to question how you occupy each day invites clarity about what matters most. What activities fuel you with joy and meaning? Which drain you? Tapping into this awareness guides better decisions.
  2. It reveals gaps between your values and actions. Do you value family, but work too much to connect? Do you desire creativity, but don’t nurture it? Examining misalignments sparks ideas for change.
  3. It uncovers possibilities previously unseen. When we step off the hamster wheel, we open our eyes to new horizons by asking, “How else could I spend my time?” New passionate pursuits often reveal themselves.

Curating a Life

This self-reflection isn’t about harsh self-judgment – that only fuels toxic perfectionism. It’s about curating a life that honours your unique needs and dreams. One that feels purposeful because how you spend each hour aligns with who you are at the core.

So in our culture drunk on busyness and speed, you might choose to be a positive disruptor. Challenge those assumptions that drive your days – assumptions that no longer serve you or society. Commit with courage to periodic reflection that guides your path to more meaningful horizons. Simply put, step off the hamster wheel to thoughtfully decide where you truly wish to go.

The key is starting. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and ask yourself: “If how I’m spending my time isn’t serving me, how do I want it to be different moving forward?” Listen deeply. The answers that surface may surprise you.

The Fourth Quinlan Rule

January 24, 2024
Actionable Insights, Antimatter principle, Article, Attendants, Culture change
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The Fourth Quinlan Rule

The Bobiverse sci-fi novels (book 4 – Heaven’s River) introduce an alien race known as the Quinlans. The Quinlans teach their young three moral principles using metal analogies: the Iron Rule, the Silver Rule, and the Gold Rule.

  • Iron Rule: If you have more power than someone, you can treat them how you like. (Might makes right.)
  • Silver Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (The so-called Golden Rule of human ethics – treat others how you want to be treated.)
  • Golden Rule: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. (Treat people how they want to be treated, not just how you want to be treated – the platinum rule in human ethics).

So in order from basic/selfish to ethical/selfless:

  • Iron – Exercise power however you wish.
  • Silver – Treat others how you want to be treated.
  • Gold – Treat others how they want to be treated.

I strikes me that the Quinlans, and Theresa in particular, might have been interested in a fourth rule: the Antimatter Rule:

“Attend to folks’ needs.”

Like antimatter, the most explosive substance in the universe, this principle channels huge motivational power by focusing attention on understanding people’s needs.

Attending to Needs

By “folks,” the principle refers to all stakeholders affected – team members, users, customers, and more. And by “needs,” it addresses the spectrum of human requirements and motivations.

Rather than make assumptions, the Antimatter Principle asks us to clearly understand what really drives those we work with before taking action.

Honoring Needs Unlocks Passion

Attending to human needs taps into the fuel that ignites passionate human endeavor – our universal desire to feel heard, seen, valued. This empathy and understanding can transform collaborations.

In just four words, the Antimatter Principle captures a profoundly human-centric ethos. Understanding what inspires people provides a key to unlocking cooperation, innovation, and positive change.

What do you think about this principle? Could attending to folks’ needs power more constructive collaboration in your experiences?

US and THEM

January 23, 2024
Actionable Insights, Article, Collaboration, Community, Conversations, Culture change, Organisational effectiveness, Organisational Therapy, Quintessence
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US and THEM

In any human organisation, natural subgroups emerge from shared interests, backgrounds and experiences. While we might expect some clustering, problems arise when – as is common in tech organisations – an “us vs them” mentality takes hold between ingroups and outgroups.

Some common divides in tech companies include:

Ingroups

  • Engineers
  • Product Managers
  • Executives
  • Long-Serving Employees

Outgroups

  • Non-Technical Roles
  • Contractors/Consultants
  • Recent Hires
  • Remote Employees

Impacts

Divides often lead to biased decisions, limited information sharing, poor collaboration, feelings of disrespect, high turnover, groupthink and tokenism. Organisations fragmented by subgroups usually suffer as a result.

We’re All In This Together?

Rather than expecting executives and HR to fix these issues, employees at all levels have significant power to act.

Actions for Individual Contributors

  • Look into the basic phenomenon of ingroups and outgroups
  • Build relationships beyond your immediate team
  • Model inclusive language and behaviour
  • Call out subtle exclusion when you see it
  • Learn more about internal groups you don’t interact with often

Tactics for Teams

  • Set expectations for mutual understanding between groups (charters can help)
  • Invite rotation of cross-functional team staffing
  • Discuss observations about silo behaviour in retrospectives
  • Provide onboarding mentorships to new hires across the company
  • Avoid protecting the team (instead, seek mutual dialogues and benefits)

Folks who own the way the work works also play a crucial role too by implementing structural changes to connectivity. But culture shifts come largely from how rank-and-file employees relate, day-to-day. Each person can choose to reflect upon their language, decisions and behaviours that might be isolating colleagues and subgroups, and solidifying ingroup and outgroup divisions.

The end goal is a culture where people bring their whole, authentic selves to work (often risky), uniqueness stands out more than fitting in, and outsiders get welcomed rather than excluded.

What tactics have you found most effective for strengthening connections between workgroups? What benefits have you seen? Let’s exchange ideas in the comments!

The Assumptions Underpinning Business Beliefs

January 12, 2024
Actionable Insights, Article, Culture change, Improvement, Organisational effectiveness, Organisational Therapy, Quintessence
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The Assumptions Underpinning Business Beliefs

“Have you ever asked yourself, what are the deepest principles upon which my management beliefs are based? Probably not. Few executives, in my experience, have given much thought to the foundational principles that underlie their views on how to organise and manage. In that sense, they are as unaware of their managerial DNA as they are of their biological DNA.”

~ Prof Gary Hamel

Professor Gary Hamel’s insight points to a common blind spot – the assumptions upon which we build our businesses rarely get examined. We take our beliefs for granted rather than questioning where they came from or evaluating their current relevance. Over time, unquestioned principles shape our strategic decisions, workplace culture and collective potential – and thus effectiveness – without our awareness.

Organisational psychotherapy offers one route to excavating the hidden shared assumptions that become ingrained in a company’s DNA. Through techniques like group reflection and dialogue sessions, teams can gradually bring unspoken belief systems to the surface. Often these are “stories we live by” – the narrative frames determining priorities, norms, success measures and more. Shining light allows us to reconsider if these beliefs still serve the organisation or if they hinder.

Just as individual leaders have inner beliefs steering their choices, so too do groups and organisations. The shared assumptions get passed down over years through habits, policies, legends and corporate mantras. They solidify into the “way things are done around here” until nobody bothers asking why anymore (if they ever did). And yet today’s business realities may require questioning everything we take for granted about how to operate, adapt and succeed.

I invite leaders to view organisational psychotherapy as an opportunity to unearth the stories we live by. Let’s open up today’s prevailing assumptions to inspection in the cold light of day. Do they still nourish the collective potential or constrain it? This work of examining our beliefs benefits from neutral, experienced facilitation rather than internal politics. Thereby we can evolve the organisational DNA to better thrive in tomorrow’s complex business ecosystems.

The principles we build our organisations upon end up building our organisational lives. What beliefs inform your company’s inner DNA right now? And are you willing to question their ongoing relevance with courage?

Doing Things Differently

January 11, 2024
Actionable Insights, Article, Quintessence
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Doing Things Differently

We’ve all heard the saying “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always had.” Yet, breaking out of our habits and routines can be challenging. The 16th-century Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli recognised this tendency, writing in his famous work The Prince:

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

Machiavelli’s point was that implementing major change inevitably faces resistance, precisely because people are so accustomed to the status quo. But he also acknowledged that introducing “a new order of things” can bring great rewards if done skilfully.

So why do we resist change even when we’re unhappy with how things are? A lot of it comes down to cognitive biases. Losses loom larger than gains in our minds due to Loss Aversion. The Endowment Effect also attaches us more to what we already have. And the Backfire Effect makes us double down on our existing assumptions and beliefs when they’re challenged. Overcoming these subconscious biases takes self-awareness and effort.

When trying to effect change, it can be useful to start small. Big overnight changes, even if needed, often fail because they are too disruptive. You’re more likely to make progress through incremental changes that build positive momentum over time.

It also helps to focus on progress rather than perfection. The goal isn’t necessarily finding the ultimate solution immediately but rather taking steps in the right direction. Pursuing iterative improvements beats getting stuck waiting for the perfect plan. In Quintessence I write in more detail about this.

Additional keys to making change work include questioning (surfacing and reflecting upon) assumptions, inviting outside perspective, running experiments, learning from failures, and communicating transparently. With the quintessential mindset and approach, doing things differently can open up new vistas of possibility. Though the path may not be easy, as Machiavelli noted, the rewards make it worthwhile.

Rather than rigidly adhere to the status quo, have the courage to surface assumptions, reflect on them, adapt and grow. As the saying goes: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always have what you’ve always had. But if you do what you’ve never done, you’ll have what you’ve never had.”

Summarised: The Profound Connection Between the Technology Business and Organisational Psychotherapy

January 9, 2024
Actionable Insights, Article, Organisational effectiveness, Organisational Therapy, Summary
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Summarised: The Profound Connection Between the Technology Business and Organisational Psychotherapy

This is a brief summary of the post “The Profound Connection Between the Technology Business and Organisational Psychotherapy“. Do let me know if seeing more summaries of my posts would be helpful to you. And if so, which ones?

Summary

The post argues that a focus on human needs and psychotherapy is critical for optimising workplaces, more so than advanced technologies.

New technology cannot resolve underlying human challenges like poor leadership, bias, and mental health struggles. In fact, technology without care for people can worsen these issues.

Organisations benefit from frameworks like organisational psychotherapy to examine and improve human social patterns, diversity, communication norms and other people-centered factors.

Beneficial application of technology supports, rather than diminishes, human potential. Companies migh choose to ensure a psychologically healthy culture and focus on uplifting the human spirit before technological ambitions.

Ultimately, the post calls for centering the human element over technology innovations. It contends that understanding people unlocks true organisational excellence, not technology by itself.

AI: The Real Leverage

December 6, 2023
Actionable Insights, AI, Article, Memeology, Organisational Therapy, Paradigm shifts, Quintessence
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AI: The Real Leverage

What’s the True Value of AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as a beacon of progress in our technological landscape. It’s often lauded for its potential to enhance efficiency in various fields, from healthcare to finance. However, focusing solely on its ability to streamline existing practices might lead us to overlook its true potential. The real leverage of AI isn’t just about doing things better; it’s about fundamentally rethinking what we do and why we do it.

Is Efficiency Enough?

AI’s role in improving efficiency is undeniable. By automating tasks, analysing data at unprecedented speeds, and predicting outcomes, AI offers marginal gains in efficiency. But, is this all that AI has to offer? Peter Drucker, a renowned management consultant, once said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” This profound statement underscores a critical point: Efficiency in itself isn’t the end goal. It’s about being efficient in tasks that truly matter. Drucker called this effectiveness.

How Does AI Shift Our Assumptions?

The transformative power of AI lies in its ability to challenge and change our individual and collective assumptions and beliefs. It can, if uses appropriately, push us to question the status quo, encouraging us to reimagine our approaches and strategies. Instead of simply automating what we’ve always done, AI offers a lens to view problems and solutions from a new perspective. It invites us to think differently about our objectives, our processes, our practices, and the impact of our actions.

Can AI Reshape Collective Beliefs?

One of the most profound impacts of AI is on our collective assumptions and beliefs, and from there to both culture and practices. In organisations and societies, shared assumptions often dictate the way things are done. AI, with its data-driven insights and predictive capabilities, empowers us to surface, reflect upon, and ultimately challenge these collective beliefs. It can enable a culture of questioning and innovation, paving the way for more significant, systemic changes.

What’s the Bigger Picture?

The bigger picture is not just about AI-driven efficiency; it’s about AI-enabled transformation. By leveraging AI, we can redefine our goals, reshape our strategies, and rethink our impact on the world. This transformative approach goes beyond mere efficiency – it’s about making sure we’re effective – efficient in the things that truly add value and meaning to our lives and societies.

In conclusion, while AI’s ability to enhance efficiency is a thing, its real leverage lies in its potential to help us change our assumptions and beliefs. By embracing AI not just as a tool for doing things better but as a catalyst for doing better things, we open ourselves to a world of untapped possibilities and meaningful progress.

Prompts FTW

What questions are you asking your AI to help with surfacing and reflecting on YOUR personal and shared (organisational) assumptions and beliefs? Would you be willing to share these questions here?

Here’s a starter you might like to put to an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT:

“What questions can we ask ourselves to uncover the implicit assumptions and beliefs driving our organisational behaviour?”

Let me know if you need any help with this. I’m always happy to help. Both with prompts (as a long-standing prompt engineer) and with surfacing and reflecting on shared assumptions and beliefs (as an even longer-standing organisational psychotherapist).

Partisanship

November 1, 2023
Actionable Insights, Agile, Antimatter principle, Article, Attendants, Business, Culture change, Lamentation, Needs, Organisational effectiveness, Organisational Therapy
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Partisanship

Does Taking Sides Help?

Supporting Agile is like supporting Hamas, or Israel, or the Palestinians, or Ukraine, or Russia, or the USA, or China, or…

This opening might shock you, but it’s an intentional jolt to invite reflection on how we often automatically pick sides. I’ve spent years criticising Agile, but recent world events have helped my see the folly of this. In the Middle East and elsewhere, any sane person would support PEACE. (Of course, sanity seems in direly short supply, presently). Similarly we might choose to aim for better meeting folks’ NEEDS in organisational practices. Instead of partisan stances, why not focus on what really matters: achieving results that speak to the needs of everyone involved?

Why Do We Rush to Choose Sides?

Choosing a side can feel satisfying. It simplifies complex issues and gives us a team to root for. However, partisanship often blinds us to the nuances that exist in any conflict or approach. Whether it’s in international relations or ways of working, like Agile, blind allegiance and partisanship never results in beneficial outcomes.

What’s the Cost of Partisanship?

The cost is steep. Partisan views stifle creativity and close us off from alternative solutions. We become invested in the success of our chosen side or approach, disregarding other approaches that offer better results. Specifically, pro-agile or anti-agile now seems to me to be highly partisan, and a similar folly. I propose we get off the taking sides bandwagon and move towards attending to folks’ fundamental needs.

What Outcomes Do Folks Need?

Instead of wallowing in partisan mire, let’s focus on folks’ needs. These can vary, but generally include:

  • Products and services that best* meet folks’ needs.
  • A workplace environment, ways of working, and organisational culture that best* meet folks’ needs.
  • [Further suggestions invited]

Each approach, including Agile, has its merits and drawbacks when it comes to these outcomes. By taking a needs-based stance, we can adopt a blend of approaches tailored to specific needs, rather than attempting to shoehorn everything into a one-size-fits-all approach.

How Do We Move Forward?

To move away from partisanship, we might choose to:

  1. Identify whose needs matter, and what those needs might be.
  2. Surface and reflect on shared assumptions and beliefs.
  3. Acknowledge our biases.
  4. Educate ourselves on different approaches.
  5. Align on desired outcomes.

This isn’t just applicable to Agile; it’s a principle we can apply universally. Whether it’s picking a side in a conflict or choosing principles and practices for organisational improvement, we might choose to free ourselves from the limitations of partisanship.

Final Thoughts

Partisanship is a tempting trap, offering the illusion of simplicity in a complex world. But it’s a trap that often leads us away from the outcomes folks need. By acknowledging this, we can pave a more effective, less divisive path forward, whether we’re discussing international relations, social change, or the best* approaches for organisational success.

*Here, may I suggest that “best” means “meets all the needs of all the folks that matter”.

Why Does Telling Fail?

October 10, 2023
Actionable Insights, Antimatter principle, Article, Business, Culture change, Empathy, Listening
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Why Does Telling Fail?

What’s Wrong with Directives?

We often think that conveying information directly is the most effective way to communicate. However, psychology tells us it’s not that straightforward. When we instruct someone, we unknowingly activate psychological mechanisms that can, in fact, make the message less impactful or even counterproductive.

Why Do People Resist?

Human beings have a strong psychological need for autonomy. When we’re told what to do, we may perceive their freedom as being threatened, leading to an automatic response of resistance. This phenomenon is known as psychological reactance. Instead of facilitating change or fostering understanding, the act of telling can often make us dig in our heels.

Does Age Matter?

Contrary to popular belief, reactance isn’t limited to rebellious teenagers. Adults are equally prone to resist when they feel that their autonomy is being compromised. In the workplace, for example, managers who rely solely on directives find their teams less engaged and less productive.

Can Telling Be Ineffective?

Not only can telling lead to resistance, but it can also be a flawed method for conveying complex ideas or nuanced perspectives. Simplifying intricate issues into directives often results in misunderstanding, as it strips the topic of its necessary context.

What Happens to Learning?

When someone is told what to do or think, they’re less likely to engage in deep cognitive processes necessary for true understanding. The lack of critical thought and internalisation means that any change is likely to be superficial and temporary.

What Are the Alternatives?

Clearly, the traditional methods of telling or instructing have their limitations. So, what approaches can we employ instead?

Is Active Engagement the Key?

Encouraging people to participate in discussions allows them to feel a sense of ownership over their decisions. Active engagement not only satisfies the need for autonomy but also fosters a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. Caution: How often have we been encouraged to participate in a discussion only to find it mere “engagement theatre”?

How About Empathy?

Understanding the emotional states and perspectives of others can facilitate more effective communication. Empathic approaches may include asking questions to explore someone’s needa and views or using reflective empathic listening to show that you understand their point of view.

A New Way Forward

Telling doesn’t work as effectively as we’d like because it often triggers psychological resistance and fails to convey necessary context. To communicate more effectively, consider using methods that promote active engagement and empathy. These alternative approaches respect the psychological needs of the individual and are likely to lead to more meaningful understanding and change.

Stubborn Managers: Why Unexamined Experience Is Wasted

October 6, 2023
Actionable Insights, Article, Business, Culture change, Learning, Management, Memeology, Organisational effectiveness, Organisational Therapy, Quintessence, Reflections
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Stubborn Managers: Why Unexamined Experience Is Wasted

Are Senior Managers Learning?

It’s not a revelation to say that senior managers have extensive experience and a wealth of evidence at their disposal. But what’s worrying is when this reservoir remains untapped for genuine behavioural change. The failure to reflect on and integrate experiences into action is one of the major pitfalls in today’s business landscape.

What’s the Point of Experience?

Experience isn’t merely a notch on a belt or a line on a CV. It’s a treasure trove of lessons waiting to be dissected, understood and applied. Senior managers often claim years of experience as a merit badge. Yet, many fail to critically assess what those years have taught them and how they’ve adapted. Experience without reflection is like a book left unread on a shelf.

Where Does Evidence Fit In?

Evidence comes from data, case studies, peer reviews, and more. It’s the backbone for any well-informed decision. Senior managers usually have the privilege of having a team to gather and present evidence to them. However, merely acknowledging this evidence isn’t enough. One needs to understand its implications, question its limitations, and act upon its suggestions. Ignoring to do so results in a squandered opportunity for improvement and growth.

Why Don’t Behaviours Change?

Change is uncomfortable; that’s no secret. However, the discomfort of change is often less detrimental than the comfort of stagnation. Senior managers may feel that their years in the industry justify their assumptions and beliefs, thus rendering them unchangeable. This rigidity not only stifles their own growth but also sets a harmful example for the entire organisation.

How to Make Reflection Effective?

  1. Schedule It: Reflective practice shouldn’t be sporadic or whimsical. Set a specific time each week or month to examine experiences and what needs to change.
  2. Involve Others: A different perspective can be invaluable. Peer reviews, 360-degree feedback, or even just a chat with a team member can provide insights that you might not have considered. Organisational therapists are skilled in this role.
  3. Action Plan: Turn reflections into concrete steps. Create an action plan that includes timelines and milestones to ensure that you’re not just thinking about change but actually implementing it.

What’s the Bottom Line?

In an age where being adaptive is more important than ever, failing to reflect on and integrate experience and evidence into changed behaviours is not just a personal failing. It’s an organisational risk. Senior managers, it’s time to tap into your wealth of experience and evidence, reflect on them and personally adopt the necessary changes. Your team, your stakeholders, and your future self will thank you.

Actionable Insights

September 29, 2023
Actionable Insights, Article, Business, Culture change
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Actionable Insights

This blog, since its inception (2009), has been all about actionable insights. This post explains the why of it.

Why Actionable Insights?

The term “actionable insights” often surfaces as a beacon of utility. For readers, actionable insights offer more than just information; they serve as a roadmap for effecting meaningful change. But why focus an entire blog on them? Here’s a look at the raison d’être behind such a decision.

What Are Actionable Insights?

Before delving into the importance of actionable insights, let’s clarify what they actually are. Actionable insights are specific, achievable recommendations based on data or research. Unlike generic advice or broad conclusions, these insights pinpoint precise steps that individuals or organisations can take to attend to a need, improve a situation or solve a problem.

How Do Actionable Insights Differ from Data?

Data alone can be overwhelming and, without context, sometimes useless. While having an abundance of data can offer numerous possibilities for analysis, it doesn’t inherently tell you what to do next. Actionable insights distil data into straightforward steps, turning indecipherable numbers or observations into blueprints for action.

Why Are They Important in Organisational Settings?

The difference between organisations that thrive and those that stagnate often comes down to their ability to make informed decisions quickly. Actionable insights serve as a compass for these decisions, providing a clear path forward based on a sound understanding of the situation at hand. The scope for guessing or going by gut feeling is significantly reduced when you have accurate, actionable insights guiding your way.

Are Actionable Insights Just a Buzz Phrase?

Some may argue that “actionable insights” has become a buzzword, stripped of its original meaning due to overuse. While the term has certainly gained popularity, its importance can’t be discounted. The ability to act on valuable information remains a cornerstone of success, whether in business, health, or personal development. Therefore, the focus of this blog will remain on providing insights that are directly applicable.

How Do We Source These Insights?

The methods for deriving actionable insights vary depending on the context. In most cases, they involve a mix of long experience, data analysis, expert research, and real-world testing. This blog aims to use rigorous research and evidence-based and experience-based practices to offer the most reliable insights.

The Bottom Line: Why This Blog?

This blog commits to offering actionable insights because they arm you with the information needed to make positive changes. Whether it’s enhancing your organisation’s performance, improving your wellbeing, or enriching your personal life, actionable insights offer the most direct route to achieving your goals. So, stick around and prepare to act, not just read.