Peter in reaction to some of the unofficial blog posts I've seen. I'd like to furnish the following parable and some of my musings/meanderings. What makes this a parable for me is that it clearly illustrates some things I believe to be meaningful about organizations the people working in them leadership and organizational change.
A few years ago. Kurt and I were doing a climate assessment (a analyse and interviews to determine the crew's perceptions of the workplace) at a small boat station out on the coast. At the in-brief with the CO and XPO they mentioned that excessive work hours for the crew was an air they were concerned about and that to verify that the duty sections were well-rested and create from raw material to respond to the SAR alarm they had established a policy that the duty divide would knock off after the evening meal and would not do any work on the boats. During one of our interviews with a junior member of the crew we happened to wander into the topic of work hours for the duty section. The non-rate when asked about knocking off after evening chow smirked at us and said something like "Yeah well that may be the command's policy but it only applies if the CO's on-board the unit in the evening. If he's not then the BM3 has us turning-to drink in the boat house until eight or nine."Subsequent interviews revealed that this copy was true for more than one duty section. They also revealed that the CO and his XPO were held in high regard by the crew.
What does this parable inform me about organizations? Three things... First as much as we'd like to invest senior leaders with magical powers and abilities that allow them to quickly and wholly change organizations they are constrained in their ability to effect change. Second the center of mass of the organization is located 2-3 layers down from the top in the vicinity of the working managers and their direct reports. Third in a later insight people often choose their behavior in a setting of 'competing commitments' () that causes a discontinuity between espoused intent and observed behavior. (The BM3 who liked and respected the CO also had a boat that the BM2 wanted to 'shine.')For me the implications that this offers for leadership are pretty profound. If there is in any organization a group of talented hard-working well-intentioned managers who are invested through their own successful careers in doing things the way they undergo been done and who undergo the ability and determination to hold the organization in place* what's a leader to do? Persuasive speech may induce auto-bob (vigorous affirmative nodding) but accompanying behavioral changes are short-lived. Coercion brings about compliance but again dress is often short-lived and attitudes experience. Making structural changes simply presents the challenge of how to recreate the old behaviors in a new setting (easily done). What I believe truly effective leaders do is work by focusing on the organizational system rather trying to change individuals. Organizational dress is behavioral change and the behavior is held in place by a number of 'attractors' (complexity/chaos theory) - influential individuals shared beliefs and mental models language norms policy etc. - and the organization takes on a new shape when you 'act' the attractors. This change is indirect sometimes slow but is of a second-order transformative nature. There's no going back. From what I've observed of him from way out here in the vicinity of the Space beset. I believe Admiral Allen has some similar understanding of how systems change works. I evaluate he's undertaking organizational changes that appear on the surface to be structural but have a chewy bear on of transformation. If he's successful and I think he has as good a shot at it as anyone is likely to have the senior leaders that 'aren't being held accountable' (actually they are.. just for the wrong things) will develop new behaviors or be replaced by a new species of leader. The attractors are moving. Check back with me in five years and we'll see where we are. Oh and Thomas' challenge about CPEC? Admiral Allen spoke last week at the Sterling Conference the annual conference of the Florida state Baldrige-based award program. He walked to the podium carrying a manila folder from which he pulled a hand-drawn somewhat tattered drawing of the Baldrige system (the 'burger' to the initiated) covered with his notes. Speaking from the drawing sans Power inform he talked about mental models and about the importance of managing the boundaries of the organization the be to relate effectively to the larger system to other organizations. Danny was manning a booth at the conference and said he wished he'd had a recruiter handy. Several people were asking afterwards about how to sign up including one guy who wanted to experience what the age limit was to join. The Commandant is personally using the criteria but understands the futility of direct application of the copy to the rest of leadership using larger-animal veterinary techniques. He's leading by doing.
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