Archiv der Kategorie: Change management

Here you find all about change management.

Stable with rituals

Heraclitus had already explained two and a half thousand years ago that one cannot step into the same river twice. His Panta rhei (πάντα ῥεῖ) made us aware of the fact that the only constant is change. Our day is permeated by rituals. In addition to the morning coffee and evenly spread smoking breaks, there are business rituals that get you through the day, week, month and year – the morning meeting (nowadays Daily Stand-up), planning, budget, project and report meetings, as well as annual performance assessment, fireside chat, team development and so on. These rituals create stability in the hyper-accelerated VUCA world and prevent you from being torn away by the flood of data.

The following building blocks help looking at and developing rituals.

  • Easy Structure
    By the simple course of a ritual, the particular group of participants, who get together at a determined place, at repeating times and for a specific duration knows what they have to do according to their roles. Clear symbols, rules and decision paths underline the purpose and the deeper meaning – whether to steer, develop and change the area or to strengthen the sense of community.
  • Purpose and meaning
    A ritual has an official purpose that has different significances for the individual roles. On the one hand, the organizers pursue with their agenda business and political interests – primarily to convince the participants of their intentions. On the other hand, the participants have complex needs – they want to be informed, prepared, presented or state their own ideas. The ritual relaxes the dilemma between these different requests by ensuring regular exchange through its simple structure.
  • Sense of community
    A central building block is cohesion, which is strengthened by a ritual. The simple structure, the common purpose and meaning for the participants as well as the routine of the ritual will be accepted over time and provides benefits for all participants. The danger of an exclusionary self-conception can be counteracted by appropriately built-in openings – e.g. by a practiced public sphere, established tolerance and equal treatment or by a decisive condemnation of whatever-prejudice. The solidarity between the participants is underpinned by this set of values. Above all, symbols promote a sense of togetherness: logos, emblems and other trademarks.
  • Well-being
    The volatility and ambiguity of the reference points on which the members direct their actions often create uncertainty and fear. Fear is one of the greatest impediments for today’s tasks – when everyone has to adapt because they want to do less for more, or have to work with unknown people, or become harassed by pathological leaders. Contrary to fear, fun is one of the greatest accelerators. We are all charged with confidence and encouraged to perform at our best. Fun brings us into the flow that produces maximum performance. For these reasons rituals always need parts that promote well-being – e.g. meeting at eye level, respectful social interaction, demonstrated appreciation and above all the creation of opportunities to participate.

Bottom line: The group members of all kinds are constantly looking for security in nowadays VUCA world. Countless rituals offer this through a simple process, for and at definite times, and allow an individual group of participants to exchange ideas at a precise location. Clear symbols and rules create the basis for a sense of community and make it easier for those involved to have orientation and to contribute effectively. The official purpose is linked to the interests of each participant. The ritual creates well-being for the individual by overcoming fears and stimulating fun factors at work. Rituals are an integral part of our everyday life and foster stability in the flow of change.

When the old is gone and the new emerges

The old has always been the continuation of something familiar with comprehensible technical innovations. The aforementioned cab driver switched from the horse to the engine. The journalist no longer researches his information on the spot, but on the Internet and takes over to personally typeset, correct and publish his articles. Warehouse clerks exchange the pumper for a computer that controls the stock movements and shifts the packages driverless to the desired stations. The physical activities are eliminated and replaced by “willing” machines. In this environment, new tasks arise in the monitoring, control and maintenance of the assets – and of course in their development. In these times, new skills are needed.

Perspectives are missing. One of the few, who ponders concretely, is Thomas Frey, who has compiled the requisite know-how and many new professions of the future (see here). This time we’ll look at some of the future talents.

  • Bendscouting
    In the past scouts were used to spy out a path in front of them so that dangerous passages could be avoided on a large scale. To achieve this, traces had to be correctly interpreted, dangerous spots evaluated and the new routes safeguarded. In principle, tomorrow’s Bendscouts have similar skills. The difference results from their more vucane work space, i.e. more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. The required farsightedness results from the intuitive processing of the flood of data that cannot be left in the foreseeable future to any computer.
  • Bridging
    In many cases it will not be possible to bypass the danger spot. For this reason, to this day, armies have pioneers, who build bridges in the threatening places that take the troops safely from one side to the other. In the future, the ability to enable the transition at any point will become crucial, as more and more mental bridges have to be built that reliably bring those involved from the old into the new. Since every situation is different, the experience of proficient Bridgers, who can recognize and master even the most subtle peculiarities, is indispensable.
  • Lastmiling
    The global networking creates with RFID chips the Internet of Things. Networked computers move things virtually automatically around the world. The chip can be received anywhere and enables, with very little manual interference by people, automatic booking of cargo space as well as timely tracking of where the goods are at any given time. The same applies to data itself that is searching its way through the World Wide Web. The problems arise in the last mile – from the last node, whether it is a distribution warehouse or a junction box. The many Lastmilers are already available as parcel distributors and bicycle messengers. For the way from the hub to the actual addressee, it requires the hard to program intelligence of the Lastmiler.
  • Dismantling
    New things are being created ever faster. The introduction of business ideas, IT systems or industrial facilities increases the performance of companies incessantly. Over time, however, the old systems get in the way. Dismantling will be difficult as long as they continue to fulfil their purpose – albeit not quite as effectively as the new ones. In this environment, the complementary talent of an inventor is needed. Dismantlers will be responsible for removing and dismantling old systems out of running operations without collateral damage for the ongoing business. This surgical skill is so filigree that no computer can take over this task in the foreseeable future.
  • Bequeathing
    Even if a plant is dismantled, an approach is replaced or a business becomes history, it does not mean that the gained experiences are also obsolete. Many of these insights can continue to have an effect sustainably. After all, these are long-term routines that have been improved over time. Reuse is usually hindered by profane reasons – the protagonists are no longer there or no sufficient documentation exists. Ensuring the sustainable availability of experience is the task of the Bequeathers. The challenge is to muck out the insignificant, to select the most interesting and to prepare the most valuable building blocks. The necessary intuition to recognize the relevant aspects will be a problem for computers for a long time.

Bottom line: The continuous digitization takes over simple routine work. The machines execute unattractive tasks and solve them even more reliably than workers. This will trigger that the fields of activity shift again. It is not possible to automate the skills of bendscouting, bridging, lastmiling, dismantling and bequeathing as long as the comprehension, intuition, creativity and other typically human characteristics cannot be transferred into appropriate algorithms. Artificial intelligence may be a step in the right direction, but the modest hopes of the eighties of the last millennium have not yet been fulfilled after almost forty years – even, if we are impressed by robots that do the amazing things – but not more. The old is gone and the new is emerging. What will happen? As the French say – He, who lives, will see.