Change Management: Fifth Discipline book (laws, archetypes, disciplines)

The 11 laws of the Fifth Discipline (1 to 6)

1 Today's problems come from yesterday's solutions. 2 The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back. 3 Behaviour grows better before it grows worse. 4 The easy way out usually leads back in. 5 The cure can be worse than the disease. 6 Faster is slower

The 11 laws (7 to 11)

7 Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. 8 Small changes can produce big results but the highest leverage is the least obvious (trim tab). 9 You can have your cake and eat it too, but not at once. 10 Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants. 11 There is no blame

Compensating feedback

Well-intended interventions call forth responses from the system that offset their benefits (law 2; Boxer in Animal Farm). The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back

Detail complexity vs dynamic complexity

Detail = many variables. Dynamic = cause and effect are subtle and effects over time are not obvious. Real leverage lies in dynamic complexity

Feedback in systems thinking

Any reciprocal flow of influence; every influence is both cause and effect. The human actor is part of the loop, so everyone shares responsibility and scapegoating is a blind alley

Resistance to change and balancing loops

Whenever there is resistance to change look for a hidden balancing process: an implicit goal, norm or power relationship. Do not push harder; address the norm (example: the boss's own 70-hour weeks)

Delays cause what?

Overshoot and oscillation. In a sluggish system aggressive action produces instability. Be patient or make the system more responsive (shower, real estate, beer game)

The 10 archetypes in the appendix

Balancing process with delay; limits to growth; shifting the burden; shifting the burden to the intervenor; eroding goals; escalation; success to the successful; tragedy of the commons; fixes that fail; growth and underinvestment

Limits to growth: principle and leverage

Do not push the growth (reinforcing) process; remove or weaken the limiting factor. Leverage is in the balancing loop. There will always be more limits

Shifting the burden: three clues

The problem gets gradually worse (though sometimes it seems better); the overall health of the system worsens; growing helplessness (euphoria then victim feeling)

Shifting the burden: leverage

Strengthen the fundamental response and weaken the symptomatic one. Symptomatic fixes are acceptable only if acknowledged as such and used to gain time (Alcoholics Anonymous example)

Shifting the burden to the intervenor

An outside helper solves symptoms so well the host never learns. Teach people to fish rather than giving them fish; limit helpers to a one-time intervention or skill building

Eroding goals

Short-term fix = letting the long-term goal decline ("standards can slide until the crisis is over"). Principle: hold the vision. Example: ever longer quoted delivery times

Escalation

Two parties each see their welfare as a relative advantage over the other; each side's defensive action looks aggressive. Principle: find a way for both to win. Examples: arms race, price wars

Success to the successful

Two activities compete for limited resources; the winner gets more and starves the other (two protégés). Find the overarching goal for balanced achievement

Tragedy of the commons

Individuals use a shared limited resource for their own needs until it is depleted (shared sales force). Manage the commons through self-regulation or a regulating mechanism

Fixes that fail and growth and underinvestment

Fixes that fail: a short-term fix has long-term consequences that demand more of the same fix. Growth and underinvestment: capacity is built too slowly, standards are lowered (WonderTech, People Express)

WonderTech case

Sales doubled yearly for 3 years then collapsed. Delivery times drifted from 8 to 16 weeks; managers pushed sales and added capacity slowly. Limits to growth + shifting the burden + eroding goals. Leverage: hold the 8-week delivery standard

Principle of leverage (chapter 7)

Significant enduring improvement from small well-focused actions (economy of means). Non-systemic thinking focuses on low-leverage symptoms; high leverage is not close in time and space to the symptoms

Learning disability examples (book)

I am my position: steelworkers (I am a lathe operator), Detroit three bolts vs one. Enemy out there: Little League boy, People Express. Illusion of taking charge: insurance VP tore up his speech. Boiled frog: Japan's US share 4% (1962) to about 30% (1989)

Learning horizon

The breadth of time and space within which we assess our effectiveness; consequences beyond it cannot be learned from directly (delusion of learning from experience)

Skilled incompetence (Argyris)

Teams proficient at keeping themselves from learning: managers are rewarded for advocating, not inquiring, and protect themselves from looking ignorant

Creative tension vs emotional tension

Creative tension = the gap between vision and reality (source of energy). Emotional tension = anxiety or discouragement it may cause. If we cannot bear it we lower the vision (eroding goals)

Structural conflict (Fritz)

A deep belief in powerlessness or unworthiness pulls us back as we approach a goal. Coping: letting the vision erode, conflict manipulation, willpower. Leverage: commitment to the truth

Compliance vs commitment (ch 11)

About 90% of what passes for commitment is compliance. Levels: commitment, enrollment, genuine compliance, formal compliance, grudging compliance, noncompliance, apathy. Selling is not enrolling

Bohm's conditions for dialogue

Participants suspend assumptions; regard each other as colleagues; a facilitator holds the context. Dialogue = dia-logos (free flow of meaning); discussion shares a root with percussion

Mental model tools (ch 10)

Leaps of abstraction, left-hand column (Argyris), espoused theory vs theory-in-use, balance inquiry and advocacy

Localness (ch 14)

Authority as far from the top as possible; control through learning; senior managers' new role is enhancing the organisation's capacity to learn

Senge on resistance

People do not resist change, they resist being changed. The crisis theory of change is a dangerous oversimplification; humans both fear and seek change