This is about managing change in organisations. It’s about organisms and mechanisms; the model of the world we carry in our heads; and the importance of words.
The model of the Industrial Age was all about mechanisms. Naturally. But, the Knowledge Age is about organisms.
Today, if you work in an organisation, listen to the conversation and the words people use.
How much is ‘mechanical’ language?…
- “We must build a new team.”
- “We need to make this happen.
- “This set-up is not working.”
- “This approach is broken.”
- “Lets put together a plan”
And how much is ‘organic’ language?…
- “We should grow that community.”
- “This project is not really flourishing.”
- “We need to germinate some new ideas.”
- “Let’s propagate that way of doing things.”
- “We are properly in the manure.” (OK this one is a joke.)
If you want to change a mechanism, there’s no point getting your gardening gloves out: you can’t grow a new flywheel. Equally you can’t build a new hydrangea. Or an organisation (really).
Whoever chose the term ‘organisation’ was smart: they put a GREAT BIG CLUE in the word. When it comes to changing organisations: think organism not mechanism.
And use organic words.
Because words change minds.
[...] I don’t go much on the word ‘Deliver’ either: it’s too transactional. I know it has a number of usages but I just can’t get the ‘deliver a parcel’ sense out of my head: something neatly packaged then sent to a recipient at a specific time. Managing change is just not about this. I feel we need to adopt new, more useful metaphors (and the language that goes with them). For example: we talk much about building new capabilities: but how about growing them instead; see Managing change – think ‘Organism’ not ‘Mechanism’. [...]
If I follow you, I can see your point from a systems theoretic standpoint. With complex systems much of what influences their output is outside the system boundaries. When we talk about growing a plant we mean doing things to it which the plant cannot do itself.
My concern would be that managers and leaders are typically empowered and expected to tinker with the system under their control. Moving beyond their normal authority would surely require a whole new set of skills, and possibly provoke resistance?
Interesting. I don’t think I necessarily mean doing things to a plant that it cannot do itself. I think a lot of horticulture is about creating the right context and letting the plants do their thing. But I guess the analogy holds up for, say, taking cuttings or perhaps even grafts.
I definitely think that more-senior managers need a new set of skills to deal with complexity. As I said in my talk, they will need to do more creating, sustaining and guiding of communities; and less planning and controlling. They will need to have a far wider consciousness of their organisations and their people, so that they can help to make connections when they are needed. I believe these skills are abundant in organisations but they are less valued and people with them less likely to make it to the upper echelons.