This presentation is a distillation of language used to describe the scope and configuration of change managed at the enterprise level. Its goal was to find a way to drastically reduce the vocabulary necessary to model managed change, and to have the model be far more intuitively familiar.

1. A Semantic Model of
Enterprise Change
Named concepts, positions, and relations
© 2022 malcolm ryder / archestra research

2. Change ability is three-dimensional
The ability to change is built on decisions that are the executive, operational and transactional
bases. Why is supported by How, and How is supported by What. Those three dimensions constrain
change.
Coordinating value, throughput, and agility is primarily a matter of assuring that the outcome
targeted in one dimension is not contradicted by the likely outcomes of either of the others.
Executive
outcome
Operational
outcome
Transactional
outcome
why how what
© 2022 malcolm ryder / archestra research

3. Process?
Many of the usual
expectations about how influence
should shape success in change
efforts are not wrong, but they are
simply not attuned enough to
what makes coordination occur
and be effective for difference
instead of for more of the same.
To pre-empt the rates and types of
perceived and real failures in
change, the influences of the three
dimensions on each other must be
recognized for how they help or
hurt coordination that creates a
relevant sustainable difference.
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

4. Executive
Operational
Transactional
Current State conditions
each present the need to
negotiate or replace
something in order to
arrive at the eventual
intended benefit of
changing. These decisions
must have a logical
alignment with each other.
Productivity and Competency
WHY
HOW
WHAT
© 2022 malcolm ryder / archestra research

5. Co-ordinating the Why, How and What
• Co-ordination literally means “direction-in-common”. It is NOT the same as cooperation nor
collaboration. But the purpose of coordination is to facilitate the probability of co-operation. (And
collaboration is a form, not a goal, of cooperation.)
• Coordinating value (why), throughput (how), and agility (what) is primarily a matter of assuring
that the outcome targeted in one dimension is not contradicted by the likely outcomes of either
of the others. We are tempted to assign responsibility for any one of these three issues to just
one of the dimensions; but it’s not that simple regarding how they affect each other.
Executive
outcome
Value?
Operational
outcome
Throughput?
Transactional
outcome
Agility?
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

6. Rather than have 2/3 of
change efforts fail due to
missing target benefit,
inadequate potential effort,
or excessive disruption: high-
level coordination shows the
principal type of influence
that each dimension has on
each other in order to
generate a steady state of
new conditions from
intentional change.
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

7. Coordination follows a
straightforward model of
requirements in which a factor in
one dimension is responsible to a
factor in another dimension; the
responsibilities are for developing,
aligning, and sustaining.
opportunity
means
motive
Each of the three dimensions
includes all three of these
differentiating factors.
Executive
Operational
Transactional
align
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

8. Executive
Operational
Transactional
Market impact
Investment
ROI
Capability
Intelligence
Effects
Method
Support
Timing
opportunity
means
motive
From one dimension to
the other, the specifics
of those three general
types of factors differ.
These differentiating
factors in each
dimension play into the
decisions of negotiation
or replacement.
Productivity and Competency
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

9. market impact
[opportunity]
effects
[motive]
support
[means]
align
Coordinating for
VALUE:
the influences of the three
dimensions on each other
link executive opportunity
to operational motive to
transactional means. This is
primarily the “strategy”
perspective.
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

10. ROI
[motive]
intelligence
[means]
method
[opportunity]
align
Coordinating for
THROUGHPUT:
the influences of the three
dimensions on each other
link executive motive to
operational means to
transactional opportunity.
This is primarily the
“management” perspective.
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

11. investment
[means]
capability
[opportunity]
timing
[motive]
align
Coordinating for
AGILITY:
the influences of the three
dimensions on each other
link executive means to
operational opportunity to
transactional motive. This is
primarily the
“implementation”
perspective.
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research

12. Dimension motive opportunity means outcome
Executive ROI market impact investment Value
Operational effects capability intelligence Throughput
Transactional timing method support Agility
Coordination motive opportunity means perspective
Strategy effects market impact support Value
Management ROI method intelligence Throughput
Implementation timing capability investment Agility
Executive
Operational
Transactional
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY…
RECAP
©
2022
malcolm
ryder
/
archestra
research