The Necessary Revolution

The
Necessary
“(Change) conversations can easily
Revolution polarize. The harder the advocate
pushes, the more diligent the
opposition... Some may join one or
the other camp. As one pushes back,
others will become only more
stubborn and more convinced that
they are right.”
Based on the book by Peter Senge, Vryan Smith, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur & Sara Schley (Broadway Books 2008)
Prepared by: Dr. Ricardo Sosa (sosa.ricardo@gmail.com)

Getting
people
engaged “But there is another option, the most
crucial part of the conversation is
neither advocating nor opposing but
asking a genuine question that
could lead to fresh perspectives on
the issues.”


Your role as
a (change)
leader “The way to reach people is not to
challenge their views but to find
questions that they are ready to
ask. This inquiry starts with the
recognition that no one has the full
picture. We all see a slice of the
possible future.”

First steps
toward
1. Personal reflections
improving 2. Initial conversations with like-
dialogue minded peers
3. Informal team
4. "Scouting party"
5. Draft of a case for change

Making your
role “Four kinds of leaders that are essential:
productive  Local line leaders

 Internal network leaders and

community builders
 Managers of specialist functions with

the capability to initiate or work with
key cross-organizational processes
 Executive leaders”


Take stock
personally
“If you feel irritation, impatience or
discomfort, give yourself
permission to rant. But also tell
the truth. Turn the irritation into a
rough initial positive
statement of what you want.”


Take stock
personally
“Don't spend too long thinking
about these issues alone -it's
easy to feel overwhelmed.”


Forming
your initial
team “You can begin by searching for
like-minded people in the
organization who share your
concerns and are also seeking
to make a case for change.”


Forming
your initial
team “Consider meeting one-on-one with
each of them initially to have a brief
conversation, establish some
common ground, translate your
frustration and theirs into larger
visions and goals, and build a case for
change.”

Forming
your initial
team “Keep in mind that people don't need
to agree on everything when they
meet: a broad goal, interest, or point
of common frustration is often
sufficient. Disagreements can
help... if you talk openly.”


Aspirations

“Make time early on to look ahead
together, perhaps a time frame of
25 years in mind so that you
are unconstrained by present-
day realities.”


Aspirations

“Be patient with your initial vision.
Your aspirations will change...
Truly shared visions are a
continual work in process.”


Stuart L. Hart and Mark B. Milstein


Building
your case
“The majority of initiatives are in
for change the lower left quadrant -they're
internal and focused on today. The
larger goal of your work is to
create a balanced portfolio of
options and investments across
all four quadrants.”

Connecting
your efforts
“Don't fall into the trap of
presenting your work as a fait
accompli.”


Seeing
Systems
“People frequently use the word
system when they want to imply
that something is outside their
control... Seeing systems and
understanding our role in
shaping those systems are
two sides of the same coin.”

Systems-
thinking
1. Reacting to Events- what just happened
iceberg 2. Anticipating Patterns/Trends- what’s
been happening and have we been here or
same place similar before
3. Systemic Structure or Forces- what are
the deeper forces driving patterns
4. Transform Mental Models- how these
models affect, even dictate, our thoughts.


Economy
and ecology
“Once people start to practice
seeing systems, they begin to
understand basic flaws in
prevailing mental models and
alternative futures that are
possible.”


Spaceship
Earth
“Obviously, something has to give.
In a world where we need to shift
as rapidly as possible to low-
carbon, non-fossil-fuel sources of
power, we are all part of the
challenge.”


Rethinking
boundaries
“Attempts to convince people that
they are wrong and that they need to
rethink boundaries will almost
always be met with resistance; few
people appreciate being told that
their thinking is too limited.”


Rethinking
boundaries
“Ask people to reflect on how
they are thinking now, rather
than trying to force them to
think differently.”


Spaceship
Earth
“Inquiry is far more
effective strategy
than advocacy.”

Rethinking
boundaries
“As you consider the problem you
are focusing on, ask: “In what
ways are we imposing
arbitrary boundaries?”


Rethinking
boundaries
“The problems come not because
we have boundaries in our
thinking but because we forget
there are boundaries.”


Rethinking
boundaries
“Groups forget the assumptions
they are making and get frozen
in taken-for-granted worldviews.”


Rethinking
boundaries
“The first step is to help
people see these self-
imposed boundaries.”


Seeing limits
to growth
“Developing our natural systems
intelligence starts with recognizing
patterns that are part of our
everyday experience but that often
go unnoticed because we lack the
ability to recognize them and the
language to talk about them.”

Seeing limits
to growth
“Businesses that can see limits
can adapt a lot faster than their
competitors and can strategize
much more effectively.”


Seeing our
choices
“Key insight: opting for quick fixes
and avoiding fundamental
solutions tends to set up a
reinforcing set of pressures
for more quick fixes over time.”


Seeing
common
limits “Many data centers and software
companies have realized that they
are likely facing limits in electricity
supplies in the near future. In fact, all
technology companies are now
recognizing that they are in the
energy business.”

The circular
economy
“Look beyond your immediate
supplier and consider the total
value chain.”


Seeing our
choices
“Seeing systems is a team
sport, and people working
together will push each other
along as they come up with many
new ideas and fresh
perspectives.”


Collaborating
across
boundaries “Bringing about significant
changes in large systems is
difficult work. It takes great
courage and even greater
patience.”


Collaborating
across
boundaries “Bringing about significant changes...
takes facing difficult problems many
would like to assume either do not
exist or are somebody else's job
to fix.”


Collaborating
across
boundaries “Among the many reasons we do not
look at problems systemically is that
implementing the insights that result
would force us out of our intellectual
and institutional comfort zones.”


http://www.solonline.org

'Getting the
system in
the room' “Often, those at the top of institutional
hierarchies have far too much
invested in preserving the status
quo of their own organizations to
undertake bold experiments outside
their boundaries.”


Collaborating
across
boundaries “Extraordinary change requires
building extraordinary
relationships, and at some level
this requires gathering together
diverse people representing diverse
views so that they can speak and
listen to one another in new ways.”

“Do we really understand the
products we -and our whole
industry- are creating?”

Darcy Winslow from Nike


Growing a
Strategic
1. “Continually reflect on key challenges,
Microcosm actors and forces in the system
2. What are the key voices that you have yet to
include in your group or network?
3. Look for blind spots
4. When might the time be right?
5. How might you go about engaging those
excluded?

Growing a
Strategic
Expect:
Microcosm 1. Core leadership,
2.Circle of engagement,
3.Circle of informed,
4.The uninformed
5.(and opponents)

“There most be more to this
business than the next cool
gadget”



Building
momentum
“Shifting conversations from
problems to possibilities not only
shapes the convening process, it lays
a foundation for genuine
commitment among those involved
and gets them excited about working
together”

“Who knows? This might be our
greatest possibility. When you
think about it, Nike is one of the
few companies that could make
this sustainability stuff 'cool'”



Purposeful
networking
“Building leadership networks
invariably comes down to investing
lots of time in one-on-one or small-
group conversations to explore
issues and foster
engagement.”


Purposeful
networking
“The process will lead to surprises.
Invariably, you will find that people
whom you never expected to be
interested will start to get engaged.”


Purposeful
networking
“Many who will prove to be
important partners will be people
you never knew aboutor had
contrary opinions.”


Purposeful
networking
“Many who fail to show much interest
early on often respond differently
later, when they see a critical mass
starting to form around issues that
concern them.”


Stakeholder
dialogue
interviews
“Make your own concerns and
aspirations clear and come to
learn, rather than to advocate
or sell your own ideas.”


Stakeholder
dialogue  “Prepare: be fully present during the
interviews interview
 Open: say it simply and without
hyperbole
 Engage: ask one or two simple and
open-ended questions that give people
a chance to reflect
 Follow the flow: begin a true dialogue

Stakeholder
dialogue  Jump off the bridge: let go of whatever is
interviews holding you back from connecting
 Expand the network: ask if there is
anyone else we should talk with
 Close: avoid a feeling of
incompleteness

Be yourself and be genuinely curious.”

Also...
 Show early your true willingness to
negotiate
 Detach yourself from the ideas
 Show empathy, rephrase what is
important to them
 Highlight risks and trade-offs
 Sell “reversability”

Building
relationships
“Change advocates either think that
the reasons to change are so clear
and compelling that anyone awake
must be on board, or they look at the
enormous gap between what is and
what is needed and become
cynical.”

Building
relationships
“In between are those who
have both a passion for the
vision and an understanding of
the need to build the
collaborative networks the
vision requires”

Conversations
that shape the
future “Above-the-line conversations
depend on three skills: learning how
to suspend immediate
assumptions, reflecting on mental
models we had previously taken for
granted, and balancing advocacy
for our ideas with inquiry into
other opinions.”

Suspending
assumptions
“The discipline of testing our
assumptions forces us to
make them explicit, opens the
possibility that they might not be
100% correct, and lays the
foundation for learning over
time.”

Opening
hearts and
“Bring together a diverse group of people
minds


that represents the larger system
 Identify the different facets of the system
 “Go there together”: travel with the entire
team
 Set aside ample time to reflect and talk
together
 Pay careful attention to the intentions and
commitments that arise.”

Opening
hearts and
minds “Direct experien ce (“going there”)
means seeing a different place
firsthand, talking with people we
usually do not talk with, seeing
how people live, work, play, raise
their children...”


Building
shared
“Trying to get people commited is
commitment a bit like trying to be happy: the
harder you try, the less
successful you're likely to be...
Your ability to foster
commitment will never be
greater than your own
commitment.”

4-Player
Model
 Move :—establishes a direction and sets the
team in motion.
 Follow : provides support for the move and
serves the function of completion.
 Oppose:—questions the move that has been
initiated.
 Bystand: provides perspective and invites
the team to be more reflective.
http://mitleadership.mit.edu/r-fpmodel.php

Positive vs.
negative
vision “The spirit of creating is
virtually the opposite of the
attitude that has characterized
much of the history of the
environmental and social
justice movements.”

Creative
tension
“Creative tension is the gap
between the image of what we
truly want to see exist and the
world as it is today.”


Seeing
opportunities
W. McDonough and M. Braungart: “If a
car is heading south, slowing down
does not cause it to head north.
Sooner or later, you need to turn the
car around 180 degrees. No matter
how “less bad” you are, it will not
make you good.”

Creative
tension
“Strategies based on negative
visions, emotional tension, and
being less bad differ
fundamentally from ones
guided by positive visions
and creative tension.”

Unleasing
everyday
magic “The creative process is part
of our common heritage as
human beings, and accessing
this perennial wisdowm will be
key to liberating our individual
and collective potential.”

You don't have
to have all the
answers
“It is only in the process of
working to bring a vision to
reality, and seeing what is
effective and what isn't, that
you will gain key insights.”


Learning
through
prototypes
“Academics, even brilliant ones,
frequently spend a lot of
energy talking about
problems instead of what can
be done differently.”


Learning
through
prototypes “Latent needs (never expressed)
are difficult or impossible to
discern with standard market
research methods, but they come
to the surface when people see
tangible embodiments of
new ideas.”

Learning
through
prototypes
When people see a prototype,
they say: “If we can do this, why
couldn't we do that too?”


Asking for
help
“Often people in important
leadership positions think they
have to have all the answers, and
those 'below' them hold the same
view. Ironically, this fails to tap
the collective intelligence that
can arise when asking for help.”

“When you've got 130,000 Alcoa
employees, each of them
thinking about this for ten
minutes a day, it's amazing
what happens.”

Patrick Atkins from Alcoa


Asking for
help
“Asking for help has two benefits:
it generates a remarkable
diversity and depth of ideas
and energy for change; it also
engages people in changes
that really matter to them.”

Strategic
possibilities
“Many companies are selling
the wrong products to the
wrong customers based on
the wrong business model.”


“We were still investing more in
advertising than in developing
renewable energy.”

Vivienne Cox from BP


Looking inside
for energy
and  “Identify key areas
commitment  Engage skeptics
 Find a way to prove it
 Identify the visionaries
 Draw a network map
 Identify personal relationships”

Anticipate
 “Pick initial team members for
prototyping
 Continually make linkages to key
organizational issues and goals
 Demonstrate what's possible
 Build contingency plans
 Generate curiosity
 Create clear evidence for change”

Looking
outside for  “Identify lead customers
energy and  Leverage customer engagement and
interest
commitment  Identify favourable conditions and
communities
 Tie your idea to a latent or emerging
segment of the market
 Pay attention to and build on your
organization's DNA”

Businesses
with a
mission “Peter Drucker once said: Profit for
a company is like oxygen for a person

- Unfortunately, most businesses
operate as if their purpose is
breathing”

Businesses
with a
mission “There is no more basic
confusion that prevades the
business world than the idea
that the purpose of a
company is to maximize
profit.”

Businesses
with a
mission “A few businesses do not exist
in order to make profit,
they make a profit in order to
contribute.”


http://www.greystonbakery.com/social-mission/


http://www.seventhgeneration.com/about

Businesses
with a
mission “The key is building these
relationships slowly, so that
people really get to know one
another and what really
matters to each of us.”


Redesigning
for the “Current organizational
future structures have evolved in
response to the imperatives
of the past, not the future,
and they wil need to change to
support new visions,
strategies and goals.”

Redesigning
for the
future “Be specially sensitive to the
dangers of shifting the
burden to specialists. At
best, they can be a temporary
catalyst.”


Redesigning
for the
future
“Approach change by setting
lofty goals, even if no one
knows how to achieve them.”


It's okay not
to know how
“If you are a senior leader, you
and your team don't have to
know immediately how you're
going to achieve your vision.”


It's okay not
to know how
“It is crucial that you don't
frame your goal in the context
of what you know today. If
you do so, you will limit the
reach of your aspiration.”


"True freedom is not the absence of
structure-but rather a clear
structure that enables people to
work within established
boundaries in an autonomous and
creative way.”
Erich Fromm


Structure for
freedom
“Designing mechanisms for
horizontal, cross-boundary
collaboration is as crucial as
getting the vertical
accountabilities right.”


Structure for
freedom
“Rethinking organizational
structure is challenging but
high-leverage work.
Organizations get the results
they are designed for, and no
more.”

The end


The Necessary Revolution

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