Singapore - Leading change from the middle Workshop April 15-16 2013

Leading change from the middle
ASCD Singapore April 15th – 16th 2013

Chris Jansen
University of Canterbury
New Zealand 1

Overview

• exploring your change inquiry

• influence and position

• systems thinking

• complicated or complex?

• system mapping

• creating self organisation

• tools for adaptive leadership

• Appreciative inquiry

• mapping your change journey
2

Information overload
Speed Complexity
Interconnectedness of systems
Uncertainty Ambiguity
Dissolving of traditional organisational boundaries
Exponential rate of change
Opportunities Disruptive technologies
Paradox
Generational values and expectations
Unintended consequences
Lack of Control
Increased globalization
www.ideacreation.org 3

change is changing…..

The greatest challenge for future leaders is the pace of
change and the complexity of the challenges faced….

….”perpetual white-water”…


“Our organisations are not equipped to cope with
this complexity…” (IBM study – 1500 CEO‟s)


Technical challenges

“can be solved with knowledge and procedures
already at hand”

Adaptive challenges

“embedded in social complexity, require behaviour change
and are rife with unintended consequences‟


Positive Psychology

„what we focus on becomes our reality‟

Heliotropic Hypothesis

“social systems evolve towards the most positive images they hold of
themselves, toward what gives them life and energy, in much the
same way that plants grow in the direction of the sun”

What do we tend to focus on?

• vision
• planning
• detail
• problem
• drama


Applications of Positive Psychology

• Solution focused therapy / narrative therapy
• Placebo effect / positive thinking
• Positive expectations on educational achievement
• Positive deviancy

• Positive leadership – leveraging strengths
• Appreciative Inquiry


What's your change leadership inquiry?

– What factors effect powerful professional
learning in schools?
– What processes build effective collaborations
with communities and whanau?
– What factors promote positive student
behaviour?
– How do we improve achievement?
– How can we improve our staff culture?


Planning my change inquiry


Change agenda - organisational change processes

1. establish urgency based on provable need/gap

2. form a powerful coalition or core team

3. develop a vision and operation plan

4. launch numerous small ‟safe to fail‟ pilots

5. communicate the vision and develop whole school approach

6. consolidate improvements by building capacity

7. widen awareness and support

8. celebrate and embed

Based on Kotter

Scales of Influence

Communities

Schools

Departments

Classrooms

Individuals
What strategies
could you consider
to increase your
positive influence
within your
organisation and
community?


Leading from the middle

www.educationalleaders.govt.nz


Kiwi Leadership for Principals

22

Middle leadership case studies

www.educationalleaders.govt.nz


Analysing change


Systems Thinking…
….is a way of making
sense of a complex system

…is the ability to see the world as relationships
and connections

...allows us to influence a complex system


“Where the world is dynamic, evolving and interconnected, we
tend to make decisions using mental models that are
static, narrow, and reductionist.”


Seeing connections instead of parts…

“You can never understand anything
by analysing it.”

“We have to understand the whole before
we can understand the parts - what
matters is their interaction.”

Russell Ackoff


Cynefin Framework
Multiple Multiple
connected but predictable
unpredictable cause and
interactions Complex Complicated effect
interactions
Decisions are uncertain
and solutions only Decisions require
apparent in retrospect expert knowledge

Chaotic Simple
Simple,
Multiple predictable
disconnected cause and
interactions effect
interactions
Decisions need to be made
quickly to dampen energy Decisions are obvious

www.ideacreation.org Dave Snowden 2012 29

Cynefin Framework
Multiple connected
but unpredictable Multiple predictable
interactions cause and effect
interactions
Complex Complicated
Decisions are uncertain Adaptive Technical
and solutions only challenges problems Decisions require
apparent in retrospect expert knowledge

Chaotic Simple
+innovative, responsive, nimble +Efficient, reliable, powerful
- messy and spontaneous - Inflexible, slow to respond


Systems Thinking


S
Student behaviour B Quality of alternative
issues programmes
O
S

R

Programme appeal to
other students

“Causal loop diagrams provide a framework for seeing
interrelationships rather than events, for seeing
patterns of change rather than snapshots”
Senge

marketing

student satisfaction
S S
reputation Causal loop
economy diagram for
R1 Growth University of
S resources (physical,
people) Canterbury
# students enrolled S

efts cap S
revenue
O financial targets
S
S management
TEC funding S
resources for R3 strategies
S R2 Growth research Performance

UC research imposed performance
profile S staff research S standards
activity
O O
O
staff involvement in
B1 Resistance decision making
resistance S
O
sick leave, stress B2 Health motivation and
leave, staff turnover commitment
O
S
team spirit/ morale
S collaboration/
engagement

The Iceberg Model
Four levels of thinking

Events

Patterns

Systemic structure

Mental models
Maani 2010

System thinking tools – affinity process

1) Clarify the question

2) Determine influence factors

3) Map connections

4) Identify leverage

5) Act with clarity


What are the indicators of a successful
school in Singapore?

What are the factors that contribute to this?

• What influences that?

Complexity – self organisation


The Innovation Stack

Management innovation organisational processes/leadership roles
communication and decision making
Strategic innovation
initiatives, programmes etc

Product/service innovation pedagogy, technology etc

Operational innovation
timetable, processes etc

Gary Hamel – The Future of Management


Adaptive
Complexity / Change / Uncertainty / Ambiguity challenges
Paradox / Lack of Control / Unintended consequences

Organisational capacity
Self organising, adaptive,
innovative, flexible, nimble,
responsive, creative and
resilient

Leadership capacity


How does self organisation work?
• independent agents
• interactions with neighbours
• decentralised control
• an attractor - motivated by threat or opportunity

Self organisation leading to emergence

Complexity thinking, complex adaptive systems, adaptive leadership

“A key concept is Goo – like primordial soup, you can see it
moving and growing – it involves people, relationships, you
can‟t control it but you can notice it and foster it…it changes
and evolves – its living and breathing….

……..get your goo glasses on – when you walk into a room put
aside the programme, cut out the strategy – see the history,
interactions, how wired they are, the group dynamics - look
for the living breathing thing and then that‟s the stuff that
grows….” Duane Major
45

The Starfish and the Spider…

The unstoppable power of leaderless organisations
Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom


Hierarchies and Networks


Hybrid?

Machine Living organism
+Efficient, reliable, +innovative, responsive, nimble
-Inflexible, slow to respond -messy and spontaneous


Adaptive Leadership


Adaptive Leadership

Characterised by both;
• participative processes ”Surfing the Edge of Chaos‟”
• collaborate solution finding

Benefits:
• Engagement, ownership leading to…
…enthusiasm/energy and commitment
• Better solutions – innovation

The Pronoun Test “I” or “We”
“My” or “Our”
“We” or “They”
Daniel Pink – “A whole new mind”

“There's only one thing better than ownership – authorship!
Simon Breakspear , “Talent Magnets”

Adaptive leadership: fostering self organisation

Conditions for self organisation Leadership role

1. independent agents 1. Proactive mentoring of individuals
2. interactions with neighbours 2. Foster interaction and shared learning
3. decentralised control 3. Distribute power + decentralise control
4. an attractor - motivated by 4. Explore and articulate shared values
threat or opportunity


Layer 1: Proactive mentoring
develop independent agents

Recognise and value people
•Strong belief in people
•Prioritize them and take the time
•Creating space to empower people
•Notice, listen, appreciate
•Enlarge their self belief
•Recognise their strengths and passions
Develop people
•They leave in better shape than when
they arrived
•Create support structures to meet needs
•Make opportunities available
•Support initiative and boundary pushing
•Note achievements

“employee first – customer second”
Anand Pillai

Who are you actively
developing and looking
out for? Who is looking
out for you?
How could we increase
this informal
mentoring?


The Roles of a Manager

Vision
Meaningful Contribution Plan
Values Organise
Engage and develop Control
people Administer systems
Create context Critique
Create Order
Leadership Management
(Vision & people driven) (Office bound/paper driven)

Commitment, Compliance
Change & Hi- Professional & Status-Quo
Performance (Teaching role) Efficiency

Cammock (2001) The
Dance of Leadership

Management and Leadership


How‟s the balance of
leadership vs
management in your
role?
Satisfied?........


Layer 2: Foster interaction and shared learning
interactions with neighbours “It is no longer sufficient to have one
person learning for the
“a healthy organisation is one in organisation... Its just not
which all participants have a voice” possible any longer to figure it out
(Peck ,1988). from the top, and have everyone
else following the order of the „grand
strategist‟. (Senge , 2002)
Develop culture
•Creating environments
•Fostering high trust
•Build positive relationships
•Restorative environment
•Compliment each other‟s strengths
Foster learning
•Role model a learning attitude
•Opportunities to dialogue and build networks
•Listening to leverage collective intelligence
•Redesign social architecture
•Take time to consult, get buy in and find the best solution
•Generate feedback

Engagement leads to peak performance
Sample culture survey:
Rate each question from 1 (low) to 5 (high)
Add up total out of 25

1) I really care about the future of my organisation

2) I am proud to tell others that I work for this organisation

3) My organisation inspires me to do my best

4) I would recommend my organisation to a friend as a good place to work

5) I am willing to put in a great deal of effort and time beyond what is
normally expected

Adapted from Gallop

Diffusion of change


Tune into the environment
Innovators Early Adopters Late Majority Laggards
Venturesome, Respect, more Skeptical, cautious Traditional,
risky, can cope integrated into the focussed on past
May adopt because and interact with
with uncertainty system
of increased like minds
Can understand & “The individual to network pressure
apply complex check with” from peers or for Suspicious of
technical economic necessity innovations and
Not so far ahead change agents
knowledge
so serve as a role The weight of
Not always model systems norms Limited resources
respected by others needs to favour an leads to
Plays an important cautiousness
in the system innovation before
part by decreasing
they are convinced Can change when
Plays an important the uncertainty
role as gatekeeper - and conveying a Means that most they can see what
bringing in new subjective uncertainty must be is happening and
ideas from outside evaluation through removed before it fits with their
the system interpersonal they feel safe cultural values
networks

www.thinkbeyond.co.nz Rogers (1995) Diffusion of Innovation 61

Commitment Charting

A (Induction)

B (the D)

Team Leaders

Technology

Board

www.thinkbeyond.co.nz Adapted from the ESD Toolkit v2.0 62

Who has a voice in our
organisation?
What mechanisms can we
create to foster interaction
and shared learning?


Layer 3: Distribute power and decentralise control
decentralised control
Share journey – share leadership
•We are all leaders
•Break down hierarchy
•Share responsibility and accountability –
bit by bit …
•Create ownership and empowerment
•Delegate and let go
•Foster interdependance
•Master the process – not the content

“Traditional organisations require management systems that control peoples
behaviour, learning organisations invest in improving the quality of thinking,
the capacity for reflection and team learning, and the ability to develop shared
visions and shared understandings of complex issues” (Senge, 2002)


A framework for empowerment
Extrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation

external locus of control internal locus of control

control empowerment

Strict and complete external control no external control

Responsibility on leader
responsibility shared
responsibility on participant

I decide we decide you decide

less choice more choice

Dependence interdependence independence
www.ideacreation.org Jansen 2005
65

Situational Leadership
(High) High Supportive & High Supportive
High Supportive &
Low Directive
High Directive &
Behaviour
Behaviour
High Directive
Behaviour
SUPPORTIVE BEHAVIOUR

Low Supportive
& Low Low Supportive &
Directive High Directive
Behaviour Behaviour
(Low)

(Low) DIRECTIVE BEHAVIOUR (High)

Go to the people,
Live with them,
Learn from them,
Love them,
Start with what they know,
Build with what they have,
But with the best leaders,
When the work is done,
The task accomplished,
The people will say,
“We have done it ourselves”
Chinese Philosopher Lao Tsu


Who makes the
decisions?
How could power
be shared more
effectively?


Layer 4: Explore and Articulate Shared Values
an attractor - motivated by
threat or opportunity

We need to be culturally tight and managerially
loose. Order and design are not externally
imposed but emerge as a result of the
combination of individual freedom and shared
core values

Getting on the same page
•Explore individual values and negotiate organisational values to fit
•Role model values in leadership behaviour
•Reconnect all staff with personal moral purpose
•Establish benchmark of needs
•Create clarity around shared vision
•Leave space for emergent outcomes


Moral purpose and collective vision….
1. What‟s the one change you want to see in the world?

2. What do you currently do in your role that contributes to this?
How do you play your part?

3. What strategies would you have to do to move more towards this?
4. How would your leadership be different?

5. How would you know if you had achieved this shift?
adapted from Jan Robertson 2010


Getting into the flow…
Internal passion / Moral Purpose / Meaning

Hobby Calling

Job Duty

External opportunities

In what way does our
organisation live out shared
core values and vision?


Appreciative Inquiry and
Positive Psychology


Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
Appreciative Inquiry focuses on supporting people getting together to tell
stories of positive development in their work that they can build on.
(Reed, 2004)

AI as an orientation to the positive rather than just a series of techniques
•Focus on the positive
•Inclusivity – shared ownership, voice, decision making

Appreciative Inquiry is an exploratory
process for positive change. It
identifies the best of what is
happening in the present moment to
pursue what is possible in the future.
(Harkness, 2004)


Appreciative Inquiry Processes

1)
2) Dream
Discovery

1) Initiate 2) Inquire

4) Delivery
3) Design

4) Innovate 3) Imagine



Discover
1) Discover 2) Dream - collective discussion around focusing
questions
-paired interviews around positive and real
experiences

Dream - collective sense making

4) Deliver 3) Design
Design - practical visioning based on
these concrete past experiences

Deliver - collective action taking



When you ask people appreciative questions, you touch
something very important to them. They don‟t give
politically correct answers, they give heartfelt answers
because we ask soulful questions. (Hammond)


Step 1) Discover

Think back over your experience as a leader and locate a moment or period
that was a high point in your leadership, when you felt a sense of satisfaction
in your work, when you went home saying YES!

• Describe the situation. What
happened? What was the result?
• What was your role in creating this
experience? What other people and
factors contributed to this exceptional
moment?
• When you reflect on this experience–
what beliefs and values guided you
in your leadership?


Step 2) Dream
Collectively draw out the key themes from the peer interviews in step 1

• Listen to each sound bite
• Consider key themes emerging
• Build up collective mind map of
clusters of similar foci


LYNGO Deeply held values

Equality
Social Justice
Compassion
Dignity and respect
Generosity
Honesty and integrity
Passion and energy
Humility
Quality
Commitment


We take what we know and we talk about what could be.

We stretch what we are to help us be more than what we
have already been successful at.

We envision a future that is a collage of the bests.

Because we have derived the future from reality, we know
it can happen. We can see it, we know what it feels
like, and we move to a collective collaborative view of where
we are going.

(Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry)


Step 3) Design
Collective dialogue to explore;
• What energises and motivates us?
• What do we have in common?
• What could we do collectively that
we couldn‟t do individually?
Step 4) Deliver

• If we were to carry this
conversation on beyond this
workshop what could that look like?

• What opportunities are there for us
to further these conversations?

• What would we like to achieve?


AI touchstones for creating learning communities

Focus on the positive
strengths, what‟s working

Collaboration
shared ownership, voice, inclusivity, decision making


AI based NGO Leadership Project


Creating a professional learning community

Guiding principles
• Positive focus
• Collaboration

5 key strategies
• flexible and negotiated structure
• sharing positive stories
• cycles of exploration
• individual and collective reflection
• significant time frame
• Intentional facilitation


Positive Deviancy
Pioneered by Jerry and Monique Sternin in Vietnam working with
communities whose children had extremely high malnutrition statistics
Now successfully implemented in an enormous range of complex
settings around the world

• infant mortality in the Himalayas
• rehabilitating child soldiers in Uganda
• preventing girl trafficking in Indonesia
• reduction in hospital infections – MRSA superbug
• girls access to education in Ethiopia
• primary school student retention in Argentina US etc


Positive Deviancy
DEFINE, DETERMINE, DISCOVER, DESIGN

Step 1: The community
DEFINES or reframes the
problem
• Explore the magnitude of a
problem
• Articulate a preferred future
• Including all stakeholders in
community meetings
• Collect baseline data

Step 2: The community
DETERMINES common
practices
• Conducting discussions and focus
groups


Step 3: The community DISCOVERS the presence
of positive deviants
• Identify individuals or groups that exhibit different outcomes
• Ensure that those selected have the same circumstances or
worse than everyone else in community
• Conduct in-depth interviews and observations to indentify
uncommon practices
• Vet the findings with the whole community

Step 4: The community DESIGNS and develops
activities to expand the PD solutions
• Set up opportunities for the positive deviants to demonstrate
their practices to other members of the community
• Create opportunities for community members to learn by
doing
• Start small, ensure safe environment to try new things
• Target the widest possible range of community members

Positive Deviancy
Suggests that when confronted with an intractable problem that is resistant
to other change strategies, then look for those outliers within the
community or organization who have already successfully
addressed the issue, then provide opportunities for these „positive
deviants‟ to teach other community members.

The solutions to complex long term problems in communities and
organisations are to be discovered within these organisations or
community “somebody just like me”…
Invisible in plain
sight…often invisible
positive deviants don‟t
realise what they are
doing and yet they
flourish while their peers
struggle” (The Power of
Positive Deviance, 2010)


Four Critical Tasks in Leading Change

Appreciating Mobilising
Change Support

Leading
Change

Building
Change Executing
Capability Change


Informal Connected

Un-precious Agile

Inspired

Gutsy

Engaged

What is success?
To laugh often and much
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
And endue the betrayal of false friends
To appreciate beauty
To find the best in others
To leave the world a bit better
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch
Or a redeemed social condition
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived
This is to have succeeded
RALPH WALDO EMERSON


Singapore - Leading change from the middle Workshop April 15-16 2013

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