Get change done
Comprehensively. Rigorously. Confidently.
To do this, we need to manage the organisation on the basis of a model, a theory, of how organisations work. Read below the key principles of our approach.
A modern organisation is an interconnected system of people, physical assets and reporting systems solving a problem together on behalf of a board
1
People and technology are entangled
Your people, operations and reporting are interconnected, interdependent parts of one system
People adjust and respond to the performance, response and time lags of physical assets. Reporting policy, format, quality and timeliness inform decisions made on the ground. All components of the system are enmeshed into a coherent and congruent whole, driving emergent, as opposed to deliberate, strategy.
Change demands coherent work across all components of the system, not just new IT, equipment and dashboards in isolation.
2
Peoples’ priorities drive resource allocation
Where you and your team actually spend your time says much more than your strategic plan
Employees’ attention is the most valuable resource. They decide how to allocate it on the ground in the “fog of war” in a dynamic prioritisation process. Day-to-day actions define emergent strategy and matter as much as top-down deliberate strategic goals.
To understand, manage and change organisations we need to clearly see what people do and why, not what the organisation says they do.
3
Influence, judgment and incentives drive priorities
Well-designed incentives scale much more effectively than inspirational speeches and off-sites
Interpersonal relationships within and across reporting lines affect individual priorities. Peoples’ judgment – their accumulation of their values, experience and training – shape their interpretation of facts and decision-making. Financial incentives drive behaviours. Before and during change, we constantly need to ask: what truly sets our priorities today? How should all three drivers be reconfigured to achieve the priorities we need?
Our work and experience indicate that there are real limits to influence; past a certain organisation size, incentives are the most effective way to coordinate priorities.
