Facilitating Emergent Change in Business Social Systems

“People don't resist change. They resist being changed.” ― Peter Senge
Change naturally arises out of people having shared understanding of what is happening in an organisational system. By creating system maps that show a shared picture of diverse pain points, we can help cultivate collective motivation for change, that does not alienate anyone. Lean, Agile and other resonant systemic approaches provide a useful library of patterns to tackle systemic improvement with. These understandings can be formed into a shared narrative for change, of sorts. Taking time to create this shared understanding and narrative, unleashes the latent energy for change in a system, such that the change can start to happen by itself, given the right nurturing. Building a change narrative resonant with all stakeholders can require careful framing and social science experimentation.
Having a frame of experimentation and dialogue cultivates a frame of inquiry and humility, where no one person or faction believes they alone have the answers. Through shared dialogue and experimentation, collaborative systemic improvements emerge. The way of improving the system also is part of the new system that is created.
The last few years, I have been leading human systems change based on this view of change, using Lean Change methodologies, combined with systems mapping approaches. In this talk I will talk through some of the details of this approach, showing examples of change work I have done.
 
 

Outline/Structure of the Presentation

  • Systemic mapping approaches
  • Building shared narratives for change
    • Experimentation for narrative building
  • Common change intervention experiment patterns
  • Patterns for scaling change
  • Combining the vital smarts influencer model and change canvases

Learning Outcome

  • Understand system mapping approaches to cultivate human and work system change
  • Understand social science based approaches to test and build narratives for change
  • See examples of common patterns of systemic improvements needed
  • See examples of customised Lean Change approaches combined with the Influencer model

Target Audience

Anyone interested in creating human business systems change

Prerequisites for Attendees

Some familiarity with Lean and Agile would be helpful but not a must

schedule Submitted 4 years ago

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