Changing... out of date tools
© 2024, James McLean
During the last week, I have been preparing for a presentation/workshop with senior leaders in local councils. I've been asked to share ideas about working in complexity with a group with very different roles.
As I listened to the challenges that were being faced, I realised just how complex the task was! Challenges including:
Diverse views about complex issues (e.g. climate change, housing, community development) exist within the council chamber and even more in the councillors' constituencies.
Disinformation is an ongoing reality.
The ongoing challenge of compliance, governance, financial viability and maintaining infrastructure.
My visualisation of the challenge started to crystallise as a Venn diagram (I'll save this for later as I want to launch it at the presentation) because an added part of the challenge is unseen - a blind spot.
We are trying to make progress on these complex challenges with tools and processes that have emerged from a mechanistic way of seeing the world—one that observes us all operating like clockwork—consistent, predictable, and predetermined, where change is imposed by the clockmaker because the clockmaker is in control. The tools that emerge and are compatible with this view include project management (there, I said it!), which predetermines outputs and outcomes and aims to be delivered on time and on budget. This type of approach is not compatible with working with complex challenges where we don't know what the 'solution' is, and we need to learn our way to it. The very structure of the project management process eliminates the possibility of trying things we don't currently know.
I recall reading a wonderful article by Chris Mowles from 2008, that explored the idea that the structure of the grant process for foreign aid in developing communities actually impeded and undermined the desired outcomes. The process replicated project management principles in many ways - predetermined tangible outcomes and fixed short-term time frames. Accountability processes that compared the upfront outcomes with those achieved (little learning allowed along the way). An assumption that we already know all we need to know and can just deliver the solution.
This pattern repeats itself continuously. If we are to work with complexity in an intelligent and effective manner, we need to embrace all the complexity and work with it in ways that meet the complexity of the issue, the diverse perspectives - and the complexity of managing or guiding the process.
New processes are emerging (e.g. Bill Sharpe's Three Horizons approach to strategic thinking), and it takes some courage to let go of the old and try out the new, but I delight in those teams and organisations who are willing to try.
I am currently working with three clients; a senior ICT leadership team, a group of university academic supervisors, and a state government community and environmental team doing just that. Their sense of responsibility to try to be more effective, to learn more about how to do that, to enjoy the journey together, to come alive in the process of working through the differences with curiosity... to make a difference. It's a joy!
What's your experience with changing... out-of-date tools?