Skip to main content

Five Truths of Change

 We must no longer see the world as a machine with isolated, separate parts needing to be “fixed.” Rather, we must recognize that each part is connected to a greater whole. 
“whole system transformation” is more than simply a change that affects the entire system, it means that the entire system is involved in creating itself anew. 
The five truths of change are:
System: A system is comprised of a set of parts or components that are related or interconnected in such a way as to form an organic whole that focuses on performing a function. Thus, applied to organizations of people, the term “system” means that it is composed of two or more people, and perhaps other elements, connected for the purpose of performing a function. 
Purpose: The transformation is clearly purposeful. if you don’t know where you’re going, you literally won’t know when you get there. And this is why having a clear purpose is so important. Purpose is defined as a positive difference that occurs through the transformation.
Journey: The transformation is a dynamic journey.Whole system transformation is comprised of more than just an event. It is a purposeful system-wide journey of change. The journey is characterized by key actions, important questions, critical decisions, and ways to evaluate progress at each step along with way. A transformation journey is an ongoing process, not a one- or two-day strategic planning session.
Theory: Transformation is guided by theory. The next truth is the notion that the founders ground themselves in the building blocks of theoretical frameworks. Each of the founders and all of their followers honor the work of the people who went before them, who developed theories. 
Values: Transformation is shaped by values. Each of the founders of whole system transformation methodologies that we studied is profoundly and consistently driven by values. We as consultants must live our values with every breath we take, every word we utter, and every design we use. When we are intervening in a system and we always are, it is particularly critical to live our people values at every step


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Foundational Structures of Systemic Thinking: Reinforcing and Balancing loop

A  reinforcing loop  is one in which an activity creates an outcome that impacts business as usual activity in this manner bringing about development or decay. The reinforcing loop is one of the two basic structures of systems thinking, the other being the Balancing Loop.  Because of the manner in which this structure reinforces itself it generally produces exponential growth or decline. This exponential change may be unnoticeable for a period of time until it reaches a certain threshold. The structure then seems to change very rapidly causing one to wonder how it began all at once, when in fact it really didn't. The growth just wasn't substantial enough to be noticed. A  balancing loop  tries to move things from the current state (the way things are) to the desired state (goal or objective) through some action (whatever is done to reach the goal). A balancing loop is representative of any situation where there is a goa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reinforcing Loop in Action

A system represents a complex dynamic between its various sub-units. One of the most visible parts of a system is the reinforcing loop. The reinforcing loop is perhaps most visible because it works on an incremental basis. It is that fundamental element in a system that defines growth and increment. As defined by Senge, a system is said to be in a reinforcing loop when each small action builds on the other. This snowball effect of each action building on the previous one can either lead to a virtuous cycle or can actually lead to decline of the system. Most often reinforcing loop, perhaps because of it name, generates a perception of it being that element of the system that fosters growth, thus giving it a positive connotation. In systems thinking however, the concept is far broader. It refers to those elements or actions within the system that lead to amplification and maintenance of certain behaviours. This amplification does not necessarily mean that the behaviour that is gen...
2 comments
Read more

How to calculate ROI of Large system change intervention?

It’s true that companies spend a lot on large system change interventions; this makes it very crucial that companies are able to measure the added value. Companies always need to know if they are getting return on investment; even if we are getting ROI how can we calculate it? One of the reasons that ROI can be particularly difficult to calculate is the different factors that impact an intervention. These factors can be time and quality but are not essentially quantity and money therefore is difficult to put into a basic equation of: output / input equals productivity (output/input = value). Real problem here is that if we consider that if money as input, output will be money too. However this is not always the case in terms of large system change intervention. So how do we measure an impact which can be expressed as currency value? Calculating the full financial ROI of Large System interventions has been elusive resulting in undermining the perceived credibility of large syst...
1 comment
Read more