What’s your theory of change? What issues are you trying to address? What creates and sustains those issues? What kind of interventions and when are most likely to prove successful? What would success look and feel like, and for whom? What is your overall goal? These are some of the questions we looked at on a Theory of Change workshop I took part in yesterday. Theories of change are becoming increasingly commonplace in the third sector, paralleling e.g. strategy maps in other sectors. There are a number of reasons for this. Charities and NGOs are under increasing scrutiny from supporters and funders to demonstrate how their resources are being used to achieve optimal impact. This has created a whole industry in impact evaluation.
The third sector is maturing too. No longer driven into action by empathy or altruistic instinct alone, organisations in this sector have more experience, more evidence of what works and what doesn’t and more analysis and understanding of why. The issues have turned out to be more complex than some had originally imagined, making significant and sustained progress challenging. Against this backdrop, a theory of change can prove valuable. It aims to clarify goals and outcomes and to work back to activities and other factors that will enable the outcomes to be achieved. In articulating these things clearly and succinctly (often in simple graphic flowchart form), underlying assumptions and causal links can be surfaced, explained and tested. At heart, a theory of change answers questions such as ‘What are we trying to achieve?’, ‘What is necessary for the goal to be achieved?’ and ‘What’s the rationale behind our intervention strategy?’ In doing so, it makes the organisation’s focus, operations and use of resources transparent, accountable and more open to challenge and improvement as new research and evidence emerges. I find myself particularly drawn to the critical-reflective aspects. For instance, one NGO I worked with conducted a fundamental strategy review starting with these same principles, asking questions such as, ‘Why are people poor?, ‘What causes and sustains poverty?’, ‘What interventions make the greatest difference?’, ‘What is our optimal contribution?’ One of the interesting challenges for a third sector organisation is whose voice is represented in framing and answering such questions, e.g. donors, beneficiaries, trustees, staff, volunteers. A charitable organisation I work with currently conducted a strategy review recently, inviting feedback from beneficiaries using surveys, focus groups etc. to find out what they struggle with and aspire to and what role they would want to see the organisation playing in helping them address or achieve these issues. The needs and aspirations that surfaced have been summarised as ‘I’ rather than ‘we’ or ‘they’ statements in clear and colloquial language, keeping the focus on what each individual as beneficiary wants to experience as a result of the organisation’s actions. This is a sharp contrast with some experiences I’ve had in the past. In one instance, a third sector organisation I worked with set up a drop-in project providing advice and support for long-term unemployed people. The Local Authority provided funding using ‘number of people using the service’ as its key success criterion. Paradoxically, the more successful the service was in enabling local people to find employment, thereby reducing the number of people who needed to access the service, the more the service was deemed statistically by the Local Authority to be failing. A theory of change can help surface such outcomes and assumptions at an early stage, enabling more constructive dialogue and agreement between agencies and stakeholders. I believe the potential for theory of change extends beyond third sector organisations aiming to articulate their vision, strategy, plans and reasons behind them. I’ve used similar methodologies to explore and articulate an organisation development strategy within a third sector organisation. We started by exploring a number of questions with diverse stakeholders and groups such as, ‘What kind of organisation are we trying to develop?’, ‘Where are we now?’, ‘Why are things as they are?’, ‘What drives or sustains how things are?’, ‘What matters most to people here?’, ‘Who or what influences change?’, ‘What would it take to achieve the changes?’ This enabled us to create a map showing goals, activities, assumptions and causal relationships. The same principles can be applied at team and individual levels too, e.g. for leadership, coaching, mentoring, training and counselling purposes. It enables dialogue between different parties and keeps rationale and assumptions explicit. If assumptions are clear to all parties, they can be challenged and revised in light of different preferences, perspectives, realities and evidence. I’ve used adaptations of this approach with people and organisations where Christian beliefs have been held as important and integral, developing the model as a theology of change. A theology of change may surface and articulate e.g. God’s purpose, values, presence and activity in the world, the role of the Spirit and Christians, discerning a sense of ‘calling’. In my experience, the language and methods of applying theory or change need to be adapted for different purposes and audiences. It represents a logical-rational paradigm that is likely to work well for some people and cultures but not so well for others. Using Honey & Mumford’s learning styles as one possible frame of reference, theory of change (as the name implies) may appeal most to people, teams or cultures with a theorist orientation. Reflectors may be attracted most by its emphasis on surfacing underlying assumptions, activists by the evidential dimensions and pragmatists by its focus on outcomes. Perhaps the key lies in using the principles it embodies flexibly and sensitively in the context of real human dialogue and relationship.
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‘Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.’ (Morpheus, The Matrix. 1999)
The concept of matrix in organisations has been around for some time now but what does it look like in practice? Some describe it as collaborative working across functional boundaries. Some describe it as dual reporting relationships with a hard line to a functional lead and a dotted line to a project lead. Some describe it as a network of multiple reporting relationships, each with equal authority. What has your experience of matrix been? How has it worked in practice? What has it felt like for those involved? What has it called for in terms of new styles of leadership, team working and personal effectiveness? What new culture, attitudes, approaches and skills has it required? What tensions has it created and how have you navigated them? What has most influenced its success? If you were to offer three lines of advice on this topic, what would they be? I would love to hear your thoughts! Perhaps it’s natural to think about change in the new year. It marks a new calendar period, the start of brighter evenings, a change of seasons…depending on where you are in the world. The first time I visited Thailand was a big change for me, my first experience of Asia, somewhere I had longed to visit for years. It was December, the end of one year with a new year in sight. It was a development programme for leaders from 17 countries, an exciting experience.
One of the speakers, Dr Lim Peng Soon, led a day looking at Managing Transitions, based on William Bridges’ research and writings under that same title. I want to share some of his insights here, drawing on Bridges and some of my own insights too in case they may be of benefit to others. I’m also interested to hear more from you on this topic, e.g. what have you experienced, noticed or learned when leading or coaching others through change? We can distinguish between ‘change’ and ‘transition’ as something like this: change is what happens around us; transition is what happens within us. In other words, change is situational, transition is psychological or even spiritual. The latter is a process of reorientation from what-has-been to what-is-going-to-be. This involves moving from endings (leaving the past) through a ‘neutral zone’ (the inbetween phase) to a new beginning (the future state). If change leaders don’t pay attention to leading transitions alongside leading change, they can lose talented people, struggle with communication as anxiety is high or trust is eroded, find low levels of poor performance or high levels of stress and absenteeism. This demands attention from the outset. How people experience leadership and change will have as much impact on the desired outcomes as practical change plans and programmes. As Soon comments, ‘In change management you start with the end in mind. In transitions management you start with the end-ings in mind’. This points to the need to recognise that change often implies loss or leaving. Who will lose what? How far does it matter to them? How can we mark endings and show proper respect for the past? What can we hold onto alongside that which will change in order to ensure a degree of continuity? The endings phase starts as soon as people become aware of the changes. As leaders, it’s a phase that at its best entails drawing close to people, listening to them, hearing their questions and concerns. Too much emphasis on a positive future can feel insensitive at this stage, especially if it seems to negate or prohibit people sharing how they feel about the loss that change implies. ‘When you’re feeling the pain, it can be hard to see the gain.’ The neutral zone is where people often feel ambiguous or disorientated. They may be starting to move on but haven’t yet let go of the past or grasped hold of the future. During this phase, the future may seem unclear, uncertain or scary. People may feel more confused, irritable and tired than usual. They may appear to zigzag between moods, sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes despondent. As leaders, listen, be patient and be prepared to provide support. The new beginnings phase is where the proverbial psychological dust is beginning to settle, the future looks clearer, people start to feel more focused and energised and previous difficulties are perceived as opportunities or challenges. People are ready to move on, to push ahead with creating and stepping into the future state. As leaders, this is the time to positively envision, to stoke the fires of inspiration, to involve people in creative and engaging tasks. In my experience, one of the biggest leadership challenges is to be sensitive and patient throughout the transition. Leaders tend to go through transitions faster because they create and lead the change. It takes time for other people to work through the changes the leaders have already processed. People can be inappropriately labelled as ‘resistant to change’ when they are simply working through a normal transition process and experience. On this point, Soon cautions us to be aware of the ‘marathon effect’. Leaders may race ahead and become very critical of people apparently lagging behind, especially if they appear to be holding up the changes. In a marathon, the front row sets off first but it takes a while for the middle section to start moving and even longer for people at the back. By the time people in the middle and back sections are moving, leaders can be already racing off to the next initiative. Finally, the fact that people go through the same change doesn't mean they go through the same transition. Some may embrace change enthusiastically from the outset, others may struggle at first but move on to become solid supporters in time. In Bridges' model, people tend to experience something of all three states simultaneously. It's really a question of which is the dominant state at any point in time and to act as leaders and coaches accordingly. Critical reflexivity…hmm…what’s that? Sounds complicated. It's something about noticing and paying attention to our own role in a story; how I influence what I perceive in any relationship, issue or situation. I was re-reading one of my favourite books, An Invitation to Social Construction (2009) by Kenneth Gergen this morning which introduces this concept with the following explanation: ‘Critical reflectivity is the attempt to place one’s premises into question, to suspend the ‘obvious’, to listen to alternative framings of reality and to grapple with the comparative outcomes of multiple standpoints…this means an unrelenting concern with the blinding potential of the ‘taken for granted’…we must be prepared to doubt everything we have accepted as real, true, right, necessary or essential’. I find this interesting, stimulating and exciting. It’s about journeying into not-knowing, entertaining the possibility that there could be very different ways of perceiving, framing or experiencing issues or phenomena. It’s about a radical openness to fresh possibilities, new horizons, hitherto unimaginable ideas. It’s a recognition that all my assumptions and preconceptions about reality could be limiting or flawed. I’ve found this critical reflexivity principle invaluable in my coaching and OD practice. How often people and organisations get stuck, trapped, by their own fixed ways of seeing and approaching things. The same cultural influences that provide stability can blind us to alternative possibilities. The gift of the coach or consultant is to loosen the ground, release energy and insight, create fresh options for being and action. It resonates with my reading of the gospels. Jesus Christ had a way of confronting the worldviews, traditions and apparent ‘common sense’ outlook of those he encountered in such a way that often evoked confusion, anger or frustration. It’s as if he could perceive things others couldn’t see. He had a way of reframing things that it left people feeling disorientated. He operated in a very different paradigm. I will close with words from Fook & Askeland (2006): ‘Reflexivity can simply be defined as an ability to recognise our own influence – and the influence of our social and cultural contexts on research, the type of knowledge we create and the way we create it. In this sense, then, it is about factoring ourselves into the situations we practice in.' How can I help you develop critical reflexivity in your practice? Get in touch! info@nick-wright.com Do you work in organisation development (OD) or human resources (HR)? Or do you work in leadership and management and feel curious to know what these fields are, what they cover and what the differences are between them? Do you feel confused by distinctions when when, after all, they are both concerned with human aspects of organisations? I will attempt to introduce both fields below and to explain common focus areas, differences between them and what kinds of people tend to be drawn to them. What is OD? OD is a broad field of thinking and practice. Different organisations use this term differently, to mean different things. OD practitioners often have a psychological and systemic orientation and focus their attention on areas such as leadership, culture and engagement. They are interested in questions like, ‘what human-related factors are influencing this organisation's success?' ‘why are things as they are?’, ‘how could we be more innovative or effective?’ Their core skills include relationship-building, questioning, reflecting, influencing, reframing and sense-making. OD practitioners are often found working alongside top teams, providing internal consultancy, guidance and coaching. They aim to raise awareness, stimulate fresh ways of thinking, challenge the status quo, build capacity for the future, enhance organisational experience and effectiveness. Key words associated with this field: e.g. strategic, leadership, culture, values, relationships, teamwork, engagement, inquiry, challenge, opportunity, influence, concept, change, innovation, dynamics, perspectives, reframing, sense-making, capacity, learning, development, impact. What is HR? HR is a fairly well-defined field of thinking and practice. Different organisations use HR in different ways. As a general principle, however, HR practitioners often have a legal, policy and process orientation and focus their attention on areas such as employment and performance management. They are interested in questions like, ‘what staff resources do we need?’, ‘how can we attract, recruit and retain the best people’, ‘how can we ensure people perform well?’ Their core skills include relationship-building, influencing, applying legal/policy frameworks and assertiveness. HR practitioners are found operating at a number of different levels. These range from HR strategizing through business partnering through policy implementation to payroll. They aim to ensure that staff resources are well deployed and that people are treated fairly and consistently. Key words associated with this field: e.g. employment law, policy, structure, competencies, jobs, talent, contracts, frameworks, staff, recruitment, selection, contracts, management, performance, appraisal, reward, retention, employee relations, discipline, grievance, salary, payroll, benefits. What do OD and HR have in common? OD and HR are both interested in the relationship between people and organisations. They both regard people as a key contributor to an organisation’s success. They both have a humanistic outlook, an ethical belief that people should be treated well. What are the differences? It’s difficult to draw direct comparisons and contrasts because OD practitioners work mainly as coaches and consultants to leadership teams whereas HR practitioners operate at many different levels, ranging through strategic HR, business partnering and transactional-administrative tasks. However, there are some general common characteristics outlined in the table below, bearing in mind these vary from practitioner to practitioner and from organisation to organisation. These differences create potential for synergy and, sometimes, sources of tension.
What could a typical OD role look like?
This varies from role to role and organisation to organisation. In my own experience, I've been responsible in OD roles for strategy and change, values and culture, leadership and management development, staff and team development, internal communication and staff engagement, performance management and development. However, the following are common: Develop effective leaders and leadership teams through coaching, consultancy and facilitation. Support effective change leadership through providing guidance and building leadership capability. Work alongside leaders to develop an inspiring, engaging and effective organisational culture. Create leadership development opportunities (e.g. seminars/training, mentoring, action learning). Oversee the L&D function, focusing on management, staff and team development. When does OD work with HR? OD and HR practitioners most commonly work collaboratively in areas including the following: Change leadership and management. Performance management and development. Talent management and development. Induction and training. Your feedback If you've had different experiences of OD and HR, or hold different views about what they are and the differences between them, please do share your views here too! I would be interested to hear more. I'm indebted to Rosabeth Moss Kanter for her wise insights and guidance on change leadership, especially in her excellent article, 'Managing the Human Side of Change'. I will share some of her insights and suggestions below along with some of my own and how these could look as guiding principles. I would be very interested to hear from others too...what principles have you found that make the greatest positive difference when dealing with human dimensions of change?
1. Loss of control 'How people greet change has to do with whether they feel in control of it or not. Change is exciting when it is done by us, threatening when it is done to us. Giving people chances for involvement can help them feel more committed to the change.' (In what ways can you get people involved in the changes you are planning?) 2. Staying close Leaders can be tempted to avoid contact with people affected by change in case they face criticism or questions they can’t answer. Staying closer to people during change enables communication and builds trust. (What opportunities can you create to engage with people throughout the change?) 3. Excess uncertainty 'If people don’t know where the next step is going to take them, change can seem dangerous. Information, coupled with the leaders’ actions to make change seem safer, can convert resistance to commitment.' (What do people impacted by the change need to know to minimise uncertainty?) 4. Surprise surprise! 'People are easily shocked by decisions or requests suddenly sprung on them without groundwork or preparation. Give people advance notice, a warning, and a chance to adjust their thinking.' (What do people need to hear now to help prepare them for the change?) 5. The difference effect 'Change requires people to become conscious of, and to question, familiar routines and habits. Maintaining some familiar sights and sounds, the things that make people feel comfortable and at home, is very important.' (What good things can you safeguard to maintain a sense of continuity?) 6. Loss of face 'If accepting a change means admitting that the way things were done in the past was wrong, people are certain to resist. Commitment to change is ensured when past actions are put in perspective – as the apparently right thing to do then, but now times are different. This way, people do not lose face.' (What things can you do positively to affirm the past?) 7. Future competence 'Sometimes people resist change because of personal concerns about their future ability to be effective after the change: Can I do it, how will I do it, will I make it under the new conditions, do I have the skills to operate in a new way? We have to be sensitive enough to make sure that nobody feels stupid, that everyone can ask questions and that everybody has a chance to be a learner, to come to feel competent in new ways.' (What could you do to enable people to meet future demands?) 8. Ripple effects 'Change sometimes disrupts other plans or projects, or even personal and family activities that have nothing to do with the job, and anticipation of those disruptions causes resistance to change. Effective change masters are sensitive to the ripples changes cause. They introduce the change with flexibility so that, for example, people who have children can finish the school year before relocating or managers who want to finish a pet project can do so.' (What is negotiable to make the change more workable for those affected?) 9. More work 'The effort it takes to manage things under routine circumstances needs to be multiplied when things are changing. While an employee is working harder, it certainly helps to know that your boss is acknowledging that extra effort and time.' (What can you do practically to affirm people working through the changes?) 10. Past resentments 'Anyone who has ever had a gripe against the organisation is likely to resist the organisation telling them they now have to do something new. Going forward can mean first going back – listening to past resentments and repairing past rifts.' (What past hurts need to be dealt with in order to go forward positively?) 11. Dealing with loss 'Sometimes a change does create winners and losers. Sometimes people do lose status, clout or comfort because of the change. We all need a chance to let go of the past, to mourn it. Rituals or parting events to honour the past help us let go.' (What creative rituals could you do to celebrate the past and enable people to move on?) 12. Modelling values The way leaders treat people during change reveals their true values. When leaders act honourably with love, care and respect, it builds trust, loyalty and hope for those who stay with the organisation. (How will your values influence your decisions and behaviour?) If you’re tempted to cut back on L&D when budgets are tight, think twice. ‘Isn’t it easier to cut staff training than to make cuts in other business areas?’ Easier, maybe; wiser, maybe not. Let me pose four inter-related reasons why business leaders should pause before letting the axe fall.
Consider your talent. Talented people are those who make a disproportionate contribution to your organisation’s success. They’re the ones who leave a big hole if they leave. They’re also the ones who will find it easiest to leave if you don’t invest in their learning and growth. Consider what makes your business succeed. Whatever your business is and does, I can guarantee it will depend on knowledgeable, skilful people. Disinvest in people development and, over time, your knowledge and skills base will erode and your performance with it. Consider engagement. Engaged people are those who put in discretionary effort, sell your business by their enthusiasm, inspire and motivate others to do their best. Such people love to learn and grow. Cut back on L&D and you risk losing the hearts of your most committed players. Consider your customers. They look to your business with high expectations of high quality products or services, and high quality customer service. If customer experience is compromised by poor service from untrained or disheartened staff, you can wave goodbye to their cash. But what are the corresponding demands on L&D? Is L&D as an investment of value per se? It does symbolise valuing and investing in people. Nevertheless, the onus lies on L&D professionals to ensure its value in terms of attraction, retention, development and business results. I would be interested to hear of any examples from organisations where business leaders have chosen to continue or increase investment in L&D in hard economic times. For example, what were the drivers, what convinced you, how did you achieve it, what were the results? Who or what has most influenced your OD thinking and practice? What maxims or principles do you bear in mind as you approach organisational issues from an OD perspective? Someone asked me this question recently and I crystallised my response into seven statements, drawing on background influences including Morgan, Schein, Bolman & Deal, Gergen and Burr:
*Organisations do not exist but people do. *Every action is an intervention. *Actions have symbolic as well as rational meaning. *What’s important is not what happens, but what it means. *The same event has different meanings for different people. *People get trapped in their own psychological and cultural constructs. *What passes for rationality is often irrationality in disguise. These statements, taken as a whole, create a metaphorical lens through which I often view, analyse or interpret a situation or experience. They help me to consider an underlying question, ‘What is really going on here?’ before attempting to work with a client or organisation to devise a way forward. What maxims or principles do you use to guide your practice? Christian organisations in the UK are experiencing challenges with redefining their identity in a 21C secular environment, particularly in light of legislation prohibiting the exclusive employment of people who share these organisations’ Christian beliefs. What do these changes mean for Christian organisations? What does it mean to be a ‘Christian organisation’ anyway? How can such organisations embrace greater diversity and, at the same time, retain their unique Christian distinctiveness?
Take organisation X: in now employing non-Christian staff alongside Christian staff, is it essentially a Christian organisation that happens to employ some non-Christian staff or really, at heart, a new type of hybrid organisation – a mix of Christian and non-Christian? The implications of this distinction are very significant. For instance, has X implicitly changed its core identity, even if its mission is still intact? What does it mean for teams staffed predominantly by non-Christians? What are the implications for X's brand? There are parallels with the current social-political debate about what it means to be ‘British’. How is X to relate to those who don’t share its core Christian beliefs? Should its approach be characterised by, for instance, reluctant tolerance (e.g. accept that it has to employ non-Christian staff owing to legislative requirements but focus on ‘containing the problem’), positive assimilation (e.g. welcome non-Christians as part of the organisation but expect them to adapt to its current cultural norms) or active accommodation (e.g. change its own cultural norms to embrace greater diversity)? These questions press right to the heart of Christian identity at individual, team and organisational levels. What is critical to nurture and safeguard and what is negotiable? How are such organisations to conduct themselves in relation to others? What are the key ethical principles involved? To what degree should secular or alternative faith perspectives now be represented alongside Christian perspectives in their policies and practices? What should be the spiritual practices of those teams in which non-Christian staff are employed alongside Christians? In which specific respects should such organisations be distinctive? This situation isn't new. In fact, there has been a debate for some time in Christian organisational circles about the nature and practice of Christian distinctiveness. I believe the debate could be framed differently and more helpfully, however, around Christian authenticity. When Christians are authentic, there will be dimensions in which we are distinctive (e.g. faith in Christ as Saviour). There will also be dimensions in which we are not distinctive but which are, nevertheless, consistent with our faith (e.g. commitment to social justice). We need to consider what it means for non-Christians to be authentic in shared organisational environments too. At leadership levels, organisations need to decide which dimensions of their Christian beliefs, identity, mission and values are fundamental and thereby non-negotiable. This releases them to identify which other dimensions (e.g. cultural expressions) are flexible and open to modification or negotiation. They need to safeguard and nurture those things that are non-negotiable and adapt those things that are negotiable in light of current circumstances. They also need to live out their beliefs, identity, mission and values in order to be congruent. This is true at individual, team and organisational levels and poses cultural challenges where those beliefs etc. are inconsistent. The problem with ‘distinctiveness’ is that it necessarily focuses on difference, separateness, division. An alternative biblical model is the incarnation in which we see Christ share our common humanity whilst retaining his unique divinity. This model illustrates in a very radical sense how sharing common ground and experience with others can build bridges, whilst holding onto specific distinctives too. It also provides a relational platform from which those dimensions that make us distinctive can be more easily and readily understood. This may be a useful model for organisations like X to explore further in terms of its practice implications. This issue is important but not unique to any one Christian or faith-based organisation. Other faith-based organisations in the UK and elsewhere are grappling with similar issues and seeking to act with wisdom and integrity too. We could learn from one-anothers’ practices and experiences. We could create spaces for dialogue, experimentation and learning. This could be a key issue for the Christian leadership agenda. We have the opportunity now to consider future implications of current actions in order to help ensure we develop in the way and direction we intend and hope for. |
Nick WrightI'm a psychological coach, trainer and OD consultant. Curious to discover how can I help you? Get in touch! Like what you read? Simply enter your email address below to receive regular blog updates!
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