Ecstasis Blog

In his recent blog entry, Otto Scharmer writes, ”

i am just returning from a three day cabinet workshop in a country in Africa. the purpose was on reconnecting the political leadership with the real needs of the communities. in preparing the workshop, the Prime Minister talked about “poverty” in the context of the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) and about the “poverty of ideas” in the context of development strategies, that is, in the context of development economics. it was really special being together with this community of leaders that all share the same background: the liberation struggle of taking their country from dependence to independence. the years of the liberation struggle stood out to a level 4 change experience for all of them. now, after independence, and after moving into government, of course it is much more difficult reconnect with that level 4 experience on a collective level. the leadership challenge that most of them face is a double split: a horizontal split (silos among and within ministries) and a vertical gap (separating the political leadership from civil servants and the real needs of the communities on the ground). so the question for them is this: how can we, in our everyday leadership work, cross these two gaps?

any ideas on that?

Here is my response to Otto:

Hi Otto: Your question, “how can we, in our everyday leadership work, cross these two gaps?” is a good one in that it reminds us of the reality that macro-systemic change is interdependent with micro-systemic change (the individual leader). In our work with leaders, teams, and organizations we constantly remind the individual and the collective of the need to seek the edge and the next opportunity for change. We give them the visual of an infinity loop to remind them of the scope of their work: driving organizational change (in this case a government or ministry) on one side of the loop, and on the other side of the loop facilitating the development of the people with whom they collaborate to bring about change.

To live and lead in this leadership loop, the individual, the team, and the organization want to be living and leading within a U as well. So the question becomes, how do you provoke and evoke the continual reflection and dialogue necessary to enable positive transformation at every level so as to ‘mind the gap’ and minimize the negative impact of these naturally-occurring splits in the larger system.

There are three questions I would continuously pose to the leaders in this (or any system attempting to manage large scale change): What do we need to do? What do we need to stop doing? How do we need to show up (as individuals and collectively) in order to achieve our objectives? That would be a fun conversation to convene!

The dominant topic for our clients in all verticals at the moment is change.  This is the overriding business imperative all are facing: The way we work is changing. How do we lead change rather than react to it?

There are three essential components to leading change successfully.

1.     Create a compelling vision of the future. Where do you want to go? What is the case for going there? How will you measure success along the way and at the end?

2.     Align thought and action. Is there clarity about what will be done to realize the vision, who’s doing what, and by when? Is there a common language and process tool kit for leading change embedded with leaders at every level to ensure consistency in execution?

3.     Grow leaders at every level. Do you have leaders who are agile and adaptable? Are your growing your capacity at every level to sustain high engagement and high performance?

Only you know how prepared you or your organization are to lead change. Too many negative responses to the questions above may be a sign that there are conversations with your key stakeholders to agree the vision, create alignment, and grow your capacity that need to occur.  As many organizations are entering the last quarter of their fiscal year, the time is to ripe to define the future state, analyze the current state, and build a cohesive and comprehensive plan to frame the transition from where you are to where you want to be – in short, to lead change.