 Four Leadership Keys
to Successful System Change
by Leland A. Russell
Do you recall the story of Sisyphus, condemned by the Greek gods to push a boulder up a hill through all eternity? As soon as he reached the top and thought he had succeeded, the boulder rolled back down the hill, forcing him to repeat his effort—again and again.
This often happens with attempts to implement a new strategic direction or introduce a new product or alter the structure of an organization. People work hard and are mystified when the results are unsatisfactory. They end up having to repeat the process again and again. The problem is that they attempted to introduce fundamental change into a dynamic, living system—a market or organization—and living systems have enormous inertia. The status quo rules and change is anathema. The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back. Given that, it is not surprising that a number of studies reveal a 80-90% failure rate for such initiatives.
Even when the initiative appears to succeed, the change is often temporary. The system simply snaps back to the status quo when the external pressure stops. In the world of physical materials, this is called the Hysteresis Effect: force applied against a material deforms it, but when you release the force, the material tends to return to its original position. The material remembers where it had been. To achieve permanent change in physical materials, you must push the material beyond its “elastic limits." The same is for achieving sustainable system change in a market or organization. You must push the system it beyond its “elastic limits."
What does it take to push the system beyond its “elastic limits" and overcome its inertia? Below are four leadership keys to successful system change.
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Leadership Key #1 ─ Understand the System's Components
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Leadership Key #2 ─ Focus On System Leverage Points
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Leadership Key #3 ─ Rapidly Create ‘Good Enough’ Plans
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Leadership Key #4 ─ Implement Rapidly In Parallel Approach
Leadership Key #1 ─ Understand the System's Components
You can't change something you don't understand. So Leadership Key #1 is to understand the makeup of the system, the components, which fall into three broad categories—People, Process and Physical Infrastructure.
People — there are three types of people in a living system: the Leaders who set policy and provide overall direction; the system Agents who have the authority and responsibility to sustain, advance and protect the interests of the system; the various Populations of people who can be considered as a unit because of their similarities (e.g., job functions, demographics, etc.).
Processes — this refers to sets of activities (routines, protocols methodologies, etc.), such as communications, acquisitions, product development, product quality, customer service, and staffing. Without these sets of activities the system would cease to function.
Physical Infrastructure — this refers to the system's tangible infrastructure that you can see and touch, such as buildings, vehicles, computers, and telecommunication networks.
All the above operate under the influence of related forces. For example, the related forces influencing an organizational system (e.g., your company) would include its culture, policies, strategies, marketplace dynamics, broader macro environment, etc.
Leadership Key #2 ─ Focus on System Leverage Points
Leadership Key #2 assumes that you already: 1) understand the makeup of the system; 2) have defined what you want the system to look like in the future (Future Picture) and the Big Steps to get there. If that is the case, you are ready to focus your action planning on the system’s Leverage Points—the people, processes and physical infrastructure that exert the greatest influence with regard to achieving each of the Big Steps.
A Leverage Point analogy from architecture would be the keystone of an arch. It is not the primary strength of the system, but rather a source or enabler of strength. However, If the keystone is removed the arch falls.
In an organization or market, there are usually multiple Leverage Points to consider. For example, your competition; key customers and suppliers; key employees above and below you in the organization; core processes like finance, marketing and decision-making.
To achieve your goals, you always need to move more than one of these system Leverage Points in the right direction—and the more you move in the least amount of time the better. Indeed, the extent and probability of sustainable success is directly proportional to the number of system Leverage Points affected and the speed and coordination with which they are affected.
Leadership Key #3 ─ Create ‘Good Enough’ Plans
No plan survives its contact with reality. Adjustments are inevitable. That is why a ‘good enough’ plan aggressively executed and adjusted in real-time is far superior to a perfect plan too long delayed.
Many people have a problem with this approach. They loathe taking action until they are absolutely sure they haven’t overlooked anything. Like a cautious engineer, they succumb to the urge to plot one more data point in order to know with certainty the slope of a curve.
The problem, of course, is that there’s always an infinite amount of information available. And the longer you plan, the more your original information grows stale and needs to be updated. Furthermore, while you are gathering more and more data to create the perfect plan, someone else is gaining first-mover advantage.
Don’t aim for planning perfection. Aim for a “good enough” plan to affect each of the key system Leverage Points and vigorously execute that plan. You can improve it as you move it. Samuel Daniel, a contemporary of Shakespeare, had it right when he said, “Audacious ignorance hath done the job while timorous wisdom stands debating.”
Leadership Key #4 ─ Implement Rapidly In Parallel
Your probability of success increases significantly when you launch a concerted effort over a relatively short period of time using a Parallel Approach, which has three essential elements:
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Multiplicity—many Leverage Points are affected; these Leverage Points have been selected from a comprehensive System Map based on their relevance to the higher order goals.
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Specificity—all actions are focused on achieving specific desired effected (identified in the ‘good enough plan’ develop consistent with Rule #3 above.
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Simultaneity—the effects occur at about the same time. For example, the likelihood of success in creating sustainable organizational change or a successful strategy implementation is far higher when multiple People, Process and Physical Infrastructure Leverage Points are affected within a very short period. Taking a long time to affect them can easily lead to failure. At a minimum, the cost goes up and the probability of success goes down.
The methods of affecting multiple Leverage Points in parallel in an organization could include:
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Large Group Planning events (onsite and online)
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Cross-functional strategic initiatives
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Leadership and workforce education via:
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High-impact Communications and horizon thinking events
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2-Way, multi-level feedback loops between leaders and rank-and-file
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New policies, core processes and organizational structures
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New physical infrastructure (e.g., new technology platforms, new software, new facilities).
Summary
When you attempt to change a dynamic system, you will ALWAYS encounter enormous inertia. This is the nature of dynamic systems.
The four keys to rapid, successful system change are:
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Leadership Key #1 ─ Understand the System's Components
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Leadership Key #2 ─ Focus On System Leverage Points
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Leadership Key #3 ─ Rapidly Create ‘Good Enough’ Plans
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Leadership Key #4 ─ Implement Rapidly In Parallel Approach
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