Building Smarter Organizations SIKM February 2018

Building Smarter
Organizations
Gordon Vala-Webb
SIKM Webinar
February 2018
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com

“We are kept from our goal
not by obstacles
but by a clear path
to a lesser goal.”
Robert Brault

I have worked in range of organizations in
public, private and non-profit sections
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 3
Brocksway Information Technology

To survive, our organizations need different
capabilities
Old world VUCA – Digital world
Grow big Grow adaptable
Reliably repetitive Radically responsive
Control Predict

www.Dynamic Adaptation.com
#ChangeIsComing
• Flows – not knowledge Stocks
• Predictions / Bets – not Repeat
• Nurturing – not Managing
• Being Smart – not a Zombie

What is going on?
Some observations about our world

Observation: work has been getting “smarter”
Slide 7
Source: http://cdn.dupress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-01-at-9.20.13-PM.png?2b7236

Observation
• Unhappy, disengaged people
• Command-and-control
culture
• Surprising number of
psychopathic leaders

VUCA-Digital world
cc: frogthroat - https://www.flickr.com/photos/22980078@N04
“The Specter of an Accidental China-U.S. War”
“Sears tanked because the company
failed to shift to digital.”
Observation:

Observation: Organizations face an obsolescence
squeeze
https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/why-lean-enterprise-transformation-hard

Observation: New things are a bet based on a
prediction about what is the signal
Classifying Experimental Designs
Source: https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/expclass.php

What is the solution?
Take the “Z” test

Fundamental solution: faster flow of information,
ideas and decisions
http://www.squ.edu.om/Portals/20/PDF/World%20Water%20Day%202011/Adrian%20Bejan_%20The%20Constructal%20Law%20of%20Design%20in%20Nature%20.pdf
“For a finite-size system to
persist in time (to live), it
must evolve in such a way
that it provides easier access
to the imposed currents that
flow through it.”
Constructal law, Adrian Bejan
13@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com

Contrast
Zombies
organizations
Slow flow, looking
in and backwards
@BuildSmarterOrg
www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 14
Smart
organizations –
Fast flow, looking
out and forward

What is a zombie organization?
Take the “Z” test

Flow constrictions: the “Z” test (click here)
•Mindset
•Communication
•Decision-making

“Z” test: Mindset
Mindset
True?
Leadership prefers slogans to reality
Most people here want to work somewhere else
We rarely learn from our mistakes
People do not trust each other much

“Z” test: Communication
Communication
True?
Too many emails and other internal communications
People do not know what is going on across our
organization
It’s hard for people to get useful feedback on their
ideas

“Z” test: Decision-making
Decision-making
True?
Coordinating work with people in other parts of the
organization is hard
Easy to get to a “No” decision - hard to get a “Yes”
Meetings here are useless and unproductive

Mindset:
“We rarely learn from our
mistakes”
“Vulnerability is the
birthplace of innovation,
creativity, and change.”
Brené Brown
Leadership
By KetaDesign (http://www.ketadesign.ca/eaglephoto5.html)

Communication:
“Too many emails”
Email by the numbers:
122 Number of emails a typical
worker receives every day
28% Average work week
consumed by emails
77 # times per day people
check their emails
@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 21Rob Cottingham
http://www.socialsignal.com/image/truly-multitasking
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-social-economy
http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pdf
https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/Home_page/Research_files/CHI%2016%20Email%20Duration.pdf

One change, 125 different people, 700+ interactions
@BuildSmarterorg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com 22
Gottfredson, M. (2012, June 28). “The focused company.” Bain & Company. Bain Brief. Retrieved from http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-focused-company.aspx
Decision-making: “Easy to get a no”

Poll:
What’s your “Z”
score?
7+ EMERGENCY!
4-6 Danger
1-3 Congratulations

What is a “smart” organization?
Situational awareness, rapid learning and maneuverability

Being smart:
Situational awareness
To know where you are in a
VUCA world you need:
• Broad range of
information
• Fast sorting between
signal and the noise
• Precedents don’t help

Being smart:
Rapid learning
• Building and rebuilding
models to understand the
world
• Learning through
experimentation
• Practicing unlearning

Being smart:
Maneuverability
Applying what you have
learned is the key
• Silo-based, top-down,
incremental decision-
making is SLOW
• Pushed-down, cross-
silo, decision-making
with everyone
engaged is critical

Flow constraints

Flow constraint: Command-and-control
culture (and disengagement)
Do as I say
Don’t think too
much
Don’t make
mistakes
Don’t be too
different

Flow constraint: Silos and zero-sum thinking
“In a healthy system,
information flows are
unimpeded by clots of
power or the sclerosis of
hierarchy.”
Philip Slater, The Chrysalis Effect Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nasser_al-
Din_Shah_Louvre_MAO776-Edit.jpg

Flow constraint: Email!
Memorandum to Secretary Walcott re: his son Stuart’s grave site; as found in “Evolution of the Memo, 1849-2011.” (2011,
November 17). Smithsonian Institute Archives. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/SIArchives/evolution-of-the-memo
Closed
Connects
few-to-few
Random info
structure

Mini-silos of disorganized emails you can’t find
Morrison, A., Parker, B. (2011). “The collaboration paradox: More social information helps the workforce find what it’s looking for.” PwC Technology Forecast.
Issue 3. Retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology-forecast/2011/issue3/assets/transforming-collaboration-with-social-tools.pdf
Emailed
Knowledge

Building smarter organizations
Open mindset, fast-flow communications, and accelerated decision-making

Three keys
Open mindset
1
Fast-flow
communications
2
Accelerating
decision-making
3
@BuildSmarterOrg

1) Open mindset
Move to
connected-and-
contributing
Mass spontaneous
alignment
Vulnerability is
encouraged

Open mindset: zero-based thinking

. . . Pull what and when you need info
. . . Info and ideas are openly available
. . . Working together in a document
. . . Info has structure and context
Source: http://www.pwc.com.ar/es_AR/ar/publicaciones-por-industria/assets/transforming-collaboration-with-social-tools.pdf
2) Fast flow communication: Enterprise networking platform

Fast flow communication: Making work visible
95%
Non-luminous

3) Accelerating decision-making
Downward flow, within a silo, known
problems and opportunities
Cross-silo decision flow for novel
problems and opportunities
Conversa-
tionalists
Testers
Core
team
Source: Fishbrne, T. (n.d). “Helping GrowthCloud Communicate Ways To Grow With Their Clients.” Image. Retrieved from
https://marketoonist.com/campaigns/all/growthcloud
“How Employees Shaped Strategy at the New York Public Library”
Bruce A. Strong and Mary Lee Kennedy HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, DECEMBER 5, 2016
Source: https://hbr.org/2016/12/how-employees-shaped-strategy-at-the-new-york-public-library

Accelerating decision-making: Spot the hot
areas

Accelerating decision making:
Decision management
•Open platform
•Decision managers
•Frameworks and methods
•Data sets
•Training and coaching
•Fast-flow communications

Changing thinking about change

Shifting the equilibrium – polarity management
Slide 43@BuildSmarterOrg www.BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com
Source: Koller, R. (n.d.). Oversimplifying Change Management. Blog post. Retrieved from
http://www.howtochangemanagement.com/2012/12/oversimplifying-change-management.html

“Those who
are hostile
attack like
partisans”
“There is nothing more difficult
to take in hand, more perilous to
conduct, or more uncertain in its
success, than to take the lead in
the introduction of a new order”
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
@BuildSmarterorg

Influence: feeling creatures that think
Slide 45
David Rock, “SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others”;
NeuroLeadership Journal, 2008
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/thurs_georgia_9_10_915_covello.pdf
Relative importance
Error response
Choosing
Friend / foe
Unfairness = threat

Targeted effort: three Cs (Dave Snowden)
Constraint
management
•Removing or
creating
Coupling /
connecting
•New
connections
Catalysts
•Creating
attractors
46
“The difficult tasks of the world must be handled through the
simple tasks” Tao Te Ching

“Try or try not. There is only do not with no try."
Gordon Vala-Webb – Building Smarter Organizations 2016Slide 47
“Try or try not.
There is only do not with no try."

Questions?
Gordon@BuildingSmarterOrganizations.com
www.buildingsmarterorganizations.com/
@BuildSmarterOrg
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Building Smarter Organizations SIKM February 2018

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Building Smarter Organizations SIKM February 2018