Michael Edson: Ten Patterns for Organizational Change

Ten Patterns for Organizational ChangeNational Museum Publishing SeminarWashington, D.C.June 19, 2010

Michael EdsonDirector of Web and New Media Strategy

Smithsonian Institution

“From law firms to libraries, from universities to Fortune 500 companies, the organization’s website almost invariably falls under the domain of the IT Department or the Marketing Department, leading to turf wars and other predictable consequences. While many good (and highly capable) people work in IT and marketing, neither area is ideally suited to craft usable websites or to encourage the blossoming of vital web communities.”

Jeffrey ZeldmanLet There be Web Divisionshttp://www.zeldman.com/2007/07/02/let-there-be-web-divisions/

http://www.zeldman.com/2007/07/02/let-there-be-web-divisions/

Preamble

Twitter: @mpedsonhttp://slideshare.net/edsonm

“I am not an official spokespersonfor the Smithsonian Institution”

Preamble



http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/michael-edson-brown-university-digital-strategy-thermocline

http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/good-projects-gone-bad-an-introduction-to-process-maturity-1384375

http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/good-projects-gone-bad-an-introduction-to-process-maturity

This presentation draws from these slides/papers

(and others!)










Preamble



Technology, New Media, and Museums: Who’s in Charge?

(from AAM 2008 annual conference)

Text notes: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/aam2009-session-intro-and-notes-who-is-in-charge-v2

PowerPoint: http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/new-media-technology-and-museums

This one too!

http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/aam2009-session-intro-and-notes-who-is-in-charge-v2

http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/new-media-technology-and-museums

Premise of this presentation

Premise:a)You work in--or have a stake in--museum

publishingb)Your model of … has been disrupted by digital

mediac) You’re interested in--or are struggling with--

how you, your department, or your museum should change because of (b).

“Patterns” can help


The seminal patterns in architecture/urban

design book.

“Patterns” can helpSoftware patterns…


Once you see a pattern and have a name for it you can start to communicate about it…

...and hack it.


This presentation describes ten patterns I’ve found over the last 15 years of trying to figure out how to deal with organizational change.


This presentation describes ten patterns I’ve found over the last 15 years of trying to figure out how to deal with organizational change.

I hope they help!!!

Pattern 1: ICE is real


“ICE” = Internet Changes Everything


“ICE” = Internet Changes Everything

• ~2 billion Internet users• ~4 billion mobile phone subscribers

“Everything we hear from people we interview is that today’s consumers draw no distinctions between an organization’s Web site and their traditional bricks-and-mortar presence: both must be excellent for either to be excellent.”

Lee RainieDirector, Pew Internet & American Life Project

“Twenty years from now we’ll look back and say this was the embryonic period.

The Web is only going to get more revolutionary”

--Tim Berners-Lee, 2006

Pattern 2: Urgency

Pattern 2: Urgency

John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Pattern 2: Urgency


Harvard Business School

Pattern 2: Urgency


Harvard Business School40+ years of studying change

Pattern 2: Urgency


Over 70% of all change initiatives fail.

Pattern 2: Urgency


The 30% that succeed share a single characteristic…

Pattern 2: Urgency


A sense of Urgency

Pattern 2: Urgency


Harvard Business Review “Ideacast” with John Kotterhttp://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=1869

A Sense of Urgency (via Google Books)http://books.google.com/books?id=xCAD8ashi_UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+kotter+sense+of+urgency&source=bl&ots=WXQnhRPxhb&sig=dkqctdFuUhfG5OUD7Gzl4oihmUU&hl=en&ei=j1EfTPLJLMH-8Ab0uajCDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

A Sense of Urgency (via Amazon)http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Urgency-John-P-Kotter/dp/1422179710

Pattern 3: Disruptive Innovation


• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s Dilemma



(Via Amazon)

http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business-Essentials/dp/0060521996



Sears was at the top if the worldin the 1960’s



Sears was at the top if the worldin the 1960’s

They missed discount retailing.


“You’ve got about three years until you’re locked into being just a museum of stuff on the mall”

Executive from a national media/educational brand, about the Smithsonian’s digital strategy

Pattern 4: Strategy Makes a Difference

In today’s environment, where you could be doing almost anything,You need strategy to help you

prioritize tactical opportunities(or

sense an opportunity that isbeyond their grasp.)

Strategy is a tool that “does work”(or

sense an opportunity that isbeyond their grasp.)

“Most organizations don’t getserious about strategy untilthey are afraid or in pain”

(orsense an opportunity that is

beyond their grasp.)Leo Mullen, CEONavigation Arts

http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/


The strategy talks about an updated digital experience, a new learning model that helps people with their "lifelong learning journeys," and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—a new part of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.


The strategy talks about an updated digital experience, a new learning model that helps people with their "lifelong learning journeys," and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—a new part of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.

Old Learning ModelNew Learning Model


Balancing autonomy and control within the Smithsonian.rt of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.


…and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—a new part of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.

Smithsonian Web & New Media Strategy Structure

• Three Themes– Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience– Update the Smithsonian Learning Model– Balance Autonomy and Control within SI

• Eight Goals External Mission

BrandLearning

Audience

Internal InterpretationTechnologyBusiness ModelGovernance

Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendationshttp://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

Web & New Media Strategy Structure

• Three Themes– Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience– Update the Smithsonian Learning Model– Balance Autonomy and Control within SI

• Eight Goals External Mission

BrandLearning

Audience

Internal InterpretationTechnologyBusiness ModelGovernance

Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendations

This gives us a language we can use to understand our work, what’s important, and what change will look like.

Pattern 5: thermocline issues

Thermocline(a metaphor)

Stratified water temperature acts as a barrier

Knowledge, communication,action models are different

Warm light water

Cold dense water


Knowledge, communication,action models are different

Management

Practitioners


Messages get distorted, lost


Thermocline Issues

Focus on innovation/discovery

inside the Institution

Catalyze innovation/discovery

outside the institution

Joy’s Law: no matter who you are, most of the smartest people

work for someone else

Every user is ahero

In their ownepic journey

Thermocline Issues

Provide servicesto passive audiences

Thermocline Issues

The Web is a bigger megaphone

The Web is a fundamentally new

way of gettingthings done

Thermocline Issues

“we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and

to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organization …Getting the

free and ready participation of a large, distributed group with a variety of skills has gone from impossible

to simple.” Clay Shirky

Thermocline Issues

You can managetechnology and content

separately

The most interestingecosystems are

in “border habitats”between the two

Thermocline Issues


More in…

http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/michael-edson-prototyping-the-smithsonian-commons

And…

Pattern 6: You’re not alone


I’ve talked to dozens of museums, businesses, and government agencies in the last year, and they’re all feeling tension around these issues.


I’ve talked to dozens of museums, businesses, and government agencies in the last year, and they’re all feeling tension around these issues.

Just in the last few months I’ve sensed a greater sense of urgency around these issues— “we’re playing for keeps now.”

Pattern 7: You get what you practice

Pattern 7: You get what you practice

• If you tell me you’re training for the Boston Marathon, and I come over to your house, I expect to see sweat socks and running shoes in your hallway and pasta in the fridge.

• Is your executive team working hard enough? Do you see the tangible evidence (meetings, hires, spending, focus) that this is important to your organization?

• By the time you need to be good at this, it’s too late to start training.

• Gladwell’s “10,000 hours”

Pattern 8: Process Maturity

Pattern 8: Process Maturity

• Evolutionary roadmaps for getting from point A to point B

• Originally developed to help organizations figure out what kinds of things they would be capable of doing in the future

• Five plateaus…

Capability Maturity Model1. Initial – Processes, if they are defined at all, are ad hoc.

Successes depend on individual heroics and are generally not repeatable.

2. Managed – Basic project management practices are established and the discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes with similar projects.

3. Defined – Processes are documented and standardized and all projects use approved, tailored versions of the standard processes.

4. Quantitatively Managed – The performance of processes and the quality of end-products are managed with quantitative measurement and analysis.

5. Optimizing – Continuous process improvement is enabled by quantitative feedback from the process and from piloting innovative ideas.

Capability Maturity Model

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined

4. Quantitatively Managed

5. Optimizing

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Success depends on individual heroics


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

“Fire fighting” is a way of life


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Relationships between disciplines are uncoordinated,perhaps even adversarial


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Success depends on individuals

Commitments are understoodand managed

People are trained


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Project groups work together,perhaps as an integrated team

Training is planned and providedaccording to roles


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Strong sense of teamworkexists within each project


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Strong sense of teamworkexists across the organization

Everyone is involved inprocess improvement


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Few stable processes exist or are used

“Just do it!”


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

At the individual project level,documented and stableestimating, planning andcommitment processes are used

Problems are recognized andcorrected as they occur


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Integrated management andengineering processes(how things get built)are used across theorganization

Problems are anticipated andprevented, or their impacts areminimized


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Processes are quantitativelyunderstood and stabilized

Sources of individual problems areunderstood and eliminated


People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Processes are continuously andsystematically improved

Common sources of problems areunderstood and eliminated

I’ve seen most organizations follow this basic path as they mature/evolve their Web and New Media management processes and structure.

1. Ad Hoc (chaotic)

• web program owned by arbitrary stakeholders

• Underground, success (but not repeatable)

• Nothing measured• Dependent on heroics

2. Managed (Emerging)

• Web program owned by separate workgroup, still small, position & importance in organization uncertain (special interest hobby shop, everyone knows it is important but not sure to what degree or how it works).

• Some measurement, explicit responsibility to somebody, usually lower in the org chart

3. Defined: authority vested in some semi-logical entity.

• Director level awareness of web importance, uncertainty over purpose of web & org. placement leads to internal power struggle, debate over "who owns", multiple reorgs.

• Mostly based on competence and/or willingness, without regard to org chart rationale.

• Lots of matrix and dotted-lines• Corsely visible in budgets, PD’s, planning,

measurement


• Professionalization of web, greater awareness of role and key stakeholders, integral part of organization.

• Formal organization, oversight. Usually in the Director’s office to someone without specific background

• Increasing cross-disciplinary expertise/experience: the team is familiar and broadly competent with each others areas of expertise.

5. Optimizing

• There’s Formal ownership in the executive suite

• Directors engaged (look at their appointment book)

• Professional, full-time management• Win/win scenarios with controlled

innovation and experimentation

Using the model


Figure outwhere youare?

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined


5. Optimizing


Ratchet upgraduallyover time

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined


5. Optimizing

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined


5. Optimizing


Don’t skip steps


Don’t slip back!

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined


5. Optimizing

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined


5. Optimizing

Capability Maturity ModelPick projectsAppropriateFor yourlevel

Michael Edson: Ten Patterns for Organizational Change

Technology

Transcript of Michael Edson: Ten Patterns for Organizational Change