Determinants of collective action and strategies to undertake for activist organizations
The Secret Life of Organizations: Where the Action Is
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Transcript of The Secret Life of Organizations: Where the Action Is
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Shrink-Wrapped in Our Own Thinking:Thinking That Transforms
Presented by
Ariane David, PhDSenior Partner
The Veritas GroupCalifornia State University, Northridge
The Secret Life of Organizations:
Where the Action Is
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Shrink-Wrapped in Our Own Thinking:Thinking That Transforms
There’s no need to remember everything or take amazing notes:
this PowerPoint presentation is posted at
www.theveritasgroup.com
The Secret Life of Organizations:
Where the Action Is
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The Life of Organizations
Understanding culture
– Visible life
– Secret life
Unlocking the secret life
Transforming the secret life
Today we’ll focus on…
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Organizational Culture and the Secret Life
Culture influences everything we do and think within the organization.
Culture extends out to the farthest reaches of the organization surmounting geographic and social barriers, and it is amazingly resistant to change.
Culture is the social container in which everything in an organization takes place.
Culture is the greatest hindrance to change but can also be the greatest help.
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Why is there culture and how did it evolve?
To contain the sum of organizational/societal experience
To transmit knowledge, norms and values
…and as a result
To maintain order and the status quo
To contain group anxiety by fostering predictability
Culture simply happens on its own unless you take the lead.
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The Visible Life of Organizations
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What makes up culture: visible life.
Tangible artifacts: what we can see, touch, hear, taste, smell
Expressed rules of the Game: espoused norms, standards and values
Mission and vision statements, and all the things we say about ourselves
Conscious/ expressed behavior, language, customs, traditions, shared assumptions
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What makes up culture: visible life. (cont)
Expressed metaphors and symbols
Organizational knowledge, stories and expressed history
Formal performance plans and measures, rewards and punishment
Formal distribution of power and expressed leadership norms
Sanctioned/formal communication including social media
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The Secret Life of Organizations
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The secret life is the container for everything that’s
most magical and exciting about an organization.
Creativity
Engagement
Real communication
Commitment
…but there’s also a dark side that thwarts these things.
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What makes up the secret life.
The REAL rules of the Game: actual norms, standards and
values
Shared unexpressed basic assumptions, meanings, and
metaphors and symbols
What people know
Unsanctioned communication including gossip,
un-discussables, and social media
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What makes up the secret life. (cont)
De facto rewards and punishment
How leaders actually lead, and how power is distributed
What really motivates and de-motivates *
Hidden individual and group dynamics *
Hidden organizational thinking including how we solve
problems, handle conflict, and make decisions *
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Hidden Demotivators
Poor work conditions
Poor salary
Poor relationship with supervisor
Poor relationships with peers
Management characteristics of supervisor
Lack of career future
Meaningless or unsatisfying work
The absence of demotivation does not equate to motivation
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Hidden Motivators
Trust in managers/fairness
Opportunity to be creative
Personal responsibility and autonomy
Meaningful work
Personal values that correspond to organizational values
Sense of relationship
Recognition
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Thinking in the Secret Life of Organizations
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Hidden Organizational Thinking
What we say vs. what we do
Organizational defense patterns (hiding failure and errors)
– Undiscussables
– Blame (the buck flies around)
– Mixed messages and fancy footwork
Groupthink, group shift, and conformity
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Positional Thinking Major thinking errors in organizations.
Tyranny of Knowledge
Zero-sum Illusion
Baboon Trap
Lost Key Dilemma
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Tyranny of Knowledge
Choosing existing knowledge simply because it’s the knowledge we have.
Doing what worked in the past only because it worked in the past, without examining how
appropriate that strategy is in light new information.
It includes assuming the future will be like the past.
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Zero Sum Illusion
Believing that there is a limited amount of “solution”, including “either/or” and “fixed
position” thinking.
Distributive bargaining.
Politics today.
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Baboon Trap
Thinking for the short term, not how current actions lead to future outcomes. Ex. Tragedy of the
commons, Hawaiian mongooses
Seeing only parts, but not how they’re related or how they form a whole, including shifting the burden. Ex.
Auto manufacturers; the “gap”
Seeing only symptoms but not the underlying causes
Attachment to unworkable situations. Ex. Our LIVES!
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Lost Key Dilemma
Looking for information/solutions/answers somewhere only because that’s where the
information is easy to access.
Not everything that can be counted counts;
not everything that counts can be counted.
(Variously attributed to Albert Einstein, W. Edwards Deming and a half dozen others)
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The Secret Life and Organizational Learning
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Two Kinds of Organizational Learning
Adaptive Learning: Non-learning Organization
How to avoid pain and get pleasure
• Based in fear• Uses blame to succeed• Purpose is survival (groupthink)• Defensive (organizational defense patterns, blame)
Generative Learning: Learning Organization
Learning is its own reward
•Based in curiosity and openness•Uses accountability to succeed •Purpose is growth and self-expression•Creative
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Non-Learning Organization: Positional (Adaptive) Problem Solving
BLAME
Problem
Fear
Blame / Fault
DefensivenessDenial
Distorted Information
Ineffective Action /
No Learning
Fear /Blame
No learning can take place in the space of blame.
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Learning Organization: Non-Positional Problem Solving
Problem
Quality information
and communication
CollaborationEffective action
Organizational learning
Openness / Curiosity
Accountability
Mistakes are the price we pay for learning.
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Changing Organizations and the Secret Life
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Changing organizations by transforming
the secret life.
If you want to create permanent change you need to transform the culture to support it.
But first you need to unlock the secret life
Culture transformation can be intentional or unintentional.
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Unlocking the Secret Life: Thinking non-positionally
Realize/acknowledge that you don’t know what’s going on
Decide what it is you want to know and why
Approach your research with curiosity not certainty
Sleuth out the situation
– Observables vs. assumptions
– Organizational “habits” that are implicated
– Hidden organizational thinking and thinking errors
– Think of analysis as building the story line
Breakout: Figuring out the problem
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Figuring Out the Problem: Breakout
What is the problem?
– Observables vs. assumptions What are the actual behaviors?
– Human dynamics that are involved
– Organizational “habits” that are implicated
– Hidden organizational thinking and thinking errors ✪
– How the culture keeps it all in place
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Hidden Organizational Thinking
What we say vs. what we do
Organizational defense patterns (hiding failure and errors)
– Undiscussables
– Blame (the buck flies around)
– Mixed messages and fancy footwork
Groupthink, group shift, and conformity
✪
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Hidden Organizational Thinking ✪ Major thinking errors in organizations.
Tyranny of Knowledge
Zero-sum illusion
Baboon trap
Lost Key dilemma
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Transforming the Secret Life
Clearly define where you are now
(what you figured out about the secret life)
Clearly define where you want to be
For each change that you want to introduce, ask
– What cultural “habits” need to be created in order to support them?
– What cultural “habits” need to change?
– What are the behaviors associated with these “habits” and how can we minimize them? How can we strengthen the behaviors we want or change those we don’t? (more on this in a moment)
Identify “resistance”
(cont.)
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Transforming the Secret Life (cont.)
Define a strategy for the change including how to overcome
cultural obstacles and resistance, and reinforce allies*
Include how to engage people
– Communication: up and down
– Ask for people’s ideas
– Find out what people need
– Find out what really motivates them
Be consistent in upholding changes
`
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Change, the Secret Life and Resistance
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Overcoming Resistance
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Overcoming Resistance
News Flash!
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Overcoming Resistance
News Flash!
Resistance is an illusion - it does not exist.
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Overcoming Resistance
News Flash!
Resistance is an illusion - it does not exist.
Only reactions to change exist.
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Reactions to Change
All change generates a reaction that either reinforces the change or pushes back on it.
When it reinforces it’s called an ENABLER.
When it pushes back it’s called a RESISTOR. Resistors create resistance.
Resistance to change cannot be managed by bull-dozing it. The only way to deal with resistance is to understand what lies beneath, and work with that.
News Flash!
It is not human nature to resist change or fear the unknown.
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Reactions to Change
How, then, do we deal with resistance?
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Reactions to Change
Resistance is a natural, inevitable and unavoidable human reaction to disruption.
How much of it we have relates to the size of the disruption and the way in which it is being handled.
Begins immediately when people become aware of the change.
Is neither good nor bad.
Is expressed overtly or covertly.
Perception is reality!
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Managing Resistance to Change: Non-Positionally
Don’t assume you know what’s going on. Resistance is very rarely what we think it is.
Identify specific resistors: people, conditions, fears, motives (think “fruit”)
Identify the underlying causes of each of these resistors.
Identify specific enablers.
Make a Force Field Analysis for resistors and enablers.
Find ways of weakening resistors and strengthening enablers.
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Change Force Field Analysis
Resistors(weaken resistors)
List RESISTORS and assign a value from 1 to 6, 6 being strongest
Enablers(strengthen enablers)
List ENABLERS and assign a value from 1 to 6, 6 being strongest
5 4 3 2 1 ITEM ITEM 1 2 3 4 5
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Creating a Culture from “Scratch”
TOPRAK: A mind experiment.
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Shrink-Wrapped in Our Own Thinking:Thinking That Transforms
Questions/Comments/Feedback
Ariane David, PhDThe Veritas Group
Additional Information
www.theveritasgroup.com
The Hidden Life of Organizations
Where the Action Is