Avoiding The Iceberg of Organisational Change

The concept of the ‘iceberg of ignorance’ – that most problems in organisations are invisible to leaders, and therefore unsolvable – was popularised by Sidney Yoshida in the late 1980’s.

Nearly 30 years later we find ourselves in the place where most transformation efforts fail, or seem to be based on a strategy of changing the business as little as possible.

It’s not difficult to see a link between the two. If change is delivered top down, by the people furthest away from the problem, it’s a hardly a surprise we get this perfect illusion.

Change appears to be happening, but what we are really witnessing is just a makeover of the status quo.

A new way of getting the same results we always got.

A couple of weeks ago Bromford Lab hosted a session looking at the future of work and a really interesting thing happened.

Two colleagues who had never met (one in the room, one on Skype) started talking about a problem they faced and how they’d go about resolving it.

They’d free up resources and get them as close to the customer as possible

They’d devolve responsibility and decision making to themselves and a few other colleagues

They’d deliver a better and more personalised service to their customers that they felt would save a lot of time and money

In just a few minutes of conversation they’d come up with something more rebellious, and more workable, than I’d heard from months of other sessions.

The reason is they are personally invested in the problem – and want change now – not in a few years time.

At the moment most change programmes are mostly linear, planned, time-framed, well resourced.

The behaviour is totally at odds with digital networks that are fluid. messy and have erased all hierarchies.

Related: Why Is Digital Transformation Failing?

There are two worlds of power in our organisations right now. The challenge is resisting the lure to presume one is automatically better than the other.

Maybe there’s a third way. Where one provides the platform for the other.

It’s helpful to think of large scale change programmes as just the infrastructure for change. A reboot of organisational governance.

It’s building a stage – just an empty one.

The real action will only happen when you free up people to take the stage, break the rules and experiment.

(1) Disobey unjust rules, (2) ask for forgiveness, not permission, (3) team up, and (4) go public – Corporate Rebels

The opportunity is for large scale programmes to use their resources to leverage in a culture that embraces new and foreign ideas and quickly assimilates them.

A culture where change is led by everyone – not initiated by leaders and consultants

Where everyone is actively questioning the status quo.

You can’t have a mass movement without the masses.

Truly transformational change would be to take back control: from the bottom up.

Related: We Need Rapid Experiments Not Silver Bullet Solutions