Transcript Hello Lisa! - Minnesota Organization Development Network

Plexus Institute
LIBERATING STRUCTURES
Using the Science of Change
Lisa Kimball
[email protected]
www.plexusinstitute.org
Minneapolis
April 12, 2012
MNODN
1
Structure of Speed
Networking
1. Space
– Open
– Standing face to face
2. Participation
– Everybody at once
and at the same time +
equal time for all
3. Configurations
– Pairs
– Strangers preferably
4. Time allocation
– 2 minutes per person
– 3 rounds
5. Conceptual Framework
– 1 issue question
– 1 solution question
Components of all Structures
1. Space: physical arrangements
2. Participation: who is included, how,
when and how much
3. Configurations: sizes and composition
of groups
4. Time allocation: time spent in each
configuration
5. Conceptual framework: a concept, a
question or a purpose that informs the
interaction
“….the next century will be the
century of complexity.”
(Steven Hawking, 20th Century)
4
What is Complexity Science?
• Science that attempts to:
– Understand and explain the
behavior and dynamics of systems
composed of many interacting
elements
– Uncover the principles and
processes that explain how order,
change and innovation emerge in
5
these systems
Before Complexity
• Scientists believed the future was knowable given enough
data points
• Dissecting discrete parts would reveal how everything -- the
whole system -- works
• Phenomena can be reduced to simple cause & effect
relationships
• The role of scientists, technology, & leaders was to predict
and control the future
• Increasing levels of control over nature would improve our
quality of life
6
Newton & the Machine Metaphor
• In science
– the search for the basic building blocks
• In society
– The whole is no more or no less than the sum
of parts, so focus on the parts (e.g. functions,
detailed plans, disciplines)
– Organizations, health systems and people are
implicitly viewed as machines (or machine
parts)
7
From Physics Envy To Biology Envy
Simple
Complex
8
Interdependent Attributes
Self-Organization
& Emergence
Adaptable
Elements
Embedded
Systems
Order &
Disorder
Diversity
Non-Linearity
Distributed
Control
9
The appearance of control is always
an illusion.
– Gayle Pergamit & Chris Peterson
Confusion is a word we have invented
for an order that is not yet
understood.
– Henry Miller
Problems & Opportunities
Awareness Iceberg
4%
known to
top leaders
9%
known to
middle managers
74%
known to
supervisors
100%
Action
unleashed @
the front line
Internationally acclaimed study conducted by Sidney Yoshida,
initially presented at the International Quality Symposium
known to
the front line
The Importance of Engagement
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Widens the circle of involvement
Involves the whole system
Increases commitment and energy
Connects people to each other and to ideas
Generates better solutions
Creates communities for action
Turns meetings into working sessions
Speeds up implementation
New Option for Transformation
→ Same people
→ Same incentives
→ Same organizational structure
→ NEW CONVERSATIONS
Relationships and CONVERSATIONS
Decentralized, Small Talk
Polite Conversation
• Fully autonomous
• Unconnected
• Unstable
relationships
• Diverse or Uniform
• Random growth
Centralized, Ordered Discussion
Facilitated, Bureaucratic Talk
• Largely dependent
• Connected by
power/permission
• Fixed relationships
• Uniform
• Growth from center
out
Distributed, Generative Talk
Messy, Loose, Complex & Creative
• Largely autonomous
contributions
• Connected by simple rules
that guide local
relationships
• Diverse and uniform
participation
• Growth from any point in
any direction
• Order arises out of local
interaction & conversation
Methods that shift interactions
•
•
•
•
•
Stories versus PPT
Listening, Silence
Big Questions
Improvising
Diversity of formats:
pairs, small groups,
large groups
• Focus on purpose
• Inviting participation,
minimizing status
differences
• Rapid learning &
prototyping cycles
• Feedback loops
• Network weaving
• Innovative ways to harvest
output
• Natural environment
• Movement, Fun
• Social elements, mixing
participants
Liberating Structures
Some examples of an expanding, adaptable mash-up of open source methods
1. Appreciative Interviews
2. Agreement / Uncertainty Matrix
3. Creative Destruction via TRIZ
4. Wicked Questions
5. Min Specs
6. Chunking via Rapid Prototyping
7. Improv
8. 15% Solutions
9. Open Space Technology
10. Ecocycle Sifting & Gathering
11. Panarchy: Cross-Scale Change
12. Conversation Café Dialogue
13. Discovery & Action Dialogue
14. Wise Crowds Group
Consultation
15.
16.
17.
18.
Smart Network Mapping
Generative Relationships
Purpose-To-Practice Design
Scenario Planning Critical
Uncertainties
19. Impromptu Speed Networking
20. 1-2-4-Whole Group
21. Troika Consulting
22. Fishbowl Sessions – “What I
Need From You”
23. Celebrity Interview
24. 5 Whys & 10 Hows
25. Storyboarding Agendas
26. Positive Deviance
We search for the minimum structure to liberate the maximum innovation
Attributes of LS Methods
What Other Methods Come To Mind?
• Simple & fast to learn
• Requires very little
explanation or theory
• Draws out insight from
interaction
• Works with groups, units,
or the whole organization
• Focuses attention on
relationship patterns
• Minimally structured for
maximum liberation
• Generates surprises &
novelty without central
control (light coordination
only)
• Invites seriously-playful
participation
• Appeals to people in
diverse roles
• Generates very shortand long-term results
• Illuminates an edge or
paradoxical territory
• Identifies and builds on
assets that exist now
• Invites inclusion & more
diverse voices
• Works with internal and
external customers
Liberating Structures Workshop
• 30 + different methods
• Single organization: all layers
together, top to bottom
• Community with shared
interests
• Ideal 2.5 days + 2 days of
coaching sessions
• Experiential, “try it NOW”
• Intense, Rapid Cycles
• Fun, Seriously!
• Complexity Theory – little or
none, adjustable to interests
• Focus on real challenges,
mundane and sublime
Typical Workshop Agenda
DAY I – 8:30am-5:00pm
Welcome and Purpose
[] Impromptu Networking
Quick Rounds of Conversation With “Strangers” [20]
[] Introducing LS and Purpose
[] Appreciative Interviews
Creating Momentum by Building On and Designing With
“What Works Right Now” [45] twist: flip a problem into an
appreciative search for solutions
[] Agreement)(Certainty Matching Matrix
Matching Simple, Complicated, & Complex Approaches to
Specific Challenges [30] self-reflection, then pairs, then place
challenges on BIG wall chart. Group review.
[] Ecocycle Planning
Engaging Groups in Growing and Sifting Their Portfolio of
Activities [60] What do you notice about the distribution? Any
surprises in the Poverty or Rigidity Traps?
[] 15% Solutions
Noticing and Using the Influence, Discretion and Power
Individuals Have Right Now Twist: move one challenge (from
the Ecocycle) forward with a 15% Solution, then Troika consult
[] Lunch
[] Making Space with TRIZ
Designing a Perfectly Adverse System to Make Space [45-60]
Themes: important customer or patient interaction
[] Flocking CAS [15] How do innovations spread?
[] Work-In-Progress Group Consultation
Tapping the “Wisdom of Crowds” To Solve Problems
Together [60] Possibilities: a big launch, coordination across
silos or boundaries, a chronic/messy problem
[] Design Party Debrief Session
Reflecting on Your Design-In-Progress and Making
Adjustments-As-You-Go (what? so what? now what? among a
small group in the front of the room… link to ladder of
inference)
[] Social Time and Dinner Together
DAY II – 8:30am-5:00pm
DAY III – 8:30am-1:30pm
[] Conversation Café Dialogue
[] Open Space Technology
Making Sense of and Forming Consensual Hunches about Big
Challenges [60] Themes: using LS in your work…
Liberating Inherent Creativity and Leadership In Large Groups
with an Action-Orientation [120] Application of Liberating
Structures to an important challenges for ABC organization
[] Graphic StoryBoarding
Illustrating a Design Process for Key Meetings [10]
[] Generative Relationships
[] Wicked Questions
Understanding Patterns in Relationships that Create Surprising,
New Sources of Value Pick a key group you are in right now
and apply the STAR self-assessment… then action steps.
Framing a Paradoxical Challenge That Engages Everyone’s
Imagination [30] Link to Café: how can we confidently use
Liberating Structures without knowing what will unfold?
[] Positive Deviance: Discovery & Action
Dialogue Self-Discovering Solutions To Big Challenges
Hidden Right Before Your Eyes [60-90] Theme: effective
meetings or…
[] Min Specs/Simple Rules
Unleashing Innovation & Action by Specifying only “Must-do’s”
& “Must-not-do’s” [30] Start with why, why, why… to clarify
purpose, then sift activities. Theme to be selected…
[] Smart Networks
[] Mad Tea Party
Paired Self-Reflection in Fast Cycles [20] in Spanish, English,
Swedish, and Portuguese. Use when energy gets low.
[] Lunch Together and Closing
Optional “improv” activities & simulations:
Flocking CAS
Webbing or CoPs
Leader/Follower F L O W
Blocking/Accepting Offers
Weaving Social Connections and Informal Networks To
Develop & Advance Practice [20] draw personal maps by
hand, review SmartMaps, then Webbing: who do you go to for
expertise… inspiration… permission?...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[] Lunch
[] Work-In-Progress Group Consultation
One-to-One Coaching Sessions as requested
Post Workshop design debrief
Tapping the “Wisdom of Crowds” To Solve Problems
Together [60] recruit 2nd storyteller, focus on consulting skills
[] Chunking, User Research, Prototyping
Tapping Tacit and Latent Knowledge in Seriously-Playful Rapid
Cycles [80] Improv theme: difficult conversation with key
client or peer
[] Design Party Debrief Sessions
Reflecting on Your Design-In-Progress and Making
Adjustments-As-You-Go [20]
[] Social Time and Dinner Together
Day IV and V
Workshop Objectives
~ Experience how Liberating Structures transform
interactions with your peers, students, patients
~ Begin preparing next steps for ongoing use in
everyday practice with customers, peers, and suppliers
~ Discover how Liberating Structures are congruent
with the emerging sciences of complex and/or biological
systems
Learning Approach
• Experiential learning with a minimal amount of
“telling” and a maximum of self-discovery
• Methods are introduced and woven into
interactions around key challenges selected by
participants
• We draw out and build on the direct experience
of everyone in the room
• Goal: Everyone walks out thinking, “I can do this
myself!”
• We search for the minimum structure to liberate
the maximum innovation
Power in Combining Elements!
Immersion in a
large # of simple
self-organizing
methods
A mix of top,
middle & front
line participants
(+ customers)
Focus on complex
challenges that require
diverse participation to
make progress
Invitation to try many
simple methods to your
challenges immediately
One on one coaching
to launch immediate
use in local context
Rapid cycles jointly
shaping solutions &
insights in-the-moment
Why So Many, So Fast?
• Every person is likely to find two or three LS
they like and want to start using. (A few
people will find many)
• LS are modular. They can be mashed-up and
spur new inventions very quickly.
• Participants see patterns across the LS and
gain confidence with experience.
• Quickly using them demonstrates LS are
forgiving. You can get great results without
tight fidelity.
• Rapid cycles show that ideas/answers come
from many sources and levels, not all from
the top.
What is Complexity Science?
• Science that attempts to:
– Understand and explain the
behavior and dynamics of systems
composed of many interacting
elements
– Uncover the principles and
processes that explain how order,
change and innovation emerge in
34
these systems
Surprising Convergence:
We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
Chemistry
Ilya Prigogine, Order Out of Chaos
Physiology
Ary Goldberger, Cardiac Research
Physics
David Bohm, Wholeness
& the Implicate Order
Meteorology
Edward Lorenz, The Butterfly Effect
Complex Adaptive
Systems
Sociology
Robert Alexrod, Complexity of Cooperation
((( Murray Gell-Mann )))
The Quark & the Jaguar
((( Stuart Kaufmann )))
At Home in the Universe
Socio-Biology
E.O. Wilson Consilience
((( John Holland )))
Emergence
((( Brian Arthur )))
Increasing Returns
Computer Science
Christopher Langton
Mathematics
Mandlebrot, Fractals
35
Before Complexity
• Scientists believed the future was knowable given enough
data points
• Dissecting discrete parts would reveal how everything -- the
whole system -- works
• Phenomena can be reduced to simple cause & effect
relationships
• The role of scientists, technology, & leaders was to predict
and control the future
• Increasing levels of control over nature would improve our
quality of life
36
Newton & the Machine Metaphor
• In science
– the search for the basic building blocks
• In management
– The whole is no more or no less than the sum
of parts, so focus on the parts (e.g. functions,
disciplines)
– Organizations and people are implicitly viewed
as machines (or machine parts)
37
From Physics Envy To Biology Envy
38
Focus on Systems
• Study of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)
– Patterns of interactions within them
– Outcomes that emerge from them
– How systems actually behave, not how we
think or expect them to behave
39
What is a Complex Adaptive
System?
• System implies:
– Multiple Agents
– Agents are
Interdependent and
Connected
• Complex implies:
– Diversity
– Many Elements
– Large Number of
Connections
• Adaptive implies:
– Capacity to Alter or
Change
40
Properties of CAS
• Embeddedness: Each CAS • Diversity: A CAS has
made up of other CAS and
many different
is part of (embedded in) a
elements. This enables
larger CAS
a CAS to change
HEALTH SYSTEM
HOSPITAL
UNIT
NURSE
41
Properties of CAS
• Distributed Control: In
a CAS control is shared
by many elements,
rather than centralized
in a single command
center
• Coexistence of Order
and Disorder: In a
healthy adaptive
system, order and
disorder coexist
42
Properties of CAS
• Because CAS are Nonlinear,
a small change may produce
a large effect, or a large
change may produce a small
or no effect
• Inability to Predict:
Outcomes are unpredictable
The Butterfly Effect
43
Properties of CAS
• Emergence: In a CAS
outcomes emerge
through a process of
Self-Organization rather
than through centrally
planned or directed
processes
44
Interdependent Attributes
Self-Organization
& Emergence
Adaptable
Elements
Embedded
Systems
Order &
Disorder
Diversity
Non-Linearity
Distributed
Control
45
Results
Liberating Structures help groups
liberate energy, tap into collective
intelligence, be creatively adaptable,
and build on each other's ideas to get
results.
“After several other
conference sessions with one
or two individuals
dominating the talk and
focusing on their issues only
we were able to accomplish
much more in a day, than in
the previous two days prior.”
- Division Chief,
US Army Cadet Command
Bias for Action
The process designs come from theories
and principles about self-organization,
diffusion of innovation, and change.
“I didn’t think we were going to
be able to pull together so many
different departments that had
not been at the same meeting
before without spending hours
making presentations to explain
what we were all doing. I was
amazed that we just got right to
work! By the end of the day we
were on the same page and
had a way forward on things it
would have taken us weeks of
meetings to accomplish.”
- Program Manager, DC Office of
the State Superintendant of
Education
Liberating Structures Defined
NO
YES
•
Best practices imported
•
Self-discovery in groups
•
Top-down, outside-in
•
Down-up, inside-out
•
Deficit based “What’s wrong
here?”
•
Asset based “What’s right here?”
•
Simple methods for mundane &
sublime challenges
•
Personal development within a
complex social milieu
•
Attracting and inviting ownership
+ unleashing the wisdom of
diverse crowds
•
•
•
Technical, analytic “expert”
training
“Mountain-top” personal
development
Buy-in and alignment strategies
to overcome resistance in subgroups