An effective change process will begin with a clear and compelling rationale for considering making a change at all. The process will encourage and create opportunities for input from as many stakeholders as possible. That input process will be structured in such a way as to encourage and reward positive input. The process will also tell stories from the organization's history that provide precedent narratives for proposed changes.
An effective leader needs to be the organization's best-informed historian. Any organization that has been around for a while will have experienced a variety of changes. With a little effort and imagination, the leader can find precedent narratives for almost any proposed change. I spend much of my time in the church world, so that's where many of my examples can be found.
Most congregations have experienced changes in worship schedule at some point in history, and those changes are documented somewhere. Most congregations have moved or built or both. Congregations have successfully navigated changes in pastoral leadership. Congregations have adopted new hymnals and constitutions and confirmation programs and fundraising strategies. Most congregations have survived significant episodes of conflict...otherwise they wouldn't still be here.
With a bit of investigation, we can find precedents for almost any change. Then as leaders, we can begin to tell precedent stories. Those stories always begin in this way. "This is a lot like the time when this congregation (fill in the event or change in question)..."
If you have folks who are the living memory of the organization, they can do this work for you. Some of my most useful conversations have been with folks who let me prompt them in this way. "We're considering (Change X, Y, or Z). Do you remember a time when the congregation did something similar? How did that go, and how did it turn out?"
We need to look for a couple of things in these precedent narratives.
One is the simple permission to consider a change at all. We simply forget how many changes we have undergone in our personal and communal lives. We remember everything through the lens of the present. Things that seemed like radical innovations at the time are now experienced as always having been that way. Our memories sort out the bad and keep the good. So we lose touch with the struggles we experienced to get to this point in our lives. We exaggerate future risks and minimize past headaches.
We also need to seek what Appreciate Inquiry practitioners call the "root causes of success." As we think about these precedents, we have the opportunity with the benefit of hindsight to consider why the changes worked (assuming they did). We can inquire as to whether those root causes continue to exist in the organization. If they do, then the proposed change will seem much safer. If they don't, then perhaps we can do something to replicate them--and the success itself.
An effective leader needs to be the organization's best-informed historian. Any organization that has been around for a while will have experienced a variety of changes. With a little effort and imagination, the leader can find precedent narratives for almost any proposed change. I spend much of my time in the church world, so that's where many of my examples can be found.
Most congregations have experienced changes in worship schedule at some point in history, and those changes are documented somewhere. Most congregations have moved or built or both. Congregations have successfully navigated changes in pastoral leadership. Congregations have adopted new hymnals and constitutions and confirmation programs and fundraising strategies. Most congregations have survived significant episodes of conflict...otherwise they wouldn't still be here.
With a bit of investigation, we can find precedents for almost any change. Then as leaders, we can begin to tell precedent stories. Those stories always begin in this way. "This is a lot like the time when this congregation (fill in the event or change in question)..."
If you have folks who are the living memory of the organization, they can do this work for you. Some of my most useful conversations have been with folks who let me prompt them in this way. "We're considering (Change X, Y, or Z). Do you remember a time when the congregation did something similar? How did that go, and how did it turn out?"
We need to look for a couple of things in these precedent narratives.
One is the simple permission to consider a change at all. We simply forget how many changes we have undergone in our personal and communal lives. We remember everything through the lens of the present. Things that seemed like radical innovations at the time are now experienced as always having been that way. Our memories sort out the bad and keep the good. So we lose touch with the struggles we experienced to get to this point in our lives. We exaggerate future risks and minimize past headaches.
We also need to seek what Appreciate Inquiry practitioners call the "root causes of success." As we think about these precedents, we have the opportunity with the benefit of hindsight to consider why the changes worked (assuming they did). We can inquire as to whether those root causes continue to exist in the organization. If they do, then the proposed change will seem much safer. If they don't, then perhaps we can do something to replicate them--and the success itself.
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