Why it matters: It is hard to make change happen if leaders provide lip service to the cause. It is impossible if they actively oppose change. So what are you going to do?
Several weeks ago I spent too much time in the middle of the night considering a scenario of apparent change resistance. I concluded that not everything that looks like resistance is what it appears. Rather there was a bigger issue hiding in plain sight; the concept of change indifference/change apathy. As a change leader, the difference is not academic because it impacts how to address the issue. As organizations remold themselves to address the culture and pressures of the 2020s we need to find a path to empower organizations and to improve their craft while at the same time struggling with pressures to contain costs and grow. The solution cannot merely be messaging.
We also have a visit from Susan Parente. We discuss manipulation and persuasion from the Not A Scrumdamentalist perspective.
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Now for something completely different. Over the past few years, I have contemplated philosophy in the context of work and life. Our re-reading of How To Be A Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci is just the tip of the iceberg. Today we take the second exit at the roundabout and start the read/re-read of Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen. My eldest daughter and her partner suggested this book after an early morning discussion on change and economic disparities. They thought Sen’s work and this book would fit well into my contemplation of change and philosophy. It was pointed out they both had copies of the book and had kept their copies of the books over the years. Even though I was offered a loan of one of the copies, I decided to start with a loan from my library (I use Libby on my iPhone and iPad and love it) and then bought a copy of my own.Â
SPaMCAST 756 welcomes back Paul Gibbons. In this visit, we discuss his new book Change Myths: The Professional’s Guide to Separating Sense from Nonsense which he co-authored with Tricia Kennedy. I have described Paul’s new book as a Trojan horse. While it dispels myths it more importantly provides the tools for critical thinking which will allow you to tackle new myths as they appear.
Pau’s bio:
Paul Gibbons is an author, academic, speaker, and business consultant He has authored numerous books, including Change Myths: The Professional’s Guide to Separating Sense from Nonsense and The Science of Successful Organizational Change, He lives in the Denver area with his two sons and enjoys playing poker, chess, and other mind sports.Â
The Podcast this week features my interview with Unmesh Srivastava. We talked about organizational culture and disrupting health care through development that is customer-focused. We also spent time discussing the need for empathy in order to find critical business needs. Unmesh points out that many times technologists think with their technology before they think with their hearts.
One of the classic change anti-patterns from time immemorial is the pronouncement from on high that “we are going to be _____” — you fill in the blank. I have seen this pattern repeated over and over across my career. I will even admit to having been a participant in programs based on this antipattern. Reflecting on pronouncement driven change, I would suggest that most of these changes have no long term staying power. Almost every change in this category declared “done” failed as soon as leadership attention moved on. The force of the pronouncement that “we are agile” was never enough to sustain change. Legitimacy is a critical component for why change programs or transformations flame out or survive after the victory party.
While I was contemplating the discussion of the second of the three core capabilities for teams to prosper after the COVID-19 lockdowns are lifted, I got an email from a friend asking why I did not think the business environment would return to where it was a few months ago. While reading my friend’s email, I got a breaking news text reporting the World Monetary Fund saying they expect one of the steepest recessions on record. Last evening I read a piece from Goldman Sachs discussing whether the slowdown would follow a V or U pattern (the U pattern will take longer to recover). The experts all agree that the future will be different. In any scenario, there will be dislocations and a new reality; that new reality will require teams to prosper. Teams that focus on an outcome of efficiency, dependability, and effectiveness will have the clearest path. One positive is that all of the core characteristics are demonstrable. (more…)
This week we re-read Chapter 3 of Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. One of the core themes in this chapter is the concept of ego depletion.  Ego depletion is a theory that self-control, as a form of system 2 thinking, draws from a finite pool of mental resources. When the pool is low, so is self-control. I did some research on the topic and the evidence is mixed whether there is an ego depletion impact. Regardless, from the point of view of Chapter 3 the idea is that heavy mental and physical loads on a person spread their ability to think and make decisions thin is not a stretch (and we should not expend a significant cognitive load on the topic). Whether the triggering mechanism is ego depletion or something else is not as important as the observable impact – when people are under mental stress they don’t always make the most thoughtful decisions.   (more…)
Software Process and Measurement 