The Journey of Change…and the Threads of Continuity

If you want some ideas of what might be a good read on the topic of ‘change’ in 2017, I have 3 recommendations from my last year’s bookshelf. They are:

• James Kerr, ‘Legacy: 15 Lessons in Leadership’, the story of why the All Blacks are considered by some the most successful sporting team in history;
• Carlo Rovelli, ‘Seven Brief Lessons on Physics’, a brilliant and simple layperson’s account in 79 pages from a theoretical physicist of the most important scientific theories in recent history that have helped us better understand the world;
• James Rebanks, ‘The Shepard’s Life’, reflections of a contemporary Lake District Farmer on the changing nature of one of our most iconic environments in Britain;

One of the skills in navigating organisational change is to decide not just what has to go, but more importantly what needs to stay: something I call identifying and isolating the ‘threads of continuity’. This is a tricky exercise because this does not mean holding on to what is clearly passé or what is a reflection of personal preference or entrenched interest. It is about recognising and holding onto what is of community or corporate value. But how do we distinguish between these two ‘territories’: what must change, but what should stay and be cherished? Each of the above books has something to say on managing this tension.

The Thread of Continuity: ‘No Dickheads, Follow the Spearhead’

Where does the trigger for real, sustained change in our businesses and organisations come from? When does it occur? How is the starting gun fired? Basically, there is ‘disturbance’ or ‘dysfunction’ somewhere (to use scientific terms) that can no longer be ignored. As James Kerr shows the All Black rugby team radically changed their approach in 2004 after a disastrous tri-nations tournament in South Africa when team members threatened to quit. (The net result of making some fundamental changes has subsequently been to win two world cups!) What did they change and what did they hold onto?

Of the 15 leadership lessons from Kerr’s book (one chapter on each lesson) it is difficult to divide them directly into lessons that indicate change and those that suggest continuity. The book argues the team’s success comes from taking something they have always done, but now doing it differently. Talent, a desire to win, teamwork and training are obviously critical: but to the All Blacks this was no longer enough. For Graham Henry and his leadership team the starting point for change was a mantra ‘Better People Make Better All Blacks’.

The book is rich in lessons for leaders seeking to manage change. An overall message, to quote Kerr, is that “character triumphs over talent”. The All Blacks followed a philosophy that had been central to the success of the American Football Team, the San Francisco 49ers. Their Head Coach, Bill Walsh, had declared: “Create the highest possible operating standards, develop the character of your players, develop the culture of your team, and the score takes care of itself”. People strategies are therefore central to success.

So while some of the delivery techniques changed – for example Henry re-designed the structure of the working week so each individual player had a worksheet/daily map to focus on self-improvement, and leadership and responsibility was transferred from coaches to players – what didn’t get ‘spat out’ (to use Gilbert Enoka’s phrase, the team’s mental skills coach) was the focus to continually re-connect their players to their Mãori story, what the Mãori call their whãnau. This is symbolized by a spearhead, an image derived from the flight formation of the kawau bird. For whãnau to function everyone must move to the same point in an endless synchronized support system. There was no room for selfish, disaffected mindsets. He quotes Kipling ‘The strength of the wolf is in the pack’. Thus the All Blacks reaffirmed their blunt mantra: ‘No Dickheads, Follow the Spearhead’.

The Thread of Continuity: Managing Probability Not Certainty

One of the lessons of quantum theory, as Rovelli demonstrates, is that relationships are the key determiner of everything in a world of probability rather than certainty. He takes the reader on an intriguing journey that starts with Einstein and relativity, and goes on to cover the discovery of quanta, the architecture of the cosmos, the structure of particles, the discovery that space is ‘real stuff’ and that time does not flow…and how we ourselves fit in this ‘boundless world’! “The equations of quantum mechanics and their consequences are used daily in widely varying fields…yet they remain mysterious. For they do not describe what happens to a physical system, but only how a physical system affects another physical system.” A quantum world is unpredictable, replacing a Newtonian world in which everything seemed regulated by firm laws that were universal and irrevocable.

For Rovelli the implications of his analysis are: “that we must accept the idea that reality is only interaction”. So if ‘reality is only interaction’ the threads of continuity are spun out of the relationships we make and cherish, create and end. They arise out of our history, culture and traditions: and our plans, ambitions and aspirations for the future. Rovelli shows how at every turn: “Science begins with a vision (and that) scientific thought is fed by the capacity to ‘see’ things differently than they have previously been seen”. For him science helps us define our future path, but only if we plan from probability rather than certainty. The crucial irony, of course, is that you can predict the probability of something happening to a lesser or greater degree, you just can’t be certain it will happen.

This makes planning for randomness in our organisations critical, and – surprise, surprise – is one of the hallmarks of All Blacks training. This aspect of their strategy is characterized by throwing all sorts of problem solving situations at the team and then randomizing scenarios, combining this with pace and physicality, to stress the brain and test decision-making capacity. The aim is to remain on the task during a game and not get diverted, allowing you to win by following the process and not getting caught up in outcomes.

Reading this made me conscious of the current public sector mantra to focus on outcome as opposed to outputs: a natural reaction to the now discredited ‘management-by-target’ approach that can drive the wrong sort of management behaviours. Kerr reminds us of the requirement not to confuse outcome with the constant need for a better understanding of the necessary processes and structures that relate to principles and end state goals.

What the All Blacks have discovered is that a programme for mental toughness gets better long-term learning: intense mental preparation for randomized situations conditions the brain and body to perform under pressure so that peak performance becomes automatic. Note that the Greek word for automatic means ‘self-thinking’, in which thought and emotion become combined. Research and experience shows that, under pressure, thinking can shut down: that if you rely solely on emotion and instinct you no longer pick up the cues and information to make good decisions. The All Blacks discovered you have a much greater probability of winning if you follow the pre-agreed strategy and game structure at crucial moments in a match rather than get caught up in the outcomes.

The Thread of Continuity: Tuning to the Right Channel

So what does James Rebanks have to say about understanding the threads of continuity: about what to change but also what to leave alone? To some his book will be seen as a defense to a particular way of rural life that might be called anachronistic. Yet in his Lake District, economics and tradition go hand-in-hand to create a form of natural governance. “The numbers were fixed by custom and communal management to reflect the grazing capacity of the fell and the winter grazing capacity of the farms below. This was, and is, a system that requires rules and customs to prevent, abuse, cheating or mismanagement.”

There are echoes here of the Mãori sense of whãnau: that you move forward in formation in search of a future embedded in a strong and unapologetic sense of culture and tradition. Rebanks talks about how lambs are ‘hefted’: “taught their sense of belonging by their mothers – an unbroken chain of learning that goes back thousands of years”. One of the problems I often encounter in change work is that those affected get little explicit time to assimilate what is being asked of them, to make sense of the request from their personal anchor point of identity and history. This often gets confused with defensiveness.

Rebanks’ book is similar to Kerr’s in that it talks about the problems and possibilities that come from integrating different cultures. Rebanks was brought up in a Lake District farming family, but eventually went to University to study history, before returning to what he most loved. There is a truly memorable phrase in his book that illustrates the importance of respect: “Shepherds are not thick. We are just tuned to a different channel”.

For Rebanks change is about respecting different ways of thinking that sometimes defies rational economics. It is about that ‘mental toughness’ the All Blacks engender that enables them to cope with random but potentially predictable situations by picking the right cues. “The egg-timers in my head are always trickling away, reminding me of things I need to return to. Knowing when it is best to interfere and when it is not takes years of experience. My grandfather and father taught me that we have a range of options and the trick is knowing which one to resort to, depending on the situation.”

The Thread of Continuity: The Basis of Managing Change

While the executive decision to change in an organisation will come from the senior leader, once started it can be no respecter of persons, even though it will catch many people in the web of change. And every one will have the same question on their lips: ‘will I fit into this new organisation? Or will I be surplus to requirements?’

The trick to building the threads of continuity that enables each participant caught in the web to cope is to create a powerful change story. This is of benefit to both the individual and the corporate entity. As Kerr demonstrates in his book: “Based in strong, resonant values, using a common language that employs mantras, mottos and metaphors, storytelling helps leaders connect their people’s personal meaning to their vision for the future”.

Kerr argues that there are 4 criteria for creating a compelling change story, for building the necessary threads of continuity. The story must be:

• Credible and relevant: it must have ethos (an authority and understanding of the subject) and logos (it must make rational sense);
• Visual and visceral: it must have pathos (it must be felt), seizing our hearts as well as impressing our minds;
• Flexible and scaleable: it must be a easily told in the pub or café as across the boardroom table, implying the use of simple, everyday language and ideas;
• Useful: able to turn vision into action, purpose into practice, translating meaning from ‘leader’ to ‘led’.

All 3 books I recommend start from the premise that we best manage change when there is a strong reference back to tradition and custom. All 3 books suggest that our future is best safeguarded if we see ourselves as custodians of this future, “tuning to the right channel”, where, like the All Blacks, any change seeks is driven by their mantra of ‘Leaving the Jersey in a Better Place’. All 3 books highlight the relational nature of this past and future, based on a probabilistic rather than a certain world, where there are “no dickheads, we follow the spearhead”. It is my belief that we cannot manage change, but only the threads of change.

Nick Day, Exeter, 31 January 2017