Six Week Change: Small Steps to Transformation

A Socially Dynamic Organisation is not just a mild reworking of a formal one: it’s not just a case of repainting it and adding some alloys. It’s a fundamentally adapted creature: an organisation that is evolved to be fit for the constant change of the Social Age. But i am no idealist: i’m a pragmatist who believes we achieve great changes with aligned mindset and energy, through taking small but measurable steps. The trick: to do so in great company, to align the effort, and to relinquish control.

I’ve written before how changes starts right on our own doorstep, with how you and i behave differently, in the moment, everyday, but how does that relate to the overall Dynamic Change framework? Well: whilst organisational change, to build a Socially Dynamic Organisation, will involve work over a number of years, and a wide range of areas, from learning, to leadership, HR, IT, and so on, it will still, when it comes down to it, start on a Monday morning at 8AM. And the results should be visible and measurable.

Within the Change work, i use the concept of six week experiments, and six week change. The broad premise is this: as understanding dawns, as the scope becomes clear, it’s easy to be swamped by the magnitude of our challenge (and it is a vast challenge: to reboot an organisation, in it’s DNA). But we can get our heads around six weeks: start small, but be constant in our effort. We take big journeys one small step at a time.

The worst result is that we focus on the middle space: projects are manageable. They take months, cost millions, and deliver easily quantified results. But projects, unaligned, unfocused, unconnected, will only lead to constraint. A single effort won’t change the organisation: it’s aligned energy and shared, devolved, vision which will do that.

Being busy is easy: taking the right steps, however small they are, is hard. Focus on the small steps to transformation, and learn to be excellent as you go.