Learnings

What a journey!

Using this web blog to capture the process and my thinking has worked well although I have used John's model of reflective learning to capture most of my "touchy feelie" learning to the EBI. Maybe I could rethink how I have used this blog and use it to capture all the touch feelie stuff as well?

Biggest learning for me is to guard against rushing into change management without taking into account much more data than sometimes I am prepared to have patience to read through. This is point was made in my Myers Briggs assessment in TMA 01.

I also know that I am a "loner" - although I like people, I am comfortable with my own company and this can lead to my shutting the door on working with people in groups that can offer far wider reaching solutions than just by working on my own.

Came together again and were presented with a completed Pugh Matrix, financial and headcount performance data; organisational charts for ISB and P3 groups This was all received by the group as being fine; quite a few questions and challenges to the presenters/data gatherers but in all, the data was accepted.

Together with the Systems diagrams from Workshop #1, this formed the foundation for the Spiral Dynamics part of the EBI.

Introduced the concept of X-Y-Z templates and divided the CMT into 2 groups - produce X template for P3 group and then the Y template.

This required a lot of coaching from me and another member of the CMT who had an MBA and was aware of Porters Resource Chain model which is similar. Strong members of the group kept wanting to change the model to fit what they saw as the P3 Resource model!

Then as a group we all did Z template - much easier having familiarised themselves with the concept boundries.

Then Streaming and the Plumbline concept - lots of discussions about the business core concept upon which to centre the plumbline. Customer Service won out in the end. The using the X-Y templates, along with Systems diagrams, the CMT then completed the Streaming concept diagram.

The CMT group by this time were "Storming" and we closed the session by looking at what would the successful new structure look like - KPI's for deciding a Gate review for the Implementation stage.

To what extent do I have to explain what Spiral Dynamics are in my TMA? It is such a complex set of theorums that it needs several pages to do it justice.

The same goes with the other Themes. Can I use a summary of SD that I agree with as an appendix or do I have to write one?

The discussion with the P3 manager face to face today went as well as I could have hoped - he accepted the need to consider change and is confident of being able to get a job outside Honeywell if need be (but with a competitor - not what we want, so I will try very hard to retain his knowledge within the business). P-O-A in action seemed to work okay - I was polite, open whilst being Assertive - this change was going to happen.

I also told him that I would share his situation with the CMT group so that this is very transparant to all and he was happy for me to proceed with that.

He went away concerned but relatively positive, so I couldn't have asked for anything more in this really.

Okay, so I have been doing a lot of thing, reading and reflecting over the past few weeks. I have decided to drop any academic reading on Kegan (although I will read it later, for personal development and learning reasons) but at this stage, I believe the complexity of Kegans writings would take my EBI too "large."

Similarly, I am discounting the "Action Enquiry" academic work by Torbert; not because of any other reason than time, complexity and I believe relevance for me on this EBI. There appears to be more relevance for me with Spiral Dynamics and the work of Graves, Beck and Cowan because it is both a leadership methodology and a methodology for change - both change management and change programmes.

However, that being said I encounter my first dilemma of ambiguity - if I am using the OD method of change management in my EBI, can SD run in parallel? Or to what extent are they mutually exclusive?

My first observations are that SD is a huge subject and for a manager to assimilate all that is written about SD before embarking on a change or intervention is not practical and the propensity for error and mistakes could be large. So the key is going to be how to pick out those parts which are relevant to the EBI whilst taking care not to take them out of context. Do I have or will I have sufficient skill and knowledge to bring this about? Am I going to be a Spiral Wizard?

One point that I would make about SD is that it is all well and good to pontificate about what change leader you may need to bring in and the colour of their vMEME for maximum effectiveness bearing in mind the contextual aspects of the planned change and the vMEME's of the team members but in reality, very often as managers, we have to work with what we have - there simply is little choice. This is something academics don't seem to realise.

I believe that SD and OD could make ideal partners - the clunky step by step approach of OD combined with the strategies and soft elements of SD. But also some powerful theories in practice of SD such as centering your plumb line over the key success factor of your organisational raison d'etre at the design stage and focusing everything behind it - a very critical point.

Also,

Graves - How should Who manage Whom in doing What?`

Pugh Matrix
Systems thinking
Stakeholder analysis
Alpha - Beta - Gamma states
Streams
X-Y-Z templates

Discussion with John Swanwick (Tutor)

Q.Am I doing the right thing putting in a Johns refelctive matrix for TMA02?
Yes, but be open and honest

Q.Do I need a stakeholder analysis in TMA02 - shall I leave it to TMAO 3 when we have to decide the Workshop members? Advice is to do some preliminary work and put a S.A in the Appendix.

Q.Leadership theme - personal development on its own or can I bring in contrasting writers/theories? Yes, by all means, just be careful not to go too broard.

Q.Can I use a change model as well as one of my themes?
Yes, but signpost it well.

Q. Can B824 be my theme or do I have to be specific? Advice would be to be more specific without burning you boats if you wish to change later.

Current theme thinking:

I realise that I have to select but one academic work for my Leadership theme - all these listed below is too much to learn in too short a time scale for B830:-

Action Enquiry is too abstract and lacks "punch" for me - an interesting concept but over complex which does noy resonate with me.

Kegans view on modern life and Adult development is interesting but I cannot see how this is going to help me to the level I am looking for in my intervention.

Spriral Dynamics really has my attention - it resonates with my need to hae an integrated set of tools and behaviours that I can pick out and utilse easily.

After a full day slog, I am 97% complete.

I need to write up my interview notes from my discussions with Edwin and Victoria and put them as an Appendix.

Read it through and correct any obvious errors.

Learning from today - I can still see Lewin's model of unfreezing/freezing to have relevence to todays change management.

I can also see how I have to guard against the change theme getting too "wide" - John was right!

In full flight now! I have scanned the OD model of change from unit 9 of B751 and annotated it with B830 criteria, saved it and imported it into TMA 02.

Also, developed the GANTT chart for the EBI from a freeware package I found on the Internet and have printed it out prior to scanning and importing.

More tomorrow.....

Okay, lots of reflection and reading so here goes with the latest installment:

Cross boundary management is OUT - not relevent enough - but an interesting possible slant - two sub groups working in the same MNC. But that is not really what it is about. If we are going to merge the two groups, where is the cross boundary management?

Leadership is IN - excited at what I read and have ordered the books on Spiral Dynamics, Kegans model of evolving self and Torberts seven developmental frames. So that is my B830 theme. Will it help my EBI? We'll see - it could be all b*ks but my instinct tells me that I will get a lot out of it, some really good learning.

Plus Organisational structure and restructuring from B824.

Organisational Development (OD) and Pugh Matrix from B751.

So my strategies for learning are now in focus, my EBI is well developed, my boss is supportive so its all systems GO!!!!!

Sunday 20th May

Reflecting on John's advice - it's going to be difficult :
1) To find the right level of theorist to give me learning without going to narrow or wide
2) Because I find research difficult - I prefer action orientated learning and hate reading theorists work - just give me a model to use!

Potential theorist areas to think about:

- Organisational culture - differences in sub-culture between two groups of people in the same organisation - how to recognise, measure and what to do about it? Theorists?
- Change management process - OD - Pugh Matrix - does it work/add value? - B751
- Leadership - B830 Theme - what factors should I be aware of in change management - dynamic power shifts/resistance to change?
- Organisational Structuring and Restructuring - (B824) - SHRM - Post Bureaucratic norm/HR - - Chapter 9 HR course reader - Paul Sparrow - new methods of working (P3 and ISB groups)
- Cross boundary management Theme (B830)

Food for thought - some more reflection required - and start committing some notes to the TMA02 planner.