Learnings

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