• DYNAMIC CHANGE

    Energy for change can come from the 'top-down', 'bottom-up', 'inside-out' and 'outside-in'. The resulting tension can be both creative and destructive. Coaching helps to manage the resentment, resignation and uncertainty that change can bring, as well as maximising its potential.


     

  • td
    		Top-Down Change 

    AUTHORITY

     

    WHAT'S EXPECTED OF ME? 

    Leaders, managers, legal systems, religious beliefs and ethical codes expect our compliance. It is often associated with a command and control mindset when we accede to the will or wisdom of others. 

    Learn more ...


     

  • bu
    		Bottom-Up Change
    x 
    CULTURE
     x
    WHO CAN HELP ME?
    x 
    Experienced when you cooperate with others in teams and communities to satisfy a common need or goal. It is associated with collective action around shared values and a shared purpose

     


     

  • io
    		Inside-Out Change
    x 
    CAPABILITY
     x
    WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?
    x 
    Experienced when we know who we are and can see/feel things that appeal to our mind body and soul.  It is associated with personal creativity and a desire to realise goals and dreams.
    x

     

  • oi
    		Outside-In Change
     x
    ENVIRONMENT
     x
    WHAT DOES THE WORLD THINK?
     x
    When global events, environmental conditions or social situations impact on our choices.  This is associated with our exterior world which is holistic, systemic and ecological in nature.
    x 

     

Outside-In Change ?

"An inner process stands in need of outward criteria" Ludwig Wittgenstein

Tools for Outside-In Change can be found in the 'Change Tools' Menu 

There is a growing realisation that leadership for change in today's organisations and communities must be distributed widely, with the focus on managing the relationship between service users (outside) and service providers (inside). I directed a partnership project in the early 90's between Birmingham City Council and the then Local Government Management Board to see how service managers could learn from their service users.  Many lessons were learned that would have strengthened public services, but they were not embedded.  Here we are 20 years later and the leading thinkers at Harvard Busines School that ashift of focus is needed from the inside-out to the outside-in.  They are arguing that the role of todays leaders must be to look outswards to connect and align customer expectations with employee responses and service prodcesses. It seems that the demands of short sighted politians and shareholders has only served to create top-down pressures to reduce variety - diversity being too expensive and unmanageable.

Technology is coming to the rescue. It will allow the variety of supply channels to match the diversity of demand channels, thereby realising Asby's Law of Requisite Variety. John Seddon's work at Vanguard has shown that by adopting a systems aproach that starts by identifying the variety and nature of customer demand enables an organisation to eliminate waste and create 'lean' servive processes to vastly reduce levels of failure demand.

The Outside-In Dynamic is stronger than ever and vitally important in the change process, simply because it energises creativity and focuses the mind on business accumen and what the market wants now and in the future. This is prompting leaders to think about what values, skills, attitudes, talents, knowledge and relationships are needed to respond to rapidly changing customerneeds and expetations.

The environmental conditions also create a context that shapes the customer's response to what businesses are offering them. Howard Gardner reminds us that experts are needed but they must be disciplined and dedicated to gather information from disparate sources and combine it creatively, respecting diversity and behave in ways that suggest to the outside world that we are thinking and acting beyond our own self interest.

The whole process of delivering Best Value in public services is designed to foster outside-in thinking. Consultation with customers and the engagement of partners, comparison with the best performers, the challenging of the previous decisions of managers, members and boards as well as getting a sense of one's competitive position, all serve to encourage 'outside' thinking and action. To develop partnership working and local involvement, the focus of attention must be to look at the threats and opportunities to the organisation coming from customers and stakeholders.

SCANNING to find out what the future may bring or how to create it.  The Change Zone offers useful websites, books and people who are thinking seriously about about what the future could be like - sharing their visions and concerns.

ALIGNING to see interrelationships based on knowledge not position, and organisations operating as complex adaptive networks.  The Change Zone offers ideas for new forms of organisation driven by networking and information technologies.

RESEARCHING to discover what the leading thinkers and change leaders are saying and doing.  The Change Zone offers quick and easy access to libraries and search engines on change and related topics.

CLIMATISING to create a positive atmosphere to encourage creative and productive interactions and conversations.  The Change Zone website offers a range of tools and techniques to create the best conditions for change.

The outside-in dimension draws on the Complexity Science concepts of ecosystems, metaphor, co-evolution, double-loop learning, feedback, nonlinearity, receiver-based communication and perspectives, which are explained in more detail in the website.  See the 'Complexity item in the Free Information section.