Building Capacity for Public Sector Reform The Needs of Change

1. Building Capacity for Public Sector ReformThe Needs of Change Steve Clarke Tuesday, 14th January 2003

2. “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein (Allegedly)

3. The needs of change To build public sector ‘systems thinking and practice’ (STSP) capacity People have to understand the need being met. Until the need is understood the solution will not be recognised. For change to be effective, people have to agree to change their “collective” mind

4. The power of belief • The law of Intention and Creation; as we intend so we create • Steve Clarke • There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.” • Stephen Covey ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ • Leaders need to envision the future by ‘imagining the ideal’ and “intuiting the future”. • Kouzes and Posner ‘The Leadership Challenge’

5. The needs of change • Change evolves from dissatisfaction with the way things are • On the one hand, we can celebrate this dissatisfaction for it is what brought humanity into groups, to cultivate and to organise • On the other hand, where you start so do you end • This means that if the originating idea is dissatisfaction, then the outcome will also be dissatisfaction - unless during the change process we change our mind, our belief.

6. The needs of change • We need, therefore, to change to a more optimistic frame of mind • So here lies a dichotomy. Discontent with the way things are both drives us to seek change and also denies us the benefits we seek • How do we consciously move through the change cycle without inherent failure?

7. The needs of change • We have to accept responsibility for what we believe • SSM provides a vehicle that readily supports this transition of beliefs (Peter Checkland) • Understanding brain dominance assists our communication (Ned Herrmann) • The Necessary Art of Persuasion (Jay Conger) • Effective project management is essential • “The needs of change” is about how specific approaches support the transition that needs to take place in people's beliefs and attitudes to achieve successful change (Steve Clarke)

8. Five Principles of SSM • Accommodations have to be reached between different people, views and interests • Focus on purpose, build models of purposeful activity, and declare viewpoints • Compare models with the real world and debate how situation should be improved • Reach agreement on models of linked activitythen ask questions of each activity • Solutions must be driven by the activity to be served and not the other way round

9. “Any time we think the problem is ‘out there’, that thought is the problem.” Stephen Covey

10. Herrmann Brain Dominance

11. The Interconnected Brain System Cerebral Hemispheres A Upper Left BLUE D Upper Right YELLOW B Lower Left GREEN C Lower Right RED Limbic System

12. What does the HBDI measure? Personal Preferences in Thinking and Processing Styles

13. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 UPPER LEFT QUADRANT ANALYSIS FACTS DATA TANGIBLE FOCUSED FEASIBILITY CRITICAL ASSESSMENT LINEAR IMPACT CONCLUSIONS MATHEMATICS RATIONAL TECHNICAL FINANCIAL

14. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 LOWER LEFT QUADRANT Operational Planning Implementation Procedure Detail Maintenance Administrative Ordered Methodical Systematic Routine Time Management Tidy, Organised Efficient, Reliable

15. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 LOWER RIGHT QUADRANT Interpersonal Skills Feeling Sensitive Emotional Humanistic Communicative Empathetic Caring Interested In People ‘Sensory Intuition’ Instinctive

16. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 UPPER RIGHT QUADRANT Strategic Thinking Lateral Thinking Broad View Abstract Concepts Approximates Keeps Several Mental ‘Balls In Air’ Explores Experiments Adventure Innovation Tangents ‘Intellectual Intuition’

17. Our four different selves Rational Self Analyses Quantifies Is critical Likes numbers Knows about money Technically aware Is logical / realistic Experimental Self Infers Imagines Speculates Breaks rules Likes surprises Is curious / plays Takes risks / impetuous Takes preventative action Establishes procedures Is reliable / timely Gets things done Is neat / plans Organises Safekeeping Self Sensitively aware Instructive Tactile contact Supportive Expressive Emotional Garrulous Feeling Self

18. Detrimental Political Behaviour Rational Self Over emphasis on finance e.g. dominance of the HM Treasury Experimental Self Over valuing ungrounded strategic plans e.g. The Dome Over regulation and restrictions e.g. Nanny State Safekeeping Self Over emphasis on the message rather than the content e.g. Spin Feeling Self

19. “No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.” John Stuart Mill

20. Art of Persuasion One-shot effort Up front hard sell Four Ways Not To Persuade i.e. convincing & selling Secret lies in great arguments Resist compromise

21. Art of Persuasion One-shot effort (Persuasion is a process not an event.) Up front hard sell John Wayne approach. Persistence, logic, exuberance. (However, this sets the opponents something to fight.) Four Ways Not To Persuade Secret lies in great arguments Great arguments are important but other factors matter as much. Resist compromise See persuasion as surrender or a one way street. (People need to see persuader is flexible enough to respond to their concerns. Persuaders rarely change another’s point of view without altering their own or behaviour.)

22. Art of Persuasion 1. Establishcredibility(expertise, relationships) 2. Frame for Common Ground(mutual benefit) Four Essential Steps to Persuasion i.e. learning & negotiating requires commitment & practice 3. Use vivid language & compelling evidence 4. Connect emotionally(commitment, sense of audience)

23. Art of Persuasion • Establish credibility 2. Frame for Common Ground i.e. over time. (This includes expertise, relationships: trusted to listen, strong emotional character & integrity, share credit, helpful & supportive.) Identify your objectives & tangible benefits to your audience (& be flexible about intermediate). (If not mutual benefits, adjust your position.) Four Essential Steps to Persuasion 4. Connect emotionally 3. Use vivid language & compelling evidence Show your own emotional commitment – delicately - to the position. Have a strong and accurate sense of your audience’s emotional state (& match it). Use examples, stories, metaphors, analogies to supplement numerical data.

24. The needs of change • Be clear about our intention – our underlying beliefs • People want to be heard • SSM demonstrates people have been heard by capturing in rich picture, CATWOE or model • Accommodations between perspectives (i.e. beliefs) encourages a change in belief • The change process has to change our minds about ourselves and our objectives • Move from discontent through participation, involvement, debate, and intellectual rigour into a enhancing confident belief.

25. The Change Cycle

26. The needs of change • Because change comes about by the change in collective beliefs, the process of change is more critical to success than the actual target of the change • Omit the process that invites the individual and collective beliefs of the individuals to be changed and regardless of how ‘correct’ the target the change-project will fail.