{"id":975,"date":"2019-10-10T07:35:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T07:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/?p=975"},"modified":"2019-10-10T07:35:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T07:35:16","slug":"dont-start-from-where-you-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/10\/10\/dont-start-from-where-you-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t start from where you are"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For decades now, I\u2019ve been in workshops with a number of companies that seek to change some aspect of their business. Reflecting on the more recent workshops, however, made me recognize patterns that seem to reappear frequently or typically. As we all know, change is hard. For individuals and even more so for organizations. However, the patterns discussed below lead to less than optimal or simply bad outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n first pattern that I see occurring very frequently is teams starting \nfrom where they are and from the reality they\u2019re experiencing right now.\n The misconception is that the world will continue as it is today. So, \nrather than focusing on what the world will likely look like when the \nchange has been realized \u2013 which often takes years, especially in large \norganizations \u2013 the team focuses on the status quo and assumes it is \nstatic. A good example, concerning DevOps, is when many teams simply \nrefuse to accept that customers will, also in their industry, start to \nask for frequent deployment of new versions of software. The argument \nfor this refusal is that customers aren\u2019t asking for it today, even if \nit\u2019s clear that industry after industry is transitioning in this \ndirection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n consequence of starting from where you are is that the changes you\u2019ll \nbe introducing tend to be quite small, resulting in the tallest pygmy \nproblem: even if you\u2019re constantly growing and improving, you may end up\n being the tallest pygmy, rather than the giant you aspire to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n second pitfall I see many companies step into is to start with the \norganization and changes that are required for the organizational \nstructure, reporting relationships, lacking roles, and so on. Although \nI\u2019m the first to admit that the organization matters, it should be the \nconsequence of everything else. In an earlier post, I introduced the \nBAPO model. In short, this model suggests that you start with the \ndesired business, innovations and business strategy. Based on that, you \ndefine the system, product or portfolio architecture, as well as the \ntechnology choices. Once these are defined, the next step is to define \nthe processes, ways of working and tooling. Only after the \u201cB\u201d, \u201cA\u201d and \n\u201cP\u201d have been defined, should the discussion on the organization start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n consequence of starting with the organization is that your change \nprocess becomes \u201cOPAB\u201d: the organization dictates work processes, these \nprocesses result in an accidental architecture, which, in turn, gives a \nvery limited set of business strategy options to the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \nthird observation is that, depending on the organizational culture, \nthere are teams or team members that focus exclusively on the \nlimitations exhibited by the team, the organization and the business \necosystem. So, rather than focusing on the things that we can do, the \nteam or part of the team focuses on the opposite, ie the things that are\n holding us back. Especially in complex ecosystems with unbalanced power\n relations, teams may easily fall into the victim role and have great \ndifficulty taking responsibility for their own destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, \nthe fourth pattern that I\u2019ve seen is teams falling into analysis \nparalysis. Even if the team is future-oriented, starts with the business\n strategy and takes charge of its own destiny, it may still end up in a \nsituation with so many options and constraints that it loses track and \nis unable to come to a concrete set of actions to move into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concluding, change is hard, both for individuals and organizations. Having said that, starting from the desired state and the desired business strategy, focusing on what you can control and ensuring concrete actions in the right direction are very helpful strategies to avoid the main traps and significantly increase the likelihood of the desired outcomes. Don\u2019t start from where you are but start from where you want to be. After all, the future is where we spend the rest of our lives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get more insights earlier, sign up for my newsletter at<\/em>jan@janbosch.com<\/em><\/a> or follow me on<\/em> janbosch.com\/blog<\/em><\/a>, LinkedIn (<\/em>linkedin.com\/in\/janbosch<\/em><\/a>) or Twitter (<\/em>@JanBosch<\/em><\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades now, I\u2019ve been in workshops with a number of companies that seek to change some aspect of their business. Reflecting on the more recent workshops, however, made me recognize patterns that seem to reappear frequently or typically. As we all know, change is hard. For individuals and even more so for organizations. However, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":977,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janbosch.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}