Home/Library/Leading Whole-System Change

Leading Whole-System Change

Authors: Kathleen Dannemiller and Peter Norlin of Dannemiller Tyson Associates with Therese Fitzpatrick, independent consultant.

Date: July 1, 2001

For the past thirty years, the consultants at Dannemiller Tyson Associates have been inventing, testing, and evolving our own processes of Whole-Scale, whole-system changes. These processes are robust enough to respond to the ever-changing landscapes that surround organizations today. We believe this work is a leading edge of future OD interventions. A primary underlying principle of our work is to involve everyone in the organization in meaningful ways in the decisions that will affect their future and the future success of the organization. When a microcosm of the organization has a real say in their individual and corporate future, the whole system begins to evolve into a new dimension.

Leadership's New Role
Thanks to Meg Wheatley we have expanded our systems understanding so that we now see a leadership mindset evolving that suggests new "rules" to guide effective leading. We now know that each organizational world is a living system, self-organizing as all living systems do and the role of leaders in empowering the self organization is not the same role they used to guide classic bureaucratic ones.

Now let's talk about the shift we see needed in the mindset of leaders:

Old Rule #1: The leader's job is to know, and to serve as a final authority in important decisions.

New Rule: The leader's job (in the 21st Century) is to call people together whom we have typically kept apart, and to find ways to uncover and connect the collective wisdom of our people. When leaders follow this rule, we've seen that this shared wisdom emerges most effectively people are invited to come together and share "one-brain, one heart." Here everyone in the organization, through accepting each others' views, comes to see that we all know the same thing ("one brain"), and we are all connected around the same yearnings and vision of a preferred future for the organization ("one heart").

Old Rule #2: The leader's job is to control-information, people, risk, the future. The effective leader is in charge of everything that's going on, both inside and outside the organization. The leader's job is to ensure that people in the organization obey the rules, and people in the organization look to the leader to keep them safe (e.g., "If I obey, then I'll have a job, and the company will survive).

New Rule: The leader's job is to ask questions and facilitate conversations at ALL levels of the organization. An organization can achieve its goals quickly and successfully only when people's energy is aligned and their commitment is focused, and we believe that this requires a leader to engage people at all levels of the organization in connected discussion. Under the old rule, in bureaucratic organizations people or teams are (unknowingly) often working at cross-purposes from each other and cross-purposes from their leader's plan for success. When this disconnection occurs, it is a natural byproduct of individuals not havaing shared understanding of what we all know. In most organizations, people now ask, "How can I be part of a strong organizational team when we live in different countries, work in different time zones, operate at different levels of the organizational structure, and, literally, live in different worlds?" When a leader follows this new rule, and finds ways to get people knowing and talking about the same things, all together, all the time, they find creative ways to bring themselves into alignment.

Old Rule #3: The leader's job is to drive and monitor organization performance by focusing on what is going wrong, and punishing mistakes.

New Rule: The leader's job is to build and sustain high performance by noticing and appreciating when people do things right-especially when they act with courage, integrity, and accountability. Reinforcing courageous, right-minded action, especially when it turns out to be a mistake, is the only way to encourage people to take risks, and leaders who follow this rule typically build organizations with spirit and pride.

When leaders are ready to live the new rules,and are literally engaging with their organization in newe ways` we have seen them guide their organizations successfully through turbulent times, buoyed by the collective optimism, boldness and courage of people who know that their wisdom and competence is valued. Unleashing this kind of magic in an organization requires, of course, that a leader demonstrate similar courage and commitment. At the core of this shift in leadership mindset is trust-trust in other people and trust in ourselves. When we are willing to trust ourselves and others in these ways, we will survive that old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times!" In fact, the curse transforms itself into a promise.

____________________________________________

DANNEMILLER TYSON ASSOCIATES:
is a virtual consulting company centered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dannemiller Tyson Associates specializes in rapid, significant and lasting organizational change. We work from a Whole-Scale® perspective often involving hundreds of people simultaneously in getting alignment on key issues. The results of this work often pervade the entire organization at all levels. You can contact us at www.dannemillertyson.com.

KATHLEEN D. DANNEMILLER (Emeritus)
Kathleen Dannemiller is the founding partner in Dannemiller Tyson Associates and co-inventor of Real Time Strategic Change and Real-Time Work Design® (now called Whole-Scale®). Kathie has been a passionate advocate of empowerment, systems theory and whole system change for more than 30 year s. She has been a consultant, coach and mentor to countless leaders, consultants and organizations as they build a better future. Kathie is recognized worldwide for her ability to move entire organizations forward with speed, depth and spirit. Kathie is a member of the National Training Laboratory and the National Organization Development Network.

PETER NORLIN
Peter Norlin, Dannemiller Tyson Associates, has 25 years of experience as both an internal and external consultant, focusing on the development and integration of leaders and leadership; partnerships, teamwork; and collaboration; and whole-system change. 

THERESE FITZPATRICK
Therese Fitzpatrick is an independent organization consultant with 15 years legal and consulting experience in the East and Midwest, currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Dannemiller Tyson Associates are authors of two new books: Whole-Scale Change: Unleashing the Magic in Organizations and Whole-Scale Change: The Toolkit, Berrrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2000.

The fifteen partners of DTA worked together to write these books. Using our own Whole Scale processes, we worked as a community, one brain and one heart, to bring our best wisdom to the content of these books.