Information in Change

Enhanced transparency plays a pivotal role in the initial phases of reshaping your organizational system, as it serves as a foundation for making informed decisions. A prevalent error I often observe is teams attempting to empower individuals without first establishing transparency. The outcome? Choices are made lacking vital information, such as intent, strategy, customer insights, or past experiences. Consequently, these decisions fall short, leading leadership to conclude, ‘See! People can’t be relied upon to make decisions.’ To prevent this, prioritize regular and open information sharing from the start. Cultivate a safe environment where transparency becomes a norm. By fostering a culture of shared awareness, navigating challenges becomes significantly more manageable.

Questions on Information

The following questions can be applied to the organization as a whole or the teams within it. Use them to provoke a conversation about what is present and what is possible.

What information is shared freely?
What information is contained or controlled?
How do we decide what is safe to share?
How is information stored and shared?
What tools, systems, or forums support storing and sharing?
How do we find the information we seek?
How do we update our information when things change?
What communication styles do we encourage?

What does it mean to be People Positive about information?
Recognize that trusting people with sensitive information is worth the risk, even if the occasional breach occurs. Sharing leads to reciprocity, responsibility, and learning. Secrecy leads to distrust and suspicion.

What does it mean to be Complexity Conscious about information?
Accept that no one knows what information will prove to be critical, or in which hands information might change everything. More and better information, and more and better ways to make sense of it, is the source of competitive advantage in complexity.

Now that you are familiar with the dimensions of our theory, let’s discuss how we can apply it. Like many other tools, our approach can be used in different ways. It can be used descriptively to describe your own way of working or that of another team. It can be used diagnostically to analyse positive or negative patterns we have observed (e.g. why do new employees feel confused by the onboarding process?). In addition, some teams use our approach to envision how the organisation could evolve.

We use it primarily as an awareness-raising tool to capture stories, tensions and experiments that are happening in the real world. We ask the teams themselves to interpret what is happening. Regardless of the approach, our approach usually triggers a rethink in the teams as they begin to systemically rethink the way they work. A meeting is no longer just a meeting; it becomes a forum for belonging, an opportunity to share information, a chance for buy-in or even a potential waste of time. Our approach encourages such conversations, and these conversations will ultimately lead to change.

Every decision is associated with emotions. When you are faced with a decision, the subcortical structures in your brain are activated and trigger a cascade of emotions, instincts and bodily sensations. These elements influence a somatic decision or even bring it about before you are aware of it. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as a “gut feeling”. The interplay between our different thought systems happens so quickly and seamlessly that we often don’t even realise it. We may hold on to the belief that most of our decisions are made objectively and rationally, but this is not the case.

Therefore, at this point, you should have already made your decision. Somewhere in your mind or body, you know it. Either you believe that we need to change the way we work and are ready to take that step, or you don’t believe it and never will. Those who believe – the catalysts, the visionaries, the risk-takers – have understood that the future will not be a desirable place unless we change how we work together as humans to design and build the future in a way that employees will love coming to work.

So where do we go from here? The answer is simple; the implementation is a challenge. If you have some responsibility over others – in business, philanthropy, education, public service, your community or even at home – it’s your job to improve the humanity, vitality and adaptability of the current organisational system. If you are ready to do so, we can embark on this journey together.