Ready, Steady… Manage

I remember attending a meeting for a change management programme. Based on having sat through some talks on change management, and my reading of a bunch of books and web sites on change management, I said that a better way of approaching change management had to exist. But since we didn’t know any better at that time - we went through the normal {stakeholder management, talk, gain buyin} approach. I didn’t like the process, and it didn’t work.

"The three laws of performance" presents a different model of change management. A model that actually looks like it might work. I can’t promise to summarise this book effectively in this review, but I will pull out elements from the book and summarise some of my feelings towards it.

I can say right now that I highly recommend the book.

( amazon.co.uk | amazon.com )

In some ways the book exhausted me - it has so much in it, despite its small size. I found writing this review hard because the ‘laws’ and the information around them work holistically and by pulling the book apart into chapters I miss the gestalt presented and the nuances embedded. No summary, or review of this book can replace reading, and re-reading it.

The book (surprisingly) presents three laws:

1) How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them

2) How a situation occurs arises in language

3) Future based language transforms how situations occur to people

When I first saw these I could relate them to many forms of psychotherapy and philosophy that I have studied in the past and wanted to see how the authors would apply them to organisational change.

Reading the book had its dubious moments. Particularly when I learned that Steve Zaffron had close ties to the Landmark Education "http://www.landmarkeducation.com/" "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Education" group, since I’ve ‘experienced’ graduates from their programmes before.  My fears did not come to pass… mostly (see my notes on chapter 2). Some Landmark terminology appears in this book but not to an extreme and not  confusingly, this review will probably use more confusing terminology as I map their words on to mine.

At a 10,000 foot level; Landmark focuses on ‘change’ by helping people define the default future that their current actions and beliefs will move them towards, challenging their justifications for their current behaviours, and helping them define a new future and implementing the actions that will help them experience their lives in terms of that new future.

In this book, Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan use these approaches and explain how their usage has transformed organisations, and how leaders can use these approaches to do more than ‘change’ their organisation, instead to create and push forward a new ‘future’ for it.

A different approach to change management than you normally see, but one based on pragmatic techniques that have other have successfully implemented in personal and psychoanalytic change processes for years e.g. NLP, General Semantics, Cybernetics, Landmark, Anthony Robbins, Transactional Analysis, Brief Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, REBT, etc. All of these change processes have used variations on the transformation approaches provided in this book.

This book has lots of case study material in it. Incredibly powerful case study material where the organisational transformations seem almost too good. And for the leaders reading the book you will encounter incredibly powerful reminders of how to deal effectively with the people that you lead.

A very small book, with a depth to the writing that requires re-reading:

• The first time you read the book, you learn the possibility of making changes and the success of the examples provided
• The second time you read the book you try to learn the rules and remember the corollaries to help you
• The third time you focus in on the specific chapters aimed at ‘you’ so you first change your own attitudes to help you implement change
• The fourth time… well I have yet to see what happens on the fourth time

I do know that the book deserve re-reading. As one of the better management books I have read, it offers specific, simple and valuable techniques to the reader.

Chapter one examines the first law "How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them" that people experience the world through their own filters and act based on those filters using the beliefs/assumptions in their own mental models, and using the techniques and behavioural flexibility that they have available. All of these things may seem different for the next person, or for you, so we act differently and interact with ‘change programmes’ differently.

Chapter one covers:

• replacing negative ‘default future’ models with positive models
• gaining personal commitment to behavioural change for the future possibilities
• closing previous negative beliefs and behaviours

Chapter 2 starts by looking at how language affects our models of the world and our behaviour, again using corporate case studies and the inspirational Helen Keller. Asking us to create space for new models of the world by challenging the language we use to describe our current model.

The authors encourage us to:

• articulate our thoughts and air them in the real world, to discuss the elephant in the room.

I think the Landmark’s more controversial and confrontational techniques comes through in chapter 2 with the description of a corporate consultancy approach requiring everyone in the room to "list their persistent complaints about each other …  and … move them into the realm of the said". The justified reason for doing this? To challenge the language used in the description of those complaints and to separate the ‘judgements’ rather than the ‘facts’. I would not encourage anyone to do this exercise in your work place. Instead, do it on yourself and challenge other people’s descriptions in one on one discussions or in group discussions - if they arise during the discussion rather than through prompting. A particularly talented consultant might get away with this approach but I doubt the ‘normal’ manager would.

Some valuable advice in this chapter - particularly the summary at the end:

• Develop an awareness of your persistent complaints
• Rephrase these complaints into facts, not descriptions of judgements
• The ‘racket’ model: the fixed behavioural response, the payoff, the cost
• Identify what you need to say, ask forgiveness of, forgive others for, take responsibility for, what you need to give up
• Communicate honestly the results of this introspection

Chapter two covers:

• secondary gain (payoff)
• reinforcing behaviours
• behavioural games (rackets)

Chapter three covers the hardest task for the leader. Learning how to describe the future in terms of a compelling, generative, believable declaration. Some hints and tips are presented.

The summary for chapter 3 also summarises the ‘change process’ presented in this book:

• complete any issues that hold you back
• describe the default future
• ask - do we want this default future
• work with others to identify possibilities that would: inspire action, address concerns and others can believe in
• for anyone not aligned - "what is your counterproposal?"
• keep working unto people align to the future vision and commit to it

Part 2 looks at how these laws influence the leader:

• Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situations occur
• Leaders master the conversational environment
• Leaders listen for the future of their organization

This part presents some very important questions for the leader to consider:

• "How can I interact with others so that situations occur more empowering to them?"
• "What processes, dialogues, or meetings can I arrange so that people can feel like co-authors of a new future, not merely recipients of others’ decisions?"
• What decisions from the past exist in my future?
• "Do they honour their word? Do I honour my word?
• "How can I start new conversations that make integrity vibrant for others and myself?"
• "If I wanted to co-create a future with others, who would I need to involve?"
• "How would I need to listen to them?"
• Where would I have to give up controlling a direction so a new future can arise?

This section really describes what makes this approach different from ‘other’ change management approaches you might encounter:

"…a future that goes far beyond today’s best practices of casting a vision and getting buy-in. The experience is that, in the moment, people begin to live into the future. It isn’t a ’someday, maybe’ vision, but a future that is real in the moment. It compels action, because it transforms how situations occur for people."

All the change programmes I have seen have set out a vision, have tried to get buy-in, but have required no-one, particularly the ‘leaders’ to change in any meaningful way. When a leader actually leads the future, the leader becomes the first person to change, their actions will start to move the organisation forward helping dispel any doubts that other people would harbour about its believability.

Chapters 6 and 7 focus on the reader in more detail, to help you invent a new future for yourself in preparation for building a future for your organization:

• The beliefs and attitudes that currently might hold you back
• Questions to ask yourself
• The filters you use when engaging with the world

And finally chapter 8 describes 7 commitments to adopt to help engage at work from the ‘three laws’:

• Get out of the stands
• Create a new game
• Make the obstacles conditions of the game
• Share your insights
• Find the right coaching
• Start filing your past in your past
• Play the game as if your life depended on it

I have read this book 3 times now and each time I hone in on more and different aspects. I think it has made a difference to the way I approach my team work and I look forward to learning more nuances at the next reading.

So your next steps?

Read the summary of the book, read the blog, buy the book.

Related Reading:

• amazon.co.uk
• amazon.com
• The official website http://www.threelawsofperformance.com/
• The blog - http://blog.threelawsofperformance.com/
• A great summary of the book - http://3lawsofperformance.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/three-laws-of-performance-summary.pdf