Humans and our organizations are more like bees and beehives than they are like machines and component parts!  Human systems are more like the complex adaptive systems that we see in nature.  Complex, because the relationships and behaviours that make up the way the system operates are complex and interconnected.  It can be difficult to predict how a complex system will respond to change!  Bee colonies have a hierarchical structure with 1 queen, attendants, drones and workers, but the way they operate goes above and beyond the colony's organizational structure. Where information is currency,  the way that bees interact and communicate with each other, mirror how our human organizational systems operate.  We humans and our organizations are more like bees than like machines.

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​Learn more about Bees

​The only constant is change.  Heraclitus of Ephesus (ancient Greece) was an ancient philosopher who introduced the central characteristic of the universe was not static but that is was ever-changing.  While Heraclitus defined this central characteristic in 500 BC, this idea hasn't formed the central tenet of change management.  What if our approach to change needs to be more aligned with nature, biology and the idea that change is ever present?​

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References:

Heraclitus of Ephesus

Red Winged BlackBird

Goose Moon 

"We knew something was happening when we saw those swans dancing".  You may have noticed the images of dancing swans and wondered what all of this was about.  Story, imagery and symbolism can be a powerful tool to transmit messages without saying anything at all.  We talk about the story of the ballet of Swan Lake, how it was used to buy time and distract in the context of regime change, the symbolism and imagery and the story transmitting information from a totalitarian regime to today, where these images and performances are transformed into those of protest.  Story and symbolism can be a powerful way to transmit information in the context of change as we are seeing today.

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References: 
https://hazlitt.net/feature/portentous-composition-swan-lakes-place-soviet-politics

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2014/05/01/ukrainian-ballerinas-turn-swan-lake-into-subversive-anti-putin-performance-a34907

In this episode, we address a question from one of our listeners: what effect do the laggards have on the innovators and early adopters and why?  We dig deep in this question, and pick apart why laggards have such a negative effect on others and why focusing too much on the lagging end of change can undermine your efforts.

The three main areas we dig into are:

• Leadership and what we are saying to our leading edge,
• Confronting the fact that laggards just don't want to change, and
• That laggards can be toxic.  

Figuring out how to navigate this difficult group is the key to sustainable change.

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References: 

In this follow-up episode to last week's brief history of change management, we talk about where the practice of change is going, focusing on three key areas: how we look at organizations, deepening our understanding of people and how the way we work is changing.

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(references to be posted shortly)

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In this section of the podcast I discuss that how we look at organizations is changing. We're moving away from highly structured, hierarchical and industrial based models to more complex and connected organizations, communities and ways of working.  These resources talk about how we think about change in a more complex world.

In this section I talk about how the practice of change is forging a better understanding of people. From mindset to behavioural science, understanding how technology can shape micro-decisions, the centrality of identity to change and the power of our habits and how to change them and change our minds.  Behavioural change is key to understanding how we as humans understand and make change in our own lives, and is core to the understanding of how to lead change effectively.

In this section of the podcast I talk about how the world of work is changing. One of the biggest theories affecting change is Agile. So how can we change, but in an agile environment?  

If I was teaching a university course on change management, these books would be on my essential reading list! These are a great place to start if you're getting into working with change, and once or two of these would build an amazing toolkit for any change practitioner.