Views in Verse on Innocence lost

Innocence lost

A joyous notion we could live forever, a secret inkling that we could fly;

A simple surety that love conquers all, yet never needing to question 'why'? 

 A child-like innocence lost to us ...the day that John Lennon died.

From the desktop of Grahame J Flynn Views in Verse

Views in Verse on 'things that change'

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"

- John Lennon





In our business lives we do a lot of planning. 'Woods meetings'. budgets, strategy,  ...'deliverables'. With often a general belief that the 'roadmap' produced is 'written in stone' ...as long as 'no one gets in the way'.

From these aspirations we appoint teams of people. Some new to the business, some not, some visionary and some, 'meat and potatoes' types. They all get together and try to deliver 'the change' to what is too oft' believed to be - 'hostile types' - generally thought to be resistant to change. These people are in fact generally the the core of the business!

Despite best advice from the 'oracles of management & leadership' over the past twenty years these views still remain prevalent. Is it any wonder major organisational changes fail so often ...regardless of how much effort is thrown at them?


"If the systems we design are based on the principle that people can't be trusted, then these people simply won't bother to be trustworthy"                                    - Charles Handy, The Hungry Spirit


A more appropriate model then presumes that:

- people are drawn to do new things by their very nature

- generally embrace things positively when they see something new 

- naturally engage in communities

- relish being seen as a productive member of a newly formed team

- given they are operating in a clear, empowered and rewarding role


Even when we are working in harmony, things will arise that are not in 'the plan'.  

That's life ...not theory!

The appropriate philosophy then is that we bond together to find a solution and implement it with all speed such that the common good will be enhanced. Trust is the prerequisite. Our supportive leadership should underscore that using requisite management techniques and a fair spread of governance.

Contingency plans are always prudent ...but cannot meet all unexpected issues that will arise over time given the complexity of a change programme say. The best thing we can have is a strong and resilient team culture that 'steels' together to meet the need - much as we do with natural disasters.



This says a lot for how we should approach major change. Instead of depending on a 'few people' being seen to bravely take on 'the rest', our change programme needs to feature broad involvement and a 'communication plan' that not only 'spreads the word' but one which really 'engages people'.


Get them all on-side with bravado (even in policy development) and promote 'sharing' the journey! Leading with a straight forward honesty helps... but this needs to come from all levels (one story).


Planned change is about us ...it affects us all.


Grahame J Flynn FAICD CGEIT(ISACA) 

at last he could see over the mountains

Beautiful Boy 

Before you go to sleep 
Say a little prayer 
Every day in every way 
It's getting better and better 

Out on the ocean sailing away 
I can hardly wait 
To see you come of age 
But I guess we'll both just have to be patient 
'Cause it's a long way to go 
A hard row to hoe 
Yes it's a long way to go 
But in the meantime 
Before you cross the street 
Take my hand 
Life is what happens to you 
While you're busy making other plans 

Before you go to sleep 
Say a little prayer 
Every day in every way 
It's getting better and better 

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful 
Beautiful boy 
Darling, darling, darling 
Darling Sean 

Views in verse on holiday wishes

Best wishes to all for the festive season!






I am on my first day of leave for the annual break and I have commenced to read, as one will, this time of year. During breaks in the cricket test of course.

I stumbled across some poetry there that somehow intersected with the time of year for me. We are urban people (by any account) but always at this time of year we travel to the coastal areas away far from Sydney. We meet friends there and do all the usual things golf, seafood, fishing, boating, swimming.

The one common factor though that always accompanies this is that we travel through a lot of country towns on the way there and back ...and always spend far too little time thereabouts for breaks/lunches.

I say this as it got me to thinking that it is of itself a 'bit of therapy'. In that it slows you down and helps your 'clock' to acclimatise to this the 'very necessary' holiday period. Sometimes the service in the shops immediately puts you in touch with another time zone. But hey ...that is part of it all.

There is also a touch of sentimentality about it too, although most times it doesn't even occur to you at the time. This comes about as the heritage items that you always see there, it could be an old building, furniture,a wagon wheel or even old wares, all set your mind into another time zone.

In doing so it can put us very much in touch with our roots and hopefully makes us a little more appreciative of what we do have as well (subconsciously at least). Something that often gets lost in the 'hurly burly' of the working year in the city.

Perhaps sentimentality is good for the soul. Most times we don't get to go there too often.

The poem I touched on was 'Country Towns'. So I thought I might share the poem with you.


Kenneth Slessor is an Australian poet who lived from 1901 to 1971. He was born in the Australian country town of Orange in New South Wales.



Country Towns



Country towns, with your willows and squares,
And farmers bouncing on barrel mares
To public houses of yellow wood
With '1860' over their doors,
And that mysterious race of Hogans
Which always keeps the General Stores….

At the School of Arts, a broadsheet lies
Sprayed with the sarcasm of flies:
'The Great Golightly Family
Of Entertainers Here To-night'–
Dated a year and a half ago,
But left there, less from carelessness
Than from a wish to seem polite.

Verandas baked with musky sleep,
Mulberry faces dozing deep,
And dogs that lick the sunlight up
Like paste of gold – or, roused in vain
By far, mysterious buggy-wheels,
Lower their ears, and drowse again….

Country towns with your schooner bees,
And locusts burnt in the pepper-trees,
Drown me with syrups, arch your boughs,
Find me a bench, and let me snore,
Till, charged with ale and unconcern,
I'll think it's noon at half-past four!
                         
                                         

Kenneth Slessor

Transformation Talk - effective communication

Transformation 

demands 

effective communication






Following is an anecdote by the godfather of modern management Peter Drucker that highlights how easy it is for supposed 'best practice theory' to simply not 'translate' to implementation - the result, a failure to bring about desired change.  


"Until well into the 17th century, surgery was performed not by doctors but by barbers who, untaught and unlettered, applied whatever tortures they had picked up during their apprenticeship. 

Doctors, observing a literal interpretation of their oath not to inflict bodily harm, were too ethical to cut and were not even supposed to watch. But the operation, if performed according to the rules, was presided over by a learned doctor who sat on a dais well above the struggle and read what the barber was supposed to be doing aloud from a Latin classic (which the barber, of course, ...did not understand). 

Needless to say, it was always the barber's fault if the patient died, and always the doctor's achievement if he survived. And the doctor got the bigger fee in either event. 

There is some resemblance between the state of surgery four centuries ago and the state of organisation theory until recently.'' 

Peter F. Drucker - The Practice of Management (Chapter 16).


How easy it is for communication to fail us? "I broadcast ...thereby 'ipso facto' my message is clear"

We should always be critically aware of just how easy it is to get caught up in the fanfare of business transformation as opposed to implementation of the 'new way' at the operational level in the business. The lesson we see here can so similarly be played out with a high profile change programme versus a team of guys who come to work to simply do another days work. They do not operate on the same plane. How do we ensure alignment?

Thereby the open catch-cry:

Transformation + Governance = Value Realisation

a reminder that performance management must be evident at every level in the process.


Alignment to planned objectives is the hardest part in delivery of planned benefits expected from transformation. This cannot be achieved without effective communication with all impacted staff, channels and, not to forget, customers. The change programme will not succeed without a well thought out and executed communications plan.

And remember ...don't be found 'speaking in tongues'. Communication always needs to be a 'two way' process.


Cheers

Grahame J Flynn FAICD CGEIT(ISACA) 




The Ballad of Sweeney Todd

Attend the tale of Sweeny Todd,
His skin was pale and his eye was odd.
He shaved the faces of gentlemen
Who never thereafter were heard of again.
He trod a path that few have trod,
Did Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

He kept a shop in London Town
Of fancy clients and good renown.
And what if none of their souls were saved?
They went to their
Maker impeccably shaved by Sweeny,
By Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Swing your razor wide, Sweeny,
Hold it to the skies!
Freely flows the blood of those who moralize.

His need were few, his room was bare:
a lavabo and a fancy chair,
A mug of suds and a leather strop,
An apron, a towel, a pail and a mop.
For neatness, he deserves a nod.
Does Sweeny Todd,
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Views in verse on renewal (facing the future ...as in the past)

We get comfortable with our daily habits, whether they are efficient or not. Nobody likes change...but it is necessary in order to take ourselves  (and our businesses) to the next level of performance. Because, in this fast moving world, nothing stays the same for very long.

Aristotle knew a lot about change. He began his work seeing change as a scientific process. He was soon to realise that change is not at all predictable and is really more akin to dealing with a multi headed serpent.


 He came to see over time that the solution can only be founded in 'people' using highly persuasive communication techniques and steady reinforcement. A bespoke/human relations focussed solution. A methodology based approach does not create lasting change (he would also find).

He realised that people are multi dimensional when it comes to change - a three dimensional 'threat' that we have to somehow deal with 'as one' so as to produce desired behaviours. He also recognised that a dictatorial approach would not work for a much desired new culture to thrive and be 'productive'. Persuasion is the key word when it comes to change as it relates to people (especially when working in teams).

He recognised a single communication process with three components. This process demanded that the overall message be tailored from a point of view of the message itself (logos), the sender (ethos) and also the receiver (pathos). That the 'message' must make sense in its own discrete way; that the 'deliverer' be a person of integrity (so as to encourage belief in the content) and that the 'receiver' be a suitable candidate so as to absorb such a message positively. 

A three headed snake indeed! But the nature of successful change meant that these must all be addressed 'as one' so...

...he saw that there was a need for a plotted approach (as in a story or play); where the conclusion (the desired change) would 'fall out' from a preplanned series of exchanges and events - the interim impact of which could be good or bad - based on the nature of the trigger designed and the desired (longer term) outcome. 

To put that in today's terms: a communications strategy would be required in order to bring about a new culture that features the wanted behaviour and the 'norms' that reflect clear values and articulated policies.

Once the 'new state' in in place, Aristotle observed that continuous improvement would then be possible given that:

       "we are what we repeatedly do ...excellence is not an act, but a habit".

so eventually we can put a process to what the people are doing at work but it takes carefully designed 'one off' strategies (within our change programmes) to deliver the end result that can then be methodically improved upon. 

An oxymoron? Not really...

Behavioural change management is undeniably about people and not process (methodology).

Change management really acts on three levels in our transformative endeavours - as the change programme itself - within the project portfolio - and in working with people to embed new behaviours.

True success will only be found if and when of our managers (especially change programme managers) should become real leaders. Their success will be judged by how well they strategize their intent and by how well they communicate with their peers and their surrounding teams.

Change is mandatory in all our lives ...but change is hard. It requires well structured governance so as to get the maximum result, ...the first time.

The alternative though of sticking to well worn paths to success, has a very limited 'use by' date. So when you go and take the leap of faith Remember that...

transformation + governance = value return

There are NO short cuts.This is most apparent when the 'heart' of the transformation is an enterprise IT application integration for example. A big, complex, expensive, long lasting job and one of a technical nature.

It is very easy to be distracted away from the embedding of the new assets into the business units (where the real payback awaits). To be anything but technically myopic on such a mammoth task is ingrained into the soul of an IT Project Office. I speak from thirty years experience when I say this.

This is where Governance must be seen as separate layer and be instituted as the engine of the Change Programme (separate and distinct from the 'opus maximus'). A P(g)MO helps to overtly show this clear distinction both in the planning phase and over time into phased delivery of the committed benefits.

Change is hard...

It's all fun just the same

Cheers

Grahame J Flynn MBA FAICD CGEIT (ISACA)

Renewal

Release
the past
It's spent
and gone
Accept
my friend
it's done!

Embrace
tomorrow
as a child
plays in rain
The future
holds promise
for some

For those
who open
their hearts
and trust in
themselves
Good things will come
to them
as if by chance.

To lovers
who caste aside fear
the odd
chortled jeer
and boldly
march up to the floor
and dance

And to those who
take a
selfless route
in fulfilling
their pursuit
Reward will come
to them
with seeming grace...

Live to love 

the day
before wishing it away

on the past
...spent
but never
out of place!

From my I-pad - Grahame J Flynn