Skepticism. Resentment. Confusion. Uncertainty.
Not how we do things here.
Overcome resistance with participative tools!
Organizations are like people. They develop habits. Habits are hard to break. Development and change happen when there’s a pull as well as a push. What can you do to establish an environment where people will pull? It can be tough when change is driven from top down. People may be bruised by the power exerted, feel dis-respected or vulnerable. A sense of powerlessness may lead people to become passive or adopt negative behaviors when major organizational change is under way. A way to avoid or cure these problems is to engage the “victims” of top-down change in defining how things will work in their processes beneath the mandated structure of their new world.
Each individual must be able to answer the question “What’s this mean to me?” in order to become comfortable and productive with change management. If a new organization structure has been mandated by top management, a Village mapping workshop soon following the announcement allows groups to define their new process at an operations level. When showing the activities and relationships needed, each can symbolize obstacles to effectiveness he perceives. Tagging their concerns with symbols externalizes them and makes them easier to address. The visual image makes it easier to form new organization habits.
In cases where top management challenges the organization to develop new bottoms-up ideas for organizational effectiveness, the four metaphor languages are ideal vehicles for multiple groups to develop alternative visions of an ideal operation, compare and reconcile them.
Metaphors and the different thinking they provoke are valuable catalysts for seeing new and better ways of operating. A Village map is best for that application. When a vision is agreed and the Zoo and Facecards have shown the roles, responsibilities and attitudes that will make it successful, a River map helps focus creativity on how to overcome obstacles to achieving the vision.
You can use it as a change management game to draw out alternate future directions. Showing process flow is highly useful as a predecessor to organization design.
Metaphor Mapping: Visual, Engaging. Organization habit forming! Increasingly, a best practice for change management.
For more on changing organization habits see the post that briefly explores how Metaphor Mapping relates to Charles Duhig’s The Power of Habit
