Changing my practice

I am currently involved in some work with a new client to help them work out how best to manage the programme of work needed to deliver a new business plan to their regulator.  The existing team has the skills, knowledge and expertise to develop the content for the solution but have less experience in developing a process to get them to the submission deadline on time.  I have been asked to design, develop and implement such a process.

Conscious of what I have been learning about complexity in situations and the reading I have completed around the Juggler* and the M (managing) ball I want to understand whether I, as a consultant within the organisation could "create the conditions for cooperative self organisation from which a new product" could emerge.

The starting point was to analyse my current approach using a table from the text (Table 8.2) which outlines the characteristics of a consultant with a traditional perspective and one with a complexity perspective.  The blue dots describe my current approach - predominantly traditional.  Given the context of the organisation and how I need to engage with them as a client a wholesale shift would not be appropriate.  There are some aspects where a shift to a complexity approach could be advantageous (arrows to green dots).

If I change my practice and adopt these complexity perspectives it should allow a solution to emerge as opposed to be imposed.





* Ison, Ray (2017) Systems Practice: How to Act in Situations of Uncertainty in a Climate Change World, The Open University