A Thought to Consider

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This week's featured thought in bold. 

• Abstract Thinking
• Character Traits and Citizenship 1947-1948
• Goals and Objectives: The Rotten Apple?
• How long is a piece of string? We don't know until we measure it.
• Is the future Moore’s Law or a Volkswagen?
• Leather folders, plastic inserts, and colored lab coats
• Models and Simulations: Seeing in Context
• Navigating the Risks of Change
• Peter Mark Roget versus the Oxford English Dictionary
• The Foghorn
• The Geometric Organization
• The Organization as a Metaphor
• To Transform Your Organization Just Add a Clarinet

In the early 1940s, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was one of many big bands vying for those who wanted to dance to swing music. His original band had all the standard instrumentation of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, a solid rhythm section, and solo as well as group singers. But his "sound" was pretty much like all the rest. Nothing that really made the band stand out. 

Then Miller got an idea of having one of his saxophones play the lead on clarinet (in place of the traditional alto sax lead) . . . of course the rest is history. With just this simple change he created a "new sound" and the Glenn Miller Orchestra shot to the top of the charts and stayed there until his untimely death during the second world war. 

The real empowering element in the Miller orchestra was in the potency of the compositions and how they were arranged and ultimately played by the band. And to think all he did was just add a clarinet. 

How did Miller overcome the notion that the future is an extension of the past and see through the filters and the blockages of the status quo? And how would an organization do the same?

Professor, Dr. Igor Ansoff identified three blockages or filters that prevent organizations from going beyond their present thinking when confronting the future. He classified these filters as surveillance, mentality, and power filters. The surveillance filter limits the field of observation, the mentality filter hinders the recognition of new ideas by reducing information when it does not support the current mental model, and the power filter explicates itself in the decision-making process by holding back less-heard participants from expressing their perceptions. 

However innovative he was, Glenn Miller's success ultimately came through his people, the musicians themselves. It wasn't an instantaneous solution, it required new ways of thinking, new ways of problem solving, applying collective knowledge, new cooperation, coordination and execution to realize the desired change. 

Change within an organization will necessarily take the same path and require similar new ways of thinking. But, what makes change so difficult and complex?

First and foremost, change, whether incremental or transformational, is driven, and conversely impeded, by the magnitude of information and signals received from both internal and external environments that can be overwhelming and many times inoperable. 

Second, hierarchical-focused behaviors at the centers of power can drive the change process towards highly predictable outcomes that may result in falling short of intended expectations. 

Third, when the planning and evaluation processes exclude the "less-heard voices" in the organization, the chance of successful and lasting change is greatly diminished. 

Since collective knowledge can make the smartest choices, come up with the best solutions, identify weak signals, and even predict the future, it seems somewhat obvious we need to rethink our attitude of and reliance on past sources of providing vision and direction at the exclusion of the wider body of influence. 

So, as OD professionals what do we need to do? I'm of the opinion we need to find ways to remove the filters and blockages, to include the less-heard voices, and consider outcomes beyond the obvious. And a good place to start is to add a clarinet. 

What do you think?

Wayne Davis

wayne.davis@ryangroupinc.com