Fascinating Concepts from Esther Derby’s 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change

When there are issues working with people, some will say these folks have their “own way of thinking” or “own working style” or blame others as being “stubborn”, “old-school”, or whatever we might have heard. But it really is about how each of us deals with change.

Having read Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby, I have been looking forward to her next book, 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change — Micro Shifts, Macro Results. I started on the book once it was out on O’Reilly but lost access to the subscription until I finally managed to get my hands on the physical book (years later). So here are my notes.

Before you start any change… Rule 1: Strive for congruence

• Congruence enables connection, communication, problem-solving, and creativity.
• Breathe, center yourself, consider self/other and context, and return to thinking and problem-solving.
• Your congruence may serve as a sea anchor for others, a stabilising force when fear and anxiety run high, as they often do in periods of change.

When confronted with the history and mystery of an organisation… Rule 2: Honor the past, present, and people

• The practices and patterns you observe may not seem sensical to you, but they did to someone at some time.
• Things are the way they are because they got that way. There is no point in blaming. Look for what works and build on that. Notice what is valuable and should be carried forward.
• If you can, notice what people value and connect that with the future. Acknowledge that people are losing something and leaving something behind.
• Honouring the past contributes to referent power by reinforcing respect, which helps people let go.

When striving for clarity amid visible and invisible structures… Rule 3: Assess what is

• There are many ways to understand problems and frame solutions. Start from there, assess what is happening, and have just enough to form a rationale for an experiment.
• Consider the conditions and influences that contribute to the current pattern. Test against explicit models to make sense of what you see.
• Organisations evolve nudge by nudge, near-neighbour state by near-neighbour state, to new capabilities and new patterns.

When you want to spread an idea through the organisation… Rule 4: Attend to networks

• Networks are present in every organisation; they are how work gets done.
• Leverage the trust and advice networks that already exist. Rather than put energy into enforcement efforts and drag people along, go where the energy is.
• Tapping into existing networks will expand your view of the organisation and speed up the spread of ideas.
• When you get critical people in a network behind an idea, broad acceptance is much more likely to follow. Weaving networks around an idea can amplify its power and persistence. Look for ways to make networks more robust and less reliant on brokers.

When you are ready to test a hypothesis… Rule 5: Experiment

• Minor changes limit disruption and allow people to learn. No matter how detailed the plan, it cannot make the uncertain certain.
• Complex problems do not often come with well-known solutions. Even when there are fixes that have worked elsewhere, implementing a new process or method usually requires learning and changes to additional procedures and policies. Explore those with experimentation.
• Experiments are a test of organisational tolerance for learning and innovation.
• Use your insights to formulate an experiment that will show you something quickly about how the system responds. Get good at thinking small and seeking fast feedback to solve big problems.
• Learn to look for indicators that something is moving; do not wait for outcome measures.
• Keep your experiments tiny and avoid the mess of a big bet gone wrong. Try something, observe, and then assess again. What has changed? What did you expect to see? What did you wish to see that you did not see? Assess and conduct another experiment.
• Experiments enable people to use their own power to think and learn, and they empower people as actors in the change.

When it’s time to spread an idea… Rule 6: Guide and allow for variation

• Do not force standardisation where it is not needed. In knowledge and creative work, it is not possible to anticipate all the variations. Empower reasonable deviation and new possibilities.
• Focus on outcomes and set boundaries. People will figure out what to do within those constraints. Even the best idea will die if it is ill-adapted or not adaptable to the local environment, so always consider the context.
• Attractors, such as vision statements, tell people the direction of travel, but they are not enough to get anyone to the destination. Focus on the near-neighbour and take the next evolutionary step to make progress and maintain motivation.
• Setting targets can lead to gaming the system, and checklists can lead to rote behaviour and surface compliance.

When tackling a significant change that involves other people… Rule 7: Use yourself

• Use your empathy, curiosity, patience, and powers of observation to find the next move.
• Change is a social undertaking, and your personality, experiences, worldview, and style — all influence how you interact and employ your skills and knowledge.
• Practice mindful and skilful questioning to leverage your curiosity to discover useful information. Thoughtful use of self builds referent power.
• Testing observations against explicit models prevents falling into habitual thinking. Testing against more than one model can reduce confirmation bias.
• Empathy may lead you to be curious. Curiosity and empathy may lead you to understand more about other people and their contexts.

Big changes trigger angst and discomfort, and the organisational change antibodies respond in force. The most effective change in organisations is often made in subtle evolutionary steps: a little fix here, a tweak in the process there, building on and extending existing skills, and modest adjustments to workflow from one part of the business to another are some examples.

Heuristics point a way; methods and models guide action.

P.S. This post was drafted two years ago. I have a terrible habit of not publishing my thoughts; you can tell by the number of drafts I have in my medium account. 🫠 However, recent events have reminded me about this draft and the positive change we want to effect.