FUTURE RISK CAPABILITY: understanding opportunity and threat

minimising future risk       creating sustainable advantage       creating opportunity

DYNAMICS – how things move and progress successfully: November 2011

Everything in the universe moves. Everything. If anything ceases to move, it ceases to exist. This is one of the few undisputed universal truths.

Apart from the obvious such as mass, energy, space, time, the 3 main factors determining the successful movement and progression of any system are:

·         synchronisation

·         alignment

·         balance

And  in a changing environment, these 3 factors need to work together for any system to continue to move and to evolve. If these factors do not work together for any particular reason, if they are out of harmony, there will be introduced an element of chaos. If left unchecked, any element of chaos will quickly cascade out of control. The undeniable consequence of this is that the system – any system – will “crash and burn”. This is how things work. This is how things move and how they progress. Change is inevitable. As everything moves, they also need to change over time in order to remain relevant and maintain their synchronisation, alignment and balance.

This is the same for organisations. It is also the same for any programme or corporate development.

Programmes need to be controlled. We all know the truth of this. A lack of control will ALWAYS increase cost and increase risk, and can often have disastrous consequences as the programme “crashes and burns”. Yet control in the dynamic sense if very different from the control imposed by static systems. As one of the great unspoken secrets of programme management, the importance of dynamics and how parts interact to produce the whole is something that has to be learned through experience. It isn’t something that can be taught from any widely recognised methodology. Methodologies tend to inadvertently engage in restriction. Methodologies are good at defining documentation, planning, milestones, but almost in a robotic manner. People don’t work like that. The world doesn’t work like that. Programmes certainly don’t move like that. LEAN thinking is good for machine automation yet is far from perfect when dealing with any human centric system. In fact, by forcing conformity, there is introduced a major element of chaos that will crash and burn any programme that is about people.

The 3 factors of synchronisation, alignment and balance therefore are “dynamic factors” that impart dynamism to any programme (or any system). As the world changes, as the programme environment changes, this creates 2 things:

·         a reactive need to change in order to deliver on the milestones

·         a pro-active need to investigate future change in order to stay ahead of the curve – and importantly, to create advantage

Ignoring the need to change leads to the unacceptable belief that all things remain the same. This is the dynamism of the 3 main hidden factors. So, what does this mean in reality? It means:

·         things change – static plans and “remaining the same” is NOT an option

·         there has to be a clear view of what needs to be achieved and flexibility to deliver, together with adequate contingency

·         there has to be a visualisation of how the different parts of the overall mechanism interact – and their responsibilities. It is this interaction that is critical (and much overlooked) – how the different parts are synchronised, aligned, balanced to produce successful movement and the control of chaos

·         there has to be “plans within plans” for each part, outlining the mechanics of movement and progression

·         there needs to be an appreciation of change and the impact of things going right and things going wrong, as well as how external change impacts internal development

·         from the overall view (THE plan) there needs to be a strong strategic definition of several steps ahead – and a view of how best to fine tune the interactions of the different parts to create those successful next few steps, as part of the overall plan

·         how to achieve this plan is not only a matter of individual milestones. The milestones will only be achieved by way of the dynamic interactions between the different parts – working together within the overall mechanism, within a changing environment

·         this leads to formal / informal information exchange. The majority of information exchange WILL be informal and therefore has to be channelled

·         in turn this means defined accountability, visibility, responsibility for what is taking place, each part contributing to the whole, each part moving and developing and changing within a changing landscape – synchronised, aligned, balanced for optimal performance within a changing landscape

·         a sense of “one team, one delivery, one programme” – and the comms to create the fundamental building blocks of this concept

Some of the above is taught within recognised methodologies, but by no means all. It’s the same as understanding the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. Imposing the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law will always create the wrong effect. The same with programme delivery. Imposing any distant, structured methodology without understanding the dynamism of how things move and progress, will always create unacceptable risk … and open the door to elements of chaos that these very same methodologies are not equipped to control. This therefore is about understanding people, about understanding the changing world – and the fact that everything changes – instead of being constrained by strict guidelines that allows movement only when the guidelines say it should be allowed. The world does not work this way and neither do people.

We all have to work smarter, not harder.

Regards

JS.

If you don't understand the risks, how can you prepare? Can you afford to let the issues be blurred?

The turbulent 21st century

life isn't black and white

central@alt3.co.uk