DC77: The Enterprise Change Pattern: A Human Approach to Organisational Transformation
Updating the ECP and Mapping other people’s work into the ECP
Context
Most leaders I meet are under enormous pressure. They’re told to deliver change faster, innovate harder, and cut costs at the same time. Consultants used to arrive with big frameworks and centralised playbooks, promising transformation if only the organisation would implement the model correctly. We saw how that went.
Deep down, we always knew these “single stories of change (central narrative)” don’t work. They impose one fixed narrative on a system that is alive, messy, and adaptive. Instead of unlocking potential, they create the very problems we are trying to solve: rigidity, resistance, and disengagement.
The agile community has been saying it for years, but the lack of an alternative viable solution that appeals to executives has driven organisations back to SAFe-style solutions again and again despite knowing the risks.
There is another way.
The Enterprise Change Pattern (ECP) is not another framework. It is a step-by-step iterative approach that helps organisations create real outcomes through experiments, collective sensemaking (decentralised emergent meaning-making), and leadership growth. It is people-led, not process-led. It replaces the illusion of certainty with something far more powerful: a reliable way of navigating uncertainty together.
Why a Pattern, not a Framework?
I am deliberately using some complexity terms from Dave Snowden’s work and translating them into words that I usually use and understand. Please note, I am talking about the ECP here and bringing in other terms. I am not redefining those terms or explaining them here. It is best to refer back to the reference for the original use. I am concerned here with going deeper in the ECP and the updates I have made.
Frameworks assume we can predict outcomes in advance. In reality, many of the challenges organisations face live in the uncertain and adaptive space (complex domain – Cynefin). This is where cause and effect can only be understood in hindsight, and where progress is made through experimentation, not prescription.
By contrast, the expert-driven space (complicated domain) is where specialists can analyse and design effective solutions, while the predictable space (clear/obvious domain) is where cause and effect are obvious and outcomes can be standardised. Knowing the difference is critical.
At times, organisations also find themselves in a stuck or paradox point (aporetic state) or hovering in a threshold or transition zone (liminal state) where the old ways don’t work but the new ones aren’t clear yet. Leaders who misdiagnose these spaces often make the wrong moves.
The Enterprise Change Pattern acknowledges these dynamics. It doesn’t impose roles, structures, or processes from the outside. Instead, they emerge as the people closest to the work design and run experiments to improve outcomes.
For leaders who crave certainty, ECP provides reassurance: it’s structured enough to feel safe, but flexible enough to adapt. It offers clarity without false promises.
What Is the Enterprise Change Pattern?
At its core, the ECP is a systems coaching conversation with the whole organisation.
It contains only one defined role: the enterprise coach, who brings facilitation and systemic coaching skills to help groups see the whole picture, design good experiments, and work through the hard conversations.
The results are tangible:
Cultural shifts – more trust, ownership, and collaboration.
Strategic shifts – sharper focus on outcomes, improved adaptability.
Tactical shifts – better flow of work, reduced risk, faster delivery.
Clients who use ECP typically see: shorter iterations, smaller and less risky pieces of work, faster decision-making, improved quality, and stronger relationships across teams.
The Two Cycles of Change
The pattern works because it combines two interlocking cycles.
The Experiment Cycle (Right-Hand Loop)
This is the dynamo of change. It repeats quickly, usually in weeks, and creates momentum.
Start with Now – Facilitate a collective view of the current state, including not just processes but also emotions, challenges, and opportunities.
Define the Experiment – The people who will do the work co-create a small, testable change.
Make the Change – The group runs the experiment in practice.
Measure the Impact – The group reviews data and lived experience to see what worked.
This cycle builds confidence, capability, and a culture of learning by doing.
The Leadership–Structure–Culture Cycle (Left-Hand Loop)
This cycle moves more slowly, but over time it reshapes the organisation itself.
Leadership grows capability and shifts mindset.
Structure and Process evolve to reduce friction, create 10× more value, improve alignment, and reduce cost and risk.
Culture shifts as new ways of working embed, which in turn reshapes leadership.
These elements form a reinforcing loop. Left unchallenged, they keep the status quo locked in place. But through steady experimentation and reflection, the loop can be nudged toward healthier patterns of pull (attractors). Having more pull means faster adoption of change through motivated people with emotional connection to the outcome. I have found this to be a critical factor for sustainable change.
Creating Safety and Trust
No change effort succeeds without psychological safety. That’s why the ECP is deliberately designed with a safety zone around the process.
Respect, inclusion, equal voice, and willingness to self-manage emotions are baseline values. These aren’t “nice to haves.” They are the foundation of innovation and problem-solving at scale.
The enterprise coach plays a key role here, explicitly designing facilitation that surfaces hidden issues, unconscious power imbalances (privilege abuse), and the “elephants in the room.” Leaders, too, must protect their people by holding space for transparency and curiosity, rather than judgement and fear.
What It Takes to Make ECP Work
In the past, I described the Enterprise Change Pattern as needing certain prerequisites before it could succeed: leadership willingness, strong facilitation skills, and an understanding of agility. My thinking on this has evolved.
The truth is, change can begin without a mandate from senior leadership. You don’t need to wait for perfect conditions to get started. By using this approach, the system itself will surface what is missing and demand the capabilities required. Over time, the organisation grows into the very conditions that once felt like prerequisites.
Just as Gandhi taught — by making the next important problem visible — the system coalesces around it and works to resolve it. This means:
· Leadership growth emerges naturally. As the work exposes constraints and opportunities, leaders find themselves compelled to step into new ways of thinking and acting.
· Coaching and facilitation capacity develops through practice. At first, external coaches may guide the process. But as experiments unfold, these skills are transferred and embedded within the organisation itself.
· Agility is learned by doing. Instead of measuring against “agility scorecards (maturity models),” the organisation discovers agility through small, safe-to-try experiments that move it closer to outcomes.
In this way, what once looked like prerequisites become inevitable milestones. The system itself creates the conditions for its own growth, one visible problem at a time.
When the Enterprise Change Pattern Works
ECP is most useful when an organisation:
Needs to thrive through innovation and pro-activity.
Is stuck in a cycle of cost-cutting and stagnation.
Wants to meet (or exceed) the expectations of staff, customers, or stakeholders.
Needs a practical, step-by-step approach that isn’t another framework but results in agility.
It works best when leaders feel pressure, recognise the need for change, and are willing to engage in their own development, but this can happen naturally if not present.
When It Doesn’t Work
The ECP won’t help if:
You don’t have the influence to shape how people are grouped or how they interact. It is important to understand the boundary conditions and the risks associated with them, and have the authority to try something to shift boundaries to make a difference.
Leaders refuse to participate, even when the overwhelming move of the tide is showing that this is needed.
Coaches or consultants stick only to the “expert” stance rather than professional coaching and facilitation. We need good facilitators that can help grow people.
The whole premise of adaptive change is rejected in favour of rigid predictability.
A Human Approach to Change
Change is hard because leadership, structures, and culture are interdependent. It’s tempting to reach for big frameworks or scorecards, but these shortcuts only create more distance between leaders and their people.
The Enterprise Change Pattern offers something different: a way to navigate uncertainty together. It is built on experiments, trust, and human conversation.
This isn’t about chasing agility for its own sake. It’s about creating organisations that adapt, innovate, and thrive — organisations where people feel engaged and leaders feel confident they’re moving in the right direction.
That’s the promise of the Enterprise Change Pattern.
I have created a table that roughly maps the terms I have been using for the last decade or so to the work of Dave Snowden, Michael Sahota, Michael Spayd, and others.
Other terms and translations
References
Dave Snowden: https://thecynefin.co/
Michael Sahota: https://evolve2b.com/
Level 1: Organisational Change Strategy
Level 2: Advanced Change Strategy
How can I use this? Where do I learn?
Learn how to use this pattern, all of the tools, and go deep into leadership growth on the Organisational Change Strategy Level 1 course. For those who have taken this course already, you can go even deeper in the new Level 2 course running in December.
There is a very special discount for this September dates (email me) and a discount if you purchase both Level 1 and Level 2 courses together. Further Level 1 dates are available in November.
See here for a comparison of courses: https://www.deeperchange.academy/organisational-change-training-path
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