What is the current state of change?
As part of my role, I have the privilege of meeting with many Change Agents who work in various roles, from Agile Coaches through HR to multiple levels of managers. They talk to me because I have something to offer to help them navigate the change that needs to happen inside their organisation.
As per a recent article, it is relatively easy to categorise these changes into the four things it seems that no one is willing to tackle. These are:
Leadership and their lack of ability to lead people in a way they want to be led
Organisational structure and the lack of knowledge or willingness to structure as ‘real teams’ and not silos
Product, and the ability to trust and educate PMs to be entrepreneurial, responsible for budgets, and to own both the value creation and the risk.
Technical investment in automated integration testing that allows anyone to write code on any part of the estate.
These four areas are well known now, yet that challenging status quo remains.
The vast majority of Change Agents I speak to are powerless to enable meaningful change. They are, at best, isolated from senior leaders and, at worst, living in fear of those leaders in case they rock the boat too much.
I recently was asked to help at a bank with so little safety; even talking to leaders was seen as an absolute no-go.
The mass layoff of Agile Coaches is due to the vogue of where money is being spent, which has changed from Agility to AI, and because many Coaches have no coaching experience and no clue how to make effective change using only a SAFe framework or, in other cases, no authority to use their coaching and expertise. For one reason or another, 66% of businesses have made a pivot away from Agile Coaches being the source of change in their organisations.
It seems change is at a crossroads or perhaps in a cul-de-sac.
Does the coaching approach still work?
Yes, but only in a narrow band of cases.
I have, and will continue to teach, a coaching approach to change. Coaching, Therapy, and large-scale facilitation and systems coaching are fantastic ways to allow those most affected by the problems to solve and be part of the solution. It is collaborative, fun, and most importantly actually works.
For a long time, we have rallied against the old-school consultancy approach of seeking to be the expert in someone else’s work and telling them how to change. We have seen first-hand the mess this creates. Whilst this appeals to expert-led leadership, it doesn’t work. It’s a merry-go-round of consultancies, external coaches, and internal employees, all trying to make it happen in a never-ending cycle of ‘I know more about your role than you do’ approach.
However, most corporate, government, and charity leadership is precisely that. They have an expert-led or achiever-led style that makes them look for the expert with the magic approach. They don’t get, want, or understand why coaching or large-scale inclusion techniques are necessary.
A coaching approach will not work with this type of leadership, and neither will the old-school consultancy approach. This is why Agile transformations are so hard: neither approach works for this type of leadership.
There has to be another way, and there is; it’s just not what you want to hear.
Change Agent or Change Maker?
Charley (our Marketing and Sales Director) recently asked me if we should call people Change Agents or Change Makers.
This resonated with me, and I am now swapping my usage for those of us who are actively making change happen.
Many of us are Change Agents, but how many of us are Change Makers?
As discussed, Coaching is the most effective form of change, but only when leadership are ready for it. What, then, for the rest of the organisations?
As a Change Maker, I am not happy with the status quo. I am unwilling to let our organisations, businesses, government, and other vital organisations fail and descend even further from the mediocre establishments they are, into chaos. I am also unwilling to take a role where I am unheard, unvalued, and powerless.
There are over 1000 applicants for each Agile Coach role on LinkedIn. I wonder how desperate people will become as they are unable to get work, and what awful roles they will settle for. Will you be able to make a difference, be heard, or even be safe?
So, using our logic, with only these options, we are stuck.
The best approach is a deeply inclusive organisation that uses a collaborative approach to solving problems. This is not possible when leaders are unwilling to listen or know how to make the right decisions. I am not interested in peddling the old-school consultancy approach, and the status quo is not viable.
As a Change Maker and thought leader, I look to examples worldwide where we face immense indifference through authority and hierarchy, but change must happen.
Satyagraha
Now, I look to Gandhi and his movement of satyagraha.
Satyagraha translates to ‘firm adherence to truth’.
It is living in truth as an active force for change. It encompasses non-participation in things that are violent, destructive, or cause harm to others. Gandhi’s approach was successful in that it removed power from leaders by depriving them of people to lead.
He found great, wholesome activities that countered and made visible the injustices he wanted to change. This forced those leaders who controlled the status quo to act, often in the nature of what underpinned the injustice, further highlighting the need for change. He made the problem visible so that it became so obvious that everyone could see what needed to be done.
Political change with self-sacrifice
I also look to Nelson Mandela, who spent his life as a change-maker. Using his influence even when in prison, having secret meetings with politicians, and having a very keen sense of what was happening in politics, he was able to free South Africa from the tyranny of apartheid.
Even from an isolated prison cell, he was willing to spend an additional five years in his 8ft x 8ft prison cell after being given a pardon that would silence him and the ANC. He chose his principles, knowledge, and connections over his personal freedom.
What sacrifices and life choices do we need to make to live in our truth? How much do you care about the change that is in front of you?
Going further
We need to use a broader range of activities than agility, coaching, and facilitation to reach those who are unable or unwilling to change themselves.
Are we willing to not participate in harm as Ghandi was, and to live in our truth, or make self-sacrifice as Mandela was? We don’t have to spend a lifetime in prison, of course, but what small sacrifice are you willing to make to live in your own truth more?
A change maker makes change happen.
Stop wasting time with those who are not able to use your wisdom
I set up the Deeper Change space for those who want to learn tools, techniques, and theory and experience change outside the usual tried-and-tested norms. It is a place to go beyond what others are doing. But what point is learning about these things if you can’t use them?
It is a wonder to me that as an industry of Change Agents who are helping organisations, we have wasted so much time on leaders who don’t get it, don’t want it, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if they had it. It is time to stop doing that.
Don’t waste your time and wisdom: maximise your time on this planet
Wasting our wisdom and knowledge, our time and energy, on jobs with no authority and then making the role obsolete because the vast majority of Agile Coaches didn’t change anything is a waste of human potential. It’s a waste of your potential.
I propose that we Change Makers do something different.
I am happy to continue working in corporate or government environments with leaders open to change. That has been my bread and butter for many long years . However, I won't, and have not for quite some time, placate those who want others to change but are unwilling to look at themselves or take roles where there is lots of responsibility but no authority to do it. It is a cycle of wasted time and potential to do this.
I won’t spend my time placating those who are not open or pretending to be in power when there is none. I urge you to do the same.
What to do instead?
I want to take a stand. However, taking a stand is unpopular. It risks putting me in the firing line, not being asked back, and losing work. So, what can I do instead?
How can we walk the line but not cross it in a way that causes harm to others or ourselves? I am well aware a ranting madman makes no money and doesn’t bring about the change they want.
The answer is simple. But only if the right mindset is available. And that is hard.
The solution involves shifting your energetic vibration to a higher space that invites the right people, places, and opportunities to appear.
I have been operating like this for a while, and occasionally, I drop back into a scarcity or fear-based mindset. In those times, life gets harder, and opportunities dry up. The answer as always, is with yourself.
I recently discovered, thanks to Michael Spayd, the map of consciousness, created by David Hawkins. This is a great tool for explaining what I mean.
This tool maps the energetic vibration of different states of consciousness. At the different vibrational levels, different realities are experienced. Raising or lowering your vibration changes how you see the world and what opportunities are available.
The most profound part of this map is that as the energetic vibration increases, your level of influence increases exponentially. Someone vibrating at the 500 level of love can shift tens of thousands of people. That means raising the vibration of yourself massively increases your ability as a change maker.
Therefore, it is of paramount importance to learn the tools to raise one's vibration and then to leverage this in the field of change.
This is the way of direct action to cause change on a planetary scale. I have been trialling this approach and learning tools to do this in myself and in others. It is very powerful and has caused a complete rethink and reshaping of our own business, our approach, and now what courses we are and will be offering.
We have found a third way to bring about change.
Old school ‘we know best’ approach
Inclusive people-power coaching and systems facilitation approach
Raising the level of vibrational influence - direct action approach
I will write a lot more here about this map, the tools, and the events where you can learn and experience more, including a retreat in Cyprus from September 29th to October 5th for those who want to be pioneers in this field and start a new movement to raise vibration to enable deeper change.
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Spiral Butterfly
29th September 2024 - 5th October 2024
Cyprus
The most advanced change agent experience on the planet. A heart-based and deep inner work retreat for only the most open and fearless change agents.
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