Strictly More Dancing
Friday, September 18th, 2009 | Posted in : |
In his book Teaching the Elephant to Dance, James Belasco makes the analogy that organisations are like elephants – slow to change. For anyone who has spent two years or more trying to sell a service to the public sector (there are many) and feeling like they are just not talking to the right people this may resonate. Someone mentioned the new compact to me the other day – I so want to believe that it will be a force for change.
The Belasco book is essentially a guide to change management for organizations with services to reposition in the marketplace and teams who need to manage and deliver that positioning. It talks about being a gazelle rather than a lumbering elephant: fleet footed as opposed to stumblingly slow. With no commercial markets to drive change the public sector is often removed from this responsive behaviour – unless it’s health where reform after reform has left people dizzy. Not so much dancing as wrong footedness.
But there’s another old saying isn’t there about a leopard that can’t change its spots and I wonder if the Compact’s new tune will make the difference it could without a few more gazelles around.
At SESC we have transformed ourselves yet again with the opening of the Bradford office – mentioned in a previous blog. I like to think we’ve got the right people on the bus (to borrow from Great to Good). I don’t recall doing acres of planning or orchestrating a string section – we are a lean team. It wasn’t arduous; there were no disputes due mostly to the fact that it was a change for growth rather than retraction. So a cause for celebration, the party is next month and we always have music.
At home, we go dancing on Wednesday evenings – it’s ballroom and latin with a Yorkshire twist! I’ve learned I am not naturally fleet footed or gazelle like but our practice and determination means we can now quick step and do the fancy footwork if the music is right. Every month the instructors add new step sequences just when you think you’ve got it mastered. It’s a joy! We adapt, pay attention and master it.
It would be glib to say markets are like that! (Although we all dance to the customers tune.) Even when you pay attention some sneaky changes can creep up behind you leaving you out on a limb with nowhere to go for an extension. Staying informed, being watchful and ready for change are the keys.
As James Belasco says: Change begins with you; it takes courage to change. Like powerful elephants many organizations are bound by earlier conditioned constraints’
I hope there is no one waiting for the Compact to kick in. Plain persistence is the only way to get to the people you need to influence. Their conditioning will take some chipping away. In that regard you need to be an elephant too firm and solid.
We’ve just developed a new change management workshop it is aimed at our fleeter social enterprises but the public sector elephants are welcome to come along - it’s good to be in step. Keep dancing.
Paula
This post was written by Debbie Yates
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Posted: Friday, September 18th, 2009 by Debbie Yates
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