The Trinity of Change

Hey, it’s a new blog entry! Many thanks to people like Kenn, Chris, and yes, my parents, for encouraging me to get back on the horse. It’s not that I don’t have lots to say. It’s more that by the time I get around to typing out what I had to say, I’ve got a big stack of new thoughts to form into words. As they arrive in my head, they land on top of the old words, smothering them into yesterday’s news. The whole process reminds me of my kitchen dishes, actually. “If only you would clean up those ideas and set them out to dry before you cook up a new batch, it wouldn’t be so hard to scrape the crud off of them,” I can hear my mother say…

Exactly like my dishes…

Anyway, this blog entry comes from something I cooked up earlier last week (editor's note... uh, more like earlier last month), and I’ve got to get it published before it starts to mold. I've been looking at how systems change, and what are the necessary conditions to achieve a large system change. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, “The Tipping Point”, describes the conditions necessary to “tip” an idea into the public consciousness. But he doesn't really explain the mechanisms of change. For example, his book doesn't explain how the Marshall Plan was achieved; only how the idea of the Marshall Plan was able to spread into the public consciousness.

Spreading an idea is only about a third of the story, actually. (Malcolm, take note...) It's not sufficient for an idea to tip. For example, literally 10's of millions of people marched to protest the idea of the second Iraq invasion. This surely counts as an idea which tipped! Yet, the invasion went ahead anyway. Why?

The answer is that for real change to happen, you require three ingredients:

1. Leaders have to throw real weight behind the change. In any change, you will have people or groups who are resistant. This is just human nature -- we like things the way they were because we naturally believe that staying the course is safer than changing course. You need leaders who can lend authority to the change, to convince the resistant that the change will be worth the effort

2. Evangelists to communicate and convince the people of the message. Good ideas with good leadership can fail if they aren't communicated in a way that can convince those who are impacted by the change. Look at the struggle BC has had deploying its new carbon tax, or the failure of BC "STV" voting system proposal (that last one did really hurt my head). Unless the change has a clear, articulate evangelist who is able to bring the message home, it is also likely to fail.

3. Administrators who can manage the change. Even good ideas with solid leadership and popular support can fail if they are not properly managed and administered. Sometimes love is not all that you need; sometimes you need forms and audit trails and decent old-fashioned project management. I see this all the time in my job. Good project management makes all the difference between a smooth transition, and a chaotic one. These administrators are rarely recognized by the history books, but any large-scale change requires careful management, and this cannot be left up to the leaders and evangelists.

So there you have it. Leaders, Evangelists and Administrators. The trinity of change. Next time you see someone advocating change without people to fill all three of these roles, prepare for a bumpy ride.