Change Agents Are “Between Two Ages”

I recently had lunch with my friend Van Wishard. Van is author of a must read book for change agents: Between Two Ages; The 21st Century and the Crisis of Meaning. I re-read Between Two Ages on a recent vacation and I found Van’s thinking in a category that defies description. The book provides a tapestry for helping leaders and change agents understand, “the next three decades may be the most decisive 30-year period in the history of mankind.” That statement is not hyperbole, it’s not conjecture—it’s quickly becoming a reality. All too often, change agents endeavor to solve problems with energy and conviction - yet,  without grasping the profound impact of Van’s assertion of the next 30 years, I wonder how relevant any change agent can be?

Why does this book matter to change agents? Take a read of a speech that Van gave that says it all:

“The end of the Cold War deprived us of a somewhat simplistic catch phrase for defining the world. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the search was on for new definitions, and we’ve gone through a series of slogans such as New World Order, The End of History, The Clash of Civilizations, Globalization, and now the latest vogue, The American Empire. All these phrases contain an element of truth. In my view, however, none encapsulates the totality of what’s happening to America and the world. And I suggest-at a minimum-such an understanding is relevant in order to establish the broadest possible context within which to understand and prosecute the war on terrorism.”

In my research on change and transformation, Thomas Barnett shared with me a powerful idea that has slowly permeated every client problem I am asked to help solve. Tom said, “change agents don’t look at problems in the context of the problem. Rather, they see problems in the context of everything else.” With that big idea in mind, Van Wishard’s book connects you to a rare framework for examining the underlying trends of any problems that our government faces. I worry that problem solving is only getting dumbed-down, as institutional change is never understood beyond a wishful desire that things must “slow down at some point.” Things are not slowing down, a point Wishard makes clear in his book.  Take a read and digest the thousands of insights it offers.  It’s important enough to read twice.

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Federal Agencies and the Battle against Employee Blogging

Nearly a week ago, the U.S. Army stated that it would start requiring its service members to seek official approval before submitting personal Internet postings on the world-wide web, such as Web logs. After receiving public scrutiny for attempting to restrict free speech, however, the Army has backed off.

Although the Army’s regulation policy was not well-thought-out, it bespeaks a major issue beginning to surface for a number of other federal agencies:  “Is the government equipped to deal with a growing wave of employees and contractors who want to express their opinions in a public forum?”

The danger involved with unregulated public forums for government employees is the risk of undisclosed information making its way onto the internet. In addition, the opinion of federal employees and service members often holds a great deal of clout in the eyes of the public, especially with regards to controversial topics like the Iraq war and Walter Reed Hospital. This isn’t always a bad thing; however, blogs tend to elicit many more responses from people who are deeply opinionated on an issue, usually negative. Bashing of the government on a forum for all to see could lead to some serious problems.

At the very least, each Army soldier or federal employee who deals with private information should be required to attend a securities training session, learn how to blog appropriately, and communicate their opinions in a way that does not deface the government’s image. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and it’s my hope that people will act intelligently when posting their opinions on the internet- for everyone’s sake.

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Forces Shaping Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur.com has outlined five “forces that shaped the entrepreneurship’” in the past three decades. The trends are technology, globalization, baby boomer generation, individualism, and of course, the Internet. If we ranked them in order of influence, individualism jumps out to me as the most powerful trend. At truth, being self reliant and without imposed limitations has a simple beauty and can be tremendously contagious–more contagious than internet adoption! If you have a sense of individually you’re fundamentally different in flicking an interwar which can only be contained. Do you know any global or local leaders whose decisions are based on a need to satisfy this overarching sense of liberty?

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Was the Batmobile a Change Agent?

Newsday reports on a simple technology solution that police are considering to combat the need for high speed chases. (There are an estimated 100,000 police chases a year in the United States). When asked where I see the most innovation in government and best practices around change, I continue to be amazed at the more forward - looking P olice forces in the United States. This time, Long Island’s Suffolk County is at the center of hatching an idea to solve a problem facing hundreds of police departments throughout the country. From the article we learn:

A new technology could turn Suffolk police cruisers into something like Batmobiles and put an end to high-speed pursuits.

Suffolk police are considering modifying their patrol cars to let officers shoot a sticky homing device — equipped with global positioning system technology — that latches onto a suspect’s fleeing vehicle.

Once the vehicle is tagged, officers can break off the high-speed chase and let a dispatcher track the car’s whereabouts, in real time, using satellites and radio frequencies.

“It’s pretty neat technology. It’s pretty exciting,” said Suffolk Deputy Insp. Stuart Cameron. “This is about the only thing I’ve seen that has any real chance of putting a dent in high-speed pursuits.”

The system, being developed by Virginia Beach, Va.-based StarChase, is scheduled to receive real-world testing in June from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol, said Trevor Fischbach, the company’s vice president for business development and sales.

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Transformation through Change Management

Last week, Daniel Forrester sent me a link to a new whitepaper published by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). The whitepaper is entitled Transforming Government through Change Management: The Role of the State CIO. Chief Information Officers are responsible for using technology to enable their organizations to do business. To support a changing organization, CIOs need to ensure their solutions and processes are flexible enough to support change. The whitepaper’s authors created 10 calls to action to enact change.  Here are a handful of their suggestions that stuck out:

“Establish collaborative relationships… The Importance of specific stakeholder relationships will change over time based on challenges, budget and legislative cycles, advent of innovation, etc…” — The whitepaper makes the point that it’s not the organization that changes, it’s people inside the organization who change.

“Create a “learning organization” that is continually adapting, learning from mistakes…”

“Cultivate trust throughout the organization.” — Daniel Forrester’s own whitepaper often uses the term “overauthorized” to describe change agents. To be overauthorized, a change agent must trust that his superiors will always back up any decisions he makes.

“Leverage enterprise architecture as the enabler of continual transformation…” — The paper places emphasis on enterprise architecture as being the means to change the organization incrementally, measuring progress and benefits from change.

“Establish a process for managing transformation in incremental steps…” — An incremental, phased approache allows you to set goals and measure progress. Should the change be for the worse, you only need to take one step back without losing all the ground that’s been covered to date.

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