Community change work is often compared to being engaged in a Tango, a complex dance where the partners exchange
leadership, followership, passion, desire, intensity and drama. Now, I am not much of a dancer, but I can appreciate this metaphor.
Jurgen Appelo, in his book, How to Change the World identifies one of the keys of change management as ‘dancing with the system’. Written with organizations and businesses in mind, this 73 page book provides helpful approaches to practitioners of community change or those working on complex issues.
The four keys to change management, according to Appelo are:
- Dance with the System
- Mind the People
- Stimulate the Network
- Change the Environment
To act on these four keys, Appelo draws from a wide range of tools, approaches and theory. For example dancing with the system requires an ability to act, but also react and adapt as the system changes. We all know that systems are dynamic and changing places which respond to internal and external forces. If we think about a community as a system, some of the internal forces include people, resources, environment, culture, etc. There are also multiple external forces including policy, investment, people, etc. Just like the Tango, you have to be aware of your partner, the dynamics of the music and how you connect together, but you have to be equally aware of other dances and the physical constraints of the dance floor. At all times, the couple is acting, reacting and adapting.
Appelo suggests that adaptation is critical, but in changing the world, he also identifies the need for a plan that determines the critical next steps. In dancing with systems, the strategy of plan, do, act, check provides a framework for action, adaptation and reflection.
Minding the people includes increasing the ability, knowledge, desire and awareness of people within the system to act in a way that shifts toward results. Minding the people, as Appelo suggests is also about understanding those personal dimensions of desire, urgency, reinforcement, and providing supports to sustain positive behavioural change.
Focusing the energy of the system on initiators, innovators, early adopters and the early majority will help build system momentum and power. The adoption curve can be a critical tool to focus energy in the direction of change.
Finally, Appelo suggests that changing the environment can also be an important strategy. This could be challenging in a community change context. We might not be able to change the physical environment, our neighbourhoods, cities or regions. But understanding the environment and looking for opportunities to shift it can be done through the Five I’s Model.
- Information: use information radiators to make people aware of the consequences of their current behaviour
- Identity: appeal to a higher identity (such as culture) so that people feel a need to work together
- Incentives: give small rewards for good behaviour, in the form of compliments or tokens of appreciation
- Infrastructure: the tools and infrastructure you set up around people will significantly influence and guide their behaviours
- Institutions: introduce communities of practice or other informal institutions that can set the standard for good conduct.
Source: Appelo, J. How to Change the World. Page 49.
The Five I’s Model is drawn from human resource management practices, but applies equally well to the community change context.
There is a lot of wisdom in the 73 pages of this book. We can change the world, we just have to embrace and learn how to dance with the system and the people in it.
