Organizational alienation
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www.AriTikka.com Organizational Alienation An experience report of 15 years of developing organizations. Ari Tikka, LESS 2011, 31.10.2011 www.AriTikka.com Alienation refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to put antagonism between things that are properly in harmony. -- Karl Marx, influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach Alienation?
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Human beings design constraints in a system. Then the system creates behavior, and people adjust the system. There are places in this loop, where human unconscious has potentially huge leverage in the long term development. When facing a challenge human mind does its best to cope with the the change by learning and acting. The more threatening the challenge is, the more the unconscious defense mechanisms protect the mind from anxiety. Defensing always has a flavor of self-deceit. It is often difficult to judge how much a certain choice is defensing and how much coping. Learning, by the way, is laborious and threatening, and thus often causes defensing. The talk will shortly present defense mechanisms. Then we will explore four common, significant and painful patterns in organizations, magnified by defensive behavior: Three conflicting interests Gaps between Customer and Producers Competing projects Overspecialization leading to coordination chaosI have called the general phenomenon Organizational Alienation. Based on my 15 years in studying and developing large SW organizations, I have chosen three levers that you can pull in everyday decisions to change the direction: From overspecialization to deep competencies having wide responsibilities From avoiding conflict to passion to learn From batching to flowThe most effective arena to create change is teams making decisions, both the front-line and management teams. Every member of the organization can influence.
Transcript of Organizational alienation
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Organizational Alienation An experience report of
15 years of developing organizations.
Ari Tikka, LESS 2011, 31.10.2011
www.AriTikka.com
Alienation refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to put antagonism between things that are properly in harmony. -- Karl Marx, influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach
Alienation?
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Who says?
! Structural dynamics ! Embedded software ! Organizational therapist ! Agile and Lean consultant ! Lifelong interest in the mind ! Intensive Zen meditation All models are wrong, some are useful. (GPE Box)
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The natural evolution of an organization
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Specialized professional coordinators"
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Coordination chaos
C O S T!
V A L U E!
Expensive to coordinate the resources!Slow to manage the portfolio!
Waste!Exhaustion!
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The principles
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The principles causing Organizational Alienation"
" 1. Overspecialization
2. Batching
3. Conflict avoidance
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Overspecialization" - Idling and bottlenecks
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Big batches"- hide details, hide reality
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Conflict = mismatch
! Mac Thesaurus: “a conflict between his business and domestic life: clash, incompatibility, incongruity, friction; mismatch, variance, difference, divergence, contradiction, inconsistency. ANTONYMS harmony.”
! Often unpleasant… ! The opposite of avoiding conflict?
! Seek conflict? ! Resolve conflicts? ! Beyond conflict?
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The countermeasures of "Organizational Alienation
1. Overspecialization
2. Batching
3. Conflict avoidance
1. Wide roles "
2. Flow
3. Greed to learn
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Relevance? "Why these patterns?
! Verb / doing ! Coverage?
! Space / structure - Overspecialization ! Time / dynamics – Batching ! Consciousness / decision / meta / control / choice /
forces / interests / human needs – Conflict avoidance ! Can I influence? How?
! Granularity / holographic principle / pervasiveness / generality
! Enable micro- and macro level interventions
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The human factor
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Consciousness?
! Consciousness is an anticipation device ! Makes decisions on behalf of the whole. ! Passive -> Adaptive -> Anticipative ! Mechanical -> Plant -> Mammal
! Organizational metaphors ! Machine -> conscious by elite ! Organic -> distributed consciousness
! How is Alienation effecting the consciousness?
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Why groups are central?
! Collective ! Immediate ! Full bandwidth communication ! People always join bigger organizations through
subgroups.
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Why to choose alienation "– why not connection?
! Culture, values and assumptions of the country and industry ! Efficiency <-> Robustness ! Long term <-> Short term
! Organizational culture and system
! Never underestimate stupidity ! Fear ! Shame / Guilt ! Anxiety
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The unconscious "decision making
! Coping ! Defensing
“The purpose of ego defence mechanisms is to protect the mind/self/ego from anxiety, social sanctions or to provide a refuge from a situation with which one cannot currently cope.”
! Change resistance
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Individual’s point of view
Leader’s point of view
Change
Change Fear, Shame, Anxiety
Resistance is a perspective
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Individual Defenses"
! Pathological ! Split, Denial
! Immature ! Phantasy, Projection, Acting Out, Procrastination
! Neurotic ! Dissociation, Intellectualization
! Mature ! Humor, Altruism, Concentrating to the essential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_mechanism
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Group defenses
! Humans as tribal animals have functional group communication patterns ! Dependency ! Fight-Flight ! Pair forming
! Sometimes the group uses these patterns as defenses and the real task is forgotten
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Explicit
The Power of Culture
Truth
Basic assumptions
Realizing "values
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Organizational defenses
! Organizations are designed to produce "waste and error, in order to avoid "embarrassment and threat, "and to cover unacceptable acts.
! It is indiscussable. Indiscussablility is indiscussable. But individuals know.
! Results in skilled incompetence and "organizational depression
Chris Argyris: Overcoming Organizational Defenses, "Facilitating Organizational Learning. 1990.
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The contribution of defenses "to the principles of Alienation"
1. Overspecialization
2. Batching
3. Conflict avoidance
1. Wide roles "
2. Flow
3. Greed to learn
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Examples
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Able and willing people
R&D
Product management
Customer Technology
The Gap From firefighter"to change driver!Wide roles!Flow !Greed to learn!
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Overspecialization and batches go together
Consulting!Program!Marketing &"
Sales! Customer! End user!Sites!
Explicit"Documentable!
Tacit!
Relearning!
Handovers"Batches!
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Is this possible?"Why not? How?
Consulting!
Program!
Marketing &"Sales!
Customer! End user!Sites!
Wide roles!Flow !Greed to learn!!!
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Three Conflicting Interests Investor’s interest "Capital market
Customers’"Interest Market
Workers’ interest"Production realities
Management"subculture
Customer"interface"subculture
Production/"development"subculture
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Overcoming "Alienation
Gemba
Flow
Wide roles!Flow !Greed to learn!!!
Overcoming Defenses
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Summary
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From Alienation to Connection
1. Overspecialization ! Knowledge waste ! Coordination chaos
2. Batching ! Weak feedback ! Hide details
3. Conflict avoidance ! Ignorance and mistakes ! Alienation
1. Wide roles and responsibilities ! Deep competencies in dialogue
! Sharing workload and learning
2. Flow ! Immediate and consequential
! Work with and learn from reality
3. Greed to learn ! Wisdom
! Empowerment
