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How to deal with the moment in a transformation where the value stream analysis shows a lot of room for improvement and the frozen middle trys to hide the results because it reflects badly on their past performance? Is this a thing? If yes , how to overcome it?
Room for improvement is not always the driver that will resonate with the frozen middle, or more senior leaders for that matter. Engineers, myself included, often jump into solutioning without looking at the bigger picture. It is very much a thing, one I've seen time and again. My "favourite" story in this vein was a leader in charge of helping introduce new practices (in the name of DevOps) who, when he presented his mostly red analysis showing lots of room for improvement, was told "too much red, can we make it purple?" and then promptly ousted from his role. Moral of the story know your audience. If you are managing change up into the frozen middle, identify what causes success for the leaders you need to influence. Do more of that. If you influencing from above, carefully select and communication the outcomes and be specific about measurements. This is easier but of course, many leaders at higher levels are not thinking this way. If you are influencing peers, and in all cases, lead by example. The BVSSH principles can serve you well.
Also, remember that execs often have a broader view of the value stream. If the system is performing within parameters, they may not be incentivized to change. Consider what drives the need to change? What happens if we do nothing? Is there a cost to doing nothing and are we investing to avoid that? Then it becomes a conversation about managing risk.
Thanks @U014KKAV3QA. Know the other's currency is something that I remember from a communication seminar which fits well here.
I was talking about this just the other day. One of the things I've hd to learn and something I continue to iterate on is understanding what the needs are of the person I'm talking to and then explaining how we can better meet those needs by changing things. Creating a Total Reality Vortex only works when the audience is bought in.
If I tell a developer that they can sleep better at night because of improved stability but they have a support team eating the pain for them, that doesn't really resonate. Same with a manager. If what I'm talking about doesn't reflect their incentives, it won't matter. This is why it's so important for incentives to be aligned to the improvement goals we want.