Navigational errors in change.
How good’s your map? (Rhetorical question)
Alfred Korzybski coined the phrase “the map is not the territory” (and also “the word is not the thing”).
That sounds obvious enough when it’s pointed out – I can just see myself nodding vigorously and saying, “yes, exactly” when someone makes that point – but it’s amazing how quickly we forget.
We do love our maps.
Here are some maps that are currently leading you astray, more or less:
How the senior team works
The org chart
What the values of the organization mean
What behaviours the values of the organization will determine
What people think the change is about
How people understand that thing you communicated
How much of the training will stick
How power and influence work
What competencies you have and don’t have in your change team
How ready people are to change
How people will respond to the change
Your change strategy and plan
This is not a complete list. 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, maps are also really helpful
Creating them is powerful, because you can notice what you’re choosing to include or leave out, to emphasize or downplay.
Using them can generate shared goals and understanding, and increase the odds of you making good choices navigating what’s next.
But reality is messy and unmappable. If only we could “do a Google maps,” type in a destination, and get the exact route to the minute of the journey.
More likely, you need to run small experiments to figure out the way.
Antonio Machado:
Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.
If you’d like a literary excursion that makes the point, Borges’ extremely short story is slightly obscure and also mostly delightful.
And here’s a fun tool that makes the point literally. You can see just how warped our standard “Mercator projection” global map is.
