Starting
where and how to begin
A Framework
- Diffusion of innovations model [Rogers2003]
- Steps are:
- Knowledge: person becomes aware of a potential change
- Persuasion: they form a positive or negative attitude
- Decision: they choose to implement, ignore, or oppose
- Implementation: they follow through
- Confirmation: the change is normalized or abandoned
- Key points:
- People can and will drop out at any stage
- Facts aren't enough to persuade: people want numbers, but believe stories
- Most people neither support nor oppose most innovations
- Most changes eventually languish even if they aren't officially abandoned
There are other frameworks for thinking about organizational change. For example, the one presented in [Heath2010] analyzes it in terms of the conflict between our rational side, our emotional side, and our circumstances. Its three key points are to describe a coherent destination, appeal to emotion to motivate people, and map out a clear path.
Exercise: What Worked (or Didn't)
Analyze one recent attempt to change your organization in terms of diffusion of innovations.
- What did the advocates of the change do for each step?
- Which steps succeeded? Which did not? Why?
What to Do First
Before you do anything else, find out who has already tried what. You may not be the first person to try to make this kind of change, and an honest retrospective is worth a cup of coffee.
- Use existing social ties
- Successful movements are built on pre-existing relationships [Beckerman2022]
- "We think" is more persuasive than "I think"
- And "we" usually have better ideas
- Start with something small
- Less intimidating
- Gives you a chance to build skills and community
- Less damaging to your reputation if you abandon or retract
- Pick something that is already widely supported
- Improves odds of success
- Makes you appear mainstream rather than radical
- Pick something that is immediately useful
- Remember, most innovations languish or are met with passive resistance [Scott1987]
Avoid premature commitment to metrics, and more importantly, to target values for those metrics. It is more useful to agree on who will be responsible for evaluating the success of the change, which can also be a way to make someone an ally.
Exercise: Choosing a Starting Point
- Individually, make a list of three organizational changes that would satisfy the criteria above.
- In a group, compare your list with those of of your colleagues.
- What potential changes did several of you identify?
- Why didn't they include all of yours?
Exercise: Being New
- Why can it be harder to change an organization you have just joined than one you have belonged to for a long time?
- Why is it sometimes easier to change organizations you are new to?
Who to Convince First
- A Connector is someone who knows everyone [Manns2015]
- Help you spread the word
- Will expect you to listen to others in turn (exchange of social capital)
- A Guru is someone whose expertise in some domain is widely respected
- "If Toby likes it, it must be good"
Who Not To Start With
- An Innovator is someone who is constantly trying new things
- Less persuasive because they are known to abandon most of the things they try
- Decision Owners actually has the authority to make the change
- Don't approach them until you're sure you have a winning coalition
Exercise: Who's Who
- Individually, make a short list of people you think are connectors, gurus, and/or innovators in your organization. (Include yourself if appropriate.)
- In a group, compare your list with those of your colleagues.
- Which potential allies did several of you identify?
- Why didn't they include all of yours?
You Will Get Advice…
- If one person you trust tells you to give up or change direction, keep going
- If several people tell you, listen to them
- If they are generally averse to change or risk, disagree and keep going
- If their values are different from yours, disagree and keep going
- Otherwise, a little humility might save you a lot of wasted effort
- Be sure to distinguish disagreement on goals vs. disagreement on strategy and tactics
Sabina's Starting Point
- Sabina knows the other data analysts well, so will recruit some of them first
- "Some of them" because the libertarian won't be useful and she needs a plausible way to leave him out for now
- She gets along well with the Director of IT,
who will generally support anything that improves the quality of scientists' code
- He doesn't care as strongly about DEI as Sabina, but is generally supportive
- Collect and share anecdotes to show that contributing to open source software projects can be a way for junior staff to improve their skills
- Use this to institute Friday afternoon hackathons
- Participation isn't mandatory, but is tracked and taken into consideration in performance reviews
- Organize orientation and training for junior staff on how to contribute
- "Here's how to use GitHub" (run by the Director of IT)
- "Here's a refresher on intellectual property" (run by one of the Chief Counsel's underlings)
- "Here's the Code of Conduct that most open source projects use" (which starts discussion of DEI issues)