A couple of things I’ve learnt about interventions
Late last year I described some initial thoughts on what makes an intervention. Here is an excerpt:
We call them ‘interventions’ because they are designed to intervene in the ‘natural’ way of things. They are undertaken to create a ‘disturbance’—thus allowing new patterns to form. This approach is different from a project in which a clear end-result is envisaged from the outset. A project approach assumes an ordered world. In contrast, interventions are small ‘probes’ that are designed to create new possibilities.
Over the last year we’ve helped a range of organisations design interventions. During this time I’ve learnt the following:
- people have a strong desire to completely solve the issue they’re facing and can easily move from intervention design to project planning. Interventions shouldn’t attempt to solve the issue. Rather, they are designed to head the system in the right direction.
- interventions are discrete tasks which can be implemented within about three months.
- interventions are not further research or planning, they involve action
Here are some examples:
- turning off the blind copy functionality in an email system to send a message about trust
- providing manager’s with notebooks with the inside cover listing all the things a manager CAN do: what they can spend on whom, what awards they can give etc.
- stocking the stationary cupboard for mobile employees — a statement about trust
A set of small interventions can then form a portfolio approach to tackling a complex issue.
Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:
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A couple of things I’ve learnt about interventions
Shawn Callahan has written a blog entry about designing interventions, to address organisational issues. To quote: Over the last year we’ve helped a range of organisations design interventions. During this time I’ve learnt the following: people have a …