Envisioning Change Beyond Just Alignment - Making Coherence, Coherent

Alignment is necessary in ordered environments which are stable, where outcomes are known and causality is linear. In such cases, our linear processes won't work effectively if they aren't aligned. However, in complex contexts where adaptive difficulties and non-linear interconnection are present, alignment alone will not suffice.

There are environments where there is an overall individual whose role has overall visibility and is responsible for coordinating and commanding everyone towards an outcome. Teams are aligned to the purpose of replicating commands and directives to the best of their ability in a structured and disciplined way. Improvisation is discouraged since it will disrupt the alignment and result in incoherent results. Yes, they sometimes produce good results, but this is not fit for a context where responsiveness or adaptation are critical.

It is necessary to build environments where teams can improvise and co-create emergent, responsive solutions at any instance. Any innovative team would become incoherent without these constraints. This style of being is more appropriate now more than ever as there is constant need to respond to a world that is continuously changing and unpredictable resulting in everchanging user needs.

In this talk, I will explore the relevance of coherent organisations in fostering transformational change. Of course, we still need to focus on alignment in linear organizations. However, these contexts are becoming increasingly automated, or at the very least demand less of our attention. In order to remain competitive and thrive in the modern world of work, we must focus our organizational design, leadership, and strategic efforts on complex contexts and establish coherence-promoting environments. This will require a tolerance for ambiguity and a true value for diversity. It will also require a shift from imposing governing constraints and control mechanisms to implementing enabling constraints in order to facilitate emergence and foster innovative growth.

I’ll also share some of my past experiences and what I’ve learned from them with regards to this subject.