The Forgotten Half of Change

Book Summary

Luc de Brabandere was a vice president

and director in the Paris Office of the
“Boston Consulting Group” at the time He
wrote this book (2005).
Innovation is the people’s capacity to change
reality

Creativity is the capacity of these people to

change their perception of reality
 Change is Inevitable

 “You can never walk into the same river twice”.

Heraclites

 “Change is inevitable and we can actually investigate

it in nature and even through experimentation,
make it happen”
Sir Francis Bacon

 “If I have been able to see further, it was only

because I was standing on the shoulders of giants ”
Isaac Newton
 There are Two types of change.

 Type 1 change is a change of the reality within a

system but it does not change the system.

 Type 2 change changes the perception of the

reality and creates a new system.
 Changing reality and perception

 The efficiency of a computer system is a matter

of the quality of the system multiplied by
the desire of the people to use it.

 The quality is reality, the desire is perception.

 You can have one type of change
without the other

 Innovation without creativity.

If you copy somebody else’s idea, you are not

creating, you are innovating.

 Creativity without innovation.

Xerox developed the idea of using a mouse to

replace a keyboard but never converted it into a
product.
 CHANGING

Reality Perception

Is called innovation Is called creativity

Requires action Requires thinking

Is a challenge for a team Is a challenge for an individual

The process is continuous The process is discontinuous

Takes a long time Takes an instant

 CHANGING
Reality Perception

Delivers something new for the Envisions a new system

system

Its impact is measurable and Its impact cannot be measured

certain

Project management is required Brainstorming is required

The fuel is practical ideas and The fuel is questions, surprises,

useful suggestions strange and incomplete ideas

The role of the leader is to cause The role of the leader is to cause
action reflection
 Resistance to Change

 The British still build their automobiles to drive on the

left mainly because Napoleon had the idea of getting
people to drive on the right and they didn’t like
Napoleon.

 But He had logically decided that it was better to have

horse drawn carriages drive on the right so that the
coachmen’s whips didn’t get entangled with the whips
on oncoming traffic.
 Key Ideas

 Change is not an option

 The options are : what and when.

 You have to change twice :

Perception and Reality

 Innovation is not Creativity.

If we want to stay in charge of our destinies,

We have to learn to anticipate the changes going on
all around us.
 Information technology changed us on . . .

 The way we write with word processing facilities.

 The way we calculate with spreadsheets and math
programs.
 The way we communicate with the e-mail and
instant messengers.
 The way we speak , we prefer to talk by mail
instead of talking in person.
 The way we think , we do not require to memorize
knowledge, information is available in excess.
 We don’t have a free mind.

 We don’t see the world as it is, we see the world

influenced by our education and socially accepted
paradigms

 We have been programmed with a lot of

stereotypes, patterns and protocols.

 A lot of bad decisions are not due to lack of

information but rather to the fixed way in which
our mind works.
We have a lot of stereotypes, patterns and
paradigms that tend to drive our decisions

 Rumor, prejudice, dogma, ideology.

 Methodology, convention, routine.

 Tradition, habit, custom, belief.

 Warning signals that urge for a change

 Minor defects in our products.

 Dissonance or outside criticism to our actions or plans.

 Lack of new discoveries or improvements in our work.

 Paradox between the good work and methodology but

yielding bad results.

 Boredom because the concept or product has worn out.

 Six types of “ Breaks ”

 Go back to basics, challenge the original philosophy

 Change the rules of the game.

 Jump over the fence and enjoy the greener grass in the
prairie next door.

 Leap into the great unknown and find a link between two
distant worlds.

 Link with an electric arc two seemingly different cultures.

 Increase your awareness to generate a surprise, make

a break to continuity.
 Two stages of new ideas

 There are two stages of the idea.

 The first is the generation of ideas, lots of them.

 The second is the refinement of these ideas

into “good ideas”.

 You need imagination and judgment

but not at the same time !
 The Creative Potential is the function of a difference
that must be maintained between the two kind of
thought, the one allowing for invention and the
other one allowing for judgment.

 There is a time for reflection and a time for action.

 Change is difficult when a person inside the system

is made responsible to create a new system that
may have negative effect for his job in the future.
 Change of Perception is the key to success.

 Creativity is like a foreign language, you can have

the best teachers and organize courses but the
effort may be in vain.

 The mandatory stage is to be convinced that a

second language is indispensable and useful to the
company and that will drive you to success.

 You may not even need someone who speaks the

language to convince and change perception of
your personnel.
 Differences between convergent
and divergent thinking

Divergent Thinking Convergent Thinking

Explore, Observe, Imagine Judge, Assess, Analyze

Invent, Dream Classify, Compare

Exaggerate, Provoke Associate, Select, Avoid Waste Calculate,

Model Plan

Combine, Disturb Visualize, Decide, Choose Determine,

Doubt Organize
 Avoid using these “ Killer Phrases ”
Great idea but not for us.
We have tried that before.
The boss will never go for it.
Competition will eat you alive.
Do you realize the paperwork it
will create ?
We have always done it this way.
I have a better idea.
It will never work.
Who do you think you are ?
It is not your responsibility.
It is not in the budget.
We do not have enough personnel to
do it.
What will people say ?
Put it in writing.
The last person who said that, is not
here anymore.
That is not my area.
Get a committee to look at it
Let’s stick with what works.
Is it supported by research?
That’s not logical
That’s too Academic.
 Key Ideas

 You need two brains,

even if they don’t like each other

 No single idea is born good.

 Imagination is about quantity,

judgment about quality.

 The best way to have a good idea

is to have a lot of new ideas.
 Ten Paradoxes of Creativity

1. Encouraging divergence while ensuring

divergence.

2. When it comes to being inventive vast

multidisciplinary knowledge is a plus but so is the
total absence of knowledge.

3. There is more in two heads than in one and more

in three heads than in two.
But at some point, the effect is reversed.
A crowd doesn’t invent anything.
 Ten Paradoxes of Creativity

4. To create, comfort is essential.

But so is the lack of comfort.

5. A computer will be programmed better

to the extent that its user manages
to deprogram himself or
herself.

6. Creativity is freed in people who manage

to switch off their critical faculty.
Yet creative people
have a highly
developed critical faculty.
 Ten Paradoxes of Creativity

7. Human creativity can help us to build a better future,

but people are never so creative as when it comes to
destroying things.

8. An absence of creativity may lead to a company to

catastrophe. An excess of creativity may bring it to
disaster.

9. We want creativity but we fear it too.

10. Creativity is as old as the world itself, yet it is the

essential tool for bringing a new world into existence.
 Generation of new ideas

Astonishment + Questioning = New Ideas

The creative person has to be constantly in the watch for

anything that moves and surprised by anything that doesn’t.

Astonishment may come from the observation of:

Something that suddenly appears.

Something that has been there for years.
Something that everybody has forgotten.
Something new that you envision as an opportunity.
 Five Remarks About Astonishment

1. One astonishment may hide another.

2. Do not hesitate to express your astonishment.
3. Astonishment is unpredictable and doesn’t necessarily
come back periodically.
4. A group will never be astonished,
surprise is an individual factor.
5. Astonishment is essential but it is not enough since it
doesn’t automatically induce questioning
 Challenge the Questions

1. Change the sequence or reverse the question.

2. Take out irrelevant information from the question.

3. Do not limit yourself with constraints not specified in

the question.

4. You must persevere even if the question looks

impossible to solve at first sight.

5. Step back and look at the question from a broader

perspective.
 Challenge the questions

6. Avoid answering questions based on similarity

or with prejudiced information.

7. Even identical questions may have different answers in

time or place because the world is always changing.

8. Do not put restrictions to your innocent questions.

9. Make a lot of “ What if Questions “

Main Characteristics Discovery Invention Creation

Existed Yes No No
The other one Competitor Competitor Rival
Necessary Yes Yes No
Explainable Yes Yes No
Intellectual Protection ------ Patent Copyright
Field Science Technology Art
Management
Answered a problem Hieroglyphics i-Pod The Louvre
Pyramid

There was no problem. Radioactivity Post It Notes “Hey Jude”

 Key Ideas

 The eureka moment comprises several

steps
 Rediscover the power of astonishment
 Raise questions about the questions
 Look at the problems also with the eyes
of an artist
 Dare to bissociate
 Uncertainty is the only Certainty

 Consumer values have changed.

Loyalty to a supplier is a lost value.
 The information at the consumer’s disposal in
now limitless.
 With the increase in standards of living,
consumers tend to climb all five levels of
Maslow’s pyramid simultaneously.
 The consumer is increasingly resistant to be
classified into social categories.
 Uncertainty in Forecasting
Customer Needs

 Today the enterprise is like a rocket launched

against a zigzagging missile, a target whose
behavior is unpredictable.
 We have to adapt to the client’s changing and
unexpected demands.
 We need to change to a target-seeking rocket
 A continuous feedback system is needed to
correct the gap between what is and what was
supposed to be.
 Anticipate to face Uncertainty

 The top responsibility of management today is

to anticipate.
 It requires a big mental shift from a FORECAST
mind to a PREPARE mind.
 A customer is unpredictable and so you have to
measure and get feedback all the time.
 Four ways to get Feedback from
your client.

1. If you are lucky your client will complain to you.

2. You may have to intrigue or reward the client to get

feedback.

3. The feedback may even be automated.

4. Feedback may be disguised.

 1.- Customer Complains

 The most important source of feedback is the

dissatisfied client.
 The old proverb “No news is good news”
is out of date.
 “No news signals a catastrophe, the client has gone
elsewhere”.
2.- Reward the client to get feedback
 You may need to reward your customer who
responds to a survey.

3.- The feedback may even be automated.

 A database of your customer with all the
marketing information and record of its reactions
can help to be prepared to its changes.
 4.- Disguised Feedback

 Microsoft asks for you to send error reports to

improve “your software”.

 Wal-Mart gets information from the competition

when they pay you the difference if you find the
same article cheaper elsewhere.
 Other Sources of Feedback

1. Internal sources like management control and internal

questioning.

2. External sources such as :

 Technology Intelligence.

Can the same thing be done in another way ?

 Competitive Intelligence.

How do the others do ?

 Marketing Intelligence.

How is the consumer changing ?

 Other sources of feedback

 Financial Intelligence.
Can our interest rate assumptions be verified ?

 Organizational Intelligence.
What is the impact of a new software package?

 Legal Intelligence.
What are the legislative trends ?

 Government Intelligence.
Are subsidies in the offing ?
 More sources of feedback

 Commercial Intelligence.

What type of project is being launched abroad ?

 Social Intelligence.

Why are they making this claim ?

 External Intelligence.

What risks do we face ?

 Difference between internal
and external sources

1. Management control is designed to correct

errors in past assumptions

2. Intelligence on the other hand is designed to

correct the error of not having made an
assumption.
 New definition of mistakes

1. Making a mistake used to be a case of wrongly

estimating a parameter.

2. Now making a mistake is about failing to build

in correction and improvement mechanisms.
 OLD ECONOMY

Values

System/
Ideas Enterprise/ Objective/Client
Project

Resources
 The New Economy

 In the new economy the customer is

unpredictable so that you have to measure all
the time.

 You have to check the difference between what

is and what could be, this is control.

 Then you bring in new ideas and you feed them

back into the system.
 NEW ECONOMY

Disturbances
Values

Ideas System/ Objective/Client

Enterprise/
Project

Resources
Control
New Ideas

Piloting
 Measurements

 You need knowledge of what really is

happening (measuring your environment).

 And you need the desire to make changes

(taking the relevant measures).
 Exactness and Precision

 Exactness deals with conforming to reality.

 Precision deals with how many numbers follow

the decimal point.

 Weakness in precision can be corrected by the

use of more precise tools.

 Targeting for exactness forces us to make a real

effort of imagination.
 Efficiency and Effectiveness

 Efficiency is seen from the perspective of supply

 Effectiveness is seen from the perspective of

demand.
Which of the two is more important ?

The number of houses built or the number of

people who have a house ?

The amount of food produced or the number of

people who are no longer starving ?

The number of Tons of garbage collected or how

clean the streets are ?
 Measurement and Criterion

If you need that your assistant learn English

You can use different phrases :

“You need to make a serious effort” - Meaningless

“Spend two and a half hours a week on English” - Measurable.

“In six month you should be able to handle calls from English
speaking callers” - Criterion
 Criterion examples

 The water on the river might be evaluated by

whether it has fish or not and not by how many
particles per cubic meter it has of a particular
pollutant.

 You can establish that there is support for a group

project if each of its members can explain its
objectives in public.

 You can say that a filing system is good if others

can find what they are looking for.
 Another Criterion example

 Long ago an industrialist dreamed up a wonderful

criterion for determining the quality of the prototype of
a new sound recording system :

His dog had to be able to recognize “His Master’s Voice”

Measuring Goals

Objective

Figures Available No Figures Available

Impracticable Practicable Criterion Blah-Blah

Only the two in the middle are relevant

 Technology cannot do everything

 A freshly squeezed orange juice is always better

than a bottled, carton or canned industrialized
product that uses the name of “orange juice”.

 Listening to a melody played in front of you by a

violin virtuoso will always be better than what you
can hear recorded on a CD or a DVD.
 Globalization

 Advantage - It allows us to communicate more

easily, to pay everywhere in the same currency, to
save energy and raw materials.

 Disadvantage – Offering to everybody the same

product is of higher priority than giving a better
quality and diversity.
 Globalization

 Makes you get used to bite an apple which has no

taste.

 Limits your vocabulary to 200 words so that you can

say them in English.

 Limits the supply of clothing, shoes and other

products in the stores to only the socially accepted
brands.

 You have to fight to be the same but different,

to keep you independent and creative

 Key Ideas

 Uncertainty increases but you still have to anticipate.

 You used to have forecasts, now you have to be

prepared

 Organizing feedback is the way to do it, even if there is

a price to pay.

 Non-stop creativity is required.

 You need measures even when there are no figures

available.
 How to Manage Creativity

 The best way to have a good idea is to have a

lot of new ideas.

 Do not worry about having many ideas.

Have you ever heard of somebody complaining

about having too much money or too many
computers or too many trucks ?
Rigor and Creativity are good friends

 Creativity alone without discipline and judgment

is fruitless.

 New ideas spring naturally from the toughest

situations. Michelangelo himself said :

“Art is born of constraint and dies from freedom”

Or in other words

“Hardship is the fertile soil of creativity “

 In poetry the most beautiful poems in the
literature have arisen from a strict rigor in the
metrics of the verses.

 Victor Hugo said :

“ Form is content risen to the surface ”

 The directors of low budget movies can tell you

how the lack of money can be an excellent
stimulant for the imagination.
 Brainstorming Rules

1. Express yourself ; do not keep any ideas cooped

inside you.

2. Do not judge or evaluate an idea that has only

just been voiced.

3. Be constructive and positive about another

person’s ideas.

4. Look for quantity in ideas , not quality.

5. Start on time and finish at the scheduled time.

6. Use the services of a trained , neutral facilitator.

7. Ask the owner of the problem to present it and

to set the boundaries for reflection.

8. Keep refocusing on the theme of the meeting.

9. Note everything down and circulate a memo on

the session.

10. Ban mobile phones !

 Creativity and Innovation Revisited

1. Creativity is an individual step.

An idea is born in the head of a person. Yet

creativity works best in groups. It leads
collectively to a change in perception.

2. Innovation is a collective process.

Yet it depends on everyone involved contributing

individually to change the corporate reality.
 A person may be called creative and a company
may be called innovative. It is inappropriate the
other way around.

 To innovate is to make something brand new in

an existing system, to be creative is to think
about a new system.
 Open to Suggestions

 At the heart of any innovative company there has

to be a suggestions system.
 This is the catalyst for the staff creativity.
 It has to be put in place defining functions and
modules that are part of the organization without
adding new creativity structures.
 The Route of a Suggestion

1. Encouraged among those who are required to

participate.

2. Submitted, recorded, numbered, acknowledged.

3. Accepted, according to a clear criteria set by the

company.

4. Selected, considered valid and possibly kept for

the future.
5. Applied, implemented, made eligible for the annual
suggestions award.

6. Generalized, be applicable to other parts of the

company.

7. Rewarded, the subject of a public recognition.

8. Patented, the value of the innovation may deserve

this final step.
 Some Ideas for the
Encouragement Module

1. Add to your pay packet with bonus payments.

2. Your ideas provide a guarantee for our future.

3. Be part of a winning team.

4. Become the hero of the company party.

5. Discover the pleasure of seeing your ideas put into

practice.
 Some Ideas for the
Reward Module

1. A small symbolic gift for any idea that is accepted.

2. An idea put into practice would receive a larger

reward.

3. Once a year, an idea is selected as the “Best of the

year Idea ” and a more substantial reward is
awarded.
 Some Ideas for the
Training Module

 If everyone has to play the game of creativity at

some point in the organization, then there is a
need to train the trainers.
 The trainers have to be clearly identified and
available and must have been to the experience
themselves.
 Some Ideas for the
Management Module

 Like any system, all aspects of a suggestions

system need to be constantly evaluated, guided
and enhanced in response to recommendations
from the participants.
 Parameters such as the number of ideas,
implementation time, savings achieved per idea
are constantly evaluated and compared with the
industry average.
 Defining your Strategic Vision

1. Defining an strategic vision is above all an

intellectual process. It is located in the
world of thought and not in the world of action.
Its objective is to change the way we see things
and not things themselves. It is based in changing
perception.
 Strategic Vision

2. All reflections are based on a system of values,

that is a set of ideas that we construct from what
is desirable.

3. A new vision implies that there is a break with the

old one. What is broken is one or several
stereotypes that supported the previous strategy.
 Strategic Vision

4. A strategic vision has to be easy to understand and

coherent. It must not contain internal
contradictions or hidden ambiguities

5. It must have credibility, everybody must be able to

see it as feasible, in particular through a clear
demonstration of what the available resources are.
 Strategic Vision

6. A strategic vision only exists if it is shareable

among those it concerns. It only exists if they take
ownership of it.

7. Good communication is essential. It has to appeal

to the emotions.
 Strategic Vision

8. It has to be visible from the outside, to clients,

suppliers and public opinion. It also has to provide
information on the difference it will make.

9. The strategic vision is limited in space and time,

because it will have to be replaced with a new
break that will bring a new future direction to the
company.
 Strategic Vision

10. A new strategic vision contains qualitative

measuring elements or criteria that will allow
permanent comparison between “what is” and
“what was supposed to be”.

11. Growing uncertainty is a fact and so a strategic

vision has to be fitted with correction mechanisms
that will allow to respond to uncertain changes in
customer needs or disturbances of the economy.
 Strategic Vision

12. Finally the strategic vision has to be validated.

Is it ethically acceptable ?

Is it practically feasible ?

Is it economically sustainable ?

Is this the right moment ?

A positive response leads to a decision and the

decision leads to action.
 Strategic Vision

 A strategic vision is a representation, an ambitious

image of a future state that is radically preferable
to the current state.

 It becomes a reference and in so doing, provides a

set of concepts that allow every employee to
approach his work thoughtfully and effectively
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