Adaptive Action

THINKING TOOLS – Models and Frameworks

The secret of getting unstuck

You get stuck because you don’t know how to change to make a situation work for you. Often it’s because you cannot see how to go forward because the situation is changing so quickly you are facing a dilemma or are afraid of making the wrong choice. It’s the result of an inability to listen and accept your own concerns, or listen empathetically to the concerns of others. The solution you have relied on in the past is no longer working for you and you cannot see an alternative.

Getting clear answers to sticky problems

You can create a new strategy when you imagine a new reality where you are not stuck. There are three questions, proposed by Glenda Eoyang from the Human Dynamics Institute, that offer an effective yet simple approach based on three perspectives.

1. OBSERVING

What do you observe and sense is happening inside you and outside in your environment? Does it feel normal or surprising to you? What are you aware of and open or closed to? What thoughts and relationships come to mind as you process the data? Are you curious and questioning of your assumptions?

2. SENSEMAKING

You are now seeking to make sense of what is happening. What is or is not working for you that is important to you? What does it mean for your relationships with others and your future? Are reflecting and thinking about what is similar or differenton, familiar or unknown? What conclusions are you drawing from your preferred options and possibilities?

3. RESPONDING

What can you do to make a difference with what you now know? What can you do next to focus your actions, plans, conversations and emotional reactions? What capacities do you have to make it happen and have an impact? How can you engage others in shared concerns or desires? You need to know where you stand before taking action.

In a world that is so uncertain and complex it doesn’t make sense to look for causes, make plans or for guaranteed outcomes. Only the right actions will get the results you want and do some good. As soon as you take action, circumstances can change and there are new consequences to be aware of and consider. You then go back to the WHAT question and start with a renewed sense of the situation.

Finding patterns that have meaning

It’s about understanding three ways of thinking that we use to make sense of things. The brain is a meaning making machine. You have an innate capacity to see patterns by looking for:

DIFFERENCES

The number of distinctions you can make depends on the knowledge and thinking tools you can call on to notice subtle differences in style, location, language, mood and body states that are having an influence on events.

SIMILARITIES

What do you notice in what you are seeing, hearing and sensing that are the same or similar in nature. Look for location, relationships, behaviours, language, assumptions, attitudes, etc. It is not easy to makes sense of this complexity unless you are conscious of the way you think about things and relate to the way you experience your feelings about them. You will use a different logic to create meaning when you are anxious than when you are calm.

CONNECTIONS

What do the differences and similarities have in common? When, where and how do they appear? Are they linked to a concern or a change. You are seeking to create a reality that does not exist because it is a product of mind, consciousness and thought. When you change just one of the above three elements you change the pattern of interactions. You also create a new perspective and generate new insights.

When existing ways of acting don’t work and things get confusing, new ways of thinking are needed, simply because they do not fit the reality you are sensing or experiencing. It’s time to look from different perspectives, see both the detail and the big picture in networks of connections, and consider what happened before and the consequences after an event to test your assumptions. No change is ever permanent.

Going forward

There will be things that you can do less or more of that will make a difference and impact on the result you get. But because the situation or context is continuously shifting, it becomes impossible to predict, plan or control what happens after an action has been taken. It is more important in a complex situation to be able to quickly make sense of the changes happening around you and respond with actions that better serve your intentions. This stops you adapting habitually without thought being given to WHAT is actually happening inside and around you.

As you monitor the consequences of your choices it is likely that the questions will have to be asked again – and so the cycle continues. You are stepping out of a mindset of certainty into a mind space of infinite possibilities.

Using your imagination you can visualise new realities, generate new insights and realisations that will help shift you to new ways of thinking, more effective actions and improved results.

Adaptive Action Planning

1. What? – We gather pertinent data from across the environment to develop a picture of the underlying dynamics of our current status. What are the patterns we see and what do we know about their impact on the system?
2. So What? – We examine data to make sense of it. We come to understand what the “picture” of our current status means and begin to explore and plan next steps. We explore the impact of the system patterns, on the whole, part, and greater whole; the conditions (CDE) that generated those patterns; and options for action that can shift the patterns to make the system more adaptable, more sustainable, more fit.
3. Now What? – We take action and then pause for a second check to measure our impact. By following up and asking where we are now and what is to be done next, we start the next cycle in the iterative process.

Progressing through the three steps to collect and analyze data that informs next steps become an ongoing cycle that can be carried out at all levels of the system. This sounds and looks much like the “Plan-Do-Check-Act”-type models that are used in a number of approaches to change.

There are, however, fundamental differences that set Adaptive Action apart.

• The What? So What? and Now What? questions examine the dynamic patterns of decision making and interaction.
• Analysis of those patterns focuses on understanding the conditions (Containers, Differences, Exchanges) that generate those patterns.
• Some options for action can emerge from decisions to amplify or damp current patterns by influencing environmental conditions.
• Other options for action can emerge from decisions to shape new patterns by shifting environmental conditions toward greater sustainability and fitness.
• This approach to planning is intended to be iterative or nonlinear, meaning the cycle never ends. Each “Now What?” returns to a new “What?” to launch a new cycle.
• This constant cycling through means it can happen as in the span of a heartbeat or across the arc of a longitudinal study.
• The constant cycling through also requires that we remain in a stance of inquiry, always watching and remaining open to what we can learn from the dynamics that swirl around us.

In a human system, long-range change can happen as individuals and groups use multiple and connected cycles of Adaptive Action to shape their own patterns of productivity and performance to support the overall, agreed-upon goals of the system.

This shared direction and action are what we refer to as coherence in the system and is a more effective and productive approach to planning than traditional strategic planning.

Reference

Check out this video of Glenda Eoyang, founder of the field of HSD, as she talks about Adaptive Action.