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My neighbor is a retired Corporate Operations Officer (COO) of a large American, worldwide operating financial services organization. Currently, he is reading the management book "De Prooi" ("The Prey"). This book describes how a CEO manages to break a bank with a history of 183 years, and originally established by King Willem I in 1824. It takes this CEO less than 9 years to complete the downfall of one of the top 3 of Dutch banks.

Sitting in the Sun, and All Problems Melt Away…

Sitting in the sun in our back-garden, with a little drink, it is easy to see the pitfalls of this CEO, and taking measures to avoid them. A very pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon! Walking back home I remembered I had a copy of "The Social Psychology of Organizing", by Karl Weick, and decided to re-read it.
Weick is an 'enfant terrible', who looks at 'ordinary things' in organization land from an original perspective. In his vision people usually behave sensible, but when 2 or more are acting within some constraint like an organization, such group starts 'living'. They derive their own rules, and then things can go worse fast. Such a group of people gets an own identity.

An Example of Weick's Sharp Observations: The Savings Bank

The first characteristic of any institution is that no matter what the inevitable purpose for which it was invented, it must devote all its energy to doing the exact opposite. Thus, the savings bank must encourage the people to borrow money at interest… The second characteristic is that an institution must continue to exist. Every action must be undertaken with respect to eternity. This second characteristic is the reason for the first. For unless a savings bank can persuade the people not to save, the savings bank will go broke. But the savings bank must continue to exist, since otherwise the people would have no place to save… Following that argument, we can arrive at a description of an institution: An institution is a place to do things where those things will not be done.

A Few of Weick's Pickled Statements

Remember, Weick wrote this in the roaring sixties (1969), asking himself the questions how his observations could be explained. He was looking for a way to manage change in organizations.

On managers, leading an organization

Managers construct, rearrange, single out, and demolish many 'objective' features of their surroundings. When people act they unrandomize variables, insert vestiges of orderliness, and literally create their own constraints.

On the essence of an organization

An organization is a collection of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which they might be the answer, and decision makers looking for work.

On the purpose of an organization (Weick's famous last words in his book

Organizations keep people busy, occasionally entertain them, give them a variety of experiences, keep them off the streets, provide pretexts for story-telling, and allow socializing. They haven't anything else to give.

Weick's Definition of an Organization

Weick defines organizing as a consensually validated grammar for reducing equivocality by means of sensible interlocked behaviors. An equivoque is a pun, a term with at least 2 meanings, 2 disparate strings of thought tied together by an acoustic not. Equivoques are indeterminate, inscrutable, ambivalent, questionable and they permit multiple meanings. Consensual validation is grounded in agreements concerning what is real and what is illusionary. Grammar is the set of syntax rules the organization obeys.

Rephrased Definitions from other viewpoints:

1. Organizations are structures of mutual expectation, attached to roles which define what each of its members shall expect form others and from himself.
2. An organization is an identifiable social entity pursuing multiple objectives through coordinated activities and relations among members and objects. Such a social system is open-ended and dependent for survival on other individuals and sub-systems in the larger entity-society.

Weick's Diagnostic Checklist with Questions on Organizing and Organizations

As mentioned earlier the essence in Karl Weick's view is that the people together start to have their own way at things, and guard that with their lives. He calls this the retention process. From this background Weick provides a few diagnostic questions on organizing and organizations:

1. What and where is the retention process?
2. Who ties the retention process to enactment and selection, with what frequency, and with respect to what content?
3. In what direction is retention tied to enactment and selection, positive or negative?
4. If retention cannot be discredited, who argues that the current retained content is totally valid and why should the person be that committed to such a position?
5. Who judges the equivocality of information and how are these judgments made?

Weick's Practical Guidelines How to Cope with Organizations, and Trying to Manage Change

Weick also gives some practical guidelines:

1. Don't panic in the face of disorder.
   As organizations preserve history, logical reasoning is not always part of neither current situation nor future.
2. You never do one thing all at once.
   Step by step, first things first: It is impossible to strike out all irregularities with one blow.
3. Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction. Stamp out utility.
   Move forward,and check what went right, and what further improvements can we make. It seems logical to perform an extensive analysis, and combine actions into a master plan. But beware: This is also the road for the organization to make sure that nothing will change: Paralysis by analysis!
4. The most important decisions are often the least apparent.
   The organization will go for retention. It will let decisions and actions look like very logical and practical indeed. You must dig deeper to find the real facts.
5. There is no single solution.
   It has taken a lot of time for the organization to arrive here and now. There is no easy, simple way to return to the original track.

Summary: How Can Weick Help Us?

Sitting is the sun, and saving the Dutch bank after the fact, its downfall unrepairable completed, it is easy to discuss preventive measures. Weick helps to find the borders of what is wise, and what not. But remember: Transformation programs is something we must perform ourselves! In actual day to day situations, it always pays to ask yourself the questions, what went right,a nd what can be improved. Weick's way of thinking can help to find your blind spots, and avoid them.

This blog is part of a series on how to manage change, driven by KPI's:

1. Driving Change: Drive Safely (My Checklist)
2. The Change and Improvement Program 'Enabling New Initiatives': Little Grip, and a Lot Of Trust
3. Karl Weick's Checklist on Organizing and Organizations (this blog)

Results2Match has a strong vision on successful business strategies and result driven implementations.

This blog is written by Hans Lodder. Hans is a very experienced change management consultant and interim manager. You can contact Hans through his Results2Match email address.