Managing effectively in turbulent environments

Michael F. Waterhouse Associate Professor, Faculty of Management, University of Calgary

Managing effectively in turbulent environments

his article is about change; it T summarizes the turbulent world of today and briefly identifies its difference from that of the recent past. The author defines the state of turbulence in terms of uncertainty, autonomy and control. This continuous change is seen as requiring new fundamental concepts for comprehension and pattern recognition to recreate organizations that are more relevant to their environments. In order to achieve this relevance, the role of management needs to change. This is identified, along with some principles that are presented, for effectively managing change. The utilization of strategic planning and management is discussed as an effective means of achieving relevance and managing the process of change in turbulence environments.

Our changing world Today’s changing environment

and their curiosity and continual dissatis- faction with the status quo seem to be the primary drivers of change, with technology

Like it or not, change is inevitable. We cannot stop getting older, more experienced and more brittle. Today’s world is different

providing a wealth of choices as to how change is achieved.

from the past only in that change is faster, more intense and more diverse-moving us

Identifying change through trends

into a future that is technologically more One begins to understand change by first complex and interconnected with a web of examining people’s concerns and behavioural inter-relationships. changes in society in order to identify

People’s continual search for knowledge overlapping patterns and underlying causes

136 M. F. Waterhouse

and driving forces. The intensity od these causes and driving forces is qualitatively assessed as increasing, decreasing or remaining the same. These causes are then examined to determine whether a fundamental societal shift is occurring or just a fad.

all these steps are qualitatively judgemental, they inevitably cause disagreement amongst team members. Utilizing disagreement effectively as part of the examination and testing is an integral part of the trend search and analysis process.

Fads are usually introduced ‘tops-down’

and are heavily promoited

Looking back

Back in 1966, a philosopher by the name of Bennisl forecast that by the 1990s:

Fads are usually introduced ‘tops-down’ and are heavily promoted with advertising and other promotional strategies, often involving publicly recognized personalities and large budgets. More long-lasting changes, such as societal value shifts, are more difficult to detect because they are pervasively distributed amongst the ‘grass roots’ of society and do not usually involve (at least at the beginning) publicly recognizeld figures. This fundamental shift in values usually results from unrelated individuals arriving at common conclusions and individually acting upon them. These actions are identified as a change only when the individual actions begin to reinforce each other and become congruent. Identifying this type of trend requires a certain amount of regular and dedicated reflection, searching for such changes.

Trend analysis involves a good deal of guess wtwk

The final step in trend analysis procedures is the isolation of the driving forces or value shifts behind the changes in activity or action. Trend analysis involves a good deal of guess work, with trial and error testing. As a result of this rather subjective approach to trend analysis that seeks out fundamental shifts and ways for obtaining confirmation of the results rather than reproducibility, no individual can claim to be an expert. While

0 The environment will show rapid technological change, with a large degree of instability or turbulence.

People will want more involvement and

autonomy in their work

0 People will want more involvement through participation and autonomy in their work, partly because of the general increase in general education. Tasks will become more technically complicated, detailed and unprogrammed at work, requiring specialists to form project teams. Organizations will structure for more temporary, adaptive and organic forms; and such adaptive organizations would outperform the old-styled bureaucracies, forcing them to change.

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It is interesting to see how closely these points describe today’s world. In some way, Bennis was able to take the information available to him in 1966 and come to some conclusions about the future 25 years. He, at least, seemed to have been able to extrapolate from the trends of his day.

____ ’Personal notes from seminars on Public Service Organizations and Bureaucracies at the Australian Institute of Management, Sydney, Australia, Spring, 1984.

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Journal of Strategic Change, June 1992

Managing effectively 13 7

The environment Is change

‘Excuse me,’ said the ocean fish. ‘You are older than I, so can

you tell me where to find this thing they call the ocean?’

‘The ocean,’ said the older fish, ‘is the thing you are in now.’

‘Oh this? But this is water. What I’m seeking is the ocean,’ said

the disappointed fish as it swam away to search elsewhere.

Even a cursory glimpse of the trends around us seems to indicate that the world is getting very ‘messy’ and that it no longer remains as predictable as the past. The choices confronting us and our children will reshape our society into new and yet unknown forms. The challenge with this type of ever- changing environment is the development of processes and structures that can accommodate change itself, while continuing to produce relevant outcomes.

The choices confronting us and our children will

reshape our society into new and yet unknown

forms

An ever-changing environment seems to imply that tomorrow will not be a repetition of yesterday-it will be different. With all the variety, intensity and rate of change that is occurring today, it is getting almost impossible to predict the likely outcomes for the future. The future promises greater opportunities, less certainty and reduced warning and preparation time to react.

Over the centuries, humanity has made many choices of technology and culture. Usually these decisions have been made by community leaders and elders. Today’s

society is demonstrating less tolerance for the traditional decision makers. With more free time, access to information and good education, individuals are demanding to be involved in decisions that potentially have an impact on their lives-at work and at home.

Our society is rejecting the authoritarian, ‘pay and obey’ style of leadership

Trends seem to show that our society is rejecting the authoritarian, bureaucratic and paternalistic ‘pay and obey’ style of leadership for a more participative, information filled, integrated and messy ‘decide and drive’ form of democratic decision-making processes.

This process shift challenges us to develop and learn new ways of organizing ourselves that differ from the uniformity and conformity of the hierarchical organizational concept.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, it is too late to quit. We have already left behind the industrial age and have ventured into this new integrated or holistic ‘socioecological age’, with its growing interconnectivity and interdependency. *

The transition to the evolving new processes is seen by many as messy

and uncertain

Presently, in a world of deregulation, we are ‘unbundling’ many of the processes that suited the industrial era to reform and integrate the useful pieces into new institutional processes that will provide a

2The term ‘information age’ has been used by several authors including John Naisbitt , author of Megatrends and Reinventing the Organization, and Alvin Toffler author of Future Shock and The Third Wave.

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M. F. Waterhouse ___-

138 __

better match with the changed values and assumptions of the emerging socioecological era. These process shifts cause much tension between those who are instrumental in the change and the people who feel their world collapsing and increasing turbulence around them. The transition to the evolviing new processes is seen by many as messy and uncertain and without a predictable sense of orderly development. In people’s minds turbulence (chaos) is increasing. These fears of turbulence can be relieved by a new perception for comprehending the world and identifying opportunities th- ,it create more relevant processes and institutions designed to accommodate and incorporate change.

Problems become puzzles Turbulence requires a puzzle concept for comprehension

A state of turbulence (Waterhouse, 1980) is reached when there is a high degree of complexity and uncertainty with corresponding low degrees of predictability, autonomy and control. These characteristics emerge when many inter-relateld system elements differ in goal and objectives. Turbulence is a state where no element, or person, is capable of comprehending or understanding the whole system. Si.mply put, it is the arriving at a puzzle situation where all elements need to struggle through a ‘mess’. Any likelihood of a single element accumulating power to take control of the system in a turbulent environment is significantly diminished.

Problems, puzzles and changing concepts

With all the international social anid political changes taking place around us in the latter part of the 20th century, it takes little to convince people that we are in a turbulent world. The future of the world, with its many interdependent forces, has become less certain and predictable than that of the past.

It takes little to convince people that we are in a

turbulent world

There are an increasing number of persons or groups who can significantly influence the development and/or acceptance of an organization’s outputs. These are referred to in this paper as being ‘stakeholders’. Each stakeholder or interested group in today’s society seems to have a different desirable future. All stakeholders are becoming more effective at influencing decision processes and outcome.

Society’s educational and organizational me thods [reduce] an activity into a number of stand-alone

pieces

To date, society’s educational and organizational methods have been based upon a reductionist conceptual framework, that reduces an activity into a number of stand-alone pieces. Each piece is considered and managed separately and the pieces are recollected to represent the whole. Little consideration is given to the interactive effects of those pieces. Each piece is regarded as its own comprehensible ‘problem/solution’, isolated from its surroundings and other pieces. All influential factors are assumed internal and identifiable. With all factors known, possible outcomes are predictable. The role of the problem solver is to ensure that all the pieces are accounted for and that they come together in the right order. The person having Comprehension becomes the ‘expert’ and other parties dependently look to the ‘expert’ for guidance and direction- expecting few, if any, mistakes.

Today, however, we receive increasing evi- dence of the significance of the inter-relatedness’s impact on the pieces. This demands


139 Managing effectively

development of a conceptual framework that accounts for, and understands, the interactive influences of the previously ‘stand-alone’ pieces. It is becoming a puzzle! It is almost impossible for one stakeholder to achieve comprehension of the influential factor’s inter-relatedness and significance alone. There can no longer be an ‘expert’ to direct all the pieces. What is required is a joint

Control and influence now requires the sharing of

in formation

search for comprehension by all the influential pieces. Control and influence now requires the sharing of information and the effective analysis of the information (previously the expert controlled information). The ultimate comprehension can be achieved only through co-operatively sharing information and desires, and agreeing to work together to bring about the common objectives of the various stakeholders. This is very different from the modus operandi of a problem world.

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The more long-lasting solutions are usually those that have been negotiated

by ‘equals’

The turbulent world that we now find ourselves in requires us to search and puzzle for solutions that emphasize the search processes, as much as the achieved ends. It is important to ensure that the pieces are willing to work together and that disputes are resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. (The more long-lasting solutions are usually those that have been negotiated by ‘equals’ rather than ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.)

This emphasis on process differs greatly from the problem world, where the emphasis is on achieving the end state as it was


defined-regardless of how it is achieved. In the puzzle world, the interdependency of the stakeholders is a prerequisite. The end state is allowed to evolve using processes that allow stakeholders to interactively ‘puzzle through’ to an acceptable solution. As the outcome is very dependent upon the stakeholders’ level of co-operation and support, the puzzle processes must emphasize co-operation in order to achieve a long- lasting end state that does not create dis- gruntled stakeholders.

An organic systems approach

To understand this puzzle concept, an organic systems approach needs to be applied. This involves the recognition of two elements-entity and context. Together, they represent the whole system. The whole system can be seen as nested entities, with the context surrounding and containing each entity. Hence, the entity can be referred to as the systems and the context as the environment.

A systems approach gives an explanation of a subsystem in terms of its role in the larger systems (Ackoff, 1974a); it is an approach interested in integrating elements to achieve subsystem solutions that are compatible with the whole system.

By definition, a system is a set of two or more interrelated elements of any kind that can be categorized into parts, and with the system having the following three properties:

0 The properties or behaviour of each part of an element have an effect on the properties or behaviour of the whole system. No part has an independent effect on the whole. Each part is influenced by at least one other part. Conversely, the properties and behaviour of each part, and the way that they influence the whole system, depends on the properties and behaviour of at least one other part in the whole system. The whole system cannot be segmented into independent elements or sub-sets.

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Each possible subgroup of parts of an element has an interdependent effect on the whole (Ackoff, 197411).

These properties cause elements to display behaviour or characteristics that none of the elements or sub-set of elements can display independently. In other words, a system is greater than the sum of its parts. It is an indivisible whole that loses many of its essential properties when it is segmented into independent parts.

A system is greater than the sum of its parts

The organic systems approach conceptualizes a situation as being open and dynamic i . e . , a puzzle-a snapshot in time of an ever-changing situation. Problems and solutions are assumed to be in constant flux with their environment, such that ithey keep changing and do not stay solved1 (Ackoff, 1974~).

This openness to change is a significant shift in concept from the mechanistic, analytical approach, which conceptualizes the problem as being closed and static. Such an analytical concept ignores the changing environment and breaks the problem down into parts for solution, with the solution of the whole being explained as the sum of the solved parts. N o recognition is given to inter- relationships of the solutions and behavioural characteristics of the parts, nor clhange that has evolved during the time taken to solve the (assumed static) problem.

This organic systems approach, as described above, is appropriate for analysirig an ever- changing environment offering rich choices. The approach accommodates change in both entity and context. In attempting to accommodate all the elements that make up an entity and the context's dynamic nature, the organic systems approach offers a way to develop processes that allow for, and include, the unknown and umanticipated environmental reactions.

An organization for change

In the 1960s, Likert (1977, 1981) proposed a matching of management style with the supporting organizational style. Likert found that organizations with a particular management characteristic (which he classified as system 4) achieve higher productivity and better staff co-operation and motivation, regardless of the nature of their organization, kind of work or the hierarchical level.

Managers in high performing organizations

demonstrated excellent communication and high

motivation

Managers in these high performing organizations demonstrated excellent communication, high motivation and a capacity for reciprocal influence-a demonstration of effective participative management. Likert 's management characteristics for this organizational classification are:

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To be approachable, supportive, friendly, easy to talk to and interested in the well- being of subordinates. To build the subordinates into a co- hesive, highly effective, co-operative problem-solving team, linked together by persons who hold overlapping member- ship i .e . , a superior in one group is a subordinate in a higher level. Sub- ordinates are not pitted against each other in hostile, competitive relationships. To help subordinates with their work by seeing that they are supplied with all the necessary resources (space, supplies, budget, training, etc.). Subordinates are kept informed of overall plans so that they can plan their work more effectively . To set high performance, no-nonsense, goals; to expect high-quality performance from himself and from others.

- Journal of Strategic Change, June 1992

Managing effectively I 4 1

Managers from these organizations leave the impression that the source of their success is the integration of both problem solving and production groups - combining the processes of development and production. This is the thrust of the total quality management (TQM) methods that are evolving in the 1990s.

investment of time to learn about the people’s background and experiences, as well as understanding their needs for resources in light of the environmental threats and opportunities. Essentially, the gardener regards people as a developmental process rather than just an object to produce an output.

Managing in turbulence Management changing from supervisor to gardener

With change driving us into a very different world from that of our past, the emerging leader or manager will require different characteristics from those that are accepted today. N o longer will the emerging leaders be expected to be ‘expert’ and ‘all knowing’. New, more appropriate leadership characteristics and skills need to be developed for the messy, ever-changing environment of today.

No longer will the emerging leaders be

expected to be ‘expert’ and ‘all knowing’

Traditionally, the role of the manager has been more that of a supervisor, overseer, caretaker, policeman and protector of the status quo. A person was promoted to manager by having demonstrated competence and expertise in a particular profession or skill area. The manager became the ‘expert’, directing and instructing staff in what and how to do their tasks.

The management activities for an ever- changing environment are more like those of a nurturer and gardener. The gardener prunes as well as stimulates and nurtures growth and development. He invests time and effort in people, taking calculated risks and hoping for improvement in performance and development. This requires an

The nurturing manager ensures that each person

clearly understands his or her objective and supports him or her in achieving it

With this outlook the nurturing manager ensures that each person clearly understands his or her objective and supports him or her in achieving it. Staff receive information about why they do things and guidance on acceptable and unacceptable methods of carrying out their duties. This manager willingly works with people to help them to achieve their goals by being provocative, challenging, encouraging, supportive, ques- tioning, guiding, stimulating, inspiring, celebrating and enjoying. A tall order for any human being.

Expectations of management are changing

A significant change is also taking place in the expectations of management. Previously, management was expected to take a role that maintained, consolidated, supervised and operated an organization by ‘keeping the organization running the same old smooth way’. Today, there is a growing expectation that management bring ‘added value’ to the

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There is a growing expectation that

management bring ‘added value’ to the organization



organization by improving services, increasing market share, diversifying, and/or reducing costs or involvement in low-profit activities. In short, more importance is being placed on management developing the entrepreneurial skills of managing risk, developing new markets and new innovative products.

To manage messy and ever-changing environments, managers are being asked to change their leadership style. Managers are now asked to develop skills to become motivators, communicators, leaders and visionaries. These are very different to the skills of yesterday. The one complensating grace of all these new skills requested of management, is that it reduces the demand for management to be the ‘expert’ and ‘knower of all things’.

Effectiveness and efficiency- planning to achieve a balance

Management is always striving for a balance between the efficiency of the organization ( i . e . , use of internal resources) and the effectiveness of the organizati’on ( i . e . , measure of stakeholder satisfaction)r. Manage- ment has the responsibility of ensuring that

Management is always striving for a balance

between the efficiency and the effectiveness of tbe

organization

an organization is maintained andl operated effectively and efficiently, given the normal constraints of limited resources, markets, technology and knowledge.

With this in mind, management could utilize the methods of strategic planning to evaluate and balance efficiency and effectiveness by using flexible planning tools and models to develop the objectives and examine corporate mission and related performance measures.

When evaluating efficiency, flexible planning models can consolidate the financial

and performance results of operational divisions to assess individual and overall operational costs and profitability. While profit is one measure of an organization’s efficiency, there are many other measures, such as overheads and the number of staff per unit produced, that can be used as indicators of efficiency and could be included in strategic planning models.

Flexible planning models assist in determining the appropriate mix between

an efficient operation and an effective organization

Flexible planning models also allow for a reconsolidation of the organizational activities into effectiveness clusters (sometimes referred to as strategic business units), so that evaluation of alternatives can be carried out with respect to effectiveness measures. In this way, flexible planning models assist in determining the appropriate mix between an efficient operation and an effective organization.

Strategic planning-a management tool for guidance and control

In the past, planning has been more closely associated with control activities, such as accounting and budgeting, than with guidance systems for innovation and creativity. Most planning is used to supplement budgets and control expenditures rather than to develop milestones that challenge the innovation and creativity of staff. For planning to be an effective guidance system in ever-changing environments, more emphasis needs to be placed on the processes that encourage greater involvement of all stakeholders.

The challenge is to use processes that allow the corporation to develop holistic comprehension of the systems and to determine how all the influential elements and driving forces relate and cause environmental change. Once

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Managing effectively 143

this comprehension has been achieved, choices can be developed for matching the actual and potential capacities of the organization with the actual andpotential capacities of the environment. This is the real purpose of strategic planning and management development - to match and maintain the organization to its environment.

Planning for implementation

While strategic planning develops a corporate vision, strategic management brings the vision to reality. Although planning involves much effort in developing the vision and

While strategic planning develops a corporate

vision, strategic management brings the

vision to reality

models with hypothetical forecasts and numbers, the bulk of the strategic manager’s effort is in the implementation and management of the risks associated with bringing the vision to reality.

Historically, planning was dominated by forecasts. But in today’s ever-changing environment, unrealistic demands and expectations are placed on forecasters to go beyond their tools and ability to predict

The only predictable thing about today’s forecasts is that they will be wrong

accurately. The only predictable thing about today’s forecasts is that they will be wrong. To be useful, planning must go beyond fore- casting and should focus on understanding

the influential relationships of forces on the business and the implementation of actions that are in harmony with the environment. With turbulent and continuous change, planning can no longer be just a seasonal activity. Strategic management and planning must be ongoing to ensure that utilization of all available resources is achieved. As people can be very adaptive to change, unlike hardware, they should be heavily involved in the planning. This means that:

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Management and staff should jointly determine objectives and accept the responsibilities that go with such decisions. The timing, criteria and method of assessment for unit performance evaluation are developed jointly. An awareness of the limitations of forecasts and planning should be accepted. Corporate multidisciplinary teams are encouraged. An amount of inefficiency is accepted as the price for effectiveness and trying the new and unfamiliar. Risk should be accepted as an important component of management and of ex- ploring different methods and strategies.

Strategic management concerns itself with the evaluation and implementation of activities that will achieve the key objectives and deliver the defined end products. However, understanding of the raison d’&tre of the organization and client needs are prerequisites for planning and managing the changes needed to implement the plan and efficiently utilize staff and resources. This rnanage- ment of change needs to recognize the significance of the organization’s corporate

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Strategic planning methods offer an excellent opportunity to be used as

guidance tools


144

culture.3 By utilizing the acceptable practices and behaviours within the organization, managers can implement changes that build upon or accommodate the traditions, taboos and myths of the successful organization with relatively little organizational resi,; 6 tance.

In a turbulent and changing world, strategic planning methods offer an excellent opportunity to be used as guidance tools. When the emphasis is placed upon planning processes that include all stakeholders and encourage people’s involvement, the outcome is continuous improvement. In light of this, the following 12 principles of effective change are presented (Figure 1). Although difficult to formalize, they have proven to be useful in the implementation of change.

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Management groups’ planning involvement

Today’s organization can be divided into: executive and senior management activities charged with ensuring a purposeful __ __

31n their book In Search of Excellence, Peters and Waterman describe a seven element framework that attempts to describe the multidimensional elements of an organization. These elements make up the control and guidance system for organizations and give an insight into what makes up the organizational culture. They consist of: superordinate goal (which I have referred to here as the mission); strategy (the pattern o f actions that a company takes to utilize its skills and assets to provide what is needed by a cusxomer while accounting for changing envi ronments and competition); skills (the primary and necessary skills needed for the organization to deliver its ]products and services); structure (the organization and formal allocation of responsibilities to individualls and groups in the organization); systems and procedures (all the procedures-formal and informal- that make the organization perform its tasks and utili2,e its skills in the support and delivery of its products and services); staff (this is the socialization practices and behaviours that reinforce the individual’s feelings of belonging to a group or organization); and style (this is, how and the degree management consistently ‘Walks its talk’).

These seven elements can be utilized to change an organization in response to an ever-changing environment. This adaptation from In Search of Excellence entitled ‘The 7-S Framework’, is outlined in The Strategy Process Concepts, Context and Cases by James Brian Quinn, Henry Mintzberg and Robert M. James, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1988 (pp. 271-276) by Robert H. Waterman, Jr., Thomas J. Peters and Julien R. Phillips.

M. F. Waterhouse

development and the creation of a corporate vision; operational management activities charged with achieving the immediate and short-term operational objectives of the organization; and functional staff activities charged with the present day transactional processing. All three activity groups need to be involved in the planning activities of the organization, with varying degrees of effort and commitment required at different times and situations for each group.

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Executive and senior management are more deeply involved and committed to the development of defining the mission and corporate strategies. Senior management and operational management efforts are required for the development of strategic objectives and alternatives required to deliver the mission. Operational management and functional staff involvement are required at the operational level for determination of the timing, revenue and costs that make up the budget and daily work plans.

In no way does this imply that people are excluded from the planning processes but rather that the degree of commitment by each group is proportional to its time investment.

Conclusion

When everything around you is changing, it is important for organizations to know corporately for what reasons they exist. The greater the turbulence the greater the effort and time to ensure comprehension of the

It is important for organizations to know corporately for what

reasons they exist


Managing effectively 145

I . Discontent is not wrong-ignoring it is. Being dissatisfied with the status quo creates discontent but if it is harnessed and directed, change occurs.

2. Don’t worry-plan. Worry is what people do about things they cannot change. So find ways to accommodate the things that cannot be changed.

3 . Do not do it in isolation. Once you have burnt out, the status quo will revert back to what it was. People often accommodate personal requests, even though they disagree, just to have done with them.

4 . Be decisive-to err is human. One can always beg forgiveness if it is a first time mistake (making the same mistake twice demonstrates poor learning). Remember that indecision defaults to the status quo.

Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness

5 . Actions make change-notjust feelings. While feelings and emotions may initiate discontent, dwelling on the feelings and emotions simply wastes energy. Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. Strive to ascertain the cause of the feeling and emotion, searching for actions that test or change the cause. There are usually three steps towards action: name it (the emotion); claim i t ; and finally, aim it. But this takes longer than you may think-it is a case of ‘slowing down to go faster’!

6. Seek actions not conversions. Your purpose is not to gather disciples-all you want is some assistance from other discontented or willing parties to work co-operatively in making a change to the status quo. Once the chance has been made, let everyone go their own direction happy for the improvement in their life.

7 . Keep it simple-they will never forget it. Even your adversaries cannot forget what you are trying to do. 8. Few actions get done but many actions get half-done. Decide on only a few actions to be taken and

by whom-but be exact and precise, ensuring that each person knows what is expected from him/her. By keeping to a few actions that are of short duration, each person gains a sense of accomplishment from completing the task and seeing the results. This encourages more action and sometimes even more challenging tasks.

9. Do your homework. Know your adversary’s needs, wants, plans and goals as best as you can. When it comes time to negotiate with your adversary, you will already have a head start by knowing the non-negotiable items.

Do not make your adversary your personal

enemy-they may join you on the next issue

concerning change

10. Assume that everyone is intelligent-you will be surprised. Do not make your adversary your personal enemy-they may join you on the next issue concerning change. People are very intelligent. By using the information and experience that they have, you will discover that people have different types and amounts of information that can influence the final decision.

11. Keep asking the dumb questions-they hurt. It is the ‘What?’, ‘Why?’, ‘How?’ and ‘For Whom?’ questions that are the most penetrating and the hardest to answer. Such questions will provide more information about the reason for adversaries and inhibitors of change, while keeping the issues so simple that those resisting change will never forget what is being changed.

12. Nothing works! When things go right it is because one or more persons have taken the time, effort and commitment to make something happen as purposefully designed. Celebrate such events and seek out opportunities to ‘catch people doing things right’ rather than catching them doing them wrong.

Figure 1 . Twelve principles of effective change.



environment and the organization’s rele- The material for this article builds upon the work

~-

- vance. This requires a shift in how )manage- merit and think about what they

of John Naisbitt, Tom Peters and other change authors, and draws from the responses and data collected from over 300 participants of the many strategic planning

do and how it can be achieved S o that it and managemenf workshops conducted by the author

has been the utilization and implementation of strategic

significant improvement in business effectiveness and/or efficiency.

continues to be relevant in the envil:onment over the past 10 years. The thrust of the author’s work

that they find in. A lstrategic planning 2nd management methods that create mind-set and Way of managing organizational processes is one method of accomnlodating turbulent environments.

Biographical note

Michael F. Waterhouse has two masters degrees in engineering and science and a Ph.D in resource development and strategic decision making. Michael originally trained as a mechanical engineer, and is a former board member and past president of the Calgary Chapter of the Planning Forum- the International Society of Strategic Management and Planning (1985 to 1991). He has worked in public, private and non- profit organizations. Michael founded1 Strategic Planning International Limited in January 1985, and has provided strategic management services and training for the Canadian petroleum sector and other Western Canadian corporations since that time. Michael has been active in business andl corporate management for over 15 years in Canada and Australia and is presently an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Management, teaching business decision making and strategic management of organizations. Before 1985, he had worked as a lecturer in business and strategic management; a senior business planner for a major integrated Canadian oil company; a government effectiveness research officer; and an environmental assessment and design engineer in the public service sector.

References

Ackoff, R. L. (1974a). Redesigning the Future. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, England, p. 14.

Ackoff, R . L. (1974b). Redesigning the Future. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, England, p. 13 .

Ackoff, R. L. ( 1974~) . Redesigning the Future. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, England, p. 31.

Likert, Rensis (1 977). Management styles and the human component, Management Review, October, pp. 23-28; 43-45.

Likert, Rensis (1981). System 4: a resource for improving public administration. Public Admin. Review 41(6), pp, 674-678.

Waterhouse, Michael F . (1980). Canadian Energy: Planning and Policy Making in a Turbulent Environment. Ph.D. thesis (Regional Planning and Resource Develop- ment), University of Waterloo.

I057 -9265 I92 / O 1 O 13 5 - 12 $1 1 .OO Journal of Strategic Change, June 1992 1992 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Managing effectively in turbulent environments