Recently I have seen several posts on LinkedIn pointing out the danger of trying to push an organisation into change that it is unwilling to make. These posts point to the value of small incremental change to form the path to change that is deep and long lasting.

I have seen both extremes. Coaches who push and push and push when there is no appetite for the change. Equally coaches who are, frankly, too timid and who are unwilling to take advantage of the open door to change that is in front of them.

Our coaching discipline calls on us to be more subtle than either of these extremes allows. Our knowledge and experience provides the tools to help us achieve the subtlety we need.

Plum Pudding

Every organisation, at every scale, that I have worked with has more resembled a Plum Pudding than a soft, homogenous Treacle Pudding. Let me explain…

Plum pudding by its very nature is uneven. The fruity parts are hard and resistant to change. The spongy parts are soft and malleable to change.

This diversity is true even of individual teams - some members may be conservative and value existing ways of doing things. Other members are adventurous and happy to experiment with new ideas. At larger scale the plum pudding becomes an even richer combination of textures. This diversity is something we should encourage as part of a healthy work community. It is also something we should use to benefit our plans for change, allowing us to support a diversity of planned tactics.

As coaches one of our disciplines should be to identify the reaction of different parts of the organisation to the ideas we espouse. Then to respond appropriately with different activities in different parts of the organisation. We also seek ways to make change less threatening - perhaps by framing experiments.

There is a cost associated with not getting our responses right. If we try to be too adventurous with the plums then we will simply build their resistance to change. Change will become even harder (or even impossible) to achieve.

If we are not adventurous enough with the sponge then there is a real cost of delay. Changes that could be completed earlier will only come to fruition later.

Softening The Fruit

Our coaching tool-kit must include much more than the ability to judge the nature and speed of our response. A key skill for any coach is the ability to influence. Our agile values, behaviours and principles exist for good empirical reasons. If we understand the empirical foundations then we can use our understanding to make a great case for change. That case will not persuade everyone, but it should at least soften some of the fruit to make the plum pudding easier to digest.

Knowing the Destination

To make a great case for change, we need to understand where we are trying to go. Part of deciding where we want to get to is about understanding the problems of where we are today. What is wrong with the plum pudding that is already served in front of us? Then we can focus on what the plum pudding will look like when we have perfected the recipe.

Someone I know enjoys cooking and crafting a great deal. The universal test they employ to judge success is “does it look like the picture?” If we agree our destination before starting to change we can all carry out the picture test to see whether we have got there or not.

The Recipe for Change

Now we have a recipe for baking better plum pudding.

First, we agree what our better plum pudding should look like. Second, we make the case for making those improvements, based on what is wrong with the current recipe and what will be better with the new recipe. Third we plan how to change each part of the plum pudding, responding to both the firmness of the fruit and the softness of the sponge.

As Homer would drool “Mmmmmm Plummmmm Pudddddddding….”.