Experience shows, that sustainable transformational processes can only succeed, when the individual potential of the employees and the interpersonal potential of the organization is activated.

This article shows, what that means and presents a model, how this process can be approached holistically.

When trying to apply the methods that have proven to be successful in software development to the organization as a whole, one quickly encounters limitations. The reason for this is that agile methods are not compatible with every organizational culture. What works well in an IT department may encounter structures and processes in other parts of the organization that collide with agile principles. Examples include traditional purchasing policies, which are often very cumbersome and centralized, or the often equally centralized financial and budget policies, with forecasts that have to be made for the next three (or in some cases four to five) years.

Wouldn’t it be convenient to have a good map, as well as a suitable travel guide and compass, on this long and eventful journey of cultural transformation, with all its unforeseen surprises?

The Quadrants on the left – Inside

On the left are the so-called “inner” quadrants. The quadrant in the upper left corner represents the inside of the individual. It is about our personal values, feelings, attitudes, thoughts, about who we are and want to be, our fears, our trust.

The lower left quadrant represents the inside of the collective, in our case the whole organisation. It is about who we want to be as an organization, how we define ourselves, what visions and common values we have and if and how we live them. It’s about our attitude to work, our willingness to change and the culture of communication we cultivate. This is the area in which we work when it comes to the cultural merging of two organisations or departments or to change and development.

The Quadrants on the right – Outside

On the right side are the “outer” quadrants. In the upper right corner is the exterior of the individual. This is about the behavior, the abilities, the appearance, the behavior, our self-management as well as leadership and conflict behavior, it’s about how the outside world perceives us.

The quadrant on the bottom right represents the exterior of the collective. In the case of an organization it is about the form of organization, the business model, the structure of the organization, the processes, the handling of finances and resources, the technologies, processes and methods used. In this quadrant we find agile methods if used. Similar to the above, it represents how we are perceived as an organization from the outside.

Methods used must be adapted to the organizational culture

We can see from the diagram that methods, structures and processes belong in the lower right-hand corner. The decision to use an agile method and the choice of the most suitable one therefore belong in this lower right quadrant. However, the introduction and implementation of the chosen method will only succeed and be sustainable if the culture of the organization allows it or is developed to this end. This inner orientation belongs in the lower left quadrant.

Experience shows that all four quadrants must be equally considered if the method is to have a sustainable effect. Only then will the “soft facts” of the left-hand quadrants, which are often neglected in our corporate culture, be given the value they deserve.

If too little respect is paid to this fundamental aspect of balance from within and without, the result will be that there is a lot of sand in the gears, the agile “project” will not progress and in many cases will be abandoned at some point. Under the motto “it just doesn’t work after all”.

An example

In reality there are many variations and different gradations. The following example describes in a placative way what happens daily.

A few years ago Scrum was introduced in a company’s software development department. It worked well, so that Scrum was introduced in other IT teams. When this step was also very successful, the call was made to introduce this method in other areas of the company as well, in order to extend the increased effectiveness to the entire organization.

Then suddenly – perhaps triggered by a change in management – there is the instruction to make the organisation as a whole agile. The experienced Scrum people, having successfully introduced Scrum in the IT department, are now supposed to introduce Scrum in departments where work is done under completely different conditions. After initial information seminars, in-depth Scrum training is conducted for these employees.

Spiral Dynamics creates Transparency

Let’s look at the values in the lower left quadrant, for example. How do we as an organisation deal with loyalty and what does loyalty mean to us? Are we committed to loyalty to our boss or to our department? Is it “us against all others” or are we committed to the organization as a whole? Or do we belong to a larger community and feel committed to social and sustainable values that we would not sacrifice for anything, not even for our organization?

This example also shows how misunderstandings and disputes can quickly arise within a team when loyalty is not defined jointly and team members have different views on loyalty because they look at the value from a different level of the consiousness model. Everyone then thinks that the other is not loyal.

As another example from the lower left quadrant we can take the handling of finances. Do we invest in structures and technologies, or rather in growth potential, in sustainable corporate values, or even in future potential? Again, depending from which consciousness level on we make such choices, changes the choice we make.

Such specific topics, which can now be looked at in detail, are called lines of development. There are many possible lines per quadrant. In each case, those topics and lines are chosen that have a high priority for the current situation.

Using the Integral Map

If we want to use the model as a map, we define some lines of development for each quadrant that are relevant to the current issue and consider how we deal with them. This shows us where we stand. The map then shows us what the next sensible steps on the way to our goal might look like.

Ken Wilber’s integral model, combined with the understanding of Spiral Dynamics, provides a versatile, complete and differentiated map. It enables us to orientate ourselves before and during a cultural transformation and to design the meaningful next steps. The refined understanding of change in organizations helps to set targeted and sustainable change impulses for individuals, teams and entire organizations.

Guide for the Map

If you want to delve deeper into these exciting topics, you have the opportunity to attend our basic seminar Innovation Coaching  (in German, if you are interested in an English workshop, please contact us). It provides experience-based information on how to see organizations in a new light and how to design them more consciously. It is offered in three modules of three days each, introduces the basics of the models and shows how they can be implemented in an organization.

The next 1-day workshop, entitled “Business Agility – an integral voyage of discovery”, will take place on June 4 in English and on June 9 in German. It provides a good overview of the contents discussed here and offers ample space for wide-ranging discussions. It can also be booked as a company course and is currently held online.