How can we ensure we are climbing the same mountain together?
We are all on a journey together, but how do we know we can all end up at the intended places?
The mountain metaphor
Often it is easier to talk about complex things in metaphorical terms than in the day-to-day business language we use. Language that all people can relate to, and can gauge to their own experience. A good source on using metaphors I have discussed with the US-based healthcare focused Plexus Institute, that I used to be an associate member of. I have used their publication Edgeware a fair amount in my practice. It is a book and also an online resource with very useful Aides on a variety of concepts, inspired by applied complexity science, a field in which I have had an interest (and a Masters degree 😉) for more than 20 years. For those that are interested, in this context I encourage people look at their Aide on metaphors.
A great way to describe any transformation journey a business is engaged in, is that is it like climbing a mountain together. This metaphor works very well for me personally, and I therefore often use this way of talking about change and transformation to help our clients talk about the journey we are jointly embarking on.
There are some fun elements that make it such a useful metaphor. And I would like to use those metaphorical elements to help frame and discuss the challenges we face in transformation journeys. To illustrate the power of metaphors.
The Summit - the ultimate strategic objective or goal of your transformation journey.
Base Camp - the start of the transformation journey. Where the team is mobilised, ready to start.
Intermediate Camps - Logical points at the end of each stage along the journey where we can evaluate, rest and plan and get ready for the next stage.
The Trail - the path that we know will lead the entire team to the summit
Here is a simple depiction of that metaphor.
There are some key things we can say about those 4 basic metaphorical elements, and we will use some other metaphorical elements to draw attention to them.
I encourage the reader to translate these metaphors to actual programme related language. In the text I have given some examples in [square brackets].
The Summit
This is what the overall objective of the journey is. But, as we have seen in the earlier post about seeing organisations as conversations, we usually cannot yet know what this summit looks like. At best, we can perhaps see something peak out of the clouds which gives us a direction of travel [vision statement]. More often, like in the photo used for the lead of this article, there could be multiple peaks as our direction [optionality]. We can assume (or hope) that the higher we climb, the more visible the Summit becomes. The organisational conversations will help us converge on the eventual Summit that suits us best, but it is clear that we cannot start climbing without a clear compass heading [Success Criteria and Key Performance Indicators] towards where we believe our Summit lies.
Base Camp
The objective of the journey is to get all the expedition members to the eventual Summit. We therefore need to be clear that all people that need to get to the top, are clearly identified and understand what lies ahead of them. So, we ensure that the members all gather in the assembly area [mobilisation]. Here the expedition leaders [programme management] explain why we are embarking on the trip, and what we expect to find at the summit.
Each team member will be equipped with a backpack that contains all they need to get to Camp 1. These are all the tools, like hiking sticks, good quality boots, rain gear, a sun hat, food and drink that we know we need [IT tools, skills]. People need to get trained to know how to use these tools. Not everyone knows how to use crampons on difficult ice patches, for instance.
Some of the team will walk ahead to identify what exact path to take. These are our Scouts, that need binoculars to look ahead [risk and issue management] and perhaps a radio to advise of any unexpected changes [stakeholder change plans], for instance. They may also need to take landmark materials to mark the path [agreed deliverables], so that others don’t need to reinvent a path that we know is good to get to the next camp.
It’s also likely that not all expedition members have the same levels of fitness [skills and capabilities] and may need other expedition members, our Sherpas’s [specialist consultants, often externals], to carry all or some of the load, whilst teaching the team how to navigate the trail.
Only once we have checked that all expedition members are ready to go, we will take off [Initial Stage Gate meeting].
We have done kick-off events for large scale programmes, where we actually dressed up as Sherpa’s and Scouts to start using the mountain metaphor from the very onset. That might sound a tad ‘tacky’ but it is a fun way to have people start to talk about the journey ahead, without the burden of the potentially pretentious and often scary business language.
Intermediate Camps
We cannot climb to the summit in one go. For multiple reasons. One is, as mentioned, that we need to keep adjusting our path to recalibrate our compass towards the Summit. But we also need to ensure that all expedition members are all OK and on the right track. It’s easy for some to get lost or, even, start to run ahead. We also will have to travel straddling multiple days and need to ensure the team can rest.
It is the job of the Scouts and the Sherpa’s to locate and establish the intermediate camps. To ensure that they are safe shelter for heavy weather and comfortable and stable enough to stay there longer if it appears that the next stage of the climb is (yet) too difficult, or needs additional equipment in our backpacks.
It could be that these need to be collected and/or created, and the team trained in its use prior to the start of the next stage.
We can also see these Intermediate Camps as the points of maturity in our overall transformation journey and we can express these Camps as indicated on our operating model ‘spider diagram’.
Again, like in Base Camp, we will not start the next stage of our journey, before we have confirmed that all the criteria have been met to make the next stage as successful as possible [Intermediate Stage Gates].
The Trail
In between the camps we are travelling, hiking, climbing. Following the landmarks set-out by the Scouts, to ensure we stay on the right routes avoiding impossible boulders, ice patches, raging rivers we cannot cross, etc. Still, each team member needs to use the tools and the acquired skills to follow the trail [following the programme and project plans]. Look where you put your boots down (no loose rocks that can cause a fall?) or whether there are yet undiscovered threats that need dealing with by alerting the Expedition Leaders, Scouts and Sherpa’s [Risk and Issue Management].
The Expedition Leaders need to keep working with the Scouts and the Sherpa’s whether, although we are following the intended path [the programme and project plans], we are still progressing towards the correct mountain peak. After all, just a few degrees wrong on the compass heading, can lead us way off course to where we ought to be. Or the landscape may change because of earthquakes, landslides and other external factors outside our control [for instance, a pandemic]. We may need to make a course adjustment. Sometime even decide to go back to the previous camp to be safe.
It can be that certain expedition team members, because of their skills, capabilities or with specific additional goals, need to take a different path to the next Camp or the Summit. They may, therefore, need additional items in their backpacks and associated training.
Other expedition members may not have to complete the journey to the Summit, but need to settle in one of the lower Camps. That needs to be carefully planned with accommodation, food and drink rations etc. For instance, instead of a temporary tent, they may need fixed, heated cabins with all mod comms [operating model].
It is the job of the Expedition Leaders, supported by the Scouts and the Sherpa’s to ensure that all expedition members end up where they need to be, supporting the Expedition’s objectives. And to celebrate that we reached key Intermediate Camps and, of course, the Summit, they need to ensure that they take plenty of champagne and party hats!
Does this metaphor work for you?
What other metaphors could work?