Outside-In Change

"Joy can be real only if people look upon their life and work as a service, and have a definite object in life poutside themselves an their personal happiness."
Leo Tolstoy

In this section you will find:

Perspectives on Outside-In Change
Outside-In Change Tools
Core Capabilities
Case Studies
New Thinking
Useful Publications
Relevant Websites
Interesting Articles

Perspectives
on Outside-In Change

Looking from the outside-in it is easy to see how the views and attitudes of others can impact on our effectiveness. In the workplace we are constrained by restrictive structures and working practices, the lack of positive encouragement or opportunities to be entrepreneural in approach, even the dominant culture that expects compliance, not creativity.

Perception Management
The real blockage to change is usually a lack of confidence, fear of failure, self-doubt or the lack of a self-belief that things could be different. We cannot be separated from our environment, so we have to balance the constraints and opportunities of the workplace with our inner capacity to be, think and do things differently. Change Coaching helps people make these connections.

Lean Systems
For example, John Seddon argues that by taking a systemic perspective on service development, 'lean' processes can be achieved by looking initially from the outside-in. It can be powerful tool in bringing about change. When you start the service improvement process by analysing customer demand, the priorities for improving service performance and processes become obvious.

Managing Reputations
Scanning the environment to assess potential risks and identify new possibilities for development are crucial survival skills. How we interpret the outside world does have an impact on how we perceive ourselves and others. Image is important in a world where many of the people we 'do business with' will never know what we are really like. This is why PR has become a dominant communications tool and we put so much effeort into seeking peer recognition and high profile awards.

Performance Management
Coaching is also subject to standards of performance. For example, it is vitally important that the coachee feels they have benefitted from the sessions, without fail. The pressure is on the coach to get clarity, focus and a commitment to action in what they do. The quality of your work will be judged from the outside-in and you must therefore pay attention to that dynamic, nomatter how self-confident or independent you are. In a world of projects, you are only as good as your last performance.

Delivering Best Value
The whole process of Best Value in public services is designed to foster outside-in thinking. Consultation with customers and partners, comparison with the best performers, the challenging of the previous decisions of managers, members and boards as well as getting a sense of your competitive position, all serve to encourage 'out-of-box' thinking and action. To develop partnership working and local involvement, the focus of attention is to look at the threats and opportunities to the organisation coming from the outside.

Dialogue
Seeing and acting differently holds the key to individual, team
and organisational change. This requires dialogue or deeper conversations (see the diagram below), through which common ground can be found and shared aspirations are created.
Change takes place slowly inside each of us, resulting from the choices we make. To make change happen you have to be proactive. Real change starts with self-leadership.

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Core Capabilities
for Outside-In Change

SCANNING  
to find out what the future may bring or how to create it (we point you to useful websites, books and people who are thinking about and planning for the future)

ALIGNING
to see interrelationships based on knowledge not position, and
organisations operating as complex adaptive networks (we introduce you to new organisation forms driven by networking technology)

RESEARCHING
to discover what the leading thinkers and change leaders
are saying and doing (we give you quick access to libraries and search engines on change and related topics)

CLIMATISING
to create a positive atmosphere to encourage creative and
productive interactions and conversations (we provide you with a range of tools and techniques to create the best conditions for change)

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"We found that it was impossible to maintain a loyal customer base without the base of loyal employees: and that the best employees prefer to work for organisations that deliver the kind of superior value that builds customer loyalty."
Frederick Reichheld from "The Loyalty Effect"

Outside-In Change
Case Studies

A Schools Library Service

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Outside-In Chnage
Tools & Techniques

To improve customer service use SERVICE FIRST

To secure customer loyalty use CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MGT

To obtain customer feedback use OPINION RESEARCH

To secure partnership use STRATEGIC ALLIANCES

To identify stakeholder needs use MIND MAPPING

To explore hidden connections use SYSTEMS THINKING

To improve cross-boundary tasks use SUPPLY CHAIN

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New thinking
around outside-in change

The outside-in approach to change is drawn from the complexity concepts of ecosystems, metaphor, co-evolution, double-loop learning, feedback, nonlinearity, receiver-based communication and perspectives, which are explained in simple terms below.

To be completed shortly

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"Every living thing acts to develop and preserve itself. Identity is the filter that every organism or system uses to make sense of the world. New information, new relationships, changing environments - all are interpreted through a sense of self. This tendency to self-creation is so strong that it creates a paradox. An organism will change to maintain its identity, not change it."
Margaret Wheatley 'Leadership and the New Science'

Outside-In Change
Publications

A list will be added shortly

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Outside-In Change
Websites

Community Agencies
This is a comprehensive list of website addresses for hundreds of organisations working in and for the community.
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sbe/planbiblio/contacts/web.html

Partnerships Online
Available on this site:

Creating partnerships
Guide to Effective Participation
Guide to Development Trusts and Partnerships
Introduction to online communities
Neighbourhoods Online game - full instructions
The history of UK community networking - add your story
Presentation on what communities need from ICTs
How you can use IT in the community
Getting Connected - Internet basics and benefits
Inventing the Future: Communities in the Information Society
Innovative IT for voluntary organisations - presentation
A manifesto for local online communities
External link to an article on housing, social exclusion and ICTs

http://www.partnerships.org.uk

Making the Net Work
This site aims to help those planning to get their organisation or neighbourhood online, or create local technology centres. They are also interested in the development of virtual teams and networks.
http://www.makingthenetwork.org

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Outside-In Change
Articles

A list to be added shortly