30 Batteries of Change: The Logic behind the Framework
6 Batteries of Change
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In this chapter we want you to look at how you can make changes and improvement in your workplace that benefit you, those around you and also your organisation. This requires you to become very skilled in developing change initiatives and also at how to introduce them so that they and you are successful.
In the unit there are many well-known tools and processes for you to learn and apply. We will guide you through a whole set of these tools and processes and give you opportunities to practice along the way.
To help you see all the links and to provide you with a structure we are using a change framework called the Batteries of Change.1
The Batteries of Change model was developed at the Vlereick Business School in Belgium along with the Royal Military Academy of Belgium. We chose this model as the framework for this unit partly because it was developed by a collaboration between a business school within a university and with a unit of a military organisation. Clearly this is similar to your current experience where the Australian Army is working closely with the Graduate School of Business within QUT. It is a model that we believe fits well for you.
The principles of the Batteries of Change are focused on four elements of an organisation’s reality: its formal element which here we call the rational/formal element. Next are its operational element followed by its strategic intent and finally its emotional/informal self.
These four elements are set out in a framework that has six areas that are the underpinnings of ways to create excellence and success.
Here is the whole framework which you will learn more about and apply throughout the unit.
Six Batteries of Change: Source: Adapted from De Prins, P., Letens, G., & Verweire, K. (2017). Six batteries of change. Lannoo Publishers; Page 21.
The Batteries of Change approach was used by the Sky Racing team that propelled Bradley Wiggens to his win at the Tour de France in 2012. Now competitive cycling may not be your thing but we are sure you can imagine the complexities of the individual, team and organisation operations that are necessary to help an individual ride a bicycle for 21 stages for more than 3,400 kilometres through France against the world’s best riders and beat them all!
These are the principles of the approach. It looks for improvements in every part of a system and tries for as many wins as possible. The effect of these wins, small and large, leads over time to significant gains. Along the way emotional and people-related challenges typically arise especially when change is involved. Along with these improvement gains the focus is on building and enhancing a powerful culture and connection in teams and between the people in those teams.
The academics and serving military personnel who built the model realised that much of the linear thinking that was a significant part of military training was no longer as useful as it had been. They also realised that there were significant capabilities throughout the military that could and should be leveraged. They also were aware that the world has become and continues to become more complex and ambiguous. This level of complexity requires organisations to be ambidextrous2: able to refine what they do on a daily basis and also learn and do new and very different things.
One of the most significant innovations in the framework was the recognition of the importance of the emotional side of organisations and the people in them. This is especially important when it comes to change. Change is very much about influencing and convincing people.
You would have already been wondering about the use of the batteries concept. And yes you are most probably correct in your assumptions that this is very much about energy and the battery metaphor is about the energy around change and the way that energy is used towards achieving change and powerful outcomes.
The metaphor is about managing and directing the organisational energy. It takes energy to get things done. Every organisation has energy and focus. The Batteries of Change model helps to identify where the energy is and where it is working well. These pockets of energy can be used to build other parts of the organisation. If a culture is energised it is very useful to help make changes and drive other parts of the organisation that need to evolve.
The overall theoretical foundations of the Batteries of Change are built on three components of human capabilities. Here we give you an overview but you can learn much about the foundations of the theory in other units focused on critical thinking.
The three components make up the attitude formation and change model.3 Take a look at this model in the image below. It shows the set of relationships that work together in various ways to motivate people to take action. Each of the components is a specific factor or driver in the outcome. These are a rational appeal, an emotional appeal and an intention or a call to action. These can be put together in a variety of combinations to motivate the individual or team to do something. You will also notice that there is an additional piece highlighting the importance of the beliefs that the individual or team might have towards the behaviour that is being proposed or promoted.
Jenny – this next section needs some form of highlight or focus. It is the practical element of the set up.
This model is suggesting to us that in order to make changes, to get things done, and to move ahead, we need a combination of reason or logic, a compelling emotional connection to the action, the intention to act, and finally the knowledge that it fits within the overall purpose and boundaries of the organisation.
The Batteries of Change framework is based on the ability to recognise this powerful human motivation mechanism and put it to good use to create great organisational outcomes.
OK, enough of this for now! We want you to go and explore a highly functioning organisation or situation and start thinking about why it is successful at what it does. We want you to think about the components of the Batteries and also the metaphor of the battery giving energy to the various parts of the organisation.
We don’t want you to be conducting some sort of audit or completing a check list. At this stage we just want you to go and experience. Here are some tips. If you have an IKEA near you, go for a wander. Look around and just think about all the pieces and how they come together in the store you are in and in the hundreds that are all over the world all operating in roughly the same way selling pretty much the same products and providing roughly the same services.
If this isn’t possible for you or you don’t like IKEA perhaps other options for you to experience might be your favourite sporting team, your children’s school, your favourite gaming app, your Amazon shopping site: anything BUT the Army!
For this exercise we need you to be objectively experiencing something other than your place of work. As you are interacting either in person, online or in some other way just be aware of why what you are exploring might be a such a success. Think about what is going on and what might be energising it.
When you have completed this you are ready to move on to the first section of this unit where you get to focus more specifically on the environment around you.
