Apr 8, 2022
This week, Dan Neumann is joined
by two external guests today: Sarah Skillman and Mary Demain, both SEAM experts and Agile
practitioners.
In this episode, Dan, Sarah, and
Mary are talking about SEAM (Socio-Economic Approach to Management)
and how leadership is the key to Agility. Sarah and Mary share
their extensive knowledge and experience working with SEAM, helping
organizations identify the dysfunctions that are causing problems
in their systems, and guiding them towards more efficient ways of
operating, considering the social and financial aspects involved as
both crucial and interconnected.
Key Takeaways
- What is SEAM and how is it different from other
approaches?
-
- SEAM is a different way to lead and manage
organizations.
- Other approaches follow paradigms that are more
than 100 years old.
- “Socio-economic” means that these aspects are
considered as a priority, neither of them exists without the
other.
- SEAM works starting from the management system
and follows with the other sectors of the organization. The process
begins by identifying the hidden causes and what needs to be
improved.
- SEAM focuses on outcomes and cost
savings.
-
- Sarah shares an example of a company that was
wasting a lot of time and effort without knowing they could
negotiate the process and obtain more benefit for the company and
its people.
- Remember that people want to help and
collaborate; they just need an opportunity.
- SEAM pays attention to cultural
norms.
- How does SEAM approach culture change and
transformation?
-
- SEAM aims to remove the dysfunctions that slow
people down in a company.
- SEAM is an approach, not a quick
fix.
- What is the liminal space?
-
- The liminal space is where people are when they
are changing from one place to another. It is certainly an
uncomfortable place to be, but also inevitable when intended to
grow, since it is where human potential is realized.
- People first experience the liminal space
individually and then do it collectively.
- SEAM starts at the top since only leaders can
model the behavior they want to see in others.
- Every person is part of a system. How does SEAM
help people appreciate the complexity of the system?
-
- Agility is a wholeness to change and SEAM is a
whole system changed.
- Every time you change the system, dysfunctions
are created, and for every dysfunction, there is a
cause.
- Six tasks every company has to
tackle:
-
- Working conditions.
- Work organization.
- Time management
- Collaborate, communicate, and
cooperate.
- Integrative training.
- Implementation of strategy.
- During the SEAM process, people are asked about
what is not going well in each of these areas, and later the root
causes are identified. After this first stage, the future is
assessed while looking for possible solutions to those
dysfunctions.
- Sarah and Mary address the “frozen
middle.”
-
- Everybody involved in the organizational change
needs to know about the purpose of that change.
- Interventions, training, and coaching are parts
of the SEAM process.
Mentioned in this Episode:
The Reengineering
Alternative, by
William Schneider
The SEAM Institute
Socio-Economic Approach to
Management: Steering Organizations into the
Future, by Alla Heorhiadi and John Conbere
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