Tipping Point Workshop Background
Introduction | Overview | Background | Details | Summary
History of the Simulation Development
The Tipping Point simulation is grounded in both a solid theoretical foundation and testing in real-life organizational settings. This explains its unique strength, validity, and applicability to a wide range of change initiatives.
First, it includes existing theories of organizational change, relying substantially on the work of Kurt Lewin, Marvin Weisbord, William Bridges, Daryl Conner, and John Kotter.
Second, it draws on lessons learned from public health, leveraging the analogy between the spread of epidemics and the spread of ideas, and explored in books by Everett Rogers, Thomas Schnelling, and recently by Malcolm Gladwell.
Finally, it also has deep roots in theories from systems dynamics, especially the work of Peter Senge and John Sterman.
Making the Simulator Real
Expertise from the real-life experience of change leaders was needed to actually put numbers to the theory and create the computer simulator. Initial development leveraged the know-how of a small group of people who had been responsible for implementing a number of change initiatives and who had well over seventy-five years of change management know-how among them. Their knowledge was used to define the interrelationships in the simulation.
The prototype then underwent field testing with academics, students, and organizational change leaders before final development of the simulation.
The Tipping Point has what social scientists call “face validity:” that is, anyone familiar with change will recognize the results as reflected in their own experience.
What You Get
It would be nice to have a computer simulation that gives the exact recipe for implementing any change. However, all organizations and all changes are different, and there is no single recipe for change. So no single simulation can provide specific answers for every change.
Nonetheless, the Tipping Point simulation’s structure and dynamics are comparable across organizations and changes, and the actions that leaders can take, represented by the levers of change, have parallels across a wide range of organizations and change initiatives.
Some examples are putting a six sigma program into practice in an engineering company, improving throughput in a manufacturing floor, streamlining customer service in banking, implementing a career management process in a health care environment, or revamping the supply chain management system in a high-tech manufacturing company.
the Tipping Point workshop has had impact on how I view strategies and which levers within the organisation need to be pulled. I have the themes and ideas in my mind as I think about the best ways to achieve roll out of a strategy. —Richard Stubbs, Business Development, NHS, UK
Why It Is Relevant
The Tipping Point Workshop offers a way to experiment with the dynamics of change and the change levers in a safe, low-risk environment. It fosters dialogue among team members and helps them learn from one another and create a shared mental model of what is needed to implement a change.
A shared mental model combines knowledge of each team member to create a fuller understanding. There is an old saying, “All of us together are smarter than any one of us alone.” A shared mental model draws on the knowledge and experience of all team members, helping teams create a more effective implementation plan that addresses interactions that might otherwise have fallen through the cracks.
The Tipping Point Workshop excels in its capacity to serve as a platform for experimentation that fosters dialogue and creates shared understanding among team members.
