Change Is Just Following A Different Usage Model.
Change is hard, partly because we don’t know what to expect. In a past issue, Take A Step Into The Unknown, I shared my Growth System model which is about the motivation that drives one to choose growth or comfort? The underlying motivational loops in the model are adopting either a risk mindset or a control mindset. A risk mindset prepares us to be open to new situations, information, relationships, and learning. Yet what is the path and how do we take the first step?
A usage model describes how users engage with and within the system in a way that defines the systems benefits to the user.
What if we consider change as an evolution of usage models for either an individual, organization, company, or ecosystem. Change essentially is shaking up our steady state usage models -- life patterns, networks, workflows and workplaces, operating models, learning styles, knowledge sources, habits, and behaviors. A way to create change is by making a slight nudge, continually evolving, or totally shaking up our usage model.
Usage Model Elements For Change
Choosing growth is about embracing an underlying risk mindset, which sets in motion the Initiation to shake-up our current state usage model. It’s about looking forward and not backward, being open and trusting of taking that step into the unknown. Embracing a chance to play and try something new.
Needs and Purpose. The intent and outcome of initiation is to achieve a need or purpose in a product, or organization, or in our lives. As in a defining a usage model, understanding the specific purpose or need at the center of the usage is foundational. When we’re in a risk mindset, change may have already started, yet it becomes anchored when we can crystalize the purpose and goals to why and what needs to change.
Inputs. Similar to creating a use case, the inputs into the system impact how the user interacts with the system. New insights or advances in knowledge, technology, partners and ecosystems, and a variety of influencers need to be understood in how they enhance or detract from the desired change. Do they help to evolve the usage model in a positive way, or reinforce keeping things in status quo?
Environment and Context. To develop a use case, a key step is gaining deep understanding of the context and scope of how the user is engaging with the system. What are the characteristics of the user, the patterns in how they interface with the product or system, what they value, and what is valued by larger environment that the use case resides within? How does the larger system support the use case? To develop a change case, these aspects are also critical. What is the scope of context of the change to be created? What are the current state (as-is) and desired state (to-be) patterns of behavior for the change? Are the values of the user congruent with the values of the larger ecosystem? What factors will support the user in making the change or hold them accountable?
Action Path or Sequence of Steps. A use case maps out the step-by-step workflows of sequence of actions that the user takes with the product, or the steps and processes of an operating model for how an organization works to deliver its mission. When attempting to introduce a new usage model, different scenarios might be played out to test alternate sequences and outcomes. With a change case, scenarios are also used to understand branches of what aspects of the change might produce more desirable outcomes or create new benefits. In both usage cases and change cases, testing out the models and collecting data for feedback and adjustments are critical. The path of action is where the new insight plus alternative outcomes come together to deliver the purpose.
Pace of Making The Change. In analyzing use cases, one critical factor to observe is how the user applies time across the different steps. What is the focus of where time is spent versus conserved, and the pace of the movements or workflow? With a change case, consider time as a resource that can be allocated across the action path. Where time emphasis is placed depends on the purpose and whether the intent is to change slowly, to learn and evolve? Or is the intent to disrupt and create turbulence that shakes things up? Or is it move fast and break things, rip the Band-Aid off and minimize the time of going through the pain points? Also consider the pace of sustaining the change and the level of governance needed. Making an evolutionary change with steps of ‘nudges’ might take root through a series of small habit changes. A more abrupt fast change might be more appropriate to achieve the purpose, yet may require more structure to establish new operating habits and sustain the change.
A Flow Of Usage Models
Usage models are not stagnant and are always evolving. By approaching change as just an evolution of a product, company, or our personal usage models, it provides an understandable pattern to follow and can take the edge off change. In looking backward we easily see these evolving usage models of products, technology, and patterns in our lives.
The use case of telephones, the internet, and social media today are not the same as they were when first introduced. And since at this time you can’t read an article without the mention of ChatGPT … my question when I ask people about ChatGPT isn’t what they think of it, but more a curiosity of what are the usage models they're using it for to play around with and experiment? Like all new technology before, and what will come after, it’s in the early stage of usage model evolution – there will likely be alternative outcomes, adjusted workflows, new benefits, perceived value that does not deliver or creates unintended consequences, and required feedback and adjustments by individual users and society at large.
Our lives also comprise evolving use cases around where we live, who’s in our lives, how we spend our time for work and enjoyment, and where we find purpose.
Change isn’t as difficult if we see it as just another shift in usage models.
Komentari