The Moscow Rules give rise to the Ronin Rules of Enforced Change - what spies and corporate managers think about

A life-long friend of mine, John, a wealthy C-Level technical company executive, told me for a few years before the mortgage failures and the depression of the housing market that "The real estate market is headed for a serious adjustment, these artificially inflated values will not last". His response to what he perceived as an enforced change was not to wait until he lost his house and land – he sold his palatial estate, the south end of an island near Seattle, Washington, and moved to Costa Rica -- reinvesting the money in undeveloped land there.

He proceeded to develop the Costa Rica land, selling much of it, before returning to the states to found a technical startup company. He told everyone that an economic readjustment of epic proportions was on the horizon.  When the downswing in the economy arrived he had money invested offshore in a diverse set of investments, and was leasing an apartment high above the city. He made a profit while others saw their investments slide in value.

"Enforced change" is a radically different challenge from other kinds of change. Enforced change is when something is inevitable, or an entity has to enforce a change in an environment to insure compliance with a requirement, such as a law.  Enforced change can be sweeping in its nature - including everything from the mainstream to the fringe in terms of how it may affect information and business in reality. This kind of change is when someone recognizes inevitable change and takes clear and certain steps to prevent or avoid damage or economic failures or hardship.

As such, enforced change promises different ways of looking at human-to-human, individual-to-corporation, corporate-to-corporate, and human-to-computer interactions. By enforced change means changes that cause a fundamental paradigm shift in the work and lives of people. Examples of paradigm shifts are things such as the advent of the Web or the recent failure of the financial markets and banks to be ethical, care about their members and self regulate, and the shocking launch of the Age of AI. I feel certain you can think of many other examples right off the top of your head.

Most enforced changes are more minor in scope, but strikingly affect the jobs and work of those supporting, or resisting the resulting change – examples might be new laws such as the SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) regulations. The questions I wish to ask C-Level business leaders in technical corporations are "What actions do you take when you see an enforced change coming your way, and why?" and "What strategies do you use planning in the face of enforced change?"

I believe that, like the example of John, the patterns of forward thinking C-Level executives are similar when it comes to enforced change. I believe that even the term 'enforced change' will bring to mind certain steps they take to mitigate and protect their employees and organizations from failure in the light of such changes.

A common illustration of enforced change is when a company has to comply with a new set of regulations or laws, or they risk fines, perhaps executives being sued and convicted of breaking the law. It is up to the leadership to make certain that their corporation are following business practices in accord with laws, or suffer the penalties, which can include prison time or shuttering the business altogether.

For example, insurance companies must keep private medical records from being stored in a non-secure manner. Accountancies are required to provide accurate and secure financial records, sometimes including financial forecasting. A large segment of high tech is to secure access to those sensitive information resources, personnel files, facilities, financial access, and related networks to prevent harm to individuals, theft, or loss of information valuable to corporations, and countries' security and weapons repositories. Where there are business agreements broken, or the public good is concerned penalties may be stiff, amounting to enforced change.

Enforced change is losing your job due to high-tech companies needing to invest in AI right away to stay competitive. This kind of enforcement likely means we need to add new skills for the AI Age, knowledge of and experience in AI, machine learning, robotics, and related information and industries.

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"Information technology projects fail at a high rate", as my professor Dr. Kevin C. Desouza, University of Washington pointed out to me in a September 2008 interview (also documented in his book "Agile Information Systems: Conceptualization, Construction, and Management").

What is interesting is discovering not only what steps forward-thinking managers and executives take to mitigate or embrace a change rushing headlong like a train towards them and their company – the other interesting aspect is why do they do it? What drives them?

Where did these ideas come from? During evening discussing the problems of having a global, holistic world vision with a friend, a former aerospace engineer, we began reviewing my past work experience anticipating enforced changes. But the effect on me at the time of those working events was much like Cassandra or Kichiemon's – I could see the future coming but no one would listen, or people listening could not understand my intentions to aid them to prevent the shock of change, simply by preparing for it, and turning the wheel as needed.

I found that others could not see the changes I could see on the horizon, or if they did, they would not deal with such changes in a creative way. People deny change or worse yet they want to kill the messenger of change - some employers felt that if they got rid of those aware of the coming change that alone would prevent it from arriving - like the digital age, the Web. Getting rid of a single person would never have stopped it.

Sometimes I found myself as a culture of one. Of course as I discovered other creatives and managers could and did look ahead.

Those people who actually think out of the box are oftentimes not recognized by co-workers and management. Change itself may be perceived as negative among permanent staff. I seek to show support for both full time employees and consultants, to change this view and enhance their ability to communicate ideas. That is why great management keeps an open door policy. Unfortunately like any other policies the hazard is that individual managers must believe in policies around openness and creativity; such self-selecting policies are impossible to enforce.

I started started thinking about others whose job it is to enforce change or to stay one step ahead of change when the stakes are more than just money, such as one's life, for example spies, covert operatives, and similar jobs. How do they view and cope with an ever changing kaleidoscope of dealing with people's intentions and influences when in these scenarios of enforced change? We will circle back to the topic of spies, and their drivers. With my aerospace industry engineer friend, I looked to cultural examples in describing the life of an independent covert operative using the example of a film with a title rooted in the history of cold, dedicated, heartfelt planning and independence - Ronin.

During the Japanese feudal period 1185- 1868 a ronin referred to a samurai with no lord or master. Traditionally they were supposed to commit ritual suicide upon the loss of a master; those who did not do so were independents, not unlike the idea of consultants of today, but with shame attached.

The most famous ronin were a group (of 46) who plotted revenge in the death of their master, which they accomplished. Notably they made sure that the neighbors of the man they killed did not become collateral damage even putting out all the fires and lamps so his place would not catch fire. The movie Ronin, though not entirely based on this history made reference to the culture.

Of note is that the samurai culture is based on Buddhism and Confucianism "a philosophy of humanism which places much emphasis on education, rationalism, sincerity of action, and the relationships of people involved in society, rather than spiritual affairs or speculation on life after death."

So considering the aspects of preparation for enforced change - Ronin Rules of Enforced Change - what spies and corporate managers think about.

For your consideration in terms of solving information management problems I refer you to the film "Ronin" starring Robert De Niro, written by John David Zeik and David Mamet. If you consider it from the point of view of a capable information manager stewarding leadership, and think about how to resolve related problems, this film provided me with some ideas for individuals and groups to maintain initiative. 

The Moscow Rules

1. Maintain a full toolkit

2. Survey the situation/ recon

3. Identify the problem and refine it iteratively

4. Don't put yourself at risk, have a clear exit strategy 

5. Identify incapable/immoral individuals or orgs and minimize their responsibility and/or capacity to enforce decisions

6. Trust yourself

7. Be quiet

8. Be bold

So that's something I've been excited thinking about. This is related to enthusiasm for transitional processes - strategies for enforced change. In other words how to effectively get people to pivot their belief systems, or invoke belief systems to solve sticky human and technical problems. 

But of course I am not the first to think about this. Corporations also wish to differentiate what they offer to the world and use strategies to make their offering special both internally and externally. Below please find some of these strategies which could be considered not mere marketing but four strategies to influence human change:

The Ronin Rules of Enforced Change

1. The Anointed:

The Deity of your choice anoints you as the one to solve "the unsolvable" - the unsolvable is of course an illusion.(Religions) 

2. The Elite: [changed from 'The Qualified']

You are the best on the planet chosen as the elite to solve this problem (Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Microsoft) 

3. Special Forces:

Your training is that of the special forces, a spy/warrior who arrives unannounced to resolve the unsolvable. (Ronin, Google)

4. Death:

You will solve this problem now or you will die. Solving technical problems in the midst of survival to earn survival. (US Naval Underwater Warfare Command, Navy Seals, CDC / disease and most small businesses). This is the ultimate in enforced change.

Being able to skillfully use enforced change when other kinds of change are not working, or have not yet become apparent or inevitable to everyone on the staff, for example, can solidify the trust others have in a firm.

Enforced change can offer brand and reputation protection and limit negative media (because things didn't not go wrong the news is all positive), provide resilience by bouncing back faster and farther than competitors, provide continuity of business processes and retain skilled employees (who don't leave) by increasing morale, reduces negative effects on financial operations, provide for the safety of employees and others, provide for increased communication, and thus provide a competitive advantage.

When companies went digital some employees dragged their feet, for example in specialised industries with a long history. They simply didn't want to change their business practices. In some of these firms employees were offered a choice, early retirement or retraining as a form of enforced change. While many chose the early retirement option, this provided fresh highly motivated new workers to those firms, which allowed the company to enter a new millenium or new decade still able to compete with others who already converted to digital and high tech.

"Do this or you get punished' is one view of enforced change, but preferring to see it as "Do this and you get rewarded" is a healthier view, one that will be met with little to no resistance, especially when there is little to no choice, or the danger factors are too high.

Images: 

Ronin Poster, Photographer: Nick Slide, Creative Commons License, location: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickslidepics/255255903/

Navy Seals Training Photographer: Joan Kretschmer, USN, Public Domain, location: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/589160026/

Grave of the 47 Ronin, Photographer: Netsui San, Creative Commons License http://www.flickr.com/photos/netsui/1374588412/

tags: #anointed #business #enforcedchange #change #elite #humanchange #consulting #ronin #specialforces #spies #death #taxes #japan #management #thinking #processes #MoscowRules #ronanrules #ronanrulesofenforcedchange #informationmanagement #conflictresolution