Shifting Mindsets for Managing Complexity: A Municipal Case Study

Abstract

At the core of this research are the City of Kitchener’s Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) and selected management staff. These administrative City leaders engaged with REFOCUS, a Canadian cooperative non-profit organization, in applying the organizational change approach Enterprise Evolution (EE) to the municipal context, a global first. Enterprise Evolution is a methodology for co-creatively working with organizational leaders to build their system leadership capacity with innovative methods for managing for complexity. The first step in the EE programming is a series of workshops intended to lead to a mindset change among leaders by developing a more holistic understanding of emergent forces of change and appreciating the risks associated with maintaining the status quo. The EE theory of change defines this as an important step before engaging in a longer-term coproduction process of adapting strategic management practices. The focus of this study was to understand this initial process, its effectiveness within the specific context of the City of Kitchener, and its impact with the corporate leadership team. While there has been much theorizing about the need for a mindset change for deep and meaningful system change, empirical research reveals few successful, practical approaches that facilitate mindset change