By Damon S. Craig.  published online in 2016 with rights reserved by the Author.

INTRODUCTION – Where is this book heading?

Perhaps a quick read of my bio will tell you how I got here. I remain and advocate of change, but have never been a fan of it. I have had to lead, manage and ride change.

I have read many books and been part of many changes on numerous scales.  There are countless ways to manage change. But what I found lacking is a way to monitor and document the change. I wanted a model that would work at my level, and also be able to use the same model above and below my station, around me and all be able to have a valid view of the change.

It does not replace change process or the strategic vision, but it allows us to map and monitor at any level, from any perspective and that is what I feel is the simple beautify of this model.

I am a Naval Officer. At the time of writing this book, I remain in the services and have developed this concept over a number of years. I first wrote it for a professional development workshop I was a participant in. The model was circulated a bit and then I honed it during my time in the NGN core team. This was the biggest fundamental cultural change Navy had embarked on in some years. It was great system, but only marked by numbers of people attending the lectures, but no-one was given a tool to monitor or plan progress.

The short preamble to this book is a simple story of a few days at sea on a ship and it will be used as the basis for my explanation of how I manage change. Most of the story hinges around the Navigator. She clearly did not decide on the journey, by this I mean the change process. But she is also not just a passenger, she a text book case of a change agent. This book is written for anyone that is or aspires to be a change agent.

If you haven’t noticed, the work journey and the word change are the same thing now. There were many roles in the voyage and are many roles to play though in change:

The Captain is the key stakeholder of the change: he decides on the journey and makes most decisions

The Department Heads are still change agents, but work to enable change rather than drive it. They make the journey happen, they don’t own the destination though in this story

The crew are being taken on the voyage. They certainly make the trip happen, but getting them, the ship and the cargo is the main reason for the journey.

The Helicopter is perhaps seen as business as normal, it is the stuff we still have to do even though we are on a journey somewhere new.

There are other ships on the change highway and many other nautical terms we will flesh out and compare to change as the book progresses.

Now, back to our navigator, our main role and the one we aspire to be. The Day’s work in navigation is a minimal set of tasks consistent with prudent navigation. The definition will vary on military and civilian vessels, and from ship to ship, but takes a form resembling:

1. Maintain continuous dead reckoning plot.
2. Take two or more star observations at morning twilight for a celestial fix (prudent to observe 6 stars).
3. Morning sun observation. Can be taken on or near prime vertical for longitude, or at any time for a line of position.
4. Determine compass error by azimuth observation of the sun.
5. Computation of the interval to noon, watch time of local apparent noon, and constants for meridian or ex-meridian sights.
6. Noontime meridian or ex-meridian observation of the sun for noon latitude line. Running fix or cross with Venus line for noon fix.
7. Noontime determination the day’s run and day’s set and drift.
8. At least one afternoon sun line, in case the stars are not visible at twilight.
9. Determine compass error by azimuth observation of the sun.
10. Take two or more star observations at evening twilight for a celestial fix (prudent to observe 6 stars).

This book is not concerned at all with the actual navigation of ships and aircraft, but it uses this as the basic methodology of navigating through change. It is important in this model that the model does not just chart a course, but tracks points of interest, fellow travellers or groups and also documents the journey.

The Navigator does not own the journey, she is not the designer or stakeholder but she is the leader of the change, both in her sphere and for those around her. I am not saying that we all need to be like her, it just is not likely to work. But this book does implore you to take two key skills away with you.

Know where you are going and chart where you have been.

The navigator had a great plan for the trip. She discusses it with those around and remains control of this. In larger projects this is often a project management role. She makes regular checks of her progress and reports them to his superior. She also makes excellent notes of the journey, both in the locations of the ship and what is going on. This excellent plan also allows her to alter her course when she must with a simple plan to return to the main voyage as soon as possible. A lack of planning or a lack of documentation would have prevented this.

So the change journey worked well, we know she found some areas for improvement. But they will be covered in later chapters.

I hope you enjoy learning about the journey