What’s an Overton Window and Why Should You Care?

I remember the first time I heard the term “Overton window” used on a politics-focused podcast I was listening to several years ago. Growing up around Philadelphia and being a big sports fan of a certain age, the first thing that came to my mind is that it had something to do with Doug Overton, a former NBA player from Philadelphia who starred collegiately at La Salle University, especially since a basketball backboard is sometimes referred to as a window. Not surprisingly, however, it turns out that an Overton window has nothing to do with Doug Overton, who was a good player, but not someone you’d name something after.

An Overton window is a concept normally applied in political science that refers to a model that describes how ideas change in society and how that change is reflected in political behavior by politicians. In essence, the Overton window is described as the range of ideas in a certain area that are politically acceptable to discuss publicly without causing political suicide. You will often hear about a politician who may not have been successful at getting a preferred policy enacted, but who has “expanded the Overton window” on that policy area such that it is now considered an acceptable position to hold. Such expansion of the Overton window is often the precursor to future policy changes; in fact, one would say it is a necessary prerequisite to such significant change.

Now that I’ve talked about Philadelphia sports and political theory, I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with agile practices and agile transformations. Think about what we are trying to do when we introduce new agile ways of working into an organization that is not familiar with those ways of working and often times utilizes practices that may even be antithetical to agile ways of working. An organization is a group of human beings with established culture, ways of working, mores and taboos. In other words, an organization is a complex, adaptive, human-centered system, just like society as a whole. Whether we realize it or not, Overton windows exist in organizations too. They govern the set of ideas that people within the organization feel comfortable sharing, suggesting, and advocating for.

Whether you are an internal or external coach or a leader within the organization, one of the most impactful steps you can take to cultivate new ways of working in the organization is to create the conditions that encourage people in the organization to widen the Overton window related to acceptable or even possible ways of working. If people in the organization aren’t comfortable enough to bring up new ways to think about the processes, the assumptions, and the culture in the organization, any hopes for transformation are futile. As a coach or leader, you have to create a safe space for new ideas, reflection, and experimentation.

One of the best ways to prime the organization to shift their Overton window is by modeling the behavior yourself. Consistently suggest new ideas and challenge deep-seated assumptions in different settings: individual discussions, team meetings, town halls, leadership off-sites, etc. To put it more bluntly, as I hear Jay Hrcsko say many times on the Agile Uprising podcasts, plant the “seeds of chaos”. This is the first step in widening or shifting the Overton window. If you are a leader in the organization, your actions give people the permission to consider new ideas and novel ways of working. If you are an external coach or consultant, you can play the “innocent outsider” card to introduce ideas that may ruffle feathers or induce initial indigestion - after all, when it comes down to it, that is one of the reasons you were hired. I’d even go so far to say that many times, it is not even the ideas themselves that are important - it’s that you’ve opened up others within the organization to begin reconsideration of the organizational Overton window. You only have so much bandwidth to drive change yourself. Transformational change only happens when there is a growing current of energy and ideas from the rank and file members of the organization. Open their minds and the Overton window opens wide.

One other thing to consider. Let’s say you’ve been quite successful at expanding the Overton window at the leadership level in the organization. While this is an important and necessary condition for helping the organization adopt new practices and challenge assumptions, it is not enough to expand the Overton window at the leadership level. I’ve been in organizations where the leadership team is completely on board, but they have not achieved critical mass in their messaging and actions to overcome status-quo calcification in front-line team members and middle management. Cultural norms and assumptions are stubborn, and it takes concerted and persistent effort by leadership and change agents to free front-line team members from the chains of habit and ingrained expectations. Leaders and change agents, please remember that there is no such thing as over-communicating permission to challenge established assumptions and consider new ways of working. Keep repeating the message over again and again until you think everyone has digested and internalized the message, and then keep at it for another six months. Change is hard and the status-quo is stubborn and it is too easy to undershoot the messaging. The Overton window reflects not only what leadership supports but also what the rest of the organization is willing to consider.

In summary, while we can measure changes in specific practices as we engage in transformation, the biggest indicator of success in a transformation effort is when you see the Overton window starting to change. Open up the realm of possibilities in people’s minds to drive long-term and persistent change in an organization.