Culture - Change Guides LLC - Guiding Organizations Through Change

Culture and the Power of Habits

December 18, 2013/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Resistance/by admin

As habits develop, mental activity for that action decreases. The more automatic an action becomes, the more efficient the brain becomes. The more efficient the brain, the more the brain can focus on matters that require constant attention. Habits are a really useful tool for the brain.

Enter Charles Duhigg and his book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business. In his book, he explores how habits are formed by the brain. The brain responds to a 3-step loop process that after very little repetition becomes a habit loop. They are:

Creating a Cue = a trigger for an automatic mode
Building a Routine = a physical or mental pattern that can be very simple or incredibly complex
Rewarding the behavior = the brain figuring out if the loop is worth remembering

While all habits are created in a similar way, not all habits are created equal. Keystone Habits are habits that cause a chain reaction that help other habits take hold and widespread behavior shifts.

Within organizations, cultures grow from Keystone Habits.

Duhigg writes that “Much of a firm’s behavior is understood as a reflection of general habits and strategic orientations coming from the firm’s past…” and that “organizational habits are important because otherwise most companies would never get any work done.”

Habits or culture within an organization provide all of the unwritten rules that guide behavior. Habits provide the patterns and rules that people recognize they need to follow to get along and succeed.

When organizations embark on change, sometimes the changes are fighting against old habits. If habits are getting in the way of progress, or if habits need to change, then there is a framework that Duhigg outlines to change organizational habits:

Identify the Routine – what is it to be changed?
Experiment with Rewards – What is the reward now? What could the reward be? Link it with craving. What cravings are driving particular habits?
Isolate the Cue – must figure out what the cue is. Almost all fit into 5 categories: Location, Time, Emotion, People, what is immediately proceeding the action?
Have a Plan – to re-engineer the habit, the brain must begin making choices again, the brain cannot work automatically. Devise a plan based on new choices.

Want more details? Read the book. It is a goldmine filled with insights and information that will be helpful to any Change Manager dealing with culture change.

So How Big of a Deal is This Change, Anyway?

September 26, 2013/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Communication, Culture, Leaders, The Change Management 101 Model/by admin

During the first few weeks of a new project it is not unusual to hear concerns expressed about how impacted employees can take on more, or refocus their attention or even survive a major change initiative. Typically these concerns are expressed from an intuitive or empathetic perspective. Management or team members may not know for a fact that the stresses of change will be challenging, but their first-hand knowledge of their team or unit can typically be right on target. So the question becomes: How can the change management team capture the data needed to identify the impact to the people of the organization?

Well, there’s a tool for that! The People Impact Assessment tool, newly added to the 2nd edition of The Change Management Pocket Guide is an assessment that measures the impact that a change will have on people within an organization. A well implemented assessment will show how the changes will impact people who work in the organization, identify where within the organization to focus change management activity, contribute to the Change Management Workplan, and ultimately help the team get people in the organization ready, willing, and able to work in new ways.

Dimensions that need to be explored in order to assess the impact of the change on people include:

Roles – How will the changes impact primary roles and job tasks?
Staffing – Will the size of the workforce be impacted?
Relationships – How will the organizational structure change? Will there be new types of workgroups or interactions?
Employee Competencies – Are new skills or knowledge required?
Decision Making – Will there be changes in scope and decisions that employees and managers make?
Culture – How must the culture change to support new behaviors?

Assessing the people impact of any given change can become a huge effort. It may require more than a spreadsheet to manage the data and could include several people to help gather the data needed. And like many change management tools, the people impact assessment will grow and evolve as the project progresses. New data that surfaces as the project progresses will require updating the assessment.

But, it is worth the effort. A complete understanding of the impacts of the change on people is really the basis for most of the work that a change manager or change management team does. If you have limited resources and can only focus on a few change management activities, consider a people impact assessment. Knowing how people will be impacted and where to focus your time and change management resources will be well worth the effort.

Leaders Lead Culture

November 7, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Leaders, Uncategorized/by admin

Leaders’ Actions Define Organizational Culture Leaders shape culture. Organizations mirror the people that lead them. We have a client who started building his business 15 years ago. He never met a customer he didn’t want to serve. If someone had money they wanted to spend for his type of product, he was going to make sure he got the business. He had a “can-do attitude” that made anything possible.

Several hundred million dollars in annual revenue and a few hundred employees later, he has built a remarkable organization that serves some of the most sought after customers in the industry. But during the last few years, profits have stalled, the organization has experienced extremely high turnover, and there is a sense of defeat that permeates the organization.

What went wrong? In a nutshell, the leadership style and the culture that it grew that were perfect for a small startup are now strangling profitability. The “we can make it work” ethic that was the hallmark of getting this company off the ground is now positioned to be the death of it. The leader that couldn’t say “no” to a customer 15 years ago now leads a company that still can’t say no to a customer. Even customers that ask for things the organization just can’t do profitably. The organization can’t say no to suppliers that are no longer providing quality products at a price that makes sense. And they can’t say no to employees who aren’t working out – instead, hiring more people rather than having the right people.

Taken together, all of it is leading to declining profits, rampant cynicism, and increasing turnover.

How can this organization regain the forward momentum they once had? It has to start with the leader. To get to the root of the problems, he is starting to recognize that he is part of difficulties. As he evolves, so will the organization. As he matures and develops a more reasoned decision making process, so will the organization. He is backing away from things he is not very good at, he is listening to his employees, and he is getting rid of customers that are unprofitable.

If the culture is going to change, the leader needs to lead the way.

Changing for the Workforce of the Future

July 25, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Leaders, Uncategorized/by admin

Can you imagine fully half of the people who work for your company being either contractors such as the best roofing company in Denver, CO, temporary workers, or freelancers? That may very well be the future we face.

A 2012 Economic Intelligence Unit Study shows that by the year 2030, 50% of the workforce will be made up of contingent workers. The U.S. contingent workforce is made up of self-employed individuals, independent service firms, entrepreneurs and temporary workers. By 2020, 40 percent of American workers, or nearly 65 million people, will be contingent, and shortly thereafter that percentage is expected to rise to 50 percent.

Others confirm that the use of contingent workers is already on the rise, and will continue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as reports from the Staffing Industry Analysts, a research and advisory firm focused on staffing and contingent labor, have demonstrated that the number of contingent workers has been increasing year over year for a few years. And in June 2011, over 34% of the 2000 organizations surveyed by the McKinsey Global Institute said they plan to use more temporary labor in the next five years.

The trend is clear. But are organizations ready for it?

Work in the future will be more collaborative, flexible, and goal oriented. Temporary workers will need to be sharp, and stay sharp, to keep their jobs. An organiztaion with more and more people flowing into and out of it will need to be radically different than today.

A current client of ours is working on a large project that requires a lot of consultants. A full time staff person spends over 80% of her time giving out and tracking computers that are given to consultants. Can you imagine if half of their workforce was contingent? If the task of managing assets is so cumbersome now, the process and technology implications of a 50% contingent workforce would be astounding.

We have several large clients that are working on becoming more “digitally enabled” in order to meet the needs of their customers. But with all we have heard from clients about embracing technology to meet the needs of future customers, we have not heard any talk at all about how to be more digitally enabled to meet the needs of their future workers. The shift to more temporary workers will change how an organization works with its people in profound ways.

Current technology certainly makes workers more “plug and play” ready. But it will need to make significant strides to meet the needs of a future more transient workforce.

Our clients will have to re-think how they manage people, how groups form and disband to tackle work, how people are on-boarded and rolled-off, how corporate cultures are built and maintained, how they attract and evaluate temporary workers.

They will also need to embrace technology and new digital technologies in an entirely new way. More digital maturity can help organizations build stronger connection to their staff… especially temporary staff. Not only allowing access, but also targeting communication, facilitating relationships between roles, connecting people to other people and ideas.

Organizations that will win with workers of the future will be more mobile, and will be more agile by providing more personalized or customized needs for each temporary worker. They will flex based on the work, the location, the worker, and the required interfaces with other people within the organization.

If you are thinking about where your organization will be in 20 years, think about your customers, your products, and your markets. The demands they place on your organization will certainly challenge you to change. But also think about your staff. You might be surprised at the magnitude of change that meeting their unique needs challenges you to also.

Organizational Muscles to Manage Change

May 8, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Communication, Culture, Leaders/by admin

We have been working with several large organizations lately that are trying to build their internal ability to manage ongoing change. Change is the new normal for many organizations. Managing how people adapt and adopt change is something that many are seeing as a critical competency.

Change Management is the discipline of helping people in an organization get ready, willing, and able to work in new ways that are required by a change. Many leaders that see a long string of changes ahead of them are looking to build an internal Change Management competency. They, in effect, are trying to build their change muscles so that they can handle the seemingly endless series of changes headed for them.

Organizations that build a Change Management competency do a few things.

First, they foster leadership sponsorship for employing Change Management. Leaders at the highest levels know what Change Management is and why managing change will help them change more successfully. And they are committed to making Change Management a strong capability in the organization. They are willing to stand up in front of the effort, to put money where their mouth is, and walk the talk.

Second, these organizations use a common methodology and model for managing change. Having a common Change Management framework across the organization builds a common language that shapes the way people think and talk about change. A common model also introduces methods and tools that can help people in the organization actually do the work of managing change.

Third, organizations that have a Change Management competency have a broad based understanding of the value of Change Management throughout all levels of the organization. Everyone has a baseline understanding of why people make the difference between successful organizational change and unsuccessful change, and why managing change is important.

These organizations also each have a strong and capable Change Management team. A group of people in the organization who are focused on supporting the organization as they begin incorporating Change Management into their projects and change efforts helps the new practices take hold. The Change Management group has highly capable team members, clear roles and responsibilities, and an appropriate or organization structure.

Lastly, organizations that have a strong Change Management competency reinforce effectively managed change. When projects succeed because teams have helped people in the organization engage and adopt new work, they are celebrated and rewarded. Leaders eagerly to put effective changes in the limelight, and the organization learns what successful change looks like.

If you see change coming at your organization like a speeding train, don’t hide. Instead, develop a change management competency. That way, you can face change head-on now, and you will be ready for all of the changes to come in the future.

How to secure your network

March 7, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Leaders, The Change Management 101 Model/by admin

There are many ways to secure a network but the starting point is only allowing network access to authorized people. If you have a proxy server with access, you can’t be hacked. It’s not a wise idea to publish it or disclose the IP address of the proxy server. Also, don’t include a secret password or other security of the site. The HIPAA compliance on GCP is what is needed for proper security. Protect your personal data and privacy, look at this helpful resource for further details.

Cybersecurity - secure your systems with Expleo

Be careful with your cookies.

A common mistake is to save all your cookies with the server. That is not a wise practice. Even the most common and obvious use case for a website that saves your data for you is potentially a privacy threat. We can’t use the same account for multiple websites that store private data. It’s not hard to construct an infrastructure for a site that keeps all data in a cookie that can be read by the server.

If you run a video production business, having dedicated storage servers will provide more storage and better transfer speeds and tackle post-production tasks without any lags.

The next step is to move to encrypting all data, or create a public-key encryption of all data and use the key for all data. This is easier said than done. Hashing is a little harder because we don’t know the salt of the hash. It’s difficult to put the data into an asymmetric encryption scheme (such as AES). These problems make it pretty hard to turn a service into a practical provider of decrypted data.

Use good encryption.

According to companies like Fortinet, it is recommended to create an encrypted store like a pen-drive or a special hard drive for highly sensitive data, like financial transactions, . That would have to be kept with different keys from all other keys. Keeping both cloud and physical storage for sensitive data is a good idea. You can go to site to find more details.

Don’t provide incorrect passwords.

Password management is an area of security that can be a nightmare. Remember to use different passwords for different purposes. For example, for a job where you may have to login often, use a different password for each of the dozen different websites you use. So if someone tries to brute force your password, you’re still protected.

There’s an industry of password reset services (for example see Password land) that provide a customer service to assist you in resetting your password. Many applications also provide integrated password management. It’s never easy to remember all the different combinations of letters, numbers and special characters. Don’t use the same password on your bank and email accounts. Never share your computer’s password. Don’t be lazy and use a password manager, it’s not enough that you use the same password for every site. Hiring a Cyber Security Company can also offer you several benefits and help provide you peace of mind, knowing you’re protected.

A caveat here is that there’s nothing in the manual that shows you how to create or use a password manager. Most vendors will not even recommend you to use one. When you combine that with the difficulty of remembering those passwords you should make a decision about how valuable you think it is.

Ensure you are also safe with access to your email accounts, accounts on other sites. One of the biggest problems is hackers pretending to be you. They usually pretend that you work for the service, have your credentials and so on. So if you are using any services, please be aware of the fake email/password. To prevent this, you can hire managed IT services to protect your data. Visit sites like https://tvit.net/managed-it-services-in-homedale-id/ to know more about how this can help your business. Or, you can set up a managed wifi for you business. You can click here to learn about managed wifi.

Change an Organization’s Culture? Yes You Can!

March 2, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Leaders/by admin

We often think that culture is a messy, squishy thing that we can’t really get our arms around. And culture often makes leaders uncomfortable because they don’t feel that they can “put their finger on it”.

But there are lots of ways to measure culture these days (just spend a little time on Google or Yahoo! and you will be overwhelmed with the standardized tools, customizable assessments and consultants you’ll find). And there are lots of companies out there that can attest to their success in building the right culture for their organization.

Just measuring and assessing an organization’s culture at a given point in time is illuminating. But actually defining what the strategically appropriate culture is for an organization is even more helpful. Once an organization has a desired culture in mind, and a picture of the current culture, then assessing the gaps and developing plans to close the gaps is all that it takes.

But, don’t be fooled. Defining the desired culture for an organization sounds easier than it really is. Getting a group of leaders together to discuss whether it is more important to follow rules or act quickly can be a touchy conversation. Since culture is an outgrowth to a large extent of leadership, much of the culture is shaped by individual leaders’ styles and work preferences. If you have a leader who is generally hesitant to make decisions and stick to them, then you may very well end up with an organization that talks about the same issue week after week in meetings but never lands on “what are going to do about it?”

Some think that it’s too hard to change culture… that we can’t change it even if we know what gaps we have between our current state and our desired culture. Not true. There are real, tactical activities and leadership actions that can shape a new culture.

For example, if the organization lacks the needed focus on customers, then insist that every manager and above spend at least one day a quarter out in the field with customers. Or if your organization makes decisions on the fly in the absence of adequate data (not a good thing for, say, a pharmaceutical company), then insist that all projects use Six Sigma or similar tools. Or if your organization is too cautious and can’t move quickly enough to respond to new demands (not a good thing for, say, a software company), verbally encourage teams to make decisions faster and try new things… and then throw a big party the first time one fails as visible demonstration that we appreciate and value risk-taking and new ideas.

One thing that can’t be overlooked, however, is that “closing the gap” between the current organization and the desired future organization often requires things of leaders… new communication styles, new approaches to work, new ways to lead. This is often the hardest part. Certainly there is some impact on culture from the structures and processes and kinds of people who work in an organization; but largely, people look up to see what kind of behavior is acceptable. If you are up, then you are being watched whether you like it or not.

If we really want to make that strategy happen, we can’t ignore our organization’s culture. And if that culture is not the right one to make the strategy happen, then that culture needs to change. If we as leaders decide that we don’t want to do our part to change the culture, then we will live with the consequences of a failed strategy.

Count Your Successes

December 20, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Leaders/by admin

Mom used to always say “count your blessings”. As the year comes to an end, organizations should to the same – with a twist.

If you work in an organization that is making plans for the new year, you should “count your successes”.

The path to growth and improvement can be long and bumpy. There can be detours, side-tracks, unexpected challenges. And that long, bumpy ride can make progress feel like a failure.

But if you stop, take a breath, and look back, you will see how far you’ve come. It may not be as far as you wanted, but it’s almost always further than you thought it was before you took the time to look back and count your successes.

For the people who work in an organization, taking the time to reinforce the progress that has been made and the good work that has been done is invaluable. Nothing motivates a team like a bit of success. A winning team is pumped and ready to go out and win again.

This doesn’t mean you should completely ignore things that have not gone well. But for just a moment, don’t focus on the misses. Focus only on the hits. Tell people that too… “I know it hasn’t been perfect. We can talk about all of the ways we could have done better another time. For now, let’s just be proud of all that we have accomplished.”

So take time to count the successes your organization has had over the last year. And celebrate!

Priority #1 During Change: Leadership Alignment and Sponsorship

September 19, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Leaders, Uncategorized/by admin

Studies over the years have continued to confirm what you may have already suspected… the greatest contributor to successful organizational change is leadership. In a studies of hundreds of companies and their change efforts, “Strong Executive Sponsorship” was cited three times more frequently
than any other contributing factor to successful change by Prosci (Best Practices in Change Management) in both 2005 and 2009.

If your organization is currently undergoing or contemplating a change, the focus should be on leadership. There are two elements of leadership that should be fully understood and addressed:

Alignment – the extent to which leaders are “on the same page” about what the change is, why it is important, what it will mean to the organization
Sponsorship – the things that leaders are actually doing to demonstrate their support for a change such as contributing resources, attending key meetings, and encouraging others to work with the project team

Understanding the degree of leadership alignment and sponsorship around the change and identifying and addressing leadership issues will position the change for success.

Collecting information about leadership alignment and sponsorship that you need doesn’t have to be a big deal. A few candid discussions and well conducted interviews can do the trick.

Managing Change during ERP Implementations

September 12, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Leaders, The Change Management 101 Model/by admin

A friend of mine if the President of a mid-size company. We were having dinner recently and he mentioned that they were evaluating ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) vendors. Put simply, ERP systems are complex computer software programs that integrate all functions and departments across a company onto a single system.

ERP systems bring together most if not all ofthe data used by an organization into one place. They link up business processes across an organization as they share information. Not every department of an organization needs to be part of an ERP system (although the more the merrier in the ERP view), but at least a few functions such as finance, business credit cards, the shop floor, the warehouse, or HR are often included.

One integrated software system for people planning manufacturing runs with the help from fine services like SMT electronics manufacturing solutions, taking orders, and generating purchase orders for new raw materials is a powerful tool. It can have a tremendous payback if used well. No more taking orders for items that are actually out of stock; no more taking orders from customers who are past due on payments; and no more telling customers they have to call someone else to figure out where their order is.

Although ERP systems can be fantastic for organizations when implemented well, they are not always all peaches and cream. Customization to reflect a specific business can be hard and expensive. ERP systems are generally not cheap. And they aren’t simple to use.

Most importantly, ERP systems require people to change how they do their jobs. If people don’t change the way they work, the value of a the system be minimal, and the organization can even suffer a hit to productivity and effectiveness as people work around the new system to keep doing things the way they have always done them.

The effective use of an ERP system requires a level of discipline and willingness to share information across departments. Accountability and communication are key cultural attributes in ERP environments. If an organization is not a cultural fit for ERP at the outset, the amount of change in store is even greater for people.

To overcome some of these limitations of ERP, it helps to focus on how people work. Make sure you know very clearly what will be different for each person or role in the organization. What will Mary have to do differently? What new information will she need? How specifically will she need to use the new system? What decisions will she have to make? Who will she have to interact with?

To make sure that people are ready willing and able to effectively use an ERP system give them specifics about the changes coming as soon as you know them. Demo the system so that people can see what the ERP looks like. Let people do some role-play exercises or games in the system to see what happens when they get things right versus make mistakes. Train people according to their specific roles. And create training that is based on business processes, not just the system.

When considering an ERP system, think about the total impact on the business – not just the new software. Consider the process changes that need to go along with the software, the culture of the organization, and the people who work there.