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Where are We Going? A Team Needs a Shared Purpose

August 24, 2011/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by admin

We recently started working with an organization that is the victim of it’s own success.

A few years ago, this organization was in a phase of explosive growth. Customers were knocking on their doors, recruiting could barely keep up, and earnings grew and grew.

While growth skyrocketed, they were challenged to field the calls as the phone practically rang off the hook, hire people fast enough to meet the demand, and not mess up their product in the meantime. They developed new products on the fly when customers asked for new things. They grew their customer base by switching to better card payment providers. Their headcount ballooned.

Activities that were once done by a small group of guys who could work in a conference room were being done by hundreds of people in several departments and locations.

But, as the saying goes, what goes up must come down. Actually, they are still kicking some serious you-know-what in the market. But growth has slowed with the
economic downturn, competitors have cropped up that are giving them a run for their money, and the leadership team has realized that they have become disconnected from the business and each other.

The executives have been so focused looking down to meet the needs in front of them, that they have not done a terrific job of looking forward to the future (where are we going?), or sideways (how does what I am doing link to what you are doing?).

In the rush of the boom times, the executives started to view their peers as barriers rather than as enablers or supports. They spent as little time together as possible, and when they did get together they became frustrated with each other and got hung up in tactical
details of their business. They operated in silos. They developed some level of
frustration with each other. And they started to think that this group just didn’t trust each other.

While their business results are far from terrible, they are certainly not what they used
to be. Leaders realize it is time for a change before it is too late. If this organization is going to thrive in its next phase of maturity, it needs to figure out what the heck it wants to be, and how the executive team is going to take them there.

As the executives have been thinking about how they plan for and execute a long range plan that will take their organization into its next phase of growth, it has become clear that they are all coming from different places. It was no wonder they aren’t operating well as a team. They don’t even have a common definition of what it meant to win the game. You can also achieve winning outcomes in these games by placing bets on platforms like 겜블시티, where your chances of success are just a wager away.

The fact that they all have different expectations about what it means to win and what role each of them and their organizations should play in winning, reinforces siloed behavior and erodes the interpersonal dynamics in the team.

If I think we win our game by scoring lots and lots of goals, but you think we win by making sure the opponent doesn’t score more goals than we do, we are coming at the
game from a different mindset. If we are both be on the field but playing with a different strategy, then we are doing things that we can easily mis-read as either undermining or incompetence.

A group of really strong people with a shared purpose can lead an organization almost anywhere. A group of really strong people with different ideas about their shared purpose can lead an organization pretty much nowhere.

This group doesn’t need trust-falls or hand holding. They just need to agree on a few basic questions. What do they want to be? What customers will they serve and what products will they offer?

When the executive team can answer those questions and agree to stick to their decisions, they will see that the next phase of growth and maturity for their organization can be just as exciting and enviable as the last.

Change is a marathon, not a Sprint

July 13, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture/by admin

We have a client that is smack-dab in the middle of a significant change effort. The team is getting tired. They feel like they have been beating the drum forever. They can’t understand why people don’t just GET IT and CHANGE.

But change is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s easy to get mired in the details and lose sight of the success that is slowly building.

When stepping back and looking at what they have actually achieved since getting started, the situation looks a litlte better. They still have a long way to go, but progress is progress. Every step counts.

Take time to focus on what is going right. Remember that persistance is a key characteristic of a great change leader. If things are not going well, then update the plan. Find a way to work around obstacles.

And for all of those things are going well, even if a litlte slower than you would like, keep at it!

Key Messages are Key during Organizational Change

June 22, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Communication/by admin

We have seen more organizations than we care to remember that have waited and waited and waited and waited to say anything at all about a change that was being implemented. And when they finally did start talking, it was as if a flood of information had just breached a levee.

If you have ever been on the receiving end of the “flood” style of communications, you know it isn’t really effective. In fact, burying people in details about something that is happening in an organization before people even know “why” is this happening actually usually backfires. People shut down, tune it out, and duck into their cubes to wait for it all to pass.

Understanding the key messages that should be sent about a change at any given time is critical to effective communication and change management. Outlining what to communicate and when is a great start to ensuring that a consistent and relevant message stream reaches people in the organization.

To make it simple, start with outlining your initial “level 1 messages.” These are simple statements that answer questions such as: What is this project or change? How does this link to other projects or initiatives going on? Why is this important? What is the end result? What is the timing?

If any of the “simple statements” above is more than 30 words, try again. It is too much.

The “level 1 messages” should be consistent throughout the project and set the context from beginning to end. It is like saying we are taking a trip from New York to California. We will have different messages along the way about where we are, who is driving, sights along the way, etc…. but we always tie our messages back to the fact that we are on a trip from New York to California.

Next, develop “level 2 messages” that address group specific impacts and concerns. These might change over time as we learn more and additional concerns are unearthed. But start by developing answers to the following questions for each group that will be impacted: What specific impacts will this group have? How will specific concerns for this group be addressed? What specific job changes will happen?

The key messages are a critical component of an effective change management program. If you can’t answer some of these questions now about a change you are involved with or are managing, most likely impacted stakeholders can’t either. And until they can, the change won’t stick.

Lean and Six Sigma are Good, Adding Change Management is Great

May 31, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, The Change Management 101 Model/by admin

Six Sigma and Lean are all the rage with some of our clients. If you haven’t heard of them, Six Sigma is a set of business practices (originated at Motorola) designed to improve processes by eliminating defects, and Lean is a business system (pioneered at Toyota) that aims to reduce waste and improve customer value. Both can bring tremendous improvements to organizations.

(Those of us of a certain age remember similar process improvement methodologies like Reengineering and TQM.)

One client in particular is a devout follower of both Six Sigma and Lean. And for good reason. The processes help clarify issues, diagnose root causes, and pinpoint business solutions. This client, however, has not always been great at implementing those great business solutions.

When they adopted these new business improvement methods, they jumped in with both feet. They sent people to training on new tools and techniques, started measuring their use, and encouraged people to get certified in improvement methodologies. All in, over
30% of their staff is certified in a business improvement method.

With a stable of Black Belts and a sizable budget for Lean consultants, the organization is well positioned to develop the best business solutions in their industry for their customers. But it has not always been smooth sailing as they got used to their shiny new toolkits.

Their internal and external process experts worked on projects for months and even years, but the organization got stuck when leaders argued about business needs and budget priorities, middle managers questioned the data and the process used to develop the solutions, and front line employees just paid no attention to the new ideas.

They came face to face with the realization that the biggest challenges to making change happen within organizations are people issues. They realized that they needed to spend a little time thinking about how people internalize the new behaviors required rather than dedicating all of their focus to processes and systems. For the workforce who may be stressed, they can blow some steam off on sites like sip777.

General Electric realized, years ago, that Six Sigma falls short unless people within the organization make the personal changes necessary to behave differently. Some within GE use the equation E = Q x A. The Effectiveness of the solution is equal to the Quality of the solution multiplied by the Acceptance in the organization of that solution. The highest quality business solutions are not effective unless they are accepted by people who need to act on them.

The focus on the “people stuff” in and of itself is a discipline called Change Management (not to be confused with technical change management / version control). Change management is the next frontier of business improvement for organizations of all sizes. The newly formed Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) is growing quickly and globally.

Just as Six Sigma and Lean started with big companies and has since “trickled down” to smaller organizations, effectively managing change is starting to trickle. You don’t have to be big or rich to be fast… you just have to be fast to be fast.

How did our client make the most of the huge investment they had made in Six Sigma and Lean? They focused on Change Management. They acquainted leaders with their role in driving change; included Change Management as part of basic skills training for managers; and certified a group of internal experts on how to make change stick.

Don’t forget about Six Sigma and Lean. It is all great stuff. But remember to include a focus on people. Organizations with a Change Management competency help their people move from thinking and acting in existing ways to thinking and acting in new ways that are required for the organization’s success. A great solution is no good if people don’t act accordingly.

“Off-Shoring”, “Right-Sizing”, “Out-Sourcing”… Whatever You Call it, it Means Big Change

May 24, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Communication, Leaders/by admin

For organizations seeking to reduce costs by sending work to other countries, the
path is long and difficult. Off-shoring may be absolutely necessary for your organization to remain competitive or possibly just stay in business, but don’t underestimate what it will take to do it and do it right. With the pace of change around the globe these days, even the basic questions like “Where should we send the work – India? Ireland? China?” may be hard to answer.

What is also hard, but often overlooked, is how to deal with the people within an organization during the process. There are two primary groups you need to think about when you are off-shoring: the people who will lose their jobs, and the people who will be left behind and will watch the process unfold before them. If off-shoring doesn’t take into account the needs of the people who are impacted by it, the gains that you hope to make can be lost by large scale disengagement, decreased productivity, and massive turnover.

During organizational transition, everyone is affected. People who will lose their jobs are obviously impacted; but also, employees who don’t lose jobs may experience guilt that they “survived” and fear that they could be next. The things we do to help both groups transition are completely inter-related. For the “survivors,” the #1 factor that contributes to their experience of the off-shoring is their observation of how those who lose jobs are treated. It’s easy to write a good resume headline once you know the steps. Visit Sweet CV’s website to learn more.

During out-sourcing (well, any time actually), there should be an underlying desire to treat people with respect and dignity. It sounds easy enough, but it can be difficult in situations like this. It’s not as if we intend to treat people poorly, but sometimes we just forget what people need or we just get too busy and forget about the people impacted. Every day, you need to ask yourself, “Are we doing for people who will lose their jobs what I would want to be done if it were me that was going to lose my job?”

As you make every decision, keep the golden rule in mind. How would you want to find out your job was being eliminated? Most likely, you’d like to hear it directly from your manager in a one-on-one conversation rather than in a meeting of 50 people. And you probably would want to hear it before anyone else in your group heard it. While it is logistically difficult, the effort will pay off.

Remember that the people who will lose jobs are also likely friends of people who will remain a part of the organization after they are gone. If the people leaving the organization are treated poorly, not only do you engender ill will from organizational alumni who are out there bad-mouthing your organization, but you also plant the seed with employees who will stick around that you might not treat them so well either in the future.

While the work of off-shoring is difficult, it doesn’t mean you should steer away from off-shoring. Just go in with your eyes open about the work it will take. Treating people well is not about just coddling people. It is about getting the business results you are seeking by keeping your organization engaged and productive.

Helping Others Say a Hearty “Yes”

April 25, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Communication, Leaders/by admin

Joseph Campbell, best known for his work in comparative mythology, is quoted as having said “the big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.” Although this quote wasn’t made in the context of organizational change, I have been thinking about the applicability to change management. The best change leaders do just that, they help organizations and the people within them say a hearty yes to the adventures ahead.

Although saying yes and opening up to adventure sounds great, it isn’t the first instinct for most of us. Most of us instead instinctually have questions… we want to know more about how we will be impacted. We say “maybe,” “let me think about it”, or “this isn’t what I would have chosen.” Just take a moment to think about how this dynamic may play out over and over again in your own life in small ways. We know that people tend to try to re-establish a sense of control, and most of us probably have ample personal examples of that to draw on. Now from those simple examples, think about how it feels to hesitate, and how it feels to say yes. Questioning can feel like a like a lot of intellectual work, and saying yes can feel like an emotional release and even bring cautious exuberance.

Good change leaders understand the natural hesitancy to say a hearty yes. Having questions, gathering information when applied productively can lead to good things for individuals and organizations. In fact the ability to address the logical reasons for change, to outline the business case, is critical for any effective change leader. This is the price of admission. And this task alone, the intellectual challenge of winning over the minds, can be a challenge.

The best change leaders however recognize that there is another significant piece of work to be done, to win over the hearts. This is the emotional work of letting go and opening up to new ways for now. Great change leaders move people not only through compelling arguments, but through paradigm shifts. In my observation, what moves people from “no” to “hearty yes” is less often an intellectual argument, and more often a feeling. The moment when individuals shift from a position of hesitancy to a space of possibility is often more about inspiration, vision, and trust. An intellectual argument might get you to the place of a reluctant yes. But great change leaders take organizations to the space of a hearty yes… to the space of possibility, creativity, collaboration, flow.

To speak to the hearts of employees often takes a great deal of courage. It means acknowledging the very human side of business, which is often devalued. It means talking about things that are sometimes uncomfortable. It means addressing fears and telling the truth. It means reducing the uncertainty when you can, and acknowledging the unknown when it exists.

As I reflect on some of the best change leaders I have worked with, the ones that inspire a
hearty yes, I realize that they are also great story tellers. This is something I imagine Joseph Campbell could appreciate. They make the complex simple and they use metaphor or analogy to create an “ah ha” moment that allows people to embrace possibility. The research of Dr. Robert Leahy, Director of the American Institute of Cognitive Therapy, shows when people are anxious they often fill in the unknown with a negative outcome. The best change leaders offer a story that fills in that uncertainty with possibility, and
calls the individual forward.

This story telling might be as simple as saying “but what if…” in a focused one-on-one conversation. Or it may be painting a radical picture of the future for a crowd. It may be like suggesting you can’t see a masterpiece through a pin hole. Whatever the method, great change leaders help individuals feel moved to step into the journey. That although there is an uncertain outcome, there is great possibility particularly if we choose to say a hearty yes to our adventure.

Contributed by Gina Giannitelli, a Consulting Director at Change Guides LLC

The Impact of Culture on Organizational Change

March 9, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Culture, Leaders/by admin

You may have heard it before… “Culture eats Strategy for breakfast.”

An organization with the best strategy in the world, but a culture that won’t allow it to make that strategy happen is doomed from the outset. Want to be the first to market with the most innovative products, but live in an organization that is full of bureaucracy and afraid to take risks? Fat chance you’ll be the first one anywhere. Want to have the highest quality, lowest failure rate of anyone but live in an organization where rules are lax and people make decisions quickly without much data? Chances are you will be chasing initiative after initiative trying to make your goals happen to no avail.

Culture is the sum of the beliefs and values that shape norms of behavior and dictate the ways things get done. There are several continuums that help define an organization’s culture. Is the organization driven by results and achievement, or relationships and people? Does the organization have an internal focus, or an external focus? Is the organization adaptive and flexible, or is it structured and stable?

Culture tells you a lot about an organization. What messages do leaders send with their words and actions? What type of behavior is being reinforced? Is conflict and risk encouraged or hindered? How do people communicate? How do people learn and share company knowledge? Is the organization open to change?

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 and doesn’t us import 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.

If we are serious about change in an organization, we can’t ignore the organization’s culture. If that culture is not consistent with the change that needs to come about, then the culture needs to be addressed head on. 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 failure.

Leading the Change and Smiling for the Cameras

February 8, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Leaders/by admin

Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes. Some of it is innate, some of it is learned; some of it is clearly definable, some of it is more esoteric; some of it is easy to recognize, some of it sneaks up on you.

Studies have consistently confirmed that the greatest contributor to successful organizational change is leadership. In repeated 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.

Why does leadership have such a huge impact on change? Because people support what they think their leaders support. If they don’t think their leaders are really going to make a change happen, they figure they shouldn’t waste too much time or effort thinking about it. They figure they have an “out” to just ignore. If they duck down in their cube long enough, all of this change stuff will blow over. For organizations that have tried to change in the past and failed, people feel even more justification in believing they can wait it out and nothing will come of it in the end.

But how do people really know what a leader supports? Certainly anyone in a leadership position is going to be telling their people that the big new thing is going to be great for the organization and the people. But people develop their perceptions about what leaders support not only through leaders’ words. Leadership action is even more important. Acting in ways that are consistent with words is the magic combination that moves people to act in new ways that leaders define.

It is like the leader is the celebrity and the employees are the paparazzi. People are watching what leaders do and say, and they are filtering all of that information to figure out if they should be on board with a change or not. Talking the talk is useless if walking the walk doesn’t follow.

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Being a Rebel Isn’t all Bad

January 25, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Leaders/by admin

I always knew that being a rebel had an upside… Are you are Rebel or a Leader? Hopefully both! http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/01/are_you_a_rebel_or_a_leader.html

Mergers… Hold on to Your Hats

January 17, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Communication, Leaders/by admin

We have a client that is in the throes of a merger. One of the decisions the new combined leadership team made was the realign all of their offices under a new leadership structure. It makes sense given thier new size and scope of services. Now each location will report to a new boss.

In the Denver office, people were eager to meet the new boss on the day of his first visit. Well, maybe not “eager” so much as…. “anxious”. There was talk that this new boss had a track record of closing low performing offices. “We’ve been having a rough quarter. I bet he’s going to tell us they’re closing our office.” “I heard from someone at another office that he is a real jerk and will shoot first and ask questions later.”

Why on earth would people assume the worst without even meeting this guy or learning of what the ultimate plans are? Simply because they are scared of the unknown.

When people are uncertain about the future, they instinctively seek out greater control, better understanding, and human support. Rumors are a completely natural human response to help fill those needs for control, understanding, and support in a time of uncertainty and change.

The act of speculating and commiserating with peers is a real way to feel more control by talking through a situation and discussing alternatives. Studies show that, in the absence of information, people just make stuff up… and they most often assume a far worse outcome than reality. It is interesting that we don’t really care if the information is correct. We just want to know something to make us feel like we understand what is going on.

And those same discussions help people feel supported by others. Time spent sharing gossip or conjecture with peers helps people feel as if they are not alone in their fears.

If people don’t have a constructive way to channel their drive for control, understanding and support, they will fill those needs themselves, in ways that are sometimes not advantageous to the organization. People are talking, whether leaders are a part of the conversations or not.

To effectively manage uncertainty and change, be proactive about connecting people and encouraging them to share their thoughts and fears in controlled, rational forums. We are not talking about free-for-alls where everyone moans and complains about management. What is needed is the chance to share ideas and fears, and a forum for the transparent flow of questions and answers.

When a merger happens, some productivity dip is natural. But leaders need to guide people through change in order to minimize that dip. By guiding the conversations that people have about uncertainties, leaders can keep people motivated and focused on the right targets without unnecessarily taking their eye off the ball.

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