Monday’s post was about the types of change occurring in large companies. Today’s is about what stands in the way of organizations implementing large-scale change.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ 11th Annual CEO Survey asked: “Which of the following people challenges were critical barriers for your organization in terms of achieving the desired benefits?” Frankly, the answers are fairly depressing.
The depressing part is that all five of these barriers are within the CEO’s control. The CEOs are talking about their own people.
Some observations:
As Bill Gates said, “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” He was likely not referring to the pace of change within a company, but the quote is still appropriate. The C-Suite is typically looking for transformational change to occur much more quickly than it actually takes. What might be seen as a two-year project is usually a three-year project. Sometimes the factors above play a role, but sometimes it is just plain old, overly optimistic, bad estimating.
The Human Resources function has a responsibility to address. If speed, flexibility and agility equal competitive advantage, and senior management skill sets are a significant barrier, HR should be forcing change management skill development.
The CEOs never mention that they themselves may be part of the issue. They aren’t saying, “Failure to hire appropriately skilled senior managers,” or, “Inadequate time spent on leading change initiative.” The cure for some of these issues could very well be the personal demonstration of change management skills.
Today has been a rather exciting day for orgreadiness.com. We have been added to alltop.com’s HR section as a “top site.”
Alltop.com is a website aggregator that acts a “digital magazine rack” of the internet. They strive to provide “aggregation without aggravation.” Even without their inclusion of orgreadiness, I’ve got to say, I like their site. It is definitely worth a look.
Based on casual conversations with just about anybody in the business world today, large-scale change is commonplace. The Society for Human Resources (SHRM) published the Change Management Survey in 2007 and quantified those types of change. Over the two years leading up to the survey, companies with more than 500 employees had the following types of change:
The key takeaway: change is occurring for any and all reasons. In the words of Benjamin Disraeli, “Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”
This post is not intended to be an analytical review of demographic differences. The sample size is essentially one, my daughter – and a few of her friends. Today’s high school seniors are different than those in the past, and their behavior will seem mighty strange when they hit the business world in five years.
E-mail is so yesterday – The only reason to look at an e-mail account is to communicate with somebody older than 35. There are no e-mails to peers.
The cellphone is primarily for texting – If I text her, I get an immediate response. My calls go unanswered however. It isn’t just my calls, she isn’t attuned to the sound of her own ringer.
Facebook changes the rules – She has “friends” she doesn’t and won’t talk to. Let me explain: A neighbor’s 18 year-old daughter was led away in handcuffs. The handcuffed girl attends a different school than my daughter and they are far from friendly. Here are the surprises…
They were Facebook friends. Not only were these two “friends,” but I found my daughter had many other “friends” she never spoke to. The biggest shock was she was “friends” with the captain of the archrival school’s basketball team. They elbow each other all night, never speak, and “friend” each other.
The girl shared things on Facebook my generation would have definitely kept quiet. Our scandals were definitely hushed up.
At a minimum, businesses will need to change how to communicate with employees. Definitions of acceptable behavior will be challenged as well.
By the way, she already knows demographics are on her side. She knows baby boomers are retiring and will be looking for as many young workers as they can get. She has also been studying Chinese for the last four years. Assuming past performance is an indicator of future success, she will be highly marketable. She thinks my generation will change – not hers.
Young and cocky is not a new combination. Fundamentally changing the “what” and “how” of communication is.
A large part of this year’s summer vacation involved college visits with my high school senior. I had plenty of time to reflect on all the things that have happened in her lifetime as I drove through cornfield after cornfield, and she slept soundly with her iPod blaring. One of those thoughts was a wake-up call for me.
About the time my daughter was born, I gave a speech at the annual meeting of the National Food Broker Association about technology changes and business. I can remember showing a mockup of an e-mail message and talking about how e-mail would change how business would operate. I remember the following line in particular:
“I estimate the average age in this room is about 40 years old. My guess is that many of you have never used a personal computer. There is now this thing called e-mail and many of you will think that your secretary will take care of your e-mail just as she has always typed your memos. The reality is – most of you have 25 or more years in the workforce. If you think you can avoid using a personal computer for the next 25 years – good luck. There will be plenty of 20- and 30-somethings who will be happy to compete for your job.”
Guess what? I am now the guy in the audience. I’m the one who is at risk of falling behind. The scary part is, I’m an early adopter of technology and I struggle to keep up with the pace of change.
So like e-mail from the early 1990s, what is the technology innovation with the most potential to disrupt how businesses operate in the 2010s? I won’t claim it is No. 1, but Web feeds or syndication is good choice. It is those little buttons:
If you don’t know what they are, you need to. The 3:44 video explains it better than any text could:
Think about some of the changes that are enabled in a business environment:
Collaboration and Innovation – Technology becomes another glue to connect knowledge – relationships are no longer the sole connector. An engineer working in a widget factory in Poland can easily be aware of developments in the widget factories in South Korea and Tennessee. New communities develop throughout the organization, and traditional boundaries blur.
Productivity – Access to information directly correlates with an ability to perform in a work setting. Syndication fundamentally changes how information can be provided and increases in productivity should be expected. At a minimum, managerial spans of control can be expanded.
Rethinking the Internal Communication Function - The internal communication function typically works as a mass-media broadcaster today. Messages are controlled and broadcast over a few channels of distribution. With corporate blogging and syndication now available with virtually no barrier to entry, message control is gone and channels multiply wildly. Doesn’t this change the work of Internal Communications?
You might want to try to figure out those orange buttons before some whippersnapper is competing for your job.
The question invariably comes. “How long will this ‘transformation’ take?”
The client is thinking that, like the children of Lake Wobegon, the employees of this company are above average, so it won’t take long. But whether it is a merger integration, a change in direction or a large-scale reorganization, it almost always takes longer to achieve the vision than the client would like. The reason is simple: it takes time to move a group of people to do anything, and moving a group of people takes work.
Take this example from my vacation: seven people deciding on lunch. The conversation started at 11:30 and covered the following topics: choice of food, best place to obtain, who would drive, relevant allergies, how the choice would mesh with the dinner choice, what would be for dinner, confirmation of location, take out or pick up, getting a menu, what the kids would eat, the need to make a quick phone call, the need to change shoes, cleaning the back seat of the car, forgetting the cell phone, and who would sit in the front seat. The cars left the driveway at 12:10. It took 40 minutes to accomplish the simplest of tasks.
Granted, part of this debacle was the effects of Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill available time. Given that it was vacation, time was aplenty, the adults weren’t truly hungry, and the kids weren’t screaming. The debate stretched on because it could. Unfortunately, decisions at work can drag on as well – and so does the transformation.
So what is a change leader to do? The answer is simple: cut the available time. When establishing goals for a transformation, a leader cannot just set the long-term, visionary goal. A leader also must set milestones along the path, and hold people accountable for achieving the interim goals along the way. The change leader must create a sense of urgency by helping people move from milestone to milestone as quickly as possible. The leader must break the long visionary journey into a series of discrete, focused trips.
Summer vacation has ended, and so has the big trip to see family. During our trip, my brother unintentionally provided a great observation on change.
He has had a lot happen recently. He finally found and married the woman of his dreams and ended his wild and crazy single days. He bought his first home; became neighbors with his mother-in-law and brother-in-law; became an uncle to a severely autistic boy; changed jobs from a big company to a start-up; began working out of the spare bedroom; turned 40; and became a father himself. On top of all this, his wife broke her foot three weeks after giving birth. The poor guy is definitely going through change.
In the middle of a long conversation about all that has happened, his wife called from the bedroom: “David… John needs to be changed.”
My brother, physically tired, but filled with fresh memories of his recent lifestyle, arose from the couch, and observed, “John likes to be changed a lot more than me.”
His cynical observation is worth putting into a change management context. Unless the current situation is outright unpleasant, nobody will want change. The leader’s job is to show why the new way is better than the current.
In defense of my brother, he couldn’t be happier. He is just going through the process of change, and realizes denial and anger won’t help. He also realizes he can’t really bargain with a woman with a broken foot. If possible, he is happy and depressed at the same time. (Either that, or he needs to be less subtle in bargaining with me to change the diaper!)
I continue to work on material for several speaking engagements and am currently focused on “what is on the mind of the C-Suite.” The methodology is highly informal, but some clear trends begin to emerge:
Economics – Today’s economy has made it all the harder to continue prior trends. Credit is challenging, commodities have sky-rocketed, inflation has awoken, the housing bubble is deflating, the dollar has slid greatly, confidence is weak, and the tax code likely will be changing next year. Good news is limited and some potential risks have turned into realities.
Agility and Innovation - Companies that can move quickly win. How does a business create new products and services and implement more productive ways of working quickly and effectively? How does an organization spark and nurture collaboration and flexibility?
People – The data is clear. Engaged people create superior results. How does a C-Suite attract, identify, hire and motivate the highest quality talent? Millennials have different expectations of their employer. Long-term employees are leaving with years of knowledge. Engagement is a here-and-now challenge. Tapping the supply of talented people that can lead and execute well in the new world will only get harder. How can they make people a competitive advantage? How can they effectively manage the employment brand proposition?
Community Responsibility - Whether the issue is climate change, sustainability or corporate social responsibility, there is an expectation that employers contribute positively to the communities in which they do business. It isn’t just nice-to-do anymore.
Corporate Governance - Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley may be distant memories for you, but you probably don’t sign and certify your company’s governance structure. More than one C-Suite member has voiced a worry about “their signature,” and “on my watch.” It may not be sexy, but it does take time.
Constituency Management - Will there ever be enough time to pay attention to shareholders, regulators, customers, suppliers and employees while staying at the forefront of personal and professional development? Don’t forget – the C-Suite also must demonstrate – occasionally – the merits of work-life balance as well.
Even if the list is not perfect, the reality is that there is a lot to worry about before looking at today’s sales, tomorrow’s advertising, or next year’s business plan. Today’s CXO needs people who can execute well so that they can address long-term opportunities for the business.
As a business discipline, meaningful and effective measurement sometimes proves to be elusive. But, it is an absolute must in transformational change, certainly if there is to be continuous improvement.
Consequently, “Evaluate Effectiveness” is the sixth step in The Brookside Group’s ASPIRE Change Leadership ModelTM, and builds on the measurement work from earlier steps. In this step, you measure the effectiveness of your tactics. Because, typically, you’ll be looking for both business and behavioral results, you’ll need the right balance of quantitative and qualitative insights.
Quantitative surveys can statistically validate what tactics were most effective at creating awareness, understanding and participation in the program. They also can help you assess such factors as the degree of individual commitment to the initiative.
As a partner to quantitative surveys, you also should implement qualitative surveys because they can give you valuable insights on your employees’ thoughts, attitudes, perceptions and emotions that might figure into engagement issues.
However, best practices tells us there is some foundational work to be done before starting any research project, whether it be quantitative or qualitative. This foundational work focuses on a smaller group of employees and will give you the insight to develop a more scientific research and statistically valid survey.
The foundational research should follow four simple steps:
Develop a list of three to five open-ended questions. Open-ended questions can’t be answered by a simple “yes” or “no,” and, thus, elicit a more detailed response.The questions should attempt to tap into the basic thoughts and feelings of employees regarding the change. Some possible questions might be:
What do you think about the company’s plans to change?
What do you understand about the need to change?
What goal is the company trying to reach with the change?
What concerns do you have about the change?
How confident are you in the company’s future?
What do you think will happen if the company doesn’t change?
How do you think the change will affect your personally?
Target a manageable number of people.For an informal survey as this, aim to contact five to 10 participants. However, do so over a broad range of job levels.
Document the responses as best as you can. Pay special attention to words indicating emotion.
Analyze the responses and use them as the basis to develop questions for your quantitative or qualitative survey instruments.
Measurable outcomes – on macro and micro levels – are vital to an effective change initiative. So, too, are rewards and consequences for individuals whose behaviors either support or prevent success. This takes us to the fifth step in The Brookside Group’s ASPIRE Change Leadership ModelTM, “Recognize Results.”
You’ll recall that in step three – Plan Programs – you began to outline your strategies, timelines, tactics and measurements to reach the goals you set in an earlier step. It’s during the “Recognize Results” step that those measurements begin to come into play.
Let’s use a simple analogy: a long car ride with a bunch of young children. When you reach your destination, you should celebrate the accomplishment. Whether it is ice cream, a swim in the pool or some other form of reward, it is time to celebrate. Importantly, however, you also should recognize the behavior during the journey. The rule about nine carrots and one stick is probably about right. “I like the way you played with your sister, and I also liked the way you invented the game with the trucks. Next time, I would appreciate it if you didn’t throw the fries at your brother, however.”
It is the same in a change initiative. You will be surprised how far you will actually travel. Celebrate the milestones. Importantly, tell everybody what they are doing well – and do so publicly. Nurture the momentum you’ve started.
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