Posts Tagged “Transformation”

In the midst of a major transformation initiative, senior managers are frequently surprised by what employees say in response to open-ended survey questions. As a result, we are big fans of making sure senior management hears these comments. We are also big fans of ensuring senior management acts visibly and appropriately in response to what they hear.

A while back, our company was retained by a client in the midst of a reorganization. The 7,000 employee business was moving from a single corporate entity to a divisional structure along product lines. It had been widely stated that the moves would not cut headcount except for a few senior-level positions. The economy was healthy and this company was meeting its objectives when this was underway.

We ran a survey to assess the situation, and here are a few of the comments we received:

• Give the big picture. As people become aware of this, then you can start drilling down into levels of detail.
• It appears we are doing a lot of explaining without a lot of information being revealed. Rumors, speculation and anxiety grows while we wait. I would have done more “behind the scenes” work and made the changes less visible to the organization until we were ready to make the change.
• I would like to see more “personal” meetings with senior levels. Although the communications are effective, they speak to a broad audience. I would like to see members of the executive team go to each site and personally speak to smaller groups of people to explain the rationale and changes.
• The communications have improved from senior management. There should be a weekly bulletins.
• Be open and honest. The rumor mill is rampant about 20% head count reductions. The change was not communicated this way in the beginning. There is even less communication now than ever. Associates want to know the dates when they will find out about their destiny. The vision about accelerated growth has disappeared. There is next-to-no communication about process changes unless you are directly involved.
• Keep up the good work.
• Set an exact timetable. We keep hearing conflicting dates.
• My manager has done an abysmal job of explaining this to our group, has shown no compassion and seems disinterested in our concerns. The process is too slow and is killing our culture. We hear very little from the executives and they don’t do any “walking around.”
• Will these moves really change the company and break down silos? Or is really a financial restructuring that will enable us to sell off parts of the company?

What are the takeaways:

1. Rumors fill vacuums.
2. Leaders can’t over-communicate. Be visible. Some people want more detail and some want less. There is no way to make everybody happy.
3. Have a plan and communicate your plan. Set expectations and then meet them.

I’ll post more soon.

In today’s business world, no competency is more crucial for a manager than the ability to spearhead change effectively and expeditiously – and in a way that fully engages all stakeholders.

As we’ve already established, change management is a systematic and coordinated approach that can be implemented on an organizational, operational or even personal level to create, lead and manage change. However, to successfully lead any change, one needs to follow a series of six comprehensive steps. These steps are manifested by The Brookside Group’s ASPIRE Change Leadership Model^TM:
 
For the successful implementation of any large project, and especially a change initiative, it is important to perform project steps in the correct order. Thus, the ASPIRE model begins at the top of the circle, with Assess the As-Is.

The Assess the As-Is gives you with some critical components to launch your change initiative:

• The awareness and understanding to explain why change is needed based on current business issues.
• A clear picture of your current state. You might have an idea of how your organization is performing, but thoroughly investigating the as-is state ensures you have the facts and not just guess work.

All this results in a platform for change that helps you establish the sense of urgency – one of John Kotter’s key reasons for failure (see posting Why Transformation Efforts Fail) – to rally support. Support is critical because for change to happen, according to Harvard Business School, 75% of managers must believe that maintaining the status quo is more dangerous than making a change.

In future posts, we’ll discuss the other steps in detail. But one final comment for now: You’ll notice, that The Brookside Group’s ASPIRE model is a closed loop. That’s because it needs to be a repeatable and sustainable process of continuous improvement that brings about meaningful change and continues to drive your organization ever closer to optimal performance. This is an important point to remember as we discuss the other steps.

In the May 30, 2008 edition of The Wall Street Journal, there was an article on Campbell’s Soup Company and innovation.  A callout box provided five tips on leading a transformation from their CEO, Douglas Conant.  They are worth reprinting:

1. Bring an “all things are possible” attitude to the work.
2. Confront the brutal facts and be clear-eyed about the situation.
3. Set high standards and make expectations clear, as the ability to mobilize people is the key to success.
4. Give the organization time to do things right.
5. Do what you say you will; this is about performance, not intentions.

Change is a scary process in and of itself. But add the word “transformational” in front of change and the idea has people running for the exits. Since transformational change is such a widely used term in change management, why does it elicit such a reaction?

Well, first, transformational change encompasses more than reorganizing a single department or changing a simple business process. Transformational change affects the entire business, from the front-line employee to senior management. It affects the organization’s structure, processes and culture. It creates significant disruption across the organization; it changes the patterns and assumptions found within the organization. For instance, it requires employees to work in new ways; ways that might change their ingrained, comfortable identities.

Even more important than the change associated with transformation is the implications associated with the word. Transformation means out with old and in with new. It means caterpillars are bad – we want butterflies. The only problem is that you are a caterpillar, and you’ve always been a caterpillar. And you like being a caterpillar.

Because the word transformation can start the conversation on a negative tone, the idea of transformational change needs to be carefully approached even in organizations in great need of change. Leaders looking to implement transformational change need to start with an appealing, positive vision and work backwards to the negatives of today. “I envision a world where we will be beautiful, fly with the winds and see the world… As an added benefit, we will have less risk of being stepped on.”

Our clients are worried about the coming “tsunami” of workforce retirements. Baby Boomers are queuing up for the exits, and with their departures they take invaluable knowledge about how to perform work effectively and efficiently. The people entering the workforce operate under a new behavioral model. Large-scale disruptive change is in the air.

In this post we will write about the projections for the workforce of the future. In upcoming posts we will write about the implications of those changes and how organizations are acting in the near term to address the implications.

In November 2007, The Bureau of Labor Statistics published their Labor Force Projections to 2016 with the sub-headline, “more workers in their golden years.” The phrase is an understatement.

In the ten years between 2006 and 2016,

• The 16-24 year old workforce will shrink 0.7% per year or nearly 7% over the ten-year period.
• The 25-54 year old workforce will expand 0.2% per year – or 2.4% over the ten-year period.
• The 55 and older workforce will expand 3.9% per year – or more than 46% over the ten-year period.