 |
Battle-Scarred Reflections: Lessons Learned
from the Front Lines of Organization Transformation
By Mark Henderson
Recently while preparing for a client presentation, we were asked to put
together our "current best thinking" on all of the salient,
important lessons we have learned over the years. As battle-scarred veterans
of the organization change and improvement race over the past two decades,
this challenge turned out to be particularly intriguing. It has been said
that writing forces clarity of thinking and this proved true as we set
about to try and boil down the most compelling lessons experience has
taught us. For many of us who have worked on both sides of the desk, the
challenge proved to be multi-dimensional. We have seen the challenge of
organization change as internal implementers and as external consultants
to Clients seeking to dramatically improve.
We don't claim to have uncovered any magic "silver bullet"
solutions. Unfortunately, experience has taught us what we intuitively
already knew: there are no quick, easy, or simple answers. However, we
believe there are recurring patterns and themes that pervade successful
change and improvement efforts. Success does tend to leave clues, often
in the form of general principles and patterns (frequently derived from
the more painful experiences, it seems). Therefore, what follows may not
necessarily be a blinding flash of genius per se. It does represent, however,
(in no particular order) some of the tried and true lessons of success
we have observed from being active foot soldiers on the front lines of
organization transformation the past 20 years or so.
| Lessons Learned |
| 1. |
Create a clear, compelling, and concise picture
of the future vision and strategic direction. Clarity of
focus accelerates progress and an elusive big picture stunts forward
movement. The CEO of a large US healthcare system, driving her organization
toward a focus on wellness, prevention, and delivery of patient care
in alternative (read lower cost) settings from the hospital, started
the transformation journey with this rather vivid statement: "We
will be successful when I can walk down the halls of this hospital
(it had over 500 beds) and there are no patients." |
| 2. |
Communicate broadly, deeply, and consistently, and be sure
to cover the "why" element as often as possible.
Funny, but people want to know not just where they're headed but also
why — don't forget to make that abundantly clear. Hint: data
is imperative to improvement; it is the platform upon which decisions
must be made and minds can be changed — continually seek out
unbiased performance data from the market, customers, employees, and
suppliers, and share it widely. One organization facing the prospect
of industry deregulation and the introduction of customer choice for
service provision talked about the need for substantial organizational
change because their newfound competitors "are peeking through
the fence looking to take away our customers." The implication
was clear — if we don't change and do a better job serving our
customers, someone else will be only too happy to do so for us. |
| 3. |
Deploy a common planning framework. Using an established
roadmap (where would we be without Rand McNally or MapQuest?) makes
the trip much smoother. In multi-unit business environments, ensure
the improvement framework accommodates Business Unit specific flexibility
in implementation. There are any number of proven frameworks out there,
so don't reinvent the wheel. |
| 4. |
Utilize education, training, and skill development as a
major change driver. Forget debating whether behavior changes
follow belief changes or vices versa — either way, new ideas,
new competencies, and capabilities will be required. The jury is no
longer out on this issue — the best organizations simply spend
more time and money on education and training, and that is one critical
reason why they sustain superior performance levels. GE is the best-of-the-best
for a reason. |
| 5. |
Shift cultural and individual performance orientation by
adjusting performance measures (like the Balanced Scorecard, for example)
and holding people accountable for specific results — integrate
this directly into your performance management system. Management
truism 101: what gets measured gets done. Trite, but true. |
| 6. |
Link reward and recognition practices to the cultural change;
look for quick wins and celebrate widely. Management truism 102: what
gets rewarded gets repeated. Also trite, but true. |
| 7. |
Alignment is fundamentally the name of the game. Organizational
"influence systems" must consistently and continuously be
aligned with change and improvement initiatives. As Steve Kerr, Chief
Learning Officer of GE once shrewdly observed, don't ask for A while
paying, promoting, rewarding, recognizing, measuring, training, etc.
for B. It happens all too frequently (moving to teams and still rewarding
individual lone wolves, anybody?). |
| 8. |
Organization transformation is a project and should be resourced
as such. Some amount of infrastructure and process is necessary
or daily operations crowd out even the best-intentioned improvement
efforts, hands down. Ownership, accountability, a plan, and a process
are keys to success. Without some infrastructure (not a bureaucracy!),
the organization will continue to be held hostage to the urgent over
the important. |
| 9. |
Senior leadership sponsorship is critical —
developing the next level of sustaining sponsorship "change advocates"
is equally vital. Take care of the advocates and cherish the revolutionaries
who drive the change process. Don't let the courageous trailblazers
be driven down and out by the guardians of the status quo. |
| 10. |
Manage expectations every step of the way. People
and organizations don't change nearly as fast as we would like, but
the change agenda can and should be pursued aggressively. The most
common refrain from Client executives when reflecting on the journey:
"I should have moved faster, I should have pushed harder, driven
the change further." As quality improvement guru Dr. Joseph Juran
said, set a revolutionary not a pedestrian pace. |
| 11. |
Strategic, cross-functional processes are the source of
untold opportunity and value — optimize their performance
by systematically analyzing and improving them. Hint: your structure
was probably not designed with process flow in mind, and at this intersection
lays opportunity. |
| 12. |
Establish a strong results-driven, not activity-centered
orientation. Results-based leadership of change and improvement
always generates more supporters, creates momentum, and self-funds
further efforts. And remember, management and improvement tools, practices,
and methods are means to an end, not an end themselves. Don't be dogmatic,
don't let the tail (i.e. the tool) wag the dog. Stay flexible: change
and improvement are always a "work in progress." |
So there you have it. A list of the most relevant lessons learned from
our years in the trenches. Hopefully for those of you driving to make
meaningful change happen in your organization, you will find some helpful
hints you can draw from. Or maybe you'll simply take some small comfort
that your fellow change champions have had similar learning experiences
(both and good bad).
Regardless, there is little doubt that we'll continue on this unrelenting
pace of change, improvement, and innovation. No business or business model
is safe from the constant assault — business as usual represents
nothing less than a clear and present danger to survival. And stay tuned,
because I'm sure there will be plenty more lessons learned in the years
ahead. Remember the timeless wisdom offered by Apple Computer co-founder
Steve Jobs, who once said, "the journey is the reward."
| Mark Henderson was previously Senior Vice President
with The CLEMMER Group, a North American network of organization,
team, and personal improvement consultants based in Ontario, Canada
www.clemmer.net.
|
top of page |
 |
