| Articles » Organizational Change--the Journey |
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Organizational Change-the Journey |
| by Michael Stanleigh |
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| Overview |
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| Many organizations recognize a need to change their
culture, the environment in which their staff work and the actual
work that their staff perform. All of this to ensure that their changing
customer requirements are continually being met and that the strategic
plan is successfully executed. |
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| The opportunities are great but the great challenge
is determining where to begin the journey. Where should we start this
process of change? What steps should we take? How should staff at
all levels be involved and how will we know when we have reached the
end of our journey? These are the questions that usually prevent real
action from being taken. |
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| So let me tell you a story of how one organization,
facing similar challenges, developed a roadmap to take them through
the journey towards their destination. |
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| The Situation |
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| This organization had approximately 1,500 employees.
They had many successes over the past 5 years but also many challenges.
Here are some of their challenges: |
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- There was a need for workload balance.
- There was a need to match employee skills with the work they
performed.
- There was an expectation gap...senior management had expectations
of staff that could not always be met.
- There was a need for more delegation.
- Problems were not being identified or resolved soon enough creating
conflict.
- Deadlines were not being met.
- Management lacked the leadership skills to motivate staff.
- Management lacked the ability to mentor and develop their staff.
- One third of management were retiring in 2 years and another
one third were retiring in the 2 years thereafter.
- One third of staff were retiring within the next 5 years.
- There were no succession plans developed.
- There was no system of knowledge transfer in place.
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| And so the journey began... |
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| Step 1: Tell the Staff They're Going on a Journey |
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| A meeting was called for all employees to let everyone
know that a change process was about to begin. It was called "Project
Change." The President launched the meeting. He identified the
issues and concerns, of which everyone was aware (maybe they had never
verbalized it before but it was apparent). He also identified the
expected outcomes and added the assurances that there would be no
staff layoffs as a result of this journey. |
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| And then it was turned over to me to tell them what
they would see on this journey, what their expectation from this journey
should be and what level of involvement on their part would be required
in order for the journey to successfully reach its destination. Leadership
would be done through a steering committee and various sub-committees
to ensure that the process was an open one, because all levels of
staff would be involved. |
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| And so I began the journey with them... |
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| Step 2: Form the Steering Committee |
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| The Steering Committee was comprised of a team of 8
individuals. It was a mix of management and staff. We held a full-day
session to begin our development. It is through the Steering Committee
that I would coach and provide direction. The President became the
Sponsor of this change initiative. The Steering Committee would report
directly to him. |
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| We developed a Charter and statement of purpose. We
identified roles & responsibilities for each member of the committee
and developed a communication strategy of expected outcomes at the
end of the journey. |
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| The journey continued... |
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| Step 3: Sub-committees Formed |
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| There were a number of sub-committees identified: |
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- Culture Team (which became known as the culture club)
- Business Process Review Team
- Leadership Development team
- Training Team
- Communication Team
- Organizational Issues Team
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| Each sub-committee team reported to one member of the
steering committee. This ensured continual communication between the
work of the team and the steering committee. The steering committee
lead member that each sub-committee reported to was included on the
team but each team selected their own leader. |
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| Each sub-committee team identified their roles and
responsibilities, developed a statement of purpose and overall goals.
And they created a project plan to ensure the successful realization
of their goals. |
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| Step 4: Communication to the Organization |
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| Continuous communication to the organization helps
enormously in creating the change culture. To start off the communication
process, another "town hall" meeting was held for all staff
to identify all of the volunteers on the various teams as well as
the purpose and responsibility of the steering committee and teams. |
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| After this meeting, a bi-weekly newsletter was launched
with key issues and recommendations discussed in the bi-weekly steering
committee meeting as well as milestone successes along the route of
this journey. |
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| Step 5: Name and Logo |
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| The fun began with a contest to identify a name for
this Change Project. The large banner that hung in the first town
hall meeting was put on a wall in the office. Everyone was asked to
write their suggestion for a name on the banner and put their own
name in brackets beside it. Staff were asked to rank the top 5 names
and from this process a final name was chosen. |
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| With a name and logo staff began seeing this as a real
journey. The vision was clearer. There was a name with a meaning and
a logo to go with it. |
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| Step 6: Needs Assessment |
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| The next major step on this journey was to assess the
issues, concerns, challenges and opportunities of the management team
and of all staff groups within the organization. |
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| We started with one-on-one interviews with each member
of management. This included the President, the senior management
team and the level of management below them. This resulted in a report
on the issues, concerns, challenges and opportunities facing the management
and the organization. |
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| In addition to the management interviews, all staff
participated in a skills inventory discussion. Meetings were held
for all staff groups. Through these meetings we wanted to identify
their current skills, future skill requirements, training requirements,
etc. and match this against their current job descriptions. The outcome
from these questions was captured in a report on the issues, concerns,
challenges and opportunities facing staff and the organization. |
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| Step 7: Culture Review |
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| The management within this organization realized that
theirs and their staff's involvement in the "personality"
of their organization was vital to its continued growth so a culture
review was implemented. |
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| The organizational culture research identified an organization
that was angry, aggressive, not customer focused, etc. They described
an "ideal" culture that is customer-centred, growing, caring,
empowering, etc. |
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| Step 8: Business Process Management |
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| One of the outcomes of the Needs Assessment was a recognition
that for most staff, the work they performed and the work that their
job description expected them to perform, matched. This was different
than what staff had originally thought. The only difference between
their job description and what they described is that they tended
to provide more detail about what they do, during the interviews.
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| But what did become apparent is that the work processes
were flawed. They were redundant, people didn't understand where their
work came from, where the work completed went and the impact their
work had on the customer. It was determined that work process improvement was needed. |
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| To remedy this situation we implemented a Business
Process Management workshop where, working through a business simulation,
teams learned about workflow analysis, root cause analysis, problem
solving, teamwork, etc. |
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| The results were remarkable. They were not coached
in how to apply the knowledge, only told to do it. They immediately
started to re-think their structure, their workflow and their quality.
They flowcharted and analysed. They didn't make assumptions. They
problem-solved to ensure their solutions were the right ones. The
energy in the room was electrifying. The result was a reduction in
costs, increase in sales and increase in customer satisfaction. |
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| Everyone left the room energized. But the next steps
were critical. In order to capture this energy and ensure that the
knowledge was transferred to the work place a number of key business
processes were identified. These were selected based on fact that
if improved they would have a significant impact on the staff, the
internal and external customers and the organization. |
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| Each identified business process management team spent
two days in an in-depth analysis of their business process. These
ended with a series of recommendations and action plans ready for
implementation. The analysis was so thorough that they had clearly
uncovered everything. They were able to show a cost-benefit ratio
that was clearly in the favour of the staff, the organization and
the customers. Most recommendations were quickly adopted. |
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| As business process management spread throughout the
organization, jobs became clearer, individual work loads normalized,
less overtime was seen by staff, customer satisfaction increased,
the organization's bottom-line improved (and this wasn't one of this
journey's goals), and staff could see how their work and their job
descriptions now matched. As well, there was now good documentation
of all work processes. The detailed flowcharts were used as the operations
manual. It was easy for an individual to see what it is they had to
do and how what they did impacted others. |
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| Staff workload balance was no longer an issue and the
flowcharts were used as a first stage in the knowledge retention process. |
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| Step 9: Organizational Management |
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| The organizational management encompassed four major
areas: |
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- 360-degree Feedback
- Succession Management
- Organizational Structure
- Development of Innovation Statements
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| 360-degree Feedback |
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| From the management needs assessment interviews I determined
that a 360-degree feedback process (how they saw themselves as compared
to how their staff, peers and manager saw them against defined management
skills) would help to identify the specific competency requirements
that management now had vs. the competencies required for their positions.
This could then be matched against the competencies of other levels
of staff to begin the process for succession planning as well as the
development of the management team. |
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| The feedback was presented to each manager in one-on-one
coaching sessions. This helped them to create their individual development
plans. I was also able to map these profiles against the organization's
competencies. |
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| In combination with the individual needs assessment
interviews that took place earlier, it was easy to combine the 360-degree
feedback, management competencies and this needs assessment feedback
into a composite for each manager that identified: |
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- Current skill level
- Expected skill requirement
- Skill gap (if any)
- Development necessary to close the gap (i.e. training, coaching,
mentoring)
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| Succession Management |
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| The 360-degree feedback process helped to identify
a number of individuals at various levels in the organization as potential
successors. This was matched with information collected through the
needs assessment process resulting in a list of people who had an
interest and/or were identified as a possible future manager candidate.
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| The selected individuals were put through the same
360-degree feedback process as their managers. Through one-on-one
coaching, we were able to identify their development requirements
and desirability for advancement. |
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| The outcome of this step provided the organization
with a number of excellent candidates for possible succession into
those management positions that would be vacated in a couple of years
as a result of retirements. |
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| Organizational Structure |
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| From the staff and management needs assessment I determined
that a management retreat would be needed in order to address many
of the issues, concerns, challenges and opportunities. As well, the
results of the cultural review helped in the design of this management
retreat. We decided that the retreat would begin with a review of
the organizational structure. |
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| This was perhaps one of the most challenging areas
to manage. The current organizational structure would not support
the changes identified through the needs assessments and more importantly,
through the business process management sessions. And rather than
just tell management that we would have to change it, I needed to
work with them to come to this conclusion on their own. |
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| Accordingly, we organized a 2-day retreat that got
them to review their organizational structure, improve it and decide
on how to implement a revised structure. The intent of this entire
journey was not to lay-off anyone. And of course, they came through
with great ideas. |
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| The result...they determined that some changes to the
original succession management plan put in place needed to happen
and that it would not be possible to put the new structure in place
tomorrow, it would take some time. This would permit the transition
for those whose positions would no longer exist, to the role of special
projects. And those that would be displaced were essentially management
who were close to retirement. So they would be kept fully occupied
through this transition. |
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| Development of Innovation Statements |
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| Management then identified a need to tackle some of
the major challenges still left on this journey. The culture review
identified that staff want to experience a different working culture
within the organization. And management agreed that improving the
culture was a significant priority for the organization. It was determined
that this retreat would develop the strategies to reach this new culture.
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| The process we used was an Innovation Process. It was
necessary to foster a level of creativity and innovation in determining
the best plans to get this organization moving towards this ideal
culture. The work during this retreat included developing innovation
statements to capture desired outcomes and action items that will
help achieve these outcomes. |
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| The management team were committed towards establishing
the culture that all staff so strongly indicated they would like to
see in the organization. It was essential that each and every member
of staff make their contribution to ensure that the culture increasingly
becomes one where teamwork, personal growth and excellence are valued
and rewarded. In addition, management put in place a means for assessing
their progress towards achieving this type of culture and for making
improvements on an on-going basis. |
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| Step 10: Destination Reached |
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| Project InnoVision was just that...a project...with
a beginning and an end. But it was designed to be a journey. A journey
that began as a project so that we could determine the direction.
And now that the project was coming to a close, the direction was
clear. |
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| As the journey progressed, my involvement was continually
lessoned. There was a closing organization-wide "ceremony"
to mark the end of this part of the journey and to discuss the more
difficult road ahead. But the map was clear. I felt as though I was
the school principal and they'd all been my students. Well, they were
graduating now; they had passed all the courses and were ready to
put into action everything they had learned. It was great being a
part of this process; it was one of the most gratifying experiences
all of us had ever had. |
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| We concluded by organizing a lessons learned session.
It was important to review the goals as originally defined and to
determine whether or not these had been reached. As well, what went
well and what could have even been better. What should the organization
do now that it was ready to begin the next journey of change? |
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| One of the 'lesson learned' that they passed back to
me was the importance of having selected a consulting firm that worked
with them versus told them what to do. This allowed them to be involved
and engaged. They had never experienced involvement to such a high
degree, and it was fun. |
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| For more information about this article, please contact bia™ at info@bia.ca. |
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| © Business Improvement Architects |
