Are you Holding up Change?

There are a lot of things in an organization that can hold up the change process.  The first and most important is commitment.  If you are not committed 100% to doing everything within the power of your organization to planning and executing changes, don’t do it.  Going into the process without that level of commitment will frustrate you, your stakeholders and make changing in the future much more difficult.

 It is more than acceptable to go into the change process without knowing anything.  I little fear and a little apprehension are good things and will actually help you along the way.  If you are too afraid to move forward, don’t.  While a little fear is natural and can serve to protect your organization, too much will make you tentative and incapable of being adaptive or agile within the process. 

 

Objectivity is the key to success.  Some might call it pragmatism, but either way, having an open mind and looking at things in a sensible and realistic manner will keep the process flowing and keep emotion out of it.  Emotion is a great tool when celebrating victories or acting as a cheerleader for a process, but no matter how you are attached to an organization or the outcome of a change plan, infusing emotion into your decision making or management process will usually result in bad decisions and bad management.

 

The beauty of a well-crafted and executed change plan is in its simplicity.  While the process seems complex, it follows a rational thought process.  Complex problems only seem complex until a solution is found.  Breaking things down to their most simple form not only allows a wider understanding of the solution, but gives an organization a wider range of resources to use for the execution of a change plan.  If you run up against a difficult problem to solve, break it down into smaller pieces and then eat one at a time.

 

Pervasive actions and thought processes that retard or derail the progress of organizational change:

 

1.     Time – Thinking you don’t have the time to do it.

We make time to do the things we feel are important and try to find time to do those things we don’t.  If you can’t make time to plan or execute your changes, you are not placing the amount of importance on them that needs to be there.  The other time issue is the difference between doing work and doing your job.  If you are spending more time doing work than you are doing your job, you need to focus on ways to switch that around.

2.     Ego – You don’t think you need it or think you have all of the answers.

There is a considerable difference between being confident and having an ego.  Confidence is the ability to make a decision with the humility to realize when someone else has a better idea.  Ego is about thinking you do or should have the answers based on your role or title.   Ego is a business killer.  Leadership ego kills morale and discredits the organization and its leaders.  Ego is also not trusting the people your surround yourself with to do the job you hired them to do.

3.     Unrealistic Expectations – Setting goals and expectations that aren’t planned within the process, or being unwavering when the process pushes expectations in a different direction.

Determination of goals can be a precursor to a change plan, or can be discovered during its development.  Either way, the plan should push the goals and goals should be adjusted based on what you determine as realistic within the scope of the plan.  Expectations for results should be based in possibility not estimation.   Attainment of a goal is based on modifying the behaviors that affect the

4.     Misplaced Loyalty – Thinking it is more important to make your employees happy than to make needed changes.  You can have both, but you have to do it the right way.

While it is important to take people’s feelings and emotions into consideration when planning or implementing a change plan, having that as the sole reason to stall execution or excuse someone from completing a required task will make your execution inconsistent.  Loyalty in an organization needs to be to the whole and not to the part.  Worrying about not doing the right thing for your business because it might upset one of its parts is another example of ego-centric leadership (see #2).

5.     Mistrust – Thinking that you have people who will fight the changes or aren’t capable of making them.

If you hired employees that you think are incapable of changing, that is much more your problem than theirs.  Much of the mistrust that happens in an organization comes from an ego-centric leadership (See #2).  People will follow a plan they understand and are prepared for.  The duty of an organization is to provide support to their employees prior to, during and after any change plan is implemented.  More often than not, poor employees or poor employee morale is due to lack of support and understanding much more than to the quality of the person.

6.     Inconsistent Execution – Sometimes you hold people accountable, sometimes you don’t.

There is no room for hierarchy in the execution of a change plan.  Yes, there needs to be people to lead the process, but the rules have to apply to everyone from the top down.  If you allow people to circumvent or ignore the process based on their role or title, you either have too rigid of a process, or a bad management philosophy.  Execution must be consistent to work.  Without consistency, you can’t determine the difference between a mistake and an issue.  This takes away any intended agility within the process.

7.     Structural Issues – Not having something in place to keep the process moving and allowing for adaptive changes to take place within the timeline and flow of the changes.

No plan should be set in stone.  That being said, if you don’t have a structure in place to ensure the process continues to move, or allows it to adapt, you will spend a lot more of your time planning than doing, and results don’t come from a plan, they come from its execution.  Ensure that you have ways to inspect your expectations through a consistent management process. Moving ahead with a change plan before you have the internal structural integrity to support it will magnify its lack and cause undue stress on the process and the people involved in it.

8.     Lack of Autonomy – Expecting people to do their job without having the ability to make necessary decisions to get it done correctly.

An effective organization gives it employees the information they need to make decisions, the authority they need to follow through with those decisions and the autonomy to correct any complications arising from them.  Expecting employees to perform their job duties or execute a plan without all three of them will be an exercise in futility.  Not every employee needs full autonomy, but once the parameters are set, they need to be allowed to work within them.

9.     Obstacle Paralysis – Giving up, giving in or not moving forward when obstacles present themselves.

 

No plan is perfect in either its inception or execution.  As soon as begin its implementation, you will encounter obstacles.  No matter their size or scope, they can stall or stop the change process.  How you react to them will determine their net effect on the results and the process in general.  Thinking that because you hit an obstacle means your plan is flawed is not the right way to look at it.  Thinking that your people aren’t capable because mistakes happen is also a sure way to derail your plan.

 

10.            Reactive Hierarchy – When your people, especially managers spend more time working than doing their job.

People are led though changes, not managed around it.  If your culture is one where your managers react to problems when they occur instead of foreseeing potential problems, you will have a difficult time with any change process.  The intent of a change plan, and its underlying ability to be nimble is to curb the necessity to react to obstacles.  Mistakes need to be coached around and issues resolved.  Treating every issue like the world is ending is a reactive and detrimental course that should not be traveled.

Luck is not a good business strategy

The word success is a ubiquitous part of every businesses vocabulary.  Unfortunately the reality of success is becoming more of a rarity.  When a business talks about success, what are they really talking about?  More often than not, they are referring to the attainment of company goals, which in some respects can be a barometer of successfulness, but without the knowledge of how you reach them and the ability to sustain and repeat your success, attaining your goals would be based on luck.

In my experience, I have seen two basic types of corporate strategy with some organizations caught between the two in one form or another:  Luck based and Success based.

While it is nice to be lucky once in a while, trying to build a sustainable organization based on being lucky will eventually result in its downfall when the luck runs out. 

Core	Luck Based	Success Based
Knowledge	Tribal Knowledge where infrastructure is built on the way things have always been done.	Legacy knowledge where infrastructure is built on written documentation and consistency of content
Strategy	Business strategy is based on historical data and basic underlying needs.  Strategy is determined by a few individuals and pushed to stakeholders.	Strategy is simplistic in its design and based on future needs.  Strategy is determined based on the needs of the stakeholders and is pulled from them.
Data	Data is either limited in nature or over abundant without clear intention or attention to it integrity.  Data is used to determine results instead of driving changes.	Data is concise in nature, being vetted before being presented.  There is a culture of data integrity and data is used as a predictive tool instead of a reactive one.
Goals	Goals are developed on a macro-level and are often limited to financial milestones or results.  Goals are also limited in scope and when quantitative are difficult to adjust within the flow of the business.	Goals are developed on a micro-level with each person knowing and understanding their role.  Goals are designed based on the modification of behavior instead of affecting results.
Leadership	Management is developed to maintain the status quo and given limited power of information, authority and accountability.	The roles of a leader are more clearly defined, and each is given the ability to build their part of the business without limitations on information, authority or accountability.

 

Being truly successful is a sum of everything you do.  Success is an understanding of not just the attainment of goals, but an in-depth knowledge of what it took to get there and what it will take to sustain it.

Success isn’t something we sit back and get, it is something we have to go after and hunt down.

Keys To Success

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

1.    Reaching a Goal

2.    Tracking your Methods and Progress

3.    Repeating what you did

 Setting a Goal

The ability to understand what your goals should be is the first key in being able to reach them.  There is a difference between a goal and a dream.  A dream is something you desire if everything falls into place and you get to sit back and watch it happen.  A goal is a tangible desire you can attain if you understand what the goal is comprised of and are willing to work to reach it.

“Aim Small – Miss Small”

Goals should always be quantifiable and be simple to understand.   Every goal should have a date of completion, and in some cases, this date may serve as the quantifiable part of that goal.  Goals should also be seen as a part of a bigger picture and each goal should lead to a larger one.

Reaching your Goals

 Once you have set your goals, it is time to get to work on reaching them.  Reaching your goals is dependent upon all of those involved knowing and understanding the following items:

1.       What are the goals? – each individual within a group must know and understand exactly what the goals are.

2.       What are their roles? – once you have established the goals and communicated them to everyone involved, they need to know and understand what they can do to help with the attainment of those goals.  Specific expectations must be laid out to each member of the team responsible for reaching the goals.

3.       How are they doing? – make sure to give consistent and regular feedback to the people involved in reaching the goals.  Everyone needs to know on a regular basis if they are meeting their expectations and tracking to their goals.

 Communicate Expectations

So much of what we do as people and as employees revolves around communication.  We utilize this word so often that sometimes it begins to lose some of its luster and a lot of its meaning.  Communicating expectations in regards to being successful is about ensuring that each part of your team not only has a responsibility in reaching a goal, but understands thoroughly and completely what they must do to do their part.

Communication is an ongoing process.  Just because you wrote it down and handed it out doesn’t mean everyone can or will stay on task.  Continue to provide information and feedback.  Let them know that all of the work you put into coming up with a plan wasn’t just words on a piece of paper.

Empower your Team

Now that you have come up with a plan and communicated the plan and each team member’s responsibilities and expectations, let them do their part.  Empowerment is about trust and without that trust, you can’t hope to be successful.  Everyone who has a part in your success needs to feel that their actions matter, and that they have some control over their involvement and outcome.  Be there to teach, mentor, and assist, but trust the people you have to do what you need them to do.

One of the biggest obstacles to the success of any business is to have parts of your team feel like they don’t have any control of their destiny or don’t feel like they are an important part of the big picture.  A company should be led from the top, but powered from the ground up.

Negotiate Obstacles

No plan, or nobody involved in a plan is perfect:  understanding that basic truth is a key to being able to negotiate obstacles.  There will be speed bumps or obstacles along the road to success.  Each time you reach one of these, you must determine the crucial piece of information to move forward.  Did the obstacle stem from a mistake or from an issue?

Mistakes – Yes, people make mistakes, and the only way to avoid that is to hire perfect people.  If an obstacle arises because someone made a mistake, the best thing to do is to use it as a learning and coaching example so that those mistakes can be abated going forward.  If someone continues to make a mistake, then you have the decision on what to do with the employee.  A periodic mistake doesn’t a bad employee make.  Mistakes are a great way to show your support to your people, your reaction ability to your customer and a way to determine the quality of your process.

Issues – Issues are different from mistakes because they stem from the process instead of the person.  You may have a combination where a person makes a mistake that points out an issue or oversight with the process.  If it is determined that your obstacle stems from an issue, it is necessary to adjust the process to keep them from recurring.

Track your Progress

All goals have an 11^th hour or a point of no return.  There will come a time that no matter what you do, or how hard you work at it, there is nothing you can do to reach them.  The way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to know where you are in relation to your goal, how much further you have to go, and what has been working to get you there.

Start Again

This is both the easiest and the most difficult part of the process.  If you have truly succeeded at all of the points before this one, it will be easy to repeat what you did well, and learn from your mistakes.  If you didn’t learn anything, or weren’t able to make a distinction between what worked and what didn’t, you are more than likely doomed to repeat your failures.

Even if you hit your goal, if you weren’t able to track it throughout the timeframe and competently repeat it during the next cycle, you were lucky, not successful.

Needs Hierarchy

Needs Hierarchy

 

Continuous improvement has to start somewhere.  In order to ensure that you are not only starting in the correct place, but that you are moving in a direction that is in line with the needs and desires of the organization and all of its shareholders, you must first understand the basics of what your needs are. 

The above needs hierarchy is based on what research has found to be the main needs for an organization and their stakeholders.  Above all, sustainability is the most important need for any business.

The hierarchy is built in a pyramid to not only illustrate the level of importance for each section to the benefit and well-being of an organization, but because the implementation of continuous improvement projects, company goals, etc. must follow the same structure.  A focus and emphasis on Gain without having the other four sections of the pyramid properly maintained and grown, will result in a top heavy structure that will eventually topple.  Much like the construction of any tall building, you can’t start at the top and then hope to build a structure underneath it in any sort of efficient or effective manner.  You have to make sure the base is solid before you build on top of it.

 

Gain

This is the ultimate goal for any organization. Gain means that you are in a position to continuously move forward.  You have taken care of the basic needs of your business and stakeholders and now can move forward.  While this may be the ultimate goal for any business, it comes at the top of the hierarchy in based on a level of importance for keeping a business alive versus growing it.

Efficiency

Efficiency is the ability to have an efficient and effective operational environment that is capable of supporting and sustaining organizational change through a systematic progression. 

While efficiency is important in all levels of business development, improvement and structure, its importance in the over the others is diminished by the need to maintain first.  Efficiency by its nature is a growth oriented theme.  As it pertains to this hierarchy, while it adds to the basic needs of a business it doesn’t provide a pathway to meet them.  Because the needs for the first three levels must be met first, efficiency needs will be sidelined in favor of them.  Efficiency models seldom work when the other levels have not met the expectation of the ownership or leadership group.

Engagement

In order for a business to become successful, they must have stakeholders that are engaged in their success.  These stakeholders include partners, clients, customers, employees and vendors.  All of which provide a value to the overall organization.  Getting these stakeholders engaged is the third level in the needs hierarchy.  This is the first place where an involvement is required outside the ownership of the business.  For the first two levels, it is about ensuring immediate survival.  This level is where sustainability becomes part of the need.

Risk Management

Businesses must constantly assess their risks in order to ensure that there is no major concern in regards to the health, safety or well-being of their organization or shareholders. This process of risk management includes a desire to maintain a degree of status quo.  In regards to maintaining the physical health of the business risk management is the second level of needs in an organization.  The adage of preparing for the worst but expecting the best is part of this level.  Risk management includes compliance, avoidance of litigious circumstances, insurance, succession planning and other factors in relation to ensuring the overall health of the organization.

Profitability

When it comes down to it, the bottom line is the bottom line.  A business can’t hope to survive without the ability to handle their bills.  Businesses fail when they can’t afford to do business any longer.  Cash flow is the lifeblood of a business.  Like food, shelter and air to their shareholders, profitability is the sustenance that is required for survival.  While an organization can get temporary reprieve from lenders, banks, etc. profitability must at some point be reached and maintained.