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Bruce Holland

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Some Pitfalls

1. Demonstrate the need for change

In any organisation, once the beliefs and energy of a critical mass of people are engaged, conversion to a new idea will spread like an epidemic. Most chief executives try to make the case for change by pointing to the numbers. But messages communicated through numbers seldom stick. To front line managers they are too abstract and remote. A far better approach is to put the manages face-to-face with the operational problem so they can’t evade reality. For example:

George Hickton sent his senior team to manage the toughest office in the country for a week when he was with Social Welfare

Dick Hubbard along with all of his managers spends time on the production line and they see at first hand the issues of production workers

Bill Brandon, New York Police Department, made all his senior staff ride the subway so they saw first hand the problems at night.

2. Small Things Matter

Recent research has backed my experience with change, that little things matter. Managers are often so close they don’t see them or if they do see them they think they are so small they can’t possibly matter.

An examples may help to make the point.

I introduced a major empowerment process throughout a large manufacturer who wanted the front-line to take more initiative and be more responsible. I worked with the senior managers and with every staff member but made almost no progress as long as the company maintained separate cafeterias for managers and staff. People would say to me: “You say we matter, but they won’t even eat with us!”

Small things in the environment are far more important than most managers believe and certainly more important than almost all change consultants think.

3. Value Proposition

Sometimes execution fails because the Value Proposition is unclear. See separate Product on Strategic Alignment.

4. Alignment

Sometimes execution fails because the culture, leadership style, service delivery or branding is poorly aligned to the Value Proposition. See separate Product on Strategic Alignment.

5. The dimensions of change

As most managers know, the best laid plans are often perverted by self-interest, misinterpretation, or lack of necessary skills to reach the intended goals. To successfully implement a strategy managers need to change their approach. They need to become leaders of the context and designers of a learning experience; not an authority figure with all the solutions. This is scary because it means letting go.

In the final event it is the people at the grassroots to will need to implement the strategies. The aim is to turn all front-line employees into business people in their own right who think about the organisation and what’s good for it; and who do those things as long as they’re in accord with the objectives and the vision. The grass roots approach to strategy implementation doesn’t happen overnight, the culture and the values and the individual beliefs of people need to be changed before success can be expected.

Before implementation can be properly executed there are a number of physical dimensions, infrastructural dimensions and value dimensions that need to be carefully aligned to make sure the that supporting and reinforcing the strategy rather than working against.

6. Involvement

76% of strategies fail during implementation partly because managers fail to design strategy processes that allow enough time (and practice) for people to make significant changes to their habits. As a result old behaviours re-establish themselves and quickly most of the focus and energy from a strategy workshop is dissipated. I am an expert in designing processes that are inclusive and as a result people own the outputs.

7. Accountability

No strategy is completed until every single person in the organisation has a job description which is closely aligned to the major organisational strategies agreed. Yet in my experience this hardly ever happens.

8. Measurement

All organisations need a few good Key Performance Indicators that will show that you are on track towards your strategies.

9. Developing motivation

Employees must not only recognize what needs to be done, they must also want to do it. Many managers recognize the importance for getting people motivated to make change, but they make the mistake of trying to change incentives throughout the whole organization. That process takes too long to implement and can prove very expensive in a very large company. Another way is to single out the key influencers, people inside or outside the organisation with a disproportionate amount of power. There are often only a few of these and it’s relatively easy to identify them and motivate them. Put them under the spotlight, give them special incentives, bring them together in meetings, create challenges and get them on side.

10 Politics

Politics is a fact of life when it comes to change. It’s best to recognize it and plan to eliminate it. People who fiercely and vocally resist the change may need to be removed. Key influencers both internal and external need to be identified and brought on-board.