Blue Sky Thinking

Phil Atkinson’s Top Ten Drivers for Organisational Change

Ten Strategies towards Organisational Recovery: Strategies 1 - 4

No.1: Deal with Cultural and Leadership Issues

I have really never aligned with the title as someone being a Manager because it conjures up measurement, control and restriction.  Business Leadership and Coaching conjure up a climate of trust and team work.

Assess the current culture – diagnose where and why things go wrong and commit to creating anew business culture focused on achieving your corporate strategy and business plans.  I can help you do that.

Do Managers understand how to build a new Business Culture?

We need to recognise that culture exists in some organisations 98% by default and accident rather than by design, but this can be turned around by the top team if the commitment for change exists. 

The most powerful action in influencing cultural change is ‘to what Leaders pay most attention’.   Research has highlighted that this is the most significant factor in changing a culture - for without Leadership there is no change.

Many have over-estimated how quickly one can change a culture.  It does not take 2, 4 or 6 years depending upon size.  It can take months to get anew Business Culture delivering the results you want.  It takes as long as you want it to take.

No. 2: Indecision breeds Risk Aversion

Who can blame senior staff when they don’t know how the market will evolve.  When other company leaders are losing their heads and their business indecisive behaviour is often the result.

Decisions will be delayed because of the failure to identify the causal links which drive behaviour.  For instance:

• How can the new customer service team really run on a self managed basis? 
• Can we afford to let our Branch Network go so quickly and have sales people working from home when the IT infrastructure and telephony is not 100% tested?

Replacing Control with Trust

These decisions can only be made with the support of the people who are due to run and organise the system.  By letting go and giving more control to staff – in effect, they take more responsibility for the process.  They become process owners rather than just process operators. 

Replacing the culture of control with one of trust can have huge payoffs for the organisation.  This can come about over night and is based upon developing staff. 

A fast way to implement this change is through coaching and an informal appraisal process which is geared to developing people to fulfil the role you see for them in the future, and designing their development accordingly.  

Enable Staff to Achieve their Potential

Adopting this proactive approach pays big dividends and sends the message to staff that stretch of personal potential is what is important.

Thoughtful ‘stretching’ enables people to want to have the confidence to move beyond’ comfort zones’.  It encourages them to take thoughtful risks based upon looking at new and better ways to deliver customer service. 

Any organisation in any sector can benefit from working upon this major component in their corporate culture.  This alone helps to move towards the strong view of empowerment and growth.

No. 3: Customers want Responsiveness

Unless you have spent the last five years in Siberia you will be aware that what customers crave is responsiveness.  I believe that many senior officers are still unaware of the customer revolution. 

Working with a big US owned business I was not surprised to see a major contract for supply of Financial Services (worth millions of £'s) be transferred to another provider.  The reason for changing providers, was very simple, - the original provider was just too slow.  What was evident was that the internal processes were too bureaucratic time consuming and not focused upon customer needs. 

Re-Engineering Processes to be Customer Focused

We are constantly amazed to find many organisations less than speedy with their internal and external customers.  I have always maintained if we can’t get the act right with the internal customer, we are probably doing a worse job with the external customers. 

Organisations of all types need to use ‘customer friendly’ methods to re-engineer processes towards the customer.  What is often evident is that processes are focused more upon the infra-structure of the business and doing business with itself than working upon ways to do more business with existing external customers.

No.4: Top Team Commitment to create the Learning Organisation

The Learning Organisation is focused upon surveying the best practises in their marketplace, scan for best practise in other industries, markets and sectors, tailor these to the ends of the business and choose to implement those processes speedily.

This requires a critical assessment of current and existing organisational practises and encouraging staff analyse what others are doing in the same industry, then looking at best practise outside it. 

By encouraging this challenging and critical  attitude, organisations can grow a healthy ‘Benchmarking’ culture where customer responsiveness and  ‘continuous improvement’ are the key goals of the business.

The GE Experience: Action Teams

An organisation I partnered in change runs Action Teams where staff will be involved in re-engineering a process away from the traditional ‘functional’ to a speedier ‘customer focus.  

All key staff concerned with working the process work off-site until a ‘customer focused’ solution is found.  (Often customers are involved in this process). 

There are no time constraints.  Participants in the process are off-site in a specially structured setting to aid flow of problem, solving and ease of decision-making for three or four days but this investment pays dividends.

Change Acceleration Process  

Resources are deployed to facilitate progress.  Prevention of problems and working upon new solutions is valued highly.  Once the solution has been worked agreed the team has 48 hours to implement the solution on site.(Non IT solutions only as these may take more investment in time and energy).  This is based on the GE Accelerated Change Model.

Most of the activity engaged in implementing the solution is communicating and winning the support of other staff to create the right infra-structure in which the new process will develop. 

Some of the expensive re-engineering methodologies are rejected in favour of this quicker and more effective approach.  It is more effective because ‘process owners’ work on the new process and the end result must be improved ‘customer responsiveness’.

philip@philipatkinson.com

	Empoweried Teams

Phil Atkinson's Ten Strategies towards Organisational Recovery: Strategies 5 - 7

No.5: Empowerment Starts by Letting Go

Empowerment, like Re-engineering, is probably one of the most misunderstood words to creep into the millennial years. 

Some perceive it as simply relaxed management control.  Many believe it is dressed up delegation. 

Empowerment and engagement starts when the leader takes a thoughtful action and to encourage staff to stretch beyond their current perceived capabilities.  

This means motivating and trusting in the ability of staff to take more ownership for their own development.  It also means supporting staff if things do not go well, living the culture of trust not control.

One test to measure whether Empowerment is alive in your business

It starts when staff has the confidence and willingness to approach managers suggesting and volunteering for changes that they will instigate themselves.

It is not driven by giving power to staff – it evolves by encouraging staff to take it.  Only then can we say that, empowerment can be said to be starting to flourish. 

It is embedded in a culture when staff will challenge their manager to look at things differently.  And finally, empowerment is a clear element of the culture when and only when, the manager in charge of staff encourages an open and honest appraisal of their performance and staff by boss, colleagues and staff. 

Taken in this context Empowerment is mutual trust.  And when you have Empowerment you don’t need people managing - the manager takes of a new role of coach, facilitator and leader and acquires new skills to cope with his or her new role.

No.6: Resistance to Change

I never quite believe what I hear when others tell me they love change except when people tell me this they are usually driving the process.

The Message is what is received not what is sent 

Hearing of major changes and transformation going through the business can be unsettling. Being on the receiving end of an edict for improvement and change can create an interesting impression.  When working on major change initiatives I create an important and simple set of questions that I quickly run through my mind.

 “What would it be like to receive this message about the change?”  What thoughts would I have?  What feelings and emotions would be activated?  What would be my first impression?

It is critical that staff or leaders driving change appreciate that the message is what is received, not what is sent.  If they then look at the process of change and what people will ‘receive’ from their communications they tend to adopt a different process and new ways to relay the message.

Case Example of NHS Briefing

For instance, I was working with a Health Trust.  The then Chief Executive realised that traditional briefing was just not working.  In some areas it was a valued process, in others areas the extent of briefing was that ‘bulletins’ were pinned to notice boards with no discussion. 

In some areas was there two way communication. This CEO believed that this issue was so important that he decided to brief his top 60 people (four groups)on the key issues facing the Trust. 

He devoted one day (in total) to taking each of the four groups of his most senior staff through the process.  Running each session with fifteen staff, and attended by several Directors, this was a good way to ensure that the message in times of change was well communicated.

Modelling Communication: Top – Down

Those attending, usually once a fortnight, clearly understood the message because it was delivered in a coherent and consistent fashion.  They then repeated the process down through the structure.

Is it Possible to Over Communicate?

I was once asked by a senior manager – is there a danger that we can over communicate to our staff?  My response was “I have yet to find a management team that achieves that” Of course, this is possible and found in cultures where those in managerial positions should portray superior inter-personal and communication skills?

No.7: Manage the Transition Curve

There are a series of stages in the every change initiative and this is referred to as the Transition Curve popularised by Elizabeth Kubler Ross.  The stages are categorised with Shock, Denial, Unlearning, Relearning and Integration. 

Depending upon which part of the curve you and your people occupy will determine how you respond to change.  Recognising where ‘you are currently’ on that roller coaster of change curve determines what you see, hear and feel about the change.

Simply by identifying the emotions of each stage of the ‘curve’ you experience will determine how you view the change and your commitment to it.

Moving people from Denial to experience the more positive emotions 

If you experience DENIAL to the requirement to change, nothing that I or others will say may move you from how you are feeling.  Your DENIAL may stop you experiencing the wider picture and the joy of eventually making that transitional change emotional state. 

Alternatively if I give some thought to how you could respond to the change then I can take action to ensure that you see the positive as well as the challenging elements of that change.

Reality Testing – Positive as well as Negative Responses

If I anticipate that you will first go through the negative emotion of SHOCK when an announcement is made. I can readdress my message to deal with the key negative emotions which arise at this stage of the change cycle.

I could help you test reality so that you see both sides of the same coin.  You will see the things that may be challenging as well as those things which may stimulate you - reality testing.

Superior Interpersonal Skills 

I could take preventative action to ensure that all issues were dealt with in each of the five stages of the transition curve.  This approach encourages managers to really explore the importance of their style of communication. 

If those driving the change have superior communications skills, and influence by persuasion rather than control, there would be little resistance to change.  There is no such thing as intransigent staff - just inflexible and impatient change makers.

Philip@philipatkinson.com

	Interpersonal Mastery

Phil Atkinson's Top Ten Strategies towards Organisational Recovery: Strategies 8 - 10

No. 8: Mastery in Interpersonal Skills & Evolutionary Psychology

The edge to business improvement is based on the relative degree of interpersonal mastery exercised by those leading change.  The relatively research from neuroscience is groundbreaking and evolving all the time. 

Evolutionary Psychology and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy serves us with the ability to figure out how to communicate and influence others by learning first how we communicate with ourselves in terms of personal motivation and drive.

Self Critical Approach to Personal Change

This means exploring our own personal beliefs and values as well as how we view.  It means asking lots of “what if” questions about personal shortcomings and opening up to others.  It requires us to see the world and change in a pessimistic or optimistic way and to recognise that we can master our emotions.

As a Trainer of Neuroscience and interpersonal influence I use the techniques to coach people to be all they can be and move them away from self limiting beliefs towards improving personal performance.

We only achieve results through other people - so it should come as no surprise that equipping people with these skills considerably improves their ability to influence others to achieve stretching targets and work more effectively as team members.

No. 9: Invest in Your People

There is probably no danger of an organisation over training their staff to work on the process of change.  Bearing this in mind, it is critical to work out the key skills which you require to manage your business not just now, but in 1-3 years time.  Forward thinking businesses identify core competencies and train their staff in these, quickly. 

I believe the core competencies fall in the area of communication and change management.   Encouraging managers to replace cultures and styles of ‘control’ with ‘trust’ does not happen without an injection of enthusiasm and skill.

Unconscious Competence 

Skill is the operative word here because it implies that practise is vitally important.  As we have each adopted skills to drive a car, speak foreign languages or play an instrument we have gone through the process of over learning achieving the end state of unconscious competence.  We can do things automatically – everything is in a state of flow and ease. 

In other words our learning has become an unconscious process - we no longer have to consciously think of every movement, word or note in order to demonstrate our competence. 

This is the same standard we need to develop with what I call the ‘meta’ skills of communication and change management.  We should practise until we are an expert and then we don’t even have to think about them - because they are mastered.

No.10: Create a Team of Internal Facilitators - Line Managers

Successful organisations have a trained team of line managers who can facilitate change on many levels.  It doesn’t matter if change is involved with Culture Change, Business Transformation, Re-engineering, Re-structuring, Rightsizing, System Integration etc. - the process of change is still the same. 

It is the same because we can only change through people and working with teams.  Once an organisation is equipped with an internal capability to manage the process, reliance on external sources diminishes. 

A further advantage is that this leads to significant personal development of staff at senior level and there will be a noticeable improvement in general management of resources and the business. 

Change should be driven by Line Managers

The final point is that change should always reside in the line, and not with HR.  HR has their very important role in providing resource and even best practise.  HR can be extremely useful advisors but lasting change takes place only when front liners see their direct line manager as a coach, leading and facilitating the process of change.

philip@philipatkinson.com