I thought it was a good idea to to start a business blog to supplement the journal articles I write on change management.
(PDF Articles) I trust that some of the issues raised here may be of interest to you to pursue away from this blog of ideas and thoughts. The blogs run in date order with the most recent at the top of this page.
Stretching Targets - Converting Prospective Customers to Eager Activists
The recent blog on setting objectives has created somewhat of a creative and competitive frenzy with some of my friends and colleagues. I have been challenged to find 100 people before Christmas 2006 who will take an active interest in my business and may well be customers one day. Foolishly, I have taken the challenge. I know I cannot win over a 100 new customers - in such a short time, there are only 55 days till Christmas day. I have a busy schedule running several Leadership events, and also am working on some research projects - so winning new customers is out of the question and how could these be served in the time frame?
It's the challenge that interests me. Realistically, is it possible to convert interest into action? I believe it is. It's worth rising to the challenge just to prove that 'perspiration is more powerful than inspiration!'
To make the challenge measurable, I have to define 'active interest' as a change in behaviour towards working with me in partnership.
It's not important to me that financial transactions take place, rather that the chemistry is there to reflect a growing set of relationships that will provide sustenance to both parties. Okay, active interest could be in either others buying a book, or one of business games on our website. But equally, it could be initiating a meeting that goes beyond initial discussions and results in some form of joint commitment. It means simply that a serious business relationship has been initiated. Active interest, by my understanding, means there is some psychological commitment to pursuing the relationship where there are wins for both sides.
You see, this challenge interests me in a wider sense because it reflects one's attitude towards that most important person - the customer. We know the average organisation does not focus enough attention on retaining their present customers. If this is the case, and we fail to retain existing customers, what action are we taking to acquire new ones? We know it is wiser and more economical to focus on existing customers rather than winning new ones - but we have to ensure that we are continually working with new people to fill the places of customers who simply die, go out of business, move, or defect to other providers.
So the challenge is set. I know one thing that will help me is the belief that everyday I am going to meet one or two people with whom I will share a special chemistry. That chemistry is enough to get us together considering how we can help achieve mutual significant benefits. Sometimes, the chemistry is right but timing is not right. Perhaps we will not do business for several months or years - but frankly, I don't care. Because, if the chemistry and the relationship is right - I can be patient and wait for the right time when we can work on a 'win - win' solution for both sides.
Now I have this challenge, it will be interesting to see how things unfold in the 55 days ahead (this includes weekends). I am attending two events tomorrow (November 1st) - it will be interesting to see if any of my prospective 100 'active interest' people will be in attendance. I am optimistic.
"In a research project at Yale in 1951 - the graduating students were asked a series of questions about how they planned their future career. It was found that only 3% of that group had committed to their career development and had a written plan of action. The research was longitudinal in nature examining trends and changes in behaviour. Twenty years later the surviving members of that group were brought together again. It was established that the 3% of the group that had planned their careers had high net worth and more wealth than the remaining 97%."
It's pretty interesting research because the last few days I have been focusing on goals for my business and for self in a wider context. What behaviours in terms of goal setting would support the 3% that set and wrote a written plan of action? Here are some thoughts that work for most achievement orientated folk.
What are the behaviours that you can apply that characterise these successful people?
You have to truly desire a goal. It cannot be a vague wish, but something that you really want for yourself. If it is compulsive and compelling for you will achieve it. It has to absorb your every thought. Be really specific - what is it that you want to become, do or have? You have to relentlessly pursue this strategy to make it work for you. The reason a lot of people don't achieve their goals is they don't want them enough.
You have to believe that you have the ability to achieve the goal. It has to be believable, realistic, and at the same time, stretching. If its too easy, you will not bother.
You have to define how that goal will benefit you. The more benefits you attract, the more likely that you will achieved the goal. If you cannot list ten benefits then it's probably not for you. If you cannot think of very clear advantages to having the goal you'll probably not be motivated to achieve it. Do you really, really want it?
You have to write down your goals and be very specific. Precision and specificity is the key
There are people who believe you should tell others of their goals. The thinking is……..if they start to go off target……….they try to leverage the loss of face with friends and colleagues to steer them back on course. I completely disagree with this approach. Keep your goals to yourself - you don't want others criticising or dissipating your efforts and your energy.
Don't assume others will support you. People generally don't like change. Your immediate group of colleagues or friends may not like it if you set yourself apart from them with new standards. If you want to achieve beyond your reference group, you may lose some relationships on the way. That's the reason why many people don't change. It's sometimes easier seeking approval from 'your group' and sharing the same cultural norms - than going off to achieve your potential.
You have to measure where you are now and assess the gap you have to bridge to reach your goal.
Set deadlines for the completion of your goals and review constantly - are your actions taking you closer or further away from your goals? Constantly experiment and change your behaviour to move you onwards and upwards.
Eliminate those things that will stop you achieving your goals.
Visualise and form a clear picture of yourself achieving the goal. Imagine how you will feel and the pride of achievement.
Now, write a detailed plan of the actions you will take today to bring it closer to you.
The research from Yale suggests that we live in a society where people let things happen to them rather than live and shape their life the way they want. The oft quoted statement seems to hold water….."if you fail to plan - you plan to fail."
If you knew you could not fail, to what would you aspire?
Today is Sunday. The clocks went back one hour to winter time. So we have an extra hour today. What will we do with it? I decided after yesterday's blog that I would commit to an activity that could 'add value' for the business. We have been revising our self development manual so I thought it would be a good idea to commit to goal setting and revise that section. I think I learn most from listening to others and the advice from an old tutor of mine who uttered the immortal question was the driver for the rewrite - "If you knew you could not fail, to what would you aspire?"
This statement is what I refer to as a "solution centered" approach. It makes no reference to the past, or to one's limitations or even weaknesses. The statement avoids looking at 'self limiting beliefs and behaviours. That's what holds most people back from creating the life they want to live. You can hear it in the language that people use. "I'd love to do become a X, but I'm no good at Y. " "I'd like to run my old business but I am too old,……….. too young……too inexperienced etc". Pick you own self limiting beliefs. We all have them. I caught myself talking to myself……...I was thinking about fitness. I used to run marathons............I thought......"I'd would like to complete a Triathlon but my technique in the front crawl is very poor." ...........Just wait a minute and think........Yes, it is now but with the right swimming coach I could be ploughing up and down the Commonwealth Pool at a great rate of knots. Now, I do pay a great deal of attention to my 'self talk' so I decided to keep a diary for two days recording any 'self limiting thoughts'. If I managed to catch myself engaging in negative self talk - like " I cannot do………" or "I'm not very good at Z" or ","I'll never be able to do Y.." I would note it down. It's amazing how much negative self talk there is in one medium sized head!
Beliefs - both positive and negative, are what enable or stop us in achieving our goals. If we have negative, disempowering beliefs about our abilities it's unlikely we will achieve our full potential. However, we can change this very quickly to develop empowering positive beliefs. Most of us rely too much on the past in terms of determining our future. We refer to the past as a permanent yardstick for what we can achieve in the future. But the past does not equal the future. It's only a guide. To reverse self limiting beliefs, we have to focus on the incidents in our mind when we believe we were not able to rise to the challenge. Instead of attributing negative connotations to such incidents, we should seek to reframe our experiences in a more constructive light. Instead of failing to get the interview for the much prized job - we may care to reframe the experience as being a useful learning opportunity. We may want to rethink the good things that have arisen since then. We may care to redefine the learning that has taken us forward.
Refining our beliefs system is the fastest way of changing our behaviour. Remember, it's not what happens to you that shapes you, but how you "react" to what happens to you. Henry Ford was right when he said "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't you're right.
So think again and answer the question "If you knew you could not fail, to what would you aspire?" in a positive frame of mind.
Self Motivation: What's the best use of my time right now?
This above quote is taken from MacKenzie's book, 'How to master your time and your life'. The quote that takes me back to the start of my business when I focused purely on personal and management development and ran endless workshops on my variant of Time Management. "What's the best use of my time right now?" is a great question to ask of ourselves because it forces us to cut through the dross and focus on our priorities.
Just thinking of those words now, inspires me to rethink my 'to do' list and replace the things I feel comfortable doing with those things that will make a huge difference - even if its only raking up the leaves from the garden!
So, I also note that the we gain an extra hour tomorrow because we revert to 'Winter' time. So for once we all have 25 hours for one day. Whoopee! Will we lie in bed or really take advantage of that extra hour?
I wrote a book which is soon to be published entitled - "Who's driving your bus?" It is deliberately short at 25,000 words which can be read in a few hours. Its focus is on radically changing your life and circumstances. The main theme is that "too many of us spend too much time earning a living rather than creating our life the way the we want to live".
We focus more on what we want to Have, possessions, materials wealth etc rather than focusing on who we want to Be in terms of our identity and what we want to Do - in other words, how we take action. Having only comes about by Being first and Doing second. Wishing that someone will discover your talent by accident is relying on sheer chance and luck. Creating the circumstances that shape, attract and provide 'skip loads' of luck by doing something is completely different. The reality is we all can shape our future. If you are waiting for the Good Fairy to pay you a visit and grant three wishes - it's a long wait. There is only one person who can shape your future and it's not the Lottery rollover jackpot or the Horoscope - it is you!
All this thinking takes me to my main point today which is 'how can we shape the world we want to create for ourselves. Most people spend little or no time planning for their future. Participants in workshop sessions tell us they are too busy running their life to take time out to work through an illuminating life planning process. The sad truth is we can spend more time reading the daily newspapers and watching TV, than we invest annually in planning how to shape our life. Let's face it, sometimes it just easier to take things as they come along. The trouble with this is at the end of your days to many of us look back wishing things had been different.
Research on life expectations undertaken with 80 year olds in a Nursing home suggested that if folk had their time again they would do two things - 'love more' and 'take more risks'. These results are poignant for us all. Take the obituary test now. What will your obituary say about you? Write it now with no more than twenty words. Read it slowly and consider how you can shape things to achieve what you really want.
A great feature of Stephen Covey's work - 'The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People concentrates on focus and vision. Starting with the end in mind is the first of the seven principles and a leader in helping us shape our new business. Too few businesses articulate their direction in a 'statement' to which customers and staff alike can relate. Such a statement cannot be too short nor can it be too long.
We don't quite agree with verbose mission statements. We believe a simple one liner should focus the energies and the direction of the business. We are not into the dreadful corporate slogans of "We believe in leadership"…….."In Teamwork we trust"…"We aim to delight the customer"………… These statements adorn 'T' shirts, coffee mugs and screen savers, but in reality do little to breathe life into the thrust of a business.
In our new business we wanted something simple that would indicate that we are achieving two things, supporting companies who are acquiring or merging with other businesses, and providing financial services businesses with the platform and the wherewithal on how to expand their operations into Europe.
Merging companies is a minefield for many. The real secret is to skillfully merge the business interests of the partners. In too many instances, the two partners do not merge together. Often, long after acquisition or merger takes place, the larger business still remains as two - each with its own culture and behaviours. The reality is that the business that has two 'distinct' and separate cultures cannot meaningfully co-exist and deliver effectively. Too much time is spent in political in- fighting and arguing over resources resulting in political and turf wars and, ultimately, customer dissatisfaction and decline in market share.
The shocking truth is that between 56% and 84% of mergers and acquisitions fail in achieving the 'synergies' purpose for which they were originally designed. That is now our area, based on our expertise - working on IT and cultural due diligence, and then forming a speedy post acquisition integration for the new larger entity.
In these two contexts of acquisition and expansion into Europe, the major theme of our work is ensuring that technology and culture grow together. Thus we developed the following strap line which we believe clearly articulates our future, "Integrating Culture & Technology for rapid growth". We know that only time will tell if this enables us to articulate our service, but we are confident that the seven of us are focused in the same direction with a keen commitment and energy to pursue our future. I don't think anyone could ask for a better start.
It 0250am and I have just returned from a two day 740 mile round trip to Milton Keynes with a ten hour workshop session thrown in. (No, I did not go to Milton Keynes for the concrete cows). I met with Peter and Terry who are two directors of a jointly shared new business. The business has seven key directors, two investors and a client portfolio with eager prospects. We focused our time in this preliminary meeting on getting the basics right. Our project is to develop a niche consultancy business focusing upon satisfying a deep need in financial services - i.e. it concentrates on integrating culture and technology in any change initiative concentrated on growing new business or on merging the interests of several businesses.
Starting a new business makes you focus your attention and time. Our task was to create clarity - to separate the wood from the trees. How is the business to position itself? How is it to create an identify that has influence with prospects and our existing clients? How can we focus our energies to supply organisations to those in most need of change and improvement? Are there any rules we can follow to make the task easier?
Most businesses lose the plot and never really 'bottom out' their strategic intent. We started our journey by focusing on the 'end in mind' and by concentrating on two issues: FOCUS & ENERGY.
We believe without a specific FOCUS, any business just goes round in circles. We also believe the business needs passion and ENERGY from its founders. Too much focus and too little energy - means the business will die because it's too theoretical with no momentum to sustain it. All 'energy' and little specificity in terms of direction, equates to all staff rushing around directionless with lots of motivation but no guidance. In other words, the business is run by "busy fools" with staff who soon suffer burn-out. Do these two scenarios' sound familiar in your organisation?
In the new business we must keep things simple. Time and effort is at a premium. Define specific focus and strategy in terms of services, customers and markets. Channel the energy of all to focus on key results areas with customer focus at the forefront. It's a winning formula whether you are a Hairdresser or Bank or Pub, Restaurant, Plumber or Consultancy. No matter the type or size of the business - you need 'passion' and 'purpose'. One without the other fails - having neither fails big time!
Can and do people really change? And do we in our businesses have the capacity to change? If not, are we wasting our time committing to programmes of change? These are the views of skeptical management teams who generally believe that change takes a great deal of time so it's pointless committing to it anyway. Unfortunately, they are hampered by personal doubts and self-limiting beliefs. When this view is shared, the whole business finds it difficult to believe that change can come about.
Enough of that negative stuff - a leopard really can change its spots. Inspiring stories tell me all the time that people can and do change very quickly. Every year the London marathon features runners who have dropped thirty pounds to complete the distance or what about the middle age mother who left school at 16 without qualifications going back to education in later life and getting a University degree. Look at the fine example of many smokers who gave up the evil weed, and the heart attack victim who abandons his excessive appetite for unhealthy food and drinking to create a new positive addiction in exercising. Yes, people can and do change. The success stories have a strong motivation. The secret to that motivation is they can clearly see the benefits and personally associate with them. Because their belief in the benefits that they will enjoy is strong, positive and compelling, they are drawn like a magnet to their new lifestyle change.
What can businesses learn from such stories? They can recognize that many change strategies fail to excite their staff. To make change work, those who design it have to ensure that they crank up the volume of the change process to engage the higher order emotions of delight.
Any good salesman will tell you that people buy benefits - yet what do most sales people do? Right, they forget benefits and sell around the features of the service or product. Wrong. To sell anything requires fleshing out all the benefits that will accrue. Right at the early stages of change you must win the hearts and minds of the target audience. If you still cannot do it, go back to the starting block and don't pass 'go' until you have the best benefits outlined. You must tangibly have the ability to demonstrate how these benefits will arise. You'll need to have some cause - effect relationships for how a change in behaviour will make the change happen.
It is straight forward and easy to design the change process to be self reinforcing. It's simply designing a learning strategy for creating new behaviours. Just remember to make the reasons and the advantages of change so compelling that change is welcomed rather than feared. And if you cannot find enough benefits for changing you have not done enough thinking.
Remember, those who change their personal habits and swap nights out in the bar for a gym membership, who have become smoke free and successfully moved up in their career all had one thing in common - the benefits that they experienced in their heads of changing their behaviour had such leverage that change was inevitable.
The Thinking that got us to where we are today will not get us to the next level.
Everything we have today was once no more than an idea, a mere thought. The thinking that got us to our present level in both our business and personal life is not enough to project us further. More of the same will generate exactly what we have now. If we want to operate at the same level, go on doing the same old things. Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results! How many of us are guilty for thinking like this and believe that somehow the 'magic fairy' is going to pop into our lives and manufacture us a better standard of life?
What will take us to the next level? It's appraising how we are doing and moving away from your zone of comfort. An old friend wondered why her business was not growing. The reason was she was unprepared to present her ideas to large audiences of decision-makers which would bring her a larger client base. She hated presenting. What was holding her back was her 'old thinking' that she would not be confident in front of a large group presenting.
Hugely increasing her confidence was a result of spending a few hours with her experimenting with dealing with various audiences with what I call "platform and persuasion skills". It was enough to get her to think differently. Tie in this with a little NLP and hey presto - a radical change in confidence. How was this? Confidence is only an emotional state and if we want to experience that state you can do that right now. We just need a bit of support, some rehearsal and wham - a new person. By focusing on simple things such as centering her energy, controlling her internal dialogue (that little voice inside that says "I don't think I can do this"), rehearsing the first fifty words for perfect delivery, using her body language, tonality and voice projection gave her the confidence to experiment with small and then larger groups.
So if we want to change something we have to get a little uncomfortable at first and stretch out of that zone of comfort to take the challenge.
It looks like the weekend has been devoted to working back through old books. It's easy to forget all the good stuff that is around. I revisited Charles Handy's book, 'Understanding Organisations'. It must have been reprinted many times but still provides a good analysis of organisational culture. You know what its like when you start looking through your bookshelves! I came across a whole series of audio tapes dating back to Tom Peter's In Search of Excellence and his most recent work 'Re-imagine'. I have a long journey this week from Edinburgh to Milton Keynes and back, and the tapes and CD's will be a useful 'refresher' on the drive.
I have always been keen a keen listener to tapes and CD's during the dead time of getting from one destination to another. I remember playing all 6 audio cassettes of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Successful people on a long trip to London. On the way back Tony Robbins and 'Awaken the Giant within' was a favourite that kept me alert and informed. I think I'll get a lot of good ideas while driving and listening to stimulating thinkers rather than just listening to the local radio station. In the average week I must drive for about 12 hours at least, and during that time I like to think that I am learning and filling my head with useful perspectives rather than listening to the radio. I would like to get an audio on two books I have read recently, 'Presence' by Peter Senge (of The Fifth Discipline fame) and Jack Welch's new book entitled Winning. Jack Welch is ex CEO of General Electric the largest and most profitable business in the world. His views are straight talking and challenge the ways things are done. I guess I'll just have to be patient until they are produced.
Gain a deep understanding of what makes organisations tick
The weekend is always a good time to catch up with reading. There never is enough time yet it's important to keep up with new trends and issues in change management. But this week instead of flashing through the local Borders Bookshop in Edinburgh and spending some time working through the titles I instead revisited an excellent textbook. It constantly surprises me that not enough managers have anything like a good grounding in organisational and individual behaviour. If they don't have the basics in understanding organisational dynamics they will hardly get that knowledge from a 'made simple' or 'one minute manager' sequel.
I revisited Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text written by David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski. The depth and the treatment that these two authors bring to bear on the subject is outstanding. No wonder it's the recommended text for most MBA programmes. Reading through the chapters was a stimulus to think back many years ago when David and I were colleagues in a management School in Edinburgh. David is now Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Cranfield Business School and has an impressive list of publications under his belt. I would recommend any one who was interested in managing people to buy the book. It really is a distillation of all subjects under the umbrella of organisational psychology - focusing on all the components of management including leadership, team building and motivation. I recommend it because it deals with a serious subject in easy style that enables us all to understand the dynamics that underpin culture and how things work in every business.
Another reason I like the book is that it has substance and is far better than some of the pop psychology tests that proclaim you can master leadership in a week or become a team building guru and 'in one minute' or capture all knowledge of how to motivate people by buying one of the for dummies texts that seem to be featured in management section bookshelves. To find out more about David's text go to this link
David & Andrews's book on Organisational Behaviour
I was talking yesterday with a good friend and colleague Nick Price, CEO of
Bright Purple (www.brightpurple.co.uk) about the problems companies experienced with sustaining change initiatives. We discussed key factors that most companies failed to consider and Nick posted this up on his blog site to stimulate interest Nick Price. I have posted some of the main themes here for regular visitors to my site. This business blog is a little long and still relevent. If you have any comments please include them in our enquiry and comments form here.
I believe the single biggest driver in creating meaningful improvement and change in any business is investing in superior leadership direction and behaviour. To be blunt, in most businesses ‘without leadership, there will never be any meaningful change at all’. In the absence of leadership, people are left in the dark, often unclear of what is expected from them, with little guidance or direction. Signposts have to be clarified of what behaviours are encouraged from those that are not. Business experts know that powerful leadership culture is the driver that causes performance to improve.
Align Strategy & Culture
Few businesses really focus on aligning strategy with leadership behaviour. My belief is that simply assuming leaders will evolve by accident or default is a key weakness for many management teams.
What also concerns me is that many have difficulty with the term and don’t understand their own ‘culture’. When they use phrases like ‘culture change’ many wrongly associate the phrase wrongly with tree hugging, being nice to people, instilling a sense of harmony etc. They don’t see the immediate impact on people and business performance it can have if designed correctly.
Culture Change based on Action
An effective culture change program is designed with tangible benefits in mind, focused on strategic intent, the customer and centred on action not theory. It has to be challenging and inspiring for all and based on doing, not simply talking a good game! It needs to take performance to the next level. It must lead to results that can be assessed on the balance sheet. If it does not do these things, don’t do it!
Behaviour Drives Results
Leadership is identifying and rewarding behaviours which impact improvement. This can be done quickly, without fuss and fanfare. Effective leadership development programs should be focused on having a huge impact on bottom line results. Once leadership behaviour is established, the whole culture will change. Contrary to popular belief, culture change does not ‘take too long’. It takes as long as management teams want it to take. That’s the truth.
You need a strong Culture that allows Leadership to drive Change
What’s also important is tailoring leadership to fit the business. You cannot just buy it off the shelf. Also leadership does not just reside at the top. I have seen very huge successes with companies like General Electric, who actually believe that there is no such thing as too much leadership. Accordingly, their culture change programmes such as WorkOut, Change Acceleration, Six Sigma etc have all been totally reliant on having the right leaders and culture in place as a foundation for new change strategies.
Thankfully, more and more companies are seeing the light and believe that ‘ behaviour is the lead indicator of performance’. They also commit to programs that have impact on leveraging leadership to support teamworking. It’ obvious that with proper development, you get the people you deserve and any activity geared to focusing and rewarding behaviour that leads to measured improvement is the best investment any business can make.
October 19, 2006: Asking the right strategic questions with web design
Few days go past when I don't get a phone call or an email offering services in web design. When the calls get through and I talk with the sales staff - it appears that price rather than value is still the over-riding consideration both for buyer and customer. Just recently I realised how lucky I had been in the past. My current web designer is Andy Adamson who has recently celebrated his company,
Webadvertising, its 10th anniversary - quite something in a sector known for short life-spans. Andy has hundreds of clients including the prestigious Lowry Gallery in Manchester and he provides an integrated service of software design and delivery, web marketing etc.
Strategy: the difference that makes the difference
Andy wanted to explore my vision for my business. He wanted to look at it from my client's eyes. Quickly he recognised that "I was the brand" and the action was and how could we jointly ensure the identity of the business was well articulated.
Likewise, another provider Mark Reilly at Mindchutefocused on the detail to ensure that the site was well integrated and functional.
I have been very lucky in choice of partners in designing my sites over the years because so many people have problems with their sites and developing them from the 1st original shell. Key issues I think important include:
Does the supplier want to get to know your business?
Are they aware of the key driver of your business?
Do they understand what potential prospects associate as critical not just attractive about your services
Is the web designer curious about how your business can evolve and are they designing the structure for where you will be in two years time?
Do questions from the supplier focus more on costs rather than 'value added?'
October 17, 2006: Where does 'Ownership' for implementing change reside?
Does it reside in HR or OD or the line itself? For me, ownership for change always resides in the line or in operations. Often HR take the helm, not just because they are people focused, but often because of the absence of ownership by those in the line whatever the function or operation. I thought this issue was put to rest in the early 90's with total re-engineering solutions but it still resides in too many businesses today. You may want to ask yourself these questions regarding 'ownership' for implementing change:
From where does the push for change orginate?
What are the issues driving change?
Of the issues driving for change - how important are Technology vs. Systems, vs Processes vs. People?
Who drives the agenda - is it Technology, Marketing, Customer Services, HR or Finance?
Who is going to hurt most if the changes are not implemented?
Where will the symptoms of this hurt appear to be most evident?
The key issue of failing to implement changes and enjoy the benefits often occurs because the ownership issue is vague and has never
been 'bottomed out'.
October 16, 2006: Scary - Creating an army of Change Agents
Just imagine for a second that you have been granted a wish to transform your business. How important would it be to create for yourself a highly skilled and motivated group of line managers who are also adept at managing and even mastering the process of change? What impact would that have on tranforming your business? Most business people agree that if they had sufficient internal resource they would save on the big spend of employing the big consultancy firms. Further, they would be secure knowing that those driving change understood the drivers, constraints and barriers to the business. Finally, having such a resource on tap surely would contribute to sustainability on driving those long-term projects. The management team still need to think through the real benefit of having a dual career ladder for line managers who have little place to go in terms of their career and their specialism. Having the opportunity to bloom and grow in a different area of expertise may help to remove the mid-career crisis when the question is asked - where next?
Much of my work in change management is focused on working with clients and sponsors of key projects. We focus our attention on developing a very tight partnership. It's my belief that consultant and client should be singing the same song and be able to support each other. This requires good rapport which is a genuine outcome of working with joint objectives and agreeing a well formed outcome. Even more important is dealing with the change management issues of those who have to implement the change - the targets for the change. It's not surprising that often the 'targets' are less than enthusiastic about the change. This requires the consultant to influence, negotiate team, persuade, cajole and deal with giving bad news on occasion. I'm always looking for new materials to support me and provide me with a fresh insight. Recently, I purchased a package which is part of a programme on Neuro Linguistic Programming which provided some sound insightful tools and strategies for radically improving 'Conversational Change'from David Shepherd of the Performance Partnership. It's worth checking out his website. At first NLP it can appear confusing but it’s much easier than one might think to understand and most of it you know unconsciously anyway! If you are involved in any training, teaching, coaching I'd suggest you can only benefit from the material.
October 13, 2006: Can we have too much Leadership?
The two most important factors in shaping organisational culture are; to what Leaders pay most attention, and how Leaders respond to critical incidents. Likewise, how Leaders respond to issues requiring prompt attention communicates what is important and what is not! Yet people in senior positions often forget that all eyes are upon them. Everybody is a boss watcher, translating the actions and behaviours of others as performance standards to be followed by all.
Leadership is a critical issue for many organisations today. It is the single most important factor in shaping the future of any business and yet few organisations grasp the Leadership challenge. Can you have too many leaders? I doubt it! For instance, how well does the average organisation shape the behaviour of people in Leadership positions? Do organisations differentiate between managerial and leadership behaviour and do they know the difference? The traditional view is that Leadership is about being a good manager, focusing upon achieving results in their field of expertise, task completion and managing people and processes. However it is more than this.
Leadership is about transforming the business. It is about challenging the way things are done, and doing them faster and better. It is about inspiring others to break out of their comfort zones and experimenting with new behaviours. Leadership is about enabling others in the team to achieve all they can, as well as managing day-to-day issues. Real Leaders motivate and drive performance by modelling the way and praising and rewarding people for a job well done.
How does the average organisation score against the 'Transformational Leader? Many need to radically shift the behaviour of their managers away from the 'transactional' to the 'transformational' model of Leadership and they can start straight away by asking some simple questions.
Who are the key people who should be key Leaders in shaping the future of the business?
What are the costs in business terms of failing to have positive and focused Leadership at every level?
To what actions must we commit to design, shape, support and reward Leadership behaviour?
What specific behaviours do we want managers to display to drive performance?
Equally, what behaviours do we want to discourage because they inhibit increased performance?
How can we establish clear links between the demonstration of Leadership behaviour and advancement?
What clear signs can we now give to demonstrate that Leadership will separate us from our competitors?
And finally, one last rhetorical question, can any organisation have too much Leadership? I have yet to find one that does!
October 11, 2006: Technology or People - which drives Change?
One of the key issues I usually confront when working on long-term projects is working with other consultants - such as those with IT or Technology, Systems of Process agendas. The equation that makes change work is that the two components of culture and people are the drivers who utilise processes, systems and technologies to drive results. Rekindling a working relationships with Dara Clarke, the CEO of
White Clarke Group has enabled us to merge our interests. Ten years ago we worked on important related projects within Financial Services which enabled us to support each others interventions in Volkswagen. We have continued with the same clients over this time on various projects and this has enabled us to rethink a sound methodology for change. We have created several models which are highlighted in the recently published article (Summer Edition of the Institute of Management Services Journal Achieving Cultural Excellence: Integrating Passion with Processes ) which can be downloaded with a click of the mouse. Let us know what you think as we have a series of articles focused on merging behavioural with systems and process solutions - the most exciting being Post Acquisition integration of systems and culture - which is based on earlier work of soft due diligence.
I love working with psychometrics. I like to know what makes people tick. It's great talking through a profile and supporting others to use profiling as part of their development. I started using profiling when I was a lecturer in management behaviour but now use it mainly for team building, leadership, presentation, coaching and for managers professional development. Looking back, I have been a registered user of Myers Briggs Type Indicator for over 20 years as well as OPP and SHL. That's a lot of profiling! But its only one tool of many in development and especially so in recruitment.
Just recently, I became somewhat concerned that some in the HR community have a rigid reliance on psychometrics insisting on using profiling as a very critical determinant of selection. I know of several large organisations that are literally bleeding because they will not take a balanced risk to recruit staff who only marginally fail to comply with the tight outline they think they require. Consequently, they have lots of vacancies to fill in a labour market with an under supply of talent.
In a tight job market, employers have to be a little more flexible and stand back from profiling to take a more balanced view. After all, profiling and psychometrics is not an exact science. I can tell you that two people can have the same or very similar profile yet often are entirely different when meeting them. They demonstrate their gifts and their talents and traits in different ways. The human personality is incredibly rich in its diversity and ability to grow. We may need to remember that much of our human condition is not reflected in inflexible traits but our ability to learn, grow, create and be flexible and responsive to challenges. With this in mind, some companies need to consider the need for flexibility in selection choices.
By focusing and outlining the critical success factors required for each post one could be prepared to develop staff from Day One on their employment. A firm and rigorous approach to coach and train new staff in perceived areas of weakness could be a method to overcome the shortage of talent in the marketplace. A key factor for me when supporting Recruitment drives is the degree of flexibility and ability of staff to learn. I think we need to move away from the 'template' idea of selection around a tight profile and commit to life long learning. I trust that this would help us in retaining the best staff by providing the security and the psychological reward of investing in learning and development for every employee.
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