Organization Transformation – Demystifying the Brew – Part 2

My experience tells me that leaders, in general, are very clear about what they want to achieve (in their mind). They also have a fairly clear and in most probability a visual picture of the outcome desired (again in their mind). Where leaders struggle is to articulate this vision. Converting the dream into a well-defined, accepted end state is a challenge for every leader.

Executing transformational changes is tough – and the race to the finish is new, vague or ambiguous and can lead into unchartered territory and un-thought-of risks.

The recipe for ensuring that one stays on track and remains focused is something that every leader evolves himself or herself. With this sequel blog, I will aim to explain some techniques that I use:

a.      Communicate as much as you can (I know this is a repeat from last time, but this is the most important ingredient for success).

Communicate the vision. This has to be done multiple times during the entire transformation journey. I always start every All-hands meeting generally with the vision slide. Every member of the team should be able to explain what that slide means to the organization and what is the desired end outcome. Make this communication repeatable. Ensure every leader in your organization, every manager of your organization uses this in their team communications. Repeating is necessary, it will lead people to believe there is consistency, stability and constancy.

One another thing that I try and make a part of my communication pack is the impact this will have on all members of the team. For this, I take into account all roles (technical, functional, project management) and try and articulate the impact of this change to them. Successful change beginnings always happen when you are able to excite every member of your team with how the transformation will benefit their career.

b.     Build the winning team. Ideally, 100% of your team should get aligned. Realistically, this isn’t going to happen. It is therefore necessary for you to understand who are the change movers and shakers. It is these set of people who will strive their level best, who will push themselves to the edge, who will stretch and help you achieve your vision. It is these colleagues who eventually will execute the change, be the change agents and multipliers and convert the rest of the people in. This section of people are important because they will build the initial success stories which can then be used to bring the neutral people in.

Over time, it is necessary that the team is converted person by person, team by team, naysayer, by naysayer. This has to be one of the pieces mentioned in point c. no mission can succeed 100% if the entire organization is not aligned to it.

c.      Build the dream slowly piece by piece. I always break down the end goal into smaller, and manageable executables. Each of this “piece” should by itself be a part of the dream that can demonstrate success and progress visually. Each such milestone should be accompanied by its own success measures, entry and exit criteria. It has always achieved several purposes for me:

a.      At the planning stage - Cleared the ambiguity in the mind and defined clear executable step. It also helps to reduce the complexity of the change and brings in hope into the team that they can achieve the end state

b.     During execution – Ensured that the team has ample opportunities to celebrate the journey and smaller milestones.

c.      Focus - Typical change journeys end to end last about eighteen months. The organization can witness lot of changes in the surround ecosystem. People tend to work the most during the ending timeline of the project / program. If there is nothing they need to showcase in the interim, chances that execution is slow are very high

This piece is the most important step of the entire execution matrix. Some things that have helped me here are:

a.      First few milestones should be easy. They should be low hanging fruits. Effort taken to get to the exit criteria for this should be low. Allows faster execution, high positive energy in the system

b.     Increase complexity and size of pieces slowly. I always determine what the change quotient my team can deliver! A 10% stretch on that is the maximum that you can plan for. Ideally, keep a 10-15, may be 20% buffer. This allows for re-planning and course correction

c.      I am the first to say I made a mistake. It makes failure simpler to face and acknowledge. It makes failure yet another step towards eventual success. The team around you needs to understand failure is necessary to continuously improve.

d.     Recognizing team stress – the team may not be willing to acknowledge their inability to deliver a milestone. Recognizing this stress in reviews will help you become more empathetic to them and change course.

e.     Remaining flexible – if a particular activity is not happening, move away for some time and come back. Sometimes, a break helps in these kinds of change executions

f.       Never taking on more than what I can handle. I have seen for effective tracking (and not execution), I can at best be with 3 and at worst with 5 initiatives. Don’t overcrowd yourself. You will get frustrated and lead the team to failure. Remember, if your winning team sees you lose interest, they lose it too.

An analogy to this execution framework is really the agile way of working. Create user stories, break them into features and execute the features. But be careful, what your role is, be a product owner and not a scrum master.

d.     Review of success measures – The first stage to this is to define the success measures. Each milestone or “piece” should have a success criteria. It is then necessary for the leader to review the same periodically. My experience leads me to believe that if the leader does a review at a pre-defined periodicity, the organization is put under pressure to deliver and execute new things every time.

e.     Celebrate & Recognize – Every milestone should have an attached celebration event with it. Celebration need not have a monetary reward linked to it. I have worked with certificates, books, a mail sent to the entire organization and each of these does wonders. One needs to decide what is apt for the event. I also try and bring in diversity to the rewards and celebrations and try and map them to events in the larger organization. When one does that, the impact of the change can be woven to the larger org’s vision and mission and then the celebration is far more profound by itself.

The last blog in this series will reflect on my experience on building team culture. I would like to say thank you to a lot of people who have send feedback 1x1. It is appreciated and I hope this attempt is therefore better than the previous ones. As usual, keep flowing in the feedback. More in next.