Five Questions That Should Shape Any Change Program

Most organizations will shrink or disappear in the long term: only a third of excellent companies remain excellent for decades, and when organizations try to transform themselves, even fewer succeed. But as economic, political, social, and technological change continue to accelerate, and competitive pressure grows more intense, leaders can't afford those odds. The likeliest way to overcome them, is to address the underlying problem: organizations that focus too much on short-term financial performance, at the expense of organizational health, are those that most typically need transformational change; but, unfortunately, the change programs they create are similarly shortsighted.

Change programs that succeed put an equal emphasis on both performance and health in answering five basic questions that should shape any change program. Leaders who do this not only get near-term improvements, but also successfully build their organization's capacity to learn and keep changing over time — keeping them ahead of the pack….

Discover the 5 questions in this excellent article of HBR

Image Flickr - ?? Valerio Loi

Asian Rise : when will it catch up with USA ?

Dear Readers,

Happy 2012 !

To celebrate this New Year, I would like to share some interesting statistics about India and China economics growth .... and predictions about the date that they will catch up with United States in terms of income per person.... big Change & challenge to come. Although 2 years old, this is a very good eye opener by the excellent Hans Rosling at TED-Conference in India.

Get ready !

The 4 key principles to succeed an offshoring project

After 2 years of experience on Offshoring projects, there are 4 key principles that I can share with you. These principles should be applied in addressing the Change Management approach:

1. The Roles and Responsibilities regarding offshored team set up activities (trainings, ramp up, etc.) should be clearly defined as soon as the beginning of the project.

2. Since Change Management is a transversal stream, the Change Management approach and all Change Documents should include the whole business scope including Offshored business scope (even if a transition team is responsible for the offshored team set up and activities). For instance, the process presentation or Training documentation should cover the whole business process End to Ends (onshore & offshore).

3. To ensure the fluidity and efficiency of the new organization, it is essential that Change Management plan early as a key activity teambuilding between Onshore & Offshore.

4. When possible, planning a Pilot prior to actual Offshoring consists in offshoring a part of a process in the old system / old process and enables to reassure teams and empower them while creating collaboration between teams.

Image Flickr, Kaan Sezer
Thanks to Anne and Anna for their contribution to this post

Why do we need Change ? Have a look at this...

Offshoring gives multinational companies opportunities to create more values at lower costs; but what about Change Management ?

Offshoring gives multinational companies opportunities to create more values at lower costs. That means boost in productivity for the global economy – a bigger pie for everyone to share. But gains don’t flow automatically to the people it affects… Offshoring accelerate the pace of change in every society it affects.*

I am currently working on that kind of project. With the help of a strong team (Anne, Anna, Big thank you if you read this post), we have developed a methodology to mitigate the hardships of those who are impacted and ‘build bridges’ between teams and continents.

This the first post of a serie of 10 that will cover this topic. Let’s start by the beginning :

 Offshoring projects are projects aiming at offshoring a part or a whole business activity in another country . These projects have major impacts since they generally lead to :

• Change of business processes with new actors and business rules
• New organizations (to be aligned with processes),
• Change of skills of impacted populations,
• New resources offshored.

For Offshoring projects, the impacts on organizations, people and business are huge. Thus Change management is a key activity and a key enabler to ensure a smooth transition.

From a Human Resources perspective:
• Redeployment of resources,
• New offshore Teams Recruitment & Ramp up on business activities,
• Onshore teams transition to new skills/organization,
• Extended team management with possibly remote management,
• Multicultural differences.

From a Business Perspective:

• Continuity of Business activity,
• Fluidity and efficiency of processes,
• Support the development of analysis skills for onshore teams (usually identified as a key benefit in offshoring activities),
• Follow up KPIs and reach ROI.

The next post will cover the 4 Key principle for Change Management within offshoring projects.

* Offshoring, Understand the emerging Global Labor market- McKinsey Global Institute – Edited by Diana Farrell – Harvard Business school Press.
**Picture : Flickr, Andy Kaye, Ganesha
*** Thanks to Anne & Anna for their great contribution to this post.

Awarded !

I received the Change Management Trophee 2011 from ESSEC Business School and La Tribune Financial Newspaper ! Feels great !

Think different

Very inspiring.. worth to be shared !

Can traditional Managers be Change leaders ?

Unfortunately, traditional managers seldom make good change leaders. The reason is in the mindset. Good managers try to keep things under control; Change Leaders are determined to shake things up. Good managers drive results via budgets and quotas; Change Leaders achieve objectives by mobilizing a broad base of people. Good managers are often motivated by personal success; Change Leaders want to make a difference in performance. Good managers like to delegate; Change Leaders enjoy getting their hands dirty.

Good managers can probably learn Change Leaders skills if they acquire the right mindset, but few seem to be doing so…

Source : Mc Kinsey Quarterly
Image : estheticcore -Flickr

The 2 sides of change : an Elephant story …

Do you know Dan Heath's book : Switch, How to Change Things When Change Is Hard ?

The core idea of this excellent book is that there are two sides to the way human beings think about any issue.

There’s the rational, analytical, problemsolving side of our brains, which may think, “I need to eat less.” But there’s an emotional side that’s addicted to impulse or comfortable routines, and that side wants a cookie.

At work, the rational side may say that the company needs to go in a different direction. But the emotional side is comfortable with the old ways of thinking and selling, and it has great anxiety about whether the company can change successfully.

Dan Heath’s favorite metaphor for this dynamic comes from the psychologist Jonathan Haidt 1, who talks about a human riding atop an elephant. The Rider represents our analytical, planning side. The Rider decides, “I need to go somewhere, here’s the direction I want to go,” and sets off. But it’s the Elephant, the emotional side, that’s providing the power. The Rider can try to lead the Elephant, but in any direct contest of wills the Elephant is going to win—it has a six-ton advantage.

So part of achieving change, in either our lives or in organizations, is aligning both sides of the brain by pointing out the direction for the Rider but also motivating the Elephant to undertake the journey. Of course, the Path the Elephant walks down matters too. High-ranking executives can shape that Path, that environment, and make the journey easier even when the Elephant is less motivated.2

So, dear Readers, let’s take care of the Elephant too…Lets make our people think : “We’re the kind of people who can successfully make this change.”

1. The Happiness Hypothesis: Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science,

London: William Heinemann, 2006
2. In Switch, the words Rider, Elephant, and Path represent characters in the mental play

that the book describes.

Source :The Emotional side of Change, Mac Kinsey Quarterly

The boss of the bosses # 1

If you are lucky as I am, then you have your CEO supporting your transformation journey... and this is a big hit ! Research and experiences show that four key functions collectively define a successful role for the CEO in a transformation:

1. Making the transformation meaningful. People will go to extraordinary lengths for causes they believe in, and a powerful transformation story will create and reinforce their commitment. The ultimate impact of the story depends on the CEO’s willingness to make the transformation personal, to engage others openly, and to spotlight successes as they emerge.

2. Role-modeling desired mind-sets and behavior. Successful CEOs typically embark on their own personal transformation journey. Their actions encourage employees to support and practice the new types of behavior.

3. Building a strong and committed top team. To harness the transformative power of the top team, CEOs must make tough decisions about who has the ability and motivation to make the journey.

4. Relentlessly pursuing impact. There is no substitute for CEOs rolling up their sleeves and getting personally involved when significant financial and symbolic value is at stake.

Everyone has a role to play in a performance transformation. The role of CEOs is unique in that they stand at the top of the pyramid and all the other members of the organization take cues from them. CEOs who give only lip service to a transformation will find everyone else doing the same. Those who fail to model the desired mind-sets and behavior or who opt out of vital initiatives risk seeing the transformation lose focus. Only the boss of all bosses can ensure that the right people spend the right amount of time driving the necessary changes.

Source : Mc Kinsey Quaterly

SAY NO TO NO

Dear Readers,
It has been a while since I did not post anything...To be honest, I was busy fighting a big ennemy of mine : Negativity.
Here is a thought that keeps me inspired in those difficult days when you have to face some adversity..

Isn’t it high time someone got negative about negativity ?

Yes it is.

Look around. The worls is full of things, that, according to nay-sayers, should never have happened.
“Impossible”
“Impractical"
“No”

And yet “yes”.

Yes, continents have been found.

Yes, men have played golf on the moon.

Yes, genetic save lives.

Yes, Yes, Yes.

What does it take to turn no into yes ?

Curiosity. An open mind. A willingness to take risks.
And, when the problem seems most insoluble, when the challenge is hardest, when everyone else is shaking their heads, to say: let’s go.

Inspired from the excellent text : www.shell.com/realenergy

Photo Flickr Gerry Visco

Using Consultants in Change Programm

Consultant have been working with companies since the early post World war II era, when McKinsey and Boston Group Consulting Group began offering strategic planning advice to corporate executives...

Considering today's pressure on cost, it is important to understand how consultants can help you and how you an make the most of their services. 

Here is the help a consultant can bring you for your change initiative:

1. Diagnostic : a team of junior consutants gathers information both inside and outside the organisation with the goal of :
• determining where the company stands in terms of some measure of organisation performance
• the company problem's and the root causes with respect to that performance measure
2. Capabilities assesment : the capabilities of the companies human and physical resources are assessed
3. Strategy developement : working with management, the consulting team developes a strategy for reaching the desire level of performance.Depending on the situation, that strategy mai include various doses of employee training , process reengineering, organizational restructuring, and even some new information technologies.
4. Implementation : consultant team provide training and work with employees team to plan the change programm and operationalize the strategy.

As you move throught agenda, consultants should gradually assume background roles. Thus, the best appraoch to using consultants is bound to be heavily situational. If the goal is restructuring, change consultants can and should play a major role. They have very specialized knowledge and experience for these rare events. But if the change involves changing how people work, put your own people in change and use consultants as facilitators.


Sources : Surviving Change, Harvard Business press

Employees See Death When You Change Their Routines

Dear Readers,

Today I would like to share this excellent article written by James R. Bailey and Jonathan Raelin*... a bit pushy but very interesting ...Let's see your reactions..

You may have had this experience: You alter an employee's routine or change the way he's evaluated, and you get a reaction that's far bigger and more negative than anything you expected.

What did you do wrong? Probably nothing except underestimate his fear of death.

Sounds strange, but a fascinating field of research known as terror management theory has shed light on the connection between people's reactions to change and their awareness of the big change that awaits us all.

The basic idea is that people go to great lengths to repress awareness of mortality. Studies show that we create three existential buffers to protect us from this knowledge: Consistency allows us to see the world as orderly, predictable, familiar, and safe. Standards of justice allow us to establish and enforce a code of what's good and fair. Culture imbues us with the sense that we have contributed to, and are participating in, a larger and enduring system of beliefs.
Anything that threatens these buffers exposes us to the looming reality of death. Change an employee's routine, and you've undermined the consistency barrier. Tell a salesperson he'll no longer be evaluated on the basis of revenue and now must hit certain cross-selling and teamwork targets, and you've attacked his standard of justice. Alter the company's mission, and you've pierced the culture buffer by requiring him to reconstruct his worldview.
Faced with any of these changes, an employee is likely to feel deeply threatened. The more people feel threatened, the more they dig in — or try to escape. One of us (Bailey) took the latter route when the university where he was working as a young professor merged its separate business schools. Faced with the prospect of new colleagues, new students, new campuses — and, most distressing, new promotion committees — he left the job within months.
Fortunately, there's a lot leaders can do to ease employees' unconscious fear of death. Be consistent — make sure employees are informed about, and trained in, new operational procedures well in advance of any change, allowing them to acclimate. If there are to be changes in performance measurement, painstakingly explain the shifts to illustrate their implications. If there's to be a rethinking of culture, create a detailed and nuanced justification for why beliefs and values need to change — culture shift is less threatening if it's honestly framed as a needed adaptation. And leaders should acknowledge that change equals loss. Otherwise they'll appear clueless.


Change is necessary, but so is an understanding of how it invades people's critical bulwarks against the awareness of mortality. We can't stave off death forever, but good leadership can temper the debilitating effects of being reminded of it at work.

*James R. Bailey is the Ave Tucker Professor of Leadership and chair of the Department of Management at the School of Business, George Washington University. Jonathan Raelin is an assistant professor at the University of Bath in the UK.

Image : Flirk from Stefan, Jean Le squelette

Engaging Employees

Successful implementation is greatly facilitated when the people carrying out the change are engaged in the process and buy in to the strategy and tactics.

Ideally, this should involve:

• Acceptance

• Understanding

• Willing participation

• Enthusiasm

Achieving this requires two-way communication: not just top-down dissemination of instructions and information, but also soliciting and listening to workforce questions, concerns, and suggestions. Attention should also be paid to building motivation and incentives into the change process, such as recognition and reward programs and links to compensation.
Finally, critical to the success of any change initiative is follow-up during and after implementation to evaluate the new processes and modify them if they are not having the intended impact on departments or individuals.

Employee Engagement Tools : Be open, and invite employee participation and communication.

1. Communicate (in multiple directions):
• Convey strategic goals, rationale, and overall direction of change.
• Communicate constantly about what is different and how it affects people
• Communicate about links to corporate culture and other systems.
• Solicit feedback.
• Use multiple communication methods: Web sites, newsletters, focus groups, town hall meetings, information centers, and the like.

2. Think globally:
• Conduct surveys and interviews to determine employee views and needs.
• Obtain early input about impact on employees and their roles and functions.

3. Act locally:
• Facilitate effectiveness of local leaders and build trust within units.
• Create employee-driven teams.
• Reorganize work assignments effectively and equitably.

4. Provide motivation and incentives:
• Link implementation to objectives, compensation, HR practices.
• Establish recognition and reward systems.
• Empower employees in the change process.

5. Follow-up:

• Conduct surveys to assess successes, hurdles, and employee engagement. 

• Respond to employee suggestions and concerns.

Source: The conference Board

Image Flickr

Tips for identifying Change Agents...

After we spoke about change resister, it is fair enough to discover Change Agent ...

1. Find out who people listen to. Change agents lead with the power of their ideas. But be warned : these may not be employees with formal authority to lead.
2. Be alert to people who think 'otherwise'. Change Agent are not satisfayed with things 'as they are'.
3. Take a close look at new employees who have come from outside the circle of traditional competitors. They may not be infected with the same mindset as everyone else.
4. Look for people with unsual training or experience. Chance are she sees the world through a different lens.

Who are the Change resisters... and how to identify them ?

The Change resisters will either drag their feet or actively attempt to undermine your effort...

You can identify potentiel resisters by undermining where and how change will create pain or loss in the organisation. Once you have identify them, there are several things you can do to neutralize their resistance or make them active participants. These includes : explaining the urgent need to change, describing how change will produce benefits for them, and finding new ways in which they can contribute. People who do not respond to these efforts should should be moved out of your unit...

Photo -TazX - Flickr

Change readiness : Self Diagnosis

Do a little assesment of your own organization.

Consider how it has approach change in the past and how it is approaching any current activities.

Then score it using the brief diagnostic test, using a 1-5 scale ( 1= strongly disagree, 5 strongly agree).

Our organization...                                                                                                                         

1. Mobilise Energy and Commitment to change through joint diagnosis of business problems
2. Develop a shared vision of how to organise and manage for competitiveness
3. Identifies leadership
4. Focuses on results, not on activities
5. Spread changes to other units without pushing it from the top
6. Institutionalizes success through formal policies, systems, and structures
7. Monitor and adjust startegies in response to problems in the change process

How does your organisation fare on these parameters? A score of 3 or less in any category points to serious weakness that you'll want to identify and correct.

Source: Surviving change, Harvard Business press - Photo Dasha_K, Flickr

Meet the Ninja : managing changes...

 Dear readers,

Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organisations from a current state to a desired future state. As one of the most exciting challenges leaders will face, Padraig Hyland explains how getting change management right is critical to leadership success.

In this program, you will find out:

* What the different kinds of change management transformations are

* Why change management is so critical

* How to manage change successfully


Enjoy !! Funny and very accurate ...

As ever, I am intererested in your comments !

Dear Readers,

Today, I will focus on the preparation of the communication activities.

Action 1. Perform a stakeholder analysis

First of all, your change team will have to prepare a stakeholder survey. It will help you to understand and manage stakeholder expectations, assess ownership and commitment to the change journey at various point of the project life cycle, influence attitudes as much as possible to maximise the chances of the success of the project, validate and check that ownership commitment levels are aligned with where the project is in the life cycle, manage the approved change initiatives and incentives at the project level.

Practically, you need to do the following:

• Create a questionnaire ( if you need examples, just ask me)
• Plan questionnaire administration cycles, tool to be used and population targeted
• Launch the questionnaire and analyse feedback. This will be your basic to go to next steps
• Organise workshops with the management to dicuss main result and identify corresponding action plan.

Dear readers,

In the coming post I will focus on Communication during Change project. As a matter of fact, during this period, it is very important to develop a specific communication.
As you may know, large-scale changes impact people in a different way... and create a drop in performance.

• The implementation of a new project often sees a drop in business and individual performance


• Depending on how you manage the change process, will determine how deep your organisation will dip into the "valley of despairs"


• It is possible to minimize the time it takes to navigate through the changes and return to productivity-but it requires a comprehensic change programme
  
• By successfully managing the changes you can accelerate the delivery of business benefits and optimize overall business performance