From HBR : Managing an organizational transformation, executives tell us, is like trying to change the wheels on a bike while you're riding it. You have to take your organization apart and put it back together in a new way, but you have to keep the business running at the same time. It's a lot to ask, and the senior leader bears much of the burden.
Being at the top of an organization makes you uniquely visible: consciously or not, you provide cues about what matters that everyone else will follow. When we were researching Beyond Performance, we found that little had been written about this crucial responsibility during a transformation. So we drew on our own involvement in scores of major change programs to identify the roles that only senior leaders can perform.
1. Make the transformation meaningful
Whether employees buy into a change effort can spell the difference between success and failure. Senior leaders tap into employees' energy by making the transformation personal and openly engaging them.
Successful leaders often allude to formative events in their own life to show their determination to overcome obstacles. When Andy Grove was CEO of Intel, he used his personal story of escaping Communist-controlled Hungary at the age of 20 to push the company to make bold decisions as they transformed into a giant in the semiconductor industry.
Connecting with people takes time and effort. Corrado Passera, CEO of Banca Intesa, traveled all of Italy to spread the bank's transformation story to its 60,000 employees. He told us, "You have to put your face in front of people if you want them to follow you."
2. Be the change you want to see the mindsets and behavior you want to see
When you're asking others to transform how they get work done, it's incredibly powerful for you to transform how you get work done as well.
After John Akehurst tackled underperformance at Woodside Petroleum, he admitted to us that "It took a lot of effort for me to recognize that I am responsible for the culture of the organization, and how dysfunctional my behavior was and what an impact it had on other people." Learning to be humble, to listen, and to trust intuition as well as analysis helped Akehurst and his team turn the business around.
Well-chosen symbolic actions can have an impact out of all proportion to their size. At Infosys, chairman N. R. Narayana Murthy habitually pays the difference between a single and a double hotel room when he takes his wife on business trips. He explained to us, "Credibility comes from eating one's own food before recommending it to others," an attitude that helped Murthy transform a company started with $250 in seed capital into a global leader in consulting and information technology.
3. Build a strong and committed top team
It's likely that not everyone on your team wants — or is able — to change. Ask yourself about each one: Does this individual know what they must do to make the transformation succeed? Is it clear what will happen if they don't get on board? Have I given them a chance to build the skills they need? Have I been modeling the target mindsets and behavior? If the answers are yes, swift action is warranted.
That's what happened at Seagate, the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives, during its transformation led by Steve Luczo: "We said, we will work as a team. So we needed to find out who was on the bus and who was not and to do it fast. I got rid of two top people in the first three to four months."
Taking tough decisions can have a surprisingly positive impact on the rest of the organization. High performers become more motivated, low performers opt out, and those in the middle realize they need to raise their game.
4. Relentlessly pursue impact
In a change effort where real value is at stake, there's no substitute for simply getting involved in the details. Kicking off a transformation is one thing, but sticking with it is what really counts.
Larry Bossidy, reflecting on leading a transformation of AlliedSignal, wrote, "Many people regard execution as detail work that's beneath the dignity of a business leader. That's wrong ... it's a leader's most important job." This means getting involved in the problem-solving on high value initiatives, making quick decisions when barriers appear, and staying on top of the numbers. We've learned that the adage "In God we trust, everyone else brings data to the table" fully applies during a transformation.
By playing these four roles, the most senior leader can greatly improve the odds of success for any organizational transformation.
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