Organizational Design and Change Management
The Challenge
Organizations don't outperform their leaders-they reflect them and their leadership style, skills, and capabilities. Unfortunately, most leaders aren't prepared or equipped to successfully lead change in the global economy. Especially with major and complex change, many don't know where to begin. Some try to force-fit change. Others try to hide it and keep it a secret. Still others believe that if you have a sound strategy, enough time and money, and the right technology and resources, the rest will automatically fall into place. Unfortunately, none of this works.
The Problem
Consider that fact that approximately 75 percent of major change initiatives fail. Overwhelmingly, the failure pattern is on the human, culture, and people-side of change rather than the technical aspects. Effective change efforts succeed when leaders and teams are able to create sponsorship, buy-in, and positive energy throughout the change process. This sponsorship must take place at all organizational levels or successful change will not happen - change efforts must take place with a common leadership and organization mindset, framework, vision, process, and common language. Otherwise, change will inadvertently fail.
The Change GAP
One of the main constants in life is change. The word change is used so much by organizations that its meaning has been diminished. Managing change has become and will continue to be the greatest challenge for today's successful organizations and their leaders. People all agree that change is happening every day and at an ever increasing rate. Many organizations, teams, and individuals are not clear how to effectively change and in helping others become aligned, engaged, and committed to change.
eBACS's change consulting, advisory, and coaching services focuses on both the ability for leaders to effectively respond to and adapt changes taking place in the "external environment," as well as, to proactively address and respond to "internal strategies and plans" that effectively navigate the leadership, strategy, people, structural, process, and cultural aspects of change inside the organization. We help leaders clarify the strategic and directional aspects of change planning all the way down to the tactical aspects of change management and execution. eBACS believes in John Gardner's quote,
"Most ailing organizations suffer from a functional blindness, not because they cannot solve their problems, but many times they cannot see their problems."
We also believe in the notion commonly used by Arthur Miller,
"All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get."
eBACS believes that any organization that plans a major change effort, requires a departure from the status quo. The key element for any change is the ability of the workforce to envision new opportunities going forward, to clearly understand the business case for change, embrace those changes, and to rapidly and accurately adopt new change strategies to guide them forward amid many uncertainties. Change implies movement towards a vision of an idealized state and the possibility of achieving a new and better vision, a clear strategy, and strategic goals and objectives.
eBACS works with leaders and teams to answer the following change question: "What do we need to do as a business to successfully survive, grow, and compete in our marketplace?" We partner to help successfully implement the following key aspects of successful change:
- 1. Establish a business case and desired results for change - define what are the environmental or external factors for change.
- 2. Align senior leadership and identify champions and resources to sponsor any and all changes
- 3. Define what business to be in and your "core competencies."
- 4. Define what are you best in the world at and what are you not best in the world at.
- 5. Articulate a vision of the desired future state.
- 6. Assess current state and future state strategic plan
- 7. Assess organizational capabilities to achieve your plan.
- 8. Define core competitive work processes and desired state changes.
- 9. Define strategic goals, metrics, and future state success.
- 10. Establish goals and metrics 2-5 years out and 1 year or less.
- 11. Identify structural changes in teams, reporting, roles, and responsibilities.
- 12. Implement charter or change teams.
- 13. Cascade change to teams and individuals - clearly define the areas and levels of change needed.
- 14. Focus on strategic communications to all internal and external stakeholders.
- 15. Define employee involvement and a continuous feedback loop in the change process.
- 16. Prioritize and launch the change efforts and monitor improvements real time.
As leaders clearly articulate their business case for change and establish and envision a better future state for change, they will then become better at communication, engagement, and commitment at all organizational levels. Effectively managing transitions and understanding one's role in a change effort can be very difficult. The exciting aspect of any change effort is when leaders and teams become effective change agents and fully sponsor the change. This happens when they entire organization has a clear business case for change, learns the accurate strategic story as to the why's and how's of change, they embrace and engage in the changes being set in motion, and are able to get people at all levels moving in the same direction. Effective organizational change processes are able to balance the needs with the external environment or competitive environment (the strategic why) with the internal environment (implementing the new mindset, culture, behaviors, and path toward future goals) as they flawlessly execute detailed actions plans, achieve organizational metrics and individuals metrics for success.
Below are a list of organizational change models, processes, and tools that eBACS uses to help leaders and teams better understand and successfully navigate through their strategic change efforts.
The Leading Organizational Change work session can be delivered as a one-day or two-day course upfront with consulting and coaching modules plans over several weeks or months depending upon the scope and need of the change effort. The goal is to transfer the framework, methodology, and tools over to change teams and participants as soon as possible. The outcome offers a fully-integrated change methodology and solution modules and tools to significantly increase the leaders and change teams with the ability to strategically lead your own internal change effort. The solution includes:
- A Framework at the Strategic Level (Leadership Team)
- A Methodology at the Operations Level (Functional or Cross-Functional Teams)
- A Set of Tools, Templates, and Processes at the Tactical Level (Employee, Line, or Associates)
The 7's Model
