We were standing in his 44th floor executive suite, looking out onto the glass and steel southern city when the textiles manufacturer CEO, Jack, said to me:
“We’ve just shed excess infrastructure, sold off non-strategic assets and reduced our long term debt by 50%. We now have the freedom to execute our plan to create shareholder value at historic levels. The board believes our transformation is nearly complete, from a collection of decentralized 20th Century facilities to a national machine tuned for dramatic growth in the 21st century.”
He went on to say that his “senior leadership team is keenly aware of the board’s mandate. Goals and objectives are being deployed to our operational teams as we speak. And those teams will lead the execution of our plan. We’re calling it ‘Operation Transform’.”
I’ve heard this many times in the last two decades. It’s great material for employee, customer, creditor and investor rallies. In fact, it’s this type of enthusiasm which catalyzes change initiatives, getting stakeholders aligned and eager for a new era. Unfortunately, this critical first move is rarely followed by a description of a plan designed to deliver that promise. Sure, there’s a plan, but the results will be judged as merely incrementally improved compared to what’s expected.
A review of the “Operation Transform” plan reveals its failure to address seven fundamental “systems” required to rapidly move the enterprise from an ugly current state to a desired state worthy of praise. As shared with Jack, the current plan does a nice job of describing a vision worth working for, along with key performance indicators to track progress and ensure everyone knows “what it’s going to look like when we get there.”
But what’s really different compared to how they do things today?
How will performance among front-line employees be changed?
For Jack to successfully transform his company into the 21st Century “machine” he envisions, his promises of monumental improvement must be supported by monumental changes to his company’s internal “systems”. These “systems”, as currently designed, yield the undesirable results of the past sixteen quarters.
While “Operation Transform” creates a compelling Vision & Call-to-Action (1) and establishes Key Performance Metrics(2), several mission-critical gaps must be closed. Jack and his team must:
- Redesign the primary Tools and Processes(3) used by the organization, to yield results linked to the Vision,
- Develop new Internal and External Communications(4), which will reinforce the need for change and how each employee contributes to the fulfillment of the Vision,
- Align Senior Management Behaviors(5) to show that change starts at the top and
- Implement just-in-time Training and Coaching(6) to ensure teams are prepared to make change at every step of the way.
If not, much like the human body’s defense against foreign invaders, Jack’s current company “systems” will destroy “Operation Transform” and render it a failure.
What should Jack do next? To make radical change, he must assign a full-time Transformation Leader(7) to close the mission critical gaps in the plan and lead “Operation Transform” ……
