Transcript Success at Change Management

When Change is the Status Quo
Recalibrating Your Role As Catalyst vs. Barrier
Anthony D’Angelo – Sr. Manager, Communications, ITT Corp.
Gary F. Grates – Principal, W20 Group
How central to your job is
managing organizational
change?
Reality Check
 Change is not Communication
 Communication can result in the illusion of change
 Change is behavioral shift – individual and
organizational
 Change must be grounded in Belief
 Incremental steps are best measure
Change-Readiness Blueprint
Questions for you and your organization:
1. Does leadership have a plan or strategy? (Direction and
Purpose)
2. Do employees comprehend the business reality and
competitive situation? (Behavior)
3. Does the organization know the employee worldview?
(Perceptions and Perspectives)
4. Is Change a campaign or operating model? (Importance
and Alignment)
5. Is Communications focused on symptoms or causes?
(Activities vs. Solutions)
Change Management Considerations
 Many companies inadvertently limit communications to
tactical support in change management, diminishing
the effectiveness of enterprise-wide change efforts
 Organizations that are successful leading transformation
and change take a broader, strategic view of
communications – we call this Leadership and
Employee Engagement
 Leadership and Employee Engagement unifies change
management and communications, which should be on
parallel paths
What Is Change?
 Process/Developmental Change - Improvement of
current systems, processes or skills
 Transitional Change - Creation / implementation of
new products, services, systems, processes, policies or
procedures that replace current portfolio or substantially
upgrade it
 Transformational Change – Current business model is
being challenged while a new competitive landscape is
still unknown; new environment requires a fundamental
shift in mindset, strategy, organizing principles, behavior
and/or culture designed to support new business model
The Current Reality: A World in Fast Gear
 The Age of Transparency
 Customers, employees, shareholders, investor community are privy to
higher levels of product information and company knowledge
 A New Corporate Ecosystem
 The lines between stakeholders are blurred; all are integral parts of
one organization
 Growing demand for personalized products
 Customers and employees alike have become accustomed to
receiving products, services and information that is custom-tailored to
meet their needs
 Growing Sense of Distrust for Corporations
 Recent events have elevated concern about corporate governance,
lack of trust for executives and boards
 A New Balance of Power
 Balance is shifting away from management to employees, customers,
etc.
The Socialization of Change
 New dynamic impacting rate and success of change
management initiatives
 Need for “voice” and conversation to aid learning
 Opens up dialogue for more informative discussion
 Makes change an iterative process vs. a dictate
Previous Insights: Employee Online Behaviors
 Employees like to do four things online:
1. Share Ideas – Let’s improve the next product or service together
2. Share Knowledge – Here is what I know…hope it helps you
3. Listen and Absorb Information – Help me learn, grow, develop
4. Help Peers With Problems – I had the same problem, here is what I did
Contents are proprietary and
confidential.
Previous Insights: Where is the game
being played?
• How do you generate revenue, profit/margin
• How are you growing or why are you declining or flat
• Who do you serve
Understand
the business
situation
• What is your value
• How are you different from your competitors
• What is changing in the industry, with your
customers, employees
• What are the expectations/accountability
• Define the problem to be solved/question
to be answered
• Why? Reasons for the situation
Comprehend
why things are
happening
• Identify/evaluate options
• Address the cause(s)
• Determine your role
Contents are proprietary and
confidential.
Three Dimensions of World Class Internal
Communications
Contents are proprietary and
confidential.
The 4 Types of Employee Archetypes
Communications profile
1. Passionate Preservationist Career oriented/strong company pride – respectful of status quo
This group tends to be long-time employees who have had successful careers in the company. They are highly
engaged but often blind about the opportunities and gaps inherent in the culture and business. They are also
more often than not the ones who state in meetings that "we tried that before and it failed" or "good idea but won't
work here."
2. High-energy Catalyst High potential/high achievement - catalyst for change
The most powerful group in any organization. High potential, talented and committed to winning. Can be frustrated by
inertia and perceived lack of discipline and commitment to change. This is the key target for any leadership and
internal communications effort!
3. Productive Minimalist Productive/satisfied
A large population of the workforce sits here—come to work every day, do their jobs, and are generally satisfied with
the way thing are.
4. Denigrator Marginally effective/highly critical – “Victim” mentality
Typically the smallest group within a workforce but also the most dangerous in terms of culture deterioration. These
folks tend to gossip the most, work the least and trash every company decision inside and outside the company.
Contents are proprietary and confidential.
Why Change Doesn’t Stick
 Don’t believe in the rationale
 What‘s wrong with the way we do things now?
 Perceived loss of control
 No relevant metrics
 Trust lacking from previous efforts
 Lack of clarity on expected outcomes
 Threat
 Fear of failure
 Overwhelming task
Typical Internal Perceptions about
Change Management
1. Change = Cost Reductions
2. “It sounds the same.”
3. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
4. “Are we winning?”
5. “Why is my manager clueless?”
6. “We hear about ‘change’ constantly…so what’s new?”
1. Change = Cost Reductions
 Most change efforts go no further than cost reduction
exercises
 “Change” means fewer resources to achieve better
results
 There is no “there” there
2. “It sounds the same.”
 Overuse of language like “change,” “improve” and
“competitive advantage”
 “Been there, done that”
 One change initiative after another creates a “little boy
who cried wolf” syndrome
 People begin to say: “This too shall pass”
 They don’t take seriously leadership messages about the need
to change
3. “I have no idea what you’re
talking about”
 What is it that’s causing this?
 Teach me, listen to me, engage me
 What should I see that impacts the organization?
 Communicate how that relates to the organization and the
internal environment
4. “Are we winning?”
 How can I know things are moving in the right
direction?
 While I do my job, what are you doing to assure all the
parts are working toward the company’s success?
 Is what I’m doing the right thing(s) to be doing?
5. “Why is my manager clueless?”
 My most trusted source of information is as out of the
loop as I am
 Why should I trust anyone (or anything that anyone
else tells me)?
6. “We hear about change constantly…
so what’s new?”
 The irony is that change really is the status quo.
 Therefore you don’t need to brand the effort as
“change” because it’s fundamentally about managing
toward success in deliberate fashion, which is
impossible without effective communication.
Three Difficult Principles
 Let the realities of the marketplace drive change
 Teach employees that management doesn’t have all
the answers – open channels for engagement
 Ignore instinct
What Communications Leaders Need
to Equip Their Organizations for
Successful Change
 Defining the Change/End State
 Identifying the guideposts
 Common Vocabulary/Language
 Knowledge of what works and doesn’t work
 Knowledge of what they can control and can’t control
 Training
 Communications Options
Communicators During Change
 Journalists at the outset
 Ask the tough questions
 Advocates during the process
 Catalyst for new conversations
 Employees throughout
 Empathetic
Leveraging the Client/Agency Relationship
The Client brings…
The Agency brings…
 Leadership and direction
 Outside perspective on the
 Open mind for the task at
hand
 Insights into the uniqueness
impact of change on
organizations
 Fresh thinking/Insights
of the organization and its
people
 New approaches to new
 Open doors to appropriate
 New view of old ways of
management people
 What success will look like
 Partnership oriented
challenges
doing things (messages,
channels)
 Partnership oriented
Pillars to Effect Change
Respecting the Structure and the System
 What do we want people to know, feel and do?
 What will they experience that’s different?
Communications in a Change
Environment…
 Provides clarity around business direction, strategy,
priorities
 Gives external/internal context
 Ensures people understand rationale for decisions
 Instills a sense of urgency
 Enables relationships between leadership,
management, supervisors and employees to evolve–the
right things are being said, heard and done
 People understand where the business is and how they
fit in
 What we measure – outcomes
It’s About Setting Expectations…
For managers and employees:
 Acknowledging everyone makes a difference; a
contribution
 Tell me how I’m doing?
 Acting like owners of the business
 Treat me with respect.
 Never being satisfied with current performance
 Help me set stretch targets.
 Being focused on outdoing our competition
 Let me see the marketplace.
Grasping the Strategy:
The Strategic Roadmap
Vision
A brief, graphic and focused
metaphor that characterizes the
bond between your key customers
and primary product, i.e... your
core business. The core of what
you’re striving to become.
Mission
An organization’s purpose, what
and where it is today, and how it
will achieve its vision.
Key Measures
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reputation
Sales
Market share
Margins
Rate of return
Productivity
Customer satisfaction index
Employee satisfaction index
Market Strategy
Key customers you are
targeting and the special
needs you fill.
Initiatives for 2013 (examples)
• Strengthen customer management processes
• New information systems
• Acquisitions
Product/Services Strategy
The distinctive trait that will
differentiate your products and
services as you fill the market’s
special need.
Operations Strategy
The specific operational
approach that will help you
meet your market’s special
needs most profitably and
consistently.
Values
The four or five
uncompromising beliefs you’ll
recognize, reward and
develop to ensure consistent
behavior.
• New product development and introduction
processes
• Customer satisfaction programs
• Leadership development
• New marketing structure
Previous Insights: The Importance of
Dialogue
Contents are proprietary and
confidential.
In Practice: A Change Strategy
SELL
DISCOVER
[Homogeneous audience]
[Segmented target audiences]
 Brochure produced
 Theme adapted
 Coffee mugs, mouse pads,
posters
 CEO e-mail to all employees
 Article in newsletter and on
Intranet announcing new
strategy via theme
 One-way leadership messaging
via net – CEO blog
 Information “packets” given to
all managers telling them what
to say
 Cascading of information begins
 First priority: management
comprehension - hold strategy
development sessions with
managers detailing marketplace
realities, competitive issues, etc.
 Created a narrative describing
the strategy in story form
 Established an employee
worldview based on current
feedback from cultural survey on
employee attitudes, issues,
behaviors factored into planning
 Raised the volume on key inputs
of the strategy – customers,
competition, products, delivery,
societal concerns
 Synchronized leadership’s
messaging across all divisions
and BUs
Sell vs. Discover:
Campaign vs. Coherence
SELL
DISCOVER
 Leadership briefing with managers,
supervisors
 Four key business unit presidents
conducted road shows with their
staffs –webcast on portal for all
employees
 All-employee jam with five
conversation streams reflecting
key elements of the strategy
 Facebook page where people can
opt-in the discussion
 Leadership directive to department
heads to prioritize plans, budgets
against the strategy
 Refresh the message based on the
narrative to keep it relevant
Measuring the Right Things…
Outputs vs. Outcomes
 Brochures
 Relationships…
 Newsletters
 Behavior
 Press Releases
 Discretionary Effort
 Town Halls
 Trust
 Portal/Intranet
 Collaboration
 Videos
 Innovation
 Events
 Posters
 Bulletin Boards
Make Human Resources
a Significant Part of the Process
 This function is as critical as communications is to the
success of the change effort simply because human
resources professionals are needed to develop the new
policy procedures, job specs and performance criteria
that give meaning to the change effort.
 HR professionals have proven themselves to be a
strategic resource with valuable potential for influencing
management decisions on talent, training and
development–a critical advantage when it comes to
managing change.
Key Principles To Shape Effective
Change Communications
 Translate Plan/Strategy into Narrative – Allows people to assimilate, follow, relate to the effort in a personal way
 Move Communications beyond tactics – View communications as an essential strategic lever to drive
understanding, comprehension and behavior…set up mechanism that aligns essential functions and areas to
drive intended outcomes
 Determine what the marketplace will “see” and employees will “feel” as a result of organizational
changes – critical test to mitigate negative impact, avoid reputational hit
 Establish upfront key measures for success – and ensure these measures are adhered to by all parties
 Challenge and test assumptions about the culture, employee mindset, resistance to change and communication
preferences
 Treat gaining leadership and management buy-in on change strategies as a process, rather than a one-time
event
 Incorporate analytics into the process – utilize data to guide decision-making throughout the journey
 Ignore Instinct!
The Right Questions
(to answer for yourself)
 What is the specific assignment that Communications is being
directed towards?
 How is the organization defining success? What are people being
asked to actually do?
 How will measurement be integrated into the process?
 What is the delineation of activities and responsibilities between
the agency and the client?
 What types of resources/skills set will be needed to carry out the
assignment?
 What’s the protocol for interaction, decision making, project
management?
 What do you really need from your outside partner; what is your
value proposition to the client?
Summation: A New Value Proposition
 Historically, organizations featured Corporate Communications functions
that played the SERVE role well. In today’s fast-changing business
environment, best-in-class teams play primarily a LEAD role, achieving
better BUSINESS RESULTS as stewards of the ORGANIZATION.
TODAY
Delivering “expected” services
TOMORROW
Strong point of view with diverse
capabilities
Primary focus on corporate and internal
Ability to shape content,
redirect decisions and reconstruct context
Effective responders & implementers
Counselors, integrators, advocates,
disruptors
Activities driven by demand and
historic usage
Solutions driven by strategy & research
SERVE
LEAD
“Using Communications To Get Smarter About the Business”
Contents are proprietary and
confidential.
“The real act of discovery is not in finding
new lands but in seeing with new eyes.”
Marcel Proust
How will you frame your situation differently?
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