Initiating and managing change

People speak a lot about change these days. As you read this, you are exhaling atoms of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen that just an instant before were locked up in solid matter; your stomach, liver, heart, lungs, and brain are vanishing into thin air, being replaced as quickly and endlessly as they are being broken down. The human skin replaces itself once a month, the stomach lining every five days, the liver every six weeks, and the skeleton every three months. To the naked eye, these organs look the same from moment to moment, but they are always in flux. By the end of a year, 98 percent of the atoms in your body will have been exchanged for new ones. Literally, you are not the same person from year to year. Why then, amidst all this change, do we often seek to eradicate changes in our lives, our organizations, our business processes, and in our environment?

Buddy, can you spare the change?

No, you cannot spare the change and neither can your organization! You are in fact changing and your organization will also change. You and it will change or you will die and even death is a process of change. And in today’s modern business world, to focus on the business issues, the pace of change has accelerated to the point of almost blinding speed. It continues to accelerate.

We all know that this is the case, and we all know that it is technology that is driving the acceleration of change. Advances in communication have made our world one global market. We face competition from the same global markets in which we seek the lowest cost labor for our own products. Many of our customers and employees purchase products and work to design products and services from the comfort of their homes. Information (and disinformation) is readily available to all who have access to the internet, and in the industrialized nations of the world, a majority of the people have gained that access one way or another.

We also know that disruptive technology provides leaps in competing products which totally transform the markets in which we move. The classic example is that of the buggy-whip. While focused on making the best buggy-whip in the world, the manufacturer does not see that automobiles will soon obviate the need for buggy-whips. The whole market disappears. Personal computers have totally changed the corporate information system market and have gone on to fuel the changes in how we as individuals use information and communicate in our personal lives. To not anticipate these disruptive technologies, or at least recognize and respond to their impact, is to invite corporate obsolescence.

Why do we fight change?

While intellectually we all know that change is inevitable, that there is no such thing as security or stability, we often have a difficult time accepting that things must change. My experience is that as long as someone perceives that a forthcoming change will increase their authority in the organization, they will embrace the change. If the perception is that authority or power will be lost due to a change, then all stops are pulled to avoid the proposed changes. Rarely do employees willingly make a personal sacrifice in stature, authority, or power for the general good of the organization.

Sometimes the opposition to change may be due to change overload. Perhaps an employee is dealing with an overwhelming amount of change in his or her personal life; children moving away to school, divorce or simply dealing with relationship strains at home, illness in the family. Under these circumstances, employees may well look to the workplace as the only point of stability in their lives. They spend fifty percent of their waking hours at work, and if everything else is in turmoil, they want desperately to have work be the haven from change.

Institutionalizing Change

As if it isn’t enough to deal with the outside forces of technology and globalization of markets, we now have to deal with the institutionalization of change within our corporations. Management initiatives such as Six Sigma and the ISO9000 programs demand continuous improvement. It’s impossible to imagine improvement without some level of change. Relentless pressure to increase human productivity demands changes in our business and management practices even if we determine that our products and markets are well defined and viable.

The essence of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is alive and well today. The name, BPR, has been misappropriated for those who would simply downsize their organizations. Yet the original intent of a careful study, measurement, and radical reorganization of a company is still employed today; we just call it something else! Leadership teams have also recognized the need to make continuous incremental rather than radical changes for many of our business processes. Regardless of how we make the changes, change we must if we are to survive and thrive.

Shaping the Corporate Culture

How well change is managed in an organization depends on the skills of the leadership team. Not only do they need to understand the organization and the requisite changes, but they must understand their employee’s capacity for change and the capacity of the organization itself to support and promote changes.

Mr. Michael Mussallem, Chairman and CEO of Edwards Lifesciences, often speaks of “actively managing the corporate culture.” Part of the company credo is that; “We will celebrate our successes, thrive on discovery, and continually expand our boundaries.” Continually expanding boundaries implies not only technological but organizational change. To actively manage the corporate culture means not only ensuring that the corporate ethics is understood and managed as a process, but that the leadership team affirms and promotes an environment that encourages individual responsibility and a capacity to change the business processes.

So are you ready to embrace change when it comes or are you one who “fights” the changes? What is the culture of your company with respect to change? Do you fit in?

Take a quick assessment of your company’s culture and see if it fights change. Have all your key managers take this same assessment. Then evaluate and discuss the differences. CLICK HERE to download a free culture assessment.

Change starts with an effective hiring process. You must have the right people on the bus. This 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment tool will help you build a hiring methodology in your company that attracts top talent. CLICK HERE to download your free assessment.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.

Hiring Top Talent – Determining A Cultural Fit – Audio Recording

The number one reason candidates fail in their brand new job is that they cannot deliver your expected results. The second reason is that they cannot adapt to your unique culture and environment. Adapting to your culture must be measured to ensure a successful hire. Unfortunately, measuring the ability to adapt to your culture is one of those items everyone talks about, but is not sure how to do it effectively. In this Audio Program, Barry and Brad break down the specific tactics on how to measure whether a candidate can replicate their past accomplishments and achievements in your unique culture.on.

To download or listen to the recording CLICK HERE, then scroll down to the recording

Loyalty . . . to what?

I’m reminded, from time-to-time, of the inequality of expectations between employees and employers with respect to employment. Especially in the small to mid-sized businesses, the owners are often frustrated with employees who do not seem to put effort into the business. They don’t have a sense of “ownership.” Well, that’s because they aren’t owners, and usually aren’t treated as owners.

On the employee side, they feel that it’s quite alright for them to give two weeks notice if they get a better offer elsewhere, but at the same time seem to think that as long as they want to stay, they should be able to do so. If the employer lets them go (for whatever reason), they feel that somehow it is unfair. Of course, this is not true of all employees nor do all business owners despair over employees not acting as if the company is their own. However, there does seem to be anecdotal data to back up my perceptions.

This situation first came to my attention many years ago as I worked in the semiconductor industry. We had facilities in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale and San Jose). I often heard managers complaining that employees were more than willing to leave for a slight raise and join another company. It seemed to be easy to do in the valley and it seemed to be true; and it made me wonder. So I started asking some questions of the engineers, marketers and sales people who left our company and those still with us. The picture became a bit clearer. It seems that there was a lot of loyalty – but the loyalty was to a particular product line or architecture rather than a company. So if I considered myself a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) kind of guy, I would go where all the exciting things were happening in that field. Likewise if I considered myself a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) person. If I was skilled and excited about one architecture and the company began to emphasize the other, I eventually left to find another employer in line with my talents and passions. This kind of “loyalty to a concept” was even more prevalent in the software and Internet companies.

So managers needed to change the context in which they interpreted the content of their experience with respect to “loyal employees.” If an engineer or sales person believed in a certain product or architecture and we began to de-emphasize that particular product, then we could expect to see folks leave for greener pastures. On the other hand, if we kept pushing the envelope and introduced new products and improvements to existing products, then our employees were “loyal” and mostly content.

Discovering this different view of loyalty led to some insights that served some divisions very well. As long as they were able to stay at the leading edge of product development, they kept the best employees. They found that salary and other monetary rewards were not the biggest motivators. They had to be competitive, but by and large, it was an exciting environment in product development that the employees appreciated and which kept them happy and inspired.

So as we work our way out of this recession and employees begin feeling as though employment changes are possible, how will you hold on to your key players? Do you know what your employees are loyal to? Since they don’t own the company, it likely isn’t the company itself that inspires them. They may be grateful for the company and the employment it provides, but what are they really passionate about?

Is your culture one of team work and does everyone in your company agree? Have them take our Company Cultural Assessment. CLICK HERE to download your assessment.

Is  your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent and weed out those candidates that embellish? You can download our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard and find out. CLICK HERE to download.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.

Is Your Organization Going To Make It To 2010 and Beyond? Part 2

We focused on the question above in part one of this article. If this is keeping you up at night, we have some additional ideas for you to consider and implement so your organization will not only make it through the current storm but will thrive well into the future!   You’ll know by reading this article if your ship is heading towards the rocks, towards the open sea or on a clear course to your destination.

A Checklist for Success

• When selecting the crew – have a clear understanding of the ideal crew member and have a system and process to assure you have selected the correct crew members. This can be done through interviewing and asking questions for specific examples and compare those answers to what an ideal crew member would do. Gather as much data as possible from reference and background checks as well as provide an in-depth work style and personality assessment with Lighthouse Consulting Services.  The information should be used to validate the interview responses, background and reference checks.
• Ask each current crew member for feedback on where they see the team and themselves could be more efficient in the market place within the next 30-60-90 days. This means that everyone on your ship needs to have their eyes and ears open to seeing where it might be possible to improve and enhance processes, structure, services, customer service, etc.
• Captains and officers need to listen to everyone and create a truly open environment. Come up with three things that you can do that will make that happen.
• Define what the ideal crew member would possess in skills, work style and personality and make it measurable.
• Assist the current crew to fulfill that role. Make sure you have an in-depth work style and personality assessment of your crew members so you’ll have the insight to help everyone thrive and to get the best performance from every member of the team.  You’ll want to know how someone problem-solves, deals with stress, makes decisions, processes information, creates and follows up on leads, etc.  This will help to ensure that you have the right person in the correct position so they can perform to the best of their ability.  Contact us at reception@lighthouseconsulting.com to get started.

If you have the right team in place, your organization will be able to deal with the many challenges that will come along during the voyage. The key is to hire right the first time and to assist those on board to be the best that they can be.  This will lead to happy customers, happy employees, innovation for the future, efficiency for delivery of the product or service and of course, a profitable bottom line.

To take a leadership assessment to see if you have what it takes to help your organization sail well into the future, please click on this link:

http://www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com/LeadershipTest.php

You can gather additional ideas for working with your current and future crew members by reading Cracking The Personality Code. To order this book, go to: www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com.

Is your culture one of team work and does everyone in your company agree? Have them take our Company Cultural Assessment. CLICK HERE to download your assessment.

Is  your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent and weed out those candidates that embellish? You can download our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard and find out. CLICK HERE to download.

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC has over 25 years experience in the area of business consulting and helping organizations both nationally and internationally in raising the hiring bar through using in-depth work style assessments.  Dana is a nationally recognized speaker on this topic and has built a well recognized organization that provides expert interpretation of in-depth work style assessments during the hiring process, providing a variety of workshops and assisting those with communication challenges. He is the co-author of the book, “Cracking the Personality Code”.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica, CA  90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our Website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth personality assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee coaching.

Improving Bottom-Line Results: Applying The Living Organization® Model

We often hear from our clients, colleagues, and online audience: “Your model really resonates with my experience of business and it seems to help explain that which is often hard to explain, but does it produce real results?”

Of course, the results business leaders are talking about are the impacts to their organization’s bottom line. The question really is, “What can I expect in terms of increased revenue, lower expenses, higher profits and increased shareholder value by applying your model?

This is an extremely important question and one I will endeavor to address concisely here. (For those who are not familiar with The Living Organization® Model click here to download a short white paper).

First, let’s acknowledge that business is a time-based game. By this, I mean that time is a critical factor in determining successful results. Growing from $80 million in revenues to $200 million in 20 years is a far different level of organizational performance than achieving that same growth in just 3 years. Delivering an innovative new product to market in 6 months yields a better result than achieving that same goal in 24 months.

In other words, time is a critical dimension in producing bottom-line results. Basic results measures such as Return on Investment (ROI) incorporates time as one of the key variables in its calculation.

So, anything that reduces the time it takes to achieve desired goals will improve the bottom line. As one of our CEO clients has noted, “your model helps me increase the velocity of execution and that is why we are adopting it.”

What did he mean by “increase the velocity of execution” and how does The Living Organization® Model do that?

A company’s success is determined by the production and delivery of goods and services that are desired and adopted by the market it serves. A company’s strategy is a roadmap of how it plans to accomplish this objective. It consists of the organization’s understanding of the market, its vision of how its unique contribution will best serve the market, and the specific tactics and initiatives it needs to execute to realize its vision, goals and objectives. Therefore, the bottom line results will be determined by two factors: 1) how well the company has defined the right strategy, and 2) how well the company then executes that strategy.

At Quantum Leaders, we believe that execution is the more important of the two factors. A mediocre strategy that is well executed will out-perform an outstanding strategy that is poorly executed. Why? Because a well-executed strategy achieves its goals and objectives faster, or said another way, velocity of execution is increased.

What does it take to shorten the time to achieve the desired goals?

To achieve our goals we must take into account all the variables and forces that will either hinder our progress or propel us forward, minimizing the former and maximizing the later. We must understand all the forces impacting our ability to achieve our desired results, just as a ship’s captain must know how to power and maneuver his boat amid the invisible forces of wind and current.

What if the ship’s captain did not understand the way in which the forces of wind were impacting the ship’s progress? How quickly and effectively would the captain be able to arrive at the desired destination? How effective would you be if you did not understand – or were not even aware of – the invisible forces impacting your execution?

There are many forces impacting an organization’s execution. Some of these are easily identifiable such as those in the Activity field. But like the wind and the current, the forces in the Relationship and Context fields are not readily observable. Without a tool like The Living Organization® at your disposal crucial factors invariably remain in our blind spot. Simply put, we cannot improve what we cannot see.

The ARC Framework™ component of The Living Organization® model makes visible what has been heretofore mostly invisible. This tool maps the fields of Activity, Relationship and Context to the domains of Leadership, People, Process and Markets that allows us to better understand, identify and manage the flow of energy across the enterprise. With our tools, the organization’s leadership can more effectively diagnose the factors impeding execution. They can identify the clogs in the flow of energy within the organization, and develop specific actions to remove them.

In essence, when all the potential barriers to success have been laid bare before you, the shortest and most optimal path to reaching your goals becomes clear. You are therefore able to more quickly identify the most efficient roadmap to reach the desired goals, address all critical problems along the way and thereby increase the speed and efficiency of strategy execution.

The Living Organization® Model and the ARC Framework™ increases the velocity of execution, thereby improving your bottom-line results. It’s that simple!

This is the first in a series of installments on The Living Organization® Model. Be sure to read the next few weeks’ posts, in which we highlight specific applications of The Living Organization® within our clients’ companies, and the specific results they have achieved as a result!

About the Author:

Norman Wolfe, founder of Quantum Leaders, Inc., has spent over 35 years working with a variety of organizations from technology start ups to Fortune 500 companies. He is a published author, professional speaker, and leading expert on executing corporate strategy.

Norman is the creator and author of The Living Organization® – a breakthrough new business model designed to help today’s leaders understand the dynamic forces underlying business success and failure in the 21^st century. Today, he continues to write and expand upon The Living Organization’s® series of featured products, assessment tools, and books. Download a free white paper here. Visit www.quantumleaders.com for more information about Norman and Quantum Leaders.