Leading Change - Overcoming Inertia

In developing and coaching senior business leaders we are often asked at the TNO (www.tno.org.uk) for our insight and advice on how to initiate significant organisational change when all around you appear to be resistant or lukewarm about the prospect. There is of course no absolute panacea for "unfreezing" difficult change situations, but based upon our observations of business leaders in action these are some of the significant leadership practices that seem to make a real difference in overcoming inertia to change:

1. Broadcast Your Direction – a clear description and communication of what you want to achieve and most importantly why will help focus on the issue of change. The more exciting, compelling and visionary you can make this articulation of direction, the more likely that people around will give you their interest and attention. It may not be enough to lay out your direction on only one occasion  - you may have to constantly re-iterate your determination to change so you demonstrate to others that you really mean it. It is important to ensure that your stated direction is backed up by a clear and credible plan of how to you intend to achieve the change in question.
   
   
2. Master the Data & Information – most people, in order to respond, need to know and understand why they should change and indeed what are the implications for them. Clear data and information which simply states the case for change can be a powerful way of unlocking people’s resistance to change. Combined with a strong personal conviction the case for change becomes compelling. The more that the data supporting the case for change is linked to customers, competitors or the profitable success or survival of the enterprise, the more likely that people will pay attention to it. It is important to make sure that the data is credible and that you as the leader of change demonstrate a complete understanding of its implications.
   
    
3. Analyse & Deal with the Obstacles – be sure that you have assessed the scale and degree of resistance to change that you are likely to encounter. Keep your ear to the ground and make sure you are inviting regular feedback as you move into communicating and implementing change. Make a plan to tackle each main obstacle. In particular try and anticipate the people who will have most difficulty in absorbing or responding to change and target them for specific attention, support and/or action. You may need to deal swiftly and firmly with those who seek to sabotage.
   
   
4. Sell the Benefits – remember that in any change situation you are looking to achieve a critical mass of people who buy in to the desired change. You need therefore to refine and restate your case for change to include clear statements of benefit for the majority of this effected by the change. You may have to separate out the short term debits that everyone may suffer in the interest of the longer term gain. The benefits may well be different for different people – you will need to tailor your message to different audiences.
   
   
5. Find Allies – look for people who can help you communicate the arguments, sell the benefits of change and who can act as your change ambassadors. Use them to help persuade others by giving them a very active role in your change process. This way the change message becomes more "viral" and less dependent upon you personally as the leader.
   
   
6. Take Symbolic Actions – most people will not believe change is really going to happen until they see tangible actions as evidence. It is vital therefore that early symbolic action is taken to show that your intent to change is real. The symbolic action does not itself need to be of particular significance in the overall scale of change, but to be effective it does need to signal a new way of doing things and be visible for all to see. In our observation, taking early symbolic action is a distinctive characteristic of all effective transformational leaders.
   
   
7. Set the Agenda – to further demonstrate your urgency and determination for change, it is important to back up you direction and communications with a clear agenda of actions (with time scales) which shows how you will quickly move from intent into action. This will further act to persuade doubters that you are serious about the intent to change.
   
   
8. Open Up for Ideas – give people the clear indication that whilst the direction of change may be set (the what), there may be many opportunities for them to influence the way change is implemented (the how). Individuals are more likely to be committed to the process of change if they believe thay they can have some influence over how the change may turn out in practice. Let it be known that you welcome and are looking for active help to implement the change.
   
   
9. Involve & Implicate People – individuals find it much harder to resist change if they are involved in the action. Giving individuals around you early accountability for achieving something that will help the change move forward can be a highly effective way of turning people who are negative or neutral into positive supporters of change. Once involved it is much harder for an individual to withdraw their support. The more engaging and inclusive you can make the process of change the quicker individuals will come on board.
   
   
10. Be Brave – change invariably requires courageous actions – actions that often challenge the conventional or established ways of doing things. Challenging historic vested interests is a risky business particularly when it might involve as a leader taking difficult and painful decisions about key people. An ability to stay objective, stick firmly to your chosen course of action and not be easily deflected is an important component of overcoming resistance and inertia in others.
    

This is just a small sample of over 40 leadership practices that form part of the TNO's approach to developing & coaching business leaders to be ever more effective at achieving sustained organisational change and performance improvement. If you are interested in learning more about our approach then please email us at info@tno.org.uk or call 07880 597 022 or visit our web-site www.tno.org.uk


Tim Chapman
June 2010

Investing in High Performing Teams

In over 20 years of working with business teams to improve performance, two things repeatedly strike me when engaging with a new Client.

Firstly (and this should really come as no great surprise) is the degree to which the formation of high performing teams is still absolutely critical and central to the success of any business. Yes of course organisations need to focus on selecting, retaining and developing highly talented individuals to deliver excellent personal performance. But the real nub of generating great value for shareholders still lies in the ability of gifted individuals to collaborate effectively to deliver world-class outcomes. In today's complex and rapidly changing commercial world any organisation hoping to outperform its competitors can only do so by acknowledging that it is the team and not individuals acting alone that is the primary currency of organisational success.

The second and more disappointing realisation is the lack of conscious planned attention businesses give to incentivising and shaping teams to deliver outstanding performance. Too often there is still an underlying presumption that by putting together a group of talented individuals then by chance they will know what to do to achieve team success. Worse still, most recently structured performance management processes and systems place an overly heavy weighting on recognition and reward for individual performance and in reverse provide a low level of incentivisation for collaboration and collective achievement. The base assumption too often is that if you encourage high levels of individual performance then as if by magic, high team performance will follow. All my experience suggests however that outstanding team performance rarely happens by accident. It is invariably the result of determined thought and effort to translate individual talents into outstanding collective performance. Neglect in this area results in teams simply failing to achieve the level of performance that either their potential deserves or that the organisation requires. The break up and re-forming of the team then becomes more inevitable.

And to these observations I can add one other stream of thought. In recent years there has been an explosion in the number and nature of teams within the umbrella of the one organisation. The simple organisation organisational structure of interlocking hierarchical line teams supported by specialist functional groups has gone. Businesses of any scale are now complex compositions of virtual teams, project teams, cross functional teams, self-managed teams, service teams, product teams .. and infinite other variations. Add to this then the complexities of globalisation with teams operating increasingly remotely across different time zones and with wide cultural diversity arising from business to business partnerships, alliances, mergers and acquisitions and we can see that the challenge of building and sustaining high performance teams has becomes truly formidable. Quite simply, never before has there been a time when the imperative for high performing business teams has coincided so acutely with the complexity of team structures within and between organisations.

There is a highly cogent argument therefore to be made as to why organisations should channel additional investment into more consciously building and developing high performing teams. The argument goes something like this:

• Productivity - the effectiveness of any team quite simply has a primary bearing on the commercial performance of the business. Imagine the financial impact if you could increase the quality and quantity of output from each of your core business teams by a modest 10%. In reality careful investment in the development teams can generate productivity improvements way in excess of this; the difference between mediocre and high performing teams is invariably exponential not incremental.
  
  
• Cost & Waste - low performing teams are expensive. The under-utilisation of team talents, the failure to hit reasonable performance targets and the additional cost that follows from having to reform the team to retrieve the situation are all big budget items that drain an organisations resources. CEO's and Finance Director should worry as much about the waste of team assets as they do about gaining value from all the other deployed assets in the business.
  
  
• Motivation - if you have ever worked in a high performing team (and most of us have at some point in our lives) then you will know the effect that such participation had on your own level of personal performance, contribution and ultimate motivation. High performing teams are challenging and exciting places to be and provide individuals with feelings of self worth, added value and achievement above and beyond more solo endeavours. As a consequence, individuals grow, develop and give so much more of themselves. This is a win, win situation both emotionally and commercially.
  
  
• Relationships - high performing teams are all about the quality of personal relationships. An organisation that overtly values and invests in high performing teams is much more likely to create a culture with fewer silo's and better cross boundary working (persuade me that this is not an issue in your organisation!!). There will be less political in-fighting and turf wars, a stronger sense of common purpose and mutual support (particularly in times of difficulty) and a more open environment where communications are more effective. Looking from the outside in, as a consequence of this renewed focus on "team", potential customers are more likely to want to do business with an organisation that is seen to foster great personal and team relationships as part of its brand "DNA"
  
  
• Innovation - an individual working in isolation, staring endlessly at a computer screen is not the best scenario for generating world-beating ideas about products, services or process improvements. The spark and energy for creativity comes from from the interaction of diverse viewpoints in vibrant teams where ideas can be tested, explored ad worked into actionable outcomes. Given the absolute premium on innovation in today's nano-second world economy, organisations wanting to remain competitive simply cannot afford not to invest in team processes that generate such innovations.
  
  
• Attracting & Retaining Great People - we know that the most talented individuals are typically the most discerning and choosy about the organisations they elect to join and stay with. Organisations that are seen to value and invest in team and personal development are much more likely to meet the criteria of "great places to work". 

The puzzling conclusion is that with so many potential hard commercial gains to be had from investing in building high performing teams, why is it that so few organisations seem to make this any kind of a priority? Any comments and insights would be very welcome.

Future blogs will take a more detailed look at what it takes to build and sustain high performing teams in todays complex, interconnected world.

Tim Chapman

Training-Network.Org Ltd

www.tno.org.uk 

February 2010

The Leadership Crunch

Over the last two years we have lived through some of the most turbulent economic and commercial times that we have known for a generation or more. The massive impact of the credit crunch and ensuing global recession has caused all major Banks & financial services organisations to seriously reappraise the ways in which they create value for their customers & key stakeholders. Public confidence in these organisations has been seriously dented and the impact and effects of the financial crisis have spread like a virus into the wider economy.

And in times of challenge and adversity like these, the leadership of organisations is placed under a renewed and intense scrutiny like never before. For many high profile banking leaders this has resulted in the ultimate leadership sacrifice. However whilst changes in the personalities of leadership may be necessary to restore confidence in an organisation, they do not by themselves guarantee a change in the fundamental leadership culture of the business. Real change will probably only occur where new leaders are inspired to adopt different ways of leading their institutions unlatched from the leadership practices of old.

In working with many leading clients in both the financial services sector and beyond we have been seeking to identify the changes in leadership capabilities, behaviours and emphasis that will be most required in the post credit crunch era to re-energise & refocus organisations and help them restore their credibility, performance and integrity in the market place. We have indentified six key areas where, we believe, change is essential:

· From Transactional to Transformational – a move away from a reliance on incremental short term change towards a more profound focus on the long term strategic purpose of the enterprise and the key transformations (involving tough strategic choices) that will be required to create a more sustainable, adaptable, innovative and customer-focused organisation for the future.


· From Inside Out to Outside In – a move away from a “take or leave it” mentality with customers to a more engaging style that actively listens and responds profoundly to the needs and aspirations of customers as the basis for developing innovative and compelling customer propositions. Tailored solutions will increasingly become the only acceptable solutions to ever more demanding and well informed customers.
· From Compliance to Stakeholder Responsibility – a move away from shallow rules-based compliance with regulatory requirements to a more fundamentally embedded acceptance of the need at all levels to behave in a responsible, balanced and ethical manner in the longer term interests of all stakeholders. This will require leaders who are acutely more risk-aware across the full range of business activities and who hold others sharply accountable for this.

· From Short Term Gain to Long Term Value – a move away from evaluating & rewarding performance solely on achievement of short term targets and financial gain to a more balanced and comprehensive performance management approach that provides ongoing recognition to those who contribute real added value to the long term sustainment and profitability of the organisation. Exceptional rewards in the new era should be reserved only for exceptional sustained performance.

· From Blind Conformance to Open Challenge – a move away from an old culture where individuals are expected to conform with the dominant thinking and wisdom of the day for fear of penalty or disadvantage to a new culture where open questioning and challenge of key strategies, plans and decisions is actively encouraged as a means of providing essential checks and balances to critical leadership decisions & direction.

· From Highly Individualistic to Highly Inclusive – a move away from a culture that places pre-dominant emphasis on the contribution of the individual to one that instead relies more on better utilising the diverse array of talents available in the organisation to develop high performing teams that together deliver outstanding results for customers. As organisations become leaner, more complex and more global in reach then the ability to harness individual talent into high performing teams will be at a premium.

The contention is that, without such a shift in leadership practices, then there is a real risk that notwithstanding the seismic impact of recent events, little will have been learned and little will change as economic circumstances improve. The good news however is that the changes in leadership practices identified above are all learnable behaviours. With carefully constructed executive education and training activities these capabilities can be readily developed in both the current executive leadership cadre and, as importantly, in those identified as the high potential leaders in the future. Over the last 18 months, organisations have invested much time & money in recovering from the credit-crunch outfall. Perhaps now is the time for us to invest in renewed leadership capabilities to ensure that it cannot happen again.