Creating Broad Engagement in Change
Monday, March 1st, 2010One of my clients was the VP of National Operations for one of the nation’s largest wireless telecom companies. His team was responsible for the maintenance and operations of the entire wireless network. Their Network Operations Control Center looked like a scene from NASA Mission Control. His team worked under a spot light and in the hot seat; they were highly reactive, but at the same time, highly competent. When my client Don came to us for help, the reaction from his team was loud and united: we don’t have time for this…!
The first problem was a problem of perspective. The team was so busy reacting and putting out continual brush fires that they could never step back to address the causes of these fires. The result was nothing less than transformational. The biggest critic in the team became our greatest advocate, and years later, we are still friends. He said he was never the same again after the process we took them through. Later, Don, who is also still a friend (though now retired and spends his time sailing here off the coast of Oregon) describes it this way:
“No matter how busy my team is, I now have learned to routinely take them out of the jungle floor and into the canopy of the forest. On the jungle floor, they hack their way through the thick vegetation, seeing only a few feet in front of themselves. From the canopy, they can see over the horizon; the storms that are coming their way as well as the rays of light breaking through the cloud cover showing them the way ahead. They engage together to discuss what they see from their various functional perspectives and vantage points, and chart a course ahead as a team. And last but not least, before I let them climb back down into the forest floor, I make them all look down at the jungle below to see if they have been hacking their way through the jungle in circles or not…”
One lesson learned is that activity does not equal progress….The point here is that perspective can itself be a powerful force for strategic change.
Now from the customer’s perspective, I always assume that customers don’t want what we are selling them. Instead, they want integrated solutions to their problem. But we can’t create integrated solutions for customers if we are fragmented internally, i.e., integrated solutions require integrated internal operations.
Too many managers appear still stuck in a mechanistic “control” paradigm and as such feel threatened that they are not (nor can they ever be) fully capable of controlling their operations. This is because increasingly, organizations are composed of knowledge workers, who by definition know more about their job than their boss. A boss can take this one of two ways: either they perpetuate the myth that they are (or should be) the smartest person in the room, or they learn that their job is to facilitate coordination, communication, and integration amongst the often fragmented components of their operation.
Knowledge workers, even (and perhaps especially) those at the periphery have knowledge and insight, they are the eyes and ears of the operation. If managers continue to be threatened by this level of knowledge that they themselves can never have full access to, they can never make the transition to their role as overall operations facilitator, coordinator, integrator.
Action Steps:
A next step might be the design of a workshop that gets everyone into the canopy for a view of the whole operation. Managers must understand, however, that they take off their manager badge at this meeting and participate only as a participant. Leadership should set the direction and priorities, while those closest to the work figure out how to get from here to there…with some expert facilitation of course. Leadership then gets to sign off on the direction, but they should be at the helm and not in the engine room.
Start with helping them to gain perspective of the whole operation, and how increased complexity has taken them into a new arena where more of the same; working longer, harder, smarter, more efficiently won’t get them where they need to go, and WHY.
Help them paint a picture of their own desired end state based on what the customer expects (integrated solutions) and how increased complexity has led to increased internal specialization and hence fragmentation
Break them into small groups and mix them up cross-functionally
Ask some variation of the following:
Given our desired end state and priorities:
- what is working well today?
- what is not working as well as necessary?
- what should we do differently moving forward?
Capture what they come up with in small group discussions for the larger group to see and then see if you can move toward a pilot project that can be signed off by management. This way, management is setting the direction and priorities, but those closest to the work are coming up with the solutions of how to get from here to there. This helps create broad engagement in change, while ensuring that teams are held accountable for outcomes, not for “just doing one’s job…”
A presentation of how we did this for the Boeing Dreamliner Paris Air show and 30 nation World Tour is at: http://brucelarue.com/pdfs/Fusion%20of%20Design%20and%20Engineering%2010.13.051.pdf
