Become a PowerPoint Guru by Dave Tracy
Learn the methodologies, frameworks, and tricks used by Management Consultants to create executive presentations in the business world.
Currently viewing the tag: "Organizational Culture"
Business Transformation initiatives are typically undertaken to solve a pressing issue, bring about improved performance, or to serve customers better. A critical element of the success of such initiatives entails transforming the existing behaviors of the employees across the organization. However, this isn’t a straightforward task.
Attitudes and practices get reinforced in people by following established routines day in and day out. Such practices become a part of an Organizational Culture over time. Ingrained organizational behaviors and practices aren’t considered burdening until the organization’s performance starts declining considerably over time. That’s when the leaders start thinking about changing these beliefs and habitual actions.
Psychology and Neuroscience can help enterprises change the deeply embedded attitudes and practices of people and replace those with new beliefs and practices. Leading organizations are using psychology and brain research to induce successful change. Specifically, they focus on the right priorities to enable Organizational and Behavioral Change and take the following 6 steps—or 6 Rs of Behavioral Change:
- Recognize
- Relabel
- Reflect
- Refocus
- Respond
- Revalue
Let’s dive deeper into the first 3 steps critical to render behavioral change.
Step 1 – Recognize
The first step involves the leadership reflecting on the behaviors that are required to be transformed. Leaders are responsible for articulating the future vision of an organization, prioritizing and implementing initiatives to achieve the vision, and take measures to tackle disruption caused by technology and rivals. Self-Reflection on undesired behaviors by role models (including senior leaders) is essential to make other people ponder over their behaviors.
Leadership behaviors inform the workforce about the Transformation required, assist in championing the agenda, and make these behaviors resonate across the board. Individuals, in turn, should contemplate on the alignment of their behaviors with their personal / organizational goals, think of new improved ways of doing things, and dump convenient yet unproductive behaviors.
Step 2 – Relabel
The 2nd step of the 6 Rs to Organizational Change necessitates categorizing and naming the flawed or unfit behaviors. Neuroscience research has revealed that by naming behaviors and understanding that thoughts are merely ideas, persons with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can disregard useless thoughts and behaviors that trigger them to wash their hands again and again.
Relabeling thoughts allows individuals to stop reflecting on useless thoughts. Likewise, in an organizational setting leadership needs to evaluate which shared thoughts don’t work well, categorize them, and communicate the reasons for their unsuitability across the organization.
Step 3 – Reflect
In this step, senior management replaces outdated beliefs and behaviors and outlines the vision or desired objectives and behaviors. The outlined desired objectives and behaviors need to be explicit, translated into daily actions, and attractive to the people. This may warrant training of people to reflect on the desired expectations and behaviors collectively. Effective communication of benefits of altered objectives and behaviors assists in subsiding the unrest associated with change in people and relaxing their mind and thoughts. This must include informing people that uncertainties are part of business and that they should keep their focus on organizational values and what matters most during change. Reflection creates a sense of ownership among employees that is otherwise difficult to be achieved by any cascaded top-to-bottom directives.
Interested in learning more about the other steps or Rs critical to engender Change ? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 6 Rs to Behavioral Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Business Transformation initiatives are typically undertaken to solve a pressing issue, bring about improved performance, or to serve customers better. A critical element of the success of such initiatives entails transforming the existing behaviors of the employees across the organization. However, this isn’t a straightforward task.
Attitudes and practices get reinforced in people by following established routines day in and day out. Such practices become a part of an Organizational Culture over time. These ingrained behaviors and practices aren’t considered burdening until the organization’s performance keeps declining considerably over time. That’s when the leaders think about changing these beliefs and habitual actions.
Psychology and Neuroscience can help enterprises change the deeply embedded attitudes and practices of people and replace those with new beliefs and practices. Leading organizations are using psychology and brain research to induce successful Organizational Transformation.
The practices that these organizations employ to engender Transformation are based on the following 6 core Principles of Neuroscience:
- The brain is hardwired to hold on to habits, making it difficult to change them.
- Connections in the brain—even deeply embedded thoughts—are quite flexible to transform.
- Concentrating on new ways of thinking can overhaul individuals thinking habits.
- Don’t tell people what is wrong, just focus on drawing their attention to the positives.
- Encourage the ability to reject negative cerebral impulses.
- The competence to focus attention has to be created bit by bit.
Let’s dive deeper into these first 3 principles of Neuroscience.
Principle 1 – The brain is hardwired to hold on to habits, making it difficult to change them.
Our thinking patterns are stored in circuits by brain parts—including the habit center (basal ganglia), amygdala (emotion center), and hypothalamus (which manages hunger, thirst etc.). These brain parts, especially the basal ganglia, process info unconsciously and the activity feels rewarding to the individual. This activity makes stronger neuronal connections with other areas and gets the activity reinforced.
For the desired behaviors and practices to get embedded, the organization need to make stronger connections with the entire workforce’s’ basal ganglia to enable deep rooted neuronal circuits. The practices ingrained this way are difficult to remove.
Principle 2 – Connections in the brain—even deeply embedded thoughts—are quite flexible to transform.
People with obsessive compulsive disorder keep deliberating on their impulse to wash hands to ensure cleanliness. This fortifies brain circuits in the basal ganglia, which takes over their behaviors. However, Neuroscience reveals that even the most well-established notions can be altered. This can be done by making the individuals aware of what they are thinking and where their focus is in a given moment.
Training and directing people to think about their thoughts can make them conscious of their undesired behaviors, disengages brain areas notable for causing distraction, and adopt new behaviors.
Principle 3 – Concentrating on new ways of thinking can overhaul individuals thinking habits.
The 3rd principle highlights that persistent focus on unfamiliar, desired thoughts and objectives activates the habit center of the brain, which turns these desired thoughts into habits. The mechanism according to Neuroscience is such that basal ganglia’s caudate nucleus region processes…
Interested in learning more about the other principles of Behavioral Transformation? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 6 Core Principles of Neuroscience here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Employee behaviors are critical for the success of Business Transformation endeavors. However, transforming the ingrained behaviors and mindsets of the workforce isn’t straightforward, and when tackled cause the enterprise’s emotional state to go down.
Leaders need to identify the components of Culture that are in line with their Corporate Strategy. They have to ascertain and harness the positive elements of culture that can drive the desired Transformation and suppress those that obstruct it.
For the desired Organizational Culture to sustain, leaders should work on gaining acceptance of the transformed behaviors. Leaders who do not give culture its due importance risk ruining their strategic endeavors, as they lack the commitment required from the employees to achieve success.
The real question is why senior leaders fail to use the positive elements of Organizational Culture constructively in the first place. The answer is simple; there are 4 common yet wrong assumptions—or myths—regarding culture change that are deeply established in most businesses that are anything but facts. Paying heed to—and acting on—these 4 myths results in grave consequences:
- Culture is the root cause of all our failures
- Changing our Organizational Culture is beyond us, forget about it
- Let Human Resources deal with Organizational Culture
- Culture is the responsibility of top management
When senior executives devise a strategy to transform the deeply entrenched organizational culture—by putting in place new policies, practices, reward structures, and performance management systems—there is strong resistance that outplays the strategy.
This is primarily due to employees’ reservations and uncertainties regarding the impact of these changes on their work, colleagues, atmosphere, routines, family, and their enterprise’s reputation. Transforming the Organizational Culture using the individual’s actions and conduct necessitates seeking assistance from 7 guiding principles:
- Be Practical
- Reinforce New Behaviors
- Seek Out Role Models
- Identify Cultural Carriers
- Leverage Existing Culture
- Be a Role Model
- Explain Impact of New Behavior
Application of these guiding principles facilitates in transpiring successful culture change. Let’s dive deeper into a few of these guiding principles.
Be Practical
The first guiding principle to changing the culture involves starting rationally and pragmatically. It is not feasible to strive to change every behavior at once. Leaders need to concentrate on the behaviors most critical for the organization. The ones that reverberate with the existing company culture and have a key role in improving the organizational performance. This entails ascertaining groups of employees whose behaviors should be transformed immediately. A clear demonstration of the requisite changes goes a long way in reinforcing the desired behaviors and culture in the organization.
Reinforce New Behaviors
The 2nd principle to changing culture involves emphasizing new behaviors. The desired behaviors should be reinforced using formal and informal mechanisms. Formal reinforcement mechanisms include metrics, processes, appraisals, salary reviews, training, and incentives to reward new behaviors. These formal mechanisms allow people to practice new behaviors repetitively, until they begin to realize their value. Informal reinforcement mechanisms include support networks and associations to nurture sensitivity and devotion needed to cope with uncertainties.
Seek out Role Models
Organizational Culture Transformation necessitates distinguishing role models to demonstrate the desired behaviors. Culture change begins when change practitioners act by modeling the new behaviors. These change practitioners are pride builders for an organization. The examples set by these practitioners assist in inculcating pride in others about embracing the desired behaviors. This action is referred to as “positive deviance” or constructive non-conformity. These pride builders in turn identify and develop more exemplars.
Interested in learning more about the other guiding principles of culture change? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 7 Guiding Principles of Culture Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Research by PwC indicates that leading companies are in a near perpetual state of Reorganization. This upsurge in Organizational Design initiatives is owing to the accelerating pace of strategic change caused by disruption of industries, changing competitor landscape, customer behaviors, and distribution channels.
Companies opt to commence efforts to restructure their organization in the hopes of enhancing efficiency, perpetuating growth, and surviving in future. Some shift their Business Models, few alter their focus from products to customer-centric; whereas others adopt new behaviors, systems, or IT architecture. However, merely a quarter of the Organizational Design initiatives succeed in achieving their anticipated objectives.
The reason for this high failure rate is simple. Reorganization is not about changing a company’s organogram. It’s a methodical processes that necessitates transforming / streamlining the decision-making process, mindsets, talent pipeline, reward structures, reporting lines, and the way responsibilities are assigned.
There is no cookie-cutter approach to Reorganization that can work across all organizations. However, research and management best practices reveal 10 principles that are critical for developing an effective Organizational Design, applicable to any enterprise:
- Don’t get caught in past Reorganization initiatives
- Consider Organizational Design elements
- Transform Organization Chart in the end
- Don’t overlook top talent
- Converge attention towards controllable factors
- Encourage responsibility
- Use best practices with care
- Harmonize organizational hierarchy with Strategic Objectives
- Give due emphasis to intangible elements of organization
- Make efficient use of company culture and practices
Let’s dive deeper into these guiding principles.
1. Don’t Get Caught in Past Reorganization Initiatives
Leaders at most organizations tend to keep discussing and focusing on the old reorganization initiatives. This takes away much of their time and energy which should rather be spent on making the current Organizational Design a success.
Organization Design should be created on the basis of an enterprise’s sense of purpose, strategy, core competencies, products, competitive advantage, and experience offered to customers and employees. Senior leaders need to be able to see the broader perspective, set clear organizational objectives, and steer the workforce to achieve their personal as well as organizational objectives.
2. Consider Organizational Design Elements
Reorganization is a complex undertaking, but a structured approach to Organizational Design assists in identifying and prioritizing key priorities. Organizational Design has 8 fundamental elements that are important for all organizations, Business Models, sectors, or regions. These elements can be categorized into 4 pairs. Each of these 4 pairs constitute a formal (tangible) and an informal (intangible) element:
- Decisions team up with Norms (the way people act).
- Motivators (the way people are influenced to work) pair with Commitments (what affects people’s thoughts about work).
- Information (the way data is processed) pairs with Mindsets (how people process knowledge and meaning).
- Structure (reporting lines) pairs off with Networks (how people collaborate).
Leaders should select fewer, prioritized Organizational Design elements to work on that have the most impact on their organizations.
3. Transform Organization Chart in the End
Most leaders consider Organization Structure to be the most critical element to Business Transformation. In reality, there are other key organizational elements that need to be tackled first to improve effectiveness. Revisiting the organogram does not have much effect on the way business is done—or to improve it. Structure depicts reporting lines and changing it can reduce costs temporary. Changing structure alone—without transforming other organizational elements—allows the redundant reporting lines to reappear and put the organization back to its earlier state of affairs. Instead of changing the organogram, core organizational issues should be prioritized and confronted first. Structure will adjust accordingly once the issues resolve.
4. Don’t Overlook Top Talent
Top talent often go unnoticed when it comes to Reorganization. The skills and traits of the senior leadership has a profound impact on Organizational Design. Mapping of technical capabilities and leadership abilities of top leadership is an important step to Reorganization.
Interested in learning more about the guiding principles critical for Organizational Design?” “You can download an editable PowerPoint on 10 Principles of Organizational Design here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Digital Transformation in Manufacturing or “Digital Manufacturing” for short is not an optional decision for companies anymore. Manufacturing concerns that want to survive have to jump on the Digital Transformation bandwagon hastily. Digital Manufacturing has become a prerequisite for a profitable existence even for mere survival of a manufacturing concern.
Business Transformation of any kind is difficult—more so when it is a Digital Transformation in Manufacturing. In fact, Change Management of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing is typically more difficult than any change or Transformation program that an organization may undertake.
Not many manufacturing concerns had cognizance of the digital technologies until very recently. Still, manufacturing concerns find it very hard to manage a successful Digital Transformation.
Digital technologies can disrupt businesses. A Digital Transformation is not the Digitalization of an existing business. Digital Manufacturing does not entail simply changing technologies, automating processes, taking aid of Artificial Intelligence in the process; in fact it means redefining the nature of work and productivity.
Starting a Digital Manufacturing project can be an arduous process. Executives customarily approach this task with a lot of prudence and get caught in questions that are actually misnomers and myths, weakening the Digital Transformation process. The 4 biggest myths about Digital Manufacturing are:
Myth 1. Is outsourcing or partnering, to build digital capabilities, not speedier and less investment intensive?
Myth 2. Why can the existing IT team and CIO not be used for this project instead of hiring new talent and creating a CDO position, both unaware of our business?
Myth 3. Should each of our businesses not have individual digital capabilities tailored to their needs rather than a central digital unit that serves all businesses?
Myth 4. Should not our approach to developing digital capabilities be phased rather than big bang?
More on these myths can be found in the PowerPoint presentation titled Challenges to Digital Manufacturing on Flevy.
Digital Manufacturing opens doors for many opportunities. It allows the manufacturers to find ways of refining the performance and reliability of machines and increasing customer productivity through customer usage data gathered by sensors in their machines.
This approach allows manufacturers to sell outcomes rather than products. Outcome delivery via Data Analysis and Performance Enhancement is a business opportunity worth trillions of dollars, according to a World Economic Forum study.
Despite realizing the opportunities of Digital Manufacturing, companies find the process extremely difficult. Digital Manufacturing has both structural as well as behavioral barriers stopping it from being successfully executed.
Manufacturers have to surpass the following 3 chief obstacles in order for them to be true Digital Manufacturers:
- Incumbency
- Talent
- Culture
Let us dive a little deeper into the obstacles.
Incumbency
Rigidity is a major barrier in bringing about change. Companies create capabilities and Business Models to succeed. Overtime, when these capabilities and Business Models become critical for success and hard to imitate for the rivals, they transform into rigidities. Success of such capabilities and models make the companies wary of bringing change in them.
Leaders refrain from touching projects with longer time periods as it may not show benefits during their tenures. The reward structure in companies also encourages short-term gains to longer-term, capital intensive endeavors.
Talent
Not many manufacturing organizations consider developing Digital Talent internally. This leads to a dearth of key talent integral to build Digital Manufacturing capabilities.
The primary reason for this is the view that digital technology is an auxiliary function.
In-house capabilities are not developed because Digital Manufacturing requires an amalgam of personnel from the virtual sciences and the conventional engineering sciences. Both have a very different way of thinking and doing things, making it a great challenge to build them into a team.
Culture
Organizational culture at manufacturing firms is a significant hurdle in adopting digital technology. Manufacturers have traditionally had long product-development lifecycles, long sales cycles, and a culture of constantly improving efficiency. In order to be more digital, manufacturing concerns have to accept concepts used in the digital world e.g., agility, simplicity, and responsiveness.
Interested in learning more about the Challenges to Digital Manufacturing?” “You can download an editable PowerPoint on Challenges to Digital Manufacturing here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Want to Achieve Excellence in Supply Chain Management (SCM)?
Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Supply Chain Management (SCM). Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of Supply Chain activities. It also captures the management of the flow of goods and services.
In February of 2020, COVID-19 disrupted—and in many cases halted—global Supply Chains, revealing just how fragile they have become. By April, many countries experienced declines of over 40% in domestic and international trade.
COVID-19 has likewise changed how Supply Chain Executives approach and think about SCM. In the pre-COVID-19 era of globalization, the objective was to be Lean and Cost-effective. In the post-COVID-19 world, companies must now focus on making their Supply Chains Resilient, Agile, and Smart. Additional trends include Digitization, Sustainability, and Manufacturing Reshoring.
Learn about our Supply Chain Management (SCM) Best Practice Frameworks here.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
With most Transformation initiatives people gradually revert back to their old habits of doing things. Sustainable Change Management necessitates 4 key processes:
- Chartering—defining the scope, rationale, and team for the change initiative.
- Learning—testing and refining ideas before a full-blown execution of the initiative.
- Mobilizing—using symbols and metaphors to engage people and gain their buy-in for the change program.
- Realigning—redefining the roles and responsibilities and managing performance of the initiative and the people driving it.
These processes are critical to enable an Organizational Culture which encourages execution of lasting change.
In addition to these key processes, for the change to entrench into the organizational fabric, Leadership needs to put in place the environment necessary for the people to embrace and own the new processes, systems, and desired behaviors.
The 4 critical processes aid in creating the enabling conditions necessary for institutionalizing change in the organization. These enabling conditions for sustainable Change take place in 3 settings:
- Structural Context
- Procedural Context
- Emotional Context
The environment for sustainable change must be put in place way before the actual execution of the Transformation initiative. These enabling conditions encompass making changes to the organization’s structure, procedures, and sentiments / behaviors.
Let’s dive deeper into the 3 conditions critical to enable sustainable change in the institution.
Structural Context
The first element of the enabling environment requires the change leadership to work on reshaping the organizational structure. The 4 key processes have a direct bearing on the organization’s structure. Their effect pervades over:
- The organization’s hierarchy and reporting lines.
- Compensations, benefits, and rewards systems.
- Monitoring and control systems.
The Structural Context significantly affects the way employees’ work and expend their time and their interest in certain types of projects.
The structural context is altered during the Realigning process of Transformation in the way new personnel practices are employed. The Learning process informs the redefinition of linkage between the leadership and field staff. The Mobilizing process informs the changes to be made in the roles and responsibilities of the management and front-line people—through storytelling and metaphors. Whereas, the Chartering process helps instill a reformed, team-building culture in the organization. Together, these changes in the structural context cascade down across the organization.
Procedural Context
The Procedural context pertains to a feeling of objectivity and authenticity of new processes and systems. The Procedural environment involves the perception of people that their views are taken seriously and acted upon while designing and implementing a new initiative.
Procedural authenticity is critical in gaining commitment from the employees on initiatives that were not validated by them earlier. It involves belief of the people that the change initiative integrates well with the philosophies of the organization and the way business should be done. It makes the people feel heard, ensures trustworthiness of the change leadership through positive track records and effective decision making abilities, and alignment of the change initiative with the core values of the organization.
Interested in learning more about the other enabling conditions mandatory for institutionalizing change? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Conditions for Sustainable Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Did You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Initiatives aimed at improving performance are often launched with great uproar, costing an organization significant investments. Such initiatives necessitate extensive changes in the Organizational Culture and the way the enterprise systems and processes function.
However, most initiatives fall short of realizing success. Decades of scholarly research on Change Management reveals that the issues that contribute the most to the failure of strategic initiatives are:
- Incompetence in sustaining process improvement.
- Lack of trust on senior leadership.
- Failure to embrace new ways of doing business.
- Performance relapse.
- Inability of the initiative to produce any positive financial returns.
- Skepticism towards the desired behaviors and return of impractical employee behaviors.
Researchers have carried out scores of studies to isolate the drivers of lasting change. Research published in MIT SMR in 2005 discusses how leadership can design and execute Transformation initiatives that bring lasting changes in the organization. The study entailed in-depth analysis of the strategic Customer Service Enhancement (CSE) initiative undertaken by a large clothing retailer, having franchises in multiple geographic locations.
The researchers conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with leaders, in-store operations and support function managers. Detailed notes of the interviews were shared amongst the researchers alongside an exhaustive literature review. A case study of the initiative was prepared using independent research to have an unprejudiced viewpoint, free from any bias. Feedback from the organization’s management was gathered and incorporated throughout the study to seek clarifications or corrections. Data analysis was carried out employing a coding scheme developed using Atlas.ti tool. Comparative analysis was conducted and similarities and differences in conclusions were discussed.
The study brought to light 4 key processes necessary for change to stick in an organization. These key processes assist in laying the foundation for successful institutionalization of change initiatives by creating a company-wide culture that encourages enduring change:
- Chartering
- Learning
- Mobilizing
- Realigning
Let’s delve deeper into the first 2 processes.
Chartering
Chartering is a process through which an enterprise classifies the purpose, scope, and the way people interact with each other on a strategic initiative. Clear delineation of project boundaries, resources, responsibilities, and reporting lines are the elements integral for the success of a change initiative.
The Chartering process entails 2 critical components:
- Boundary Setting
- Team Design
Boundary Setting involves the key steps a team takes for accurate definition of change initiative’s scope.
The project team should clearly outline the problem(s) that the project is, and isn’t, going to tackle. Ideally, while designing and executing a change initiative, the focus of the engagement should be on confronting the most crucial problem area. The leadership should ensure not to confuse the core team by eyeing too many priorities to deal with through the strategic initiative.
The Team Design element of Chartering involves ascertaining the roles, accountabilities, and guiding principles for team’s collaboration. Team design entails creating ground rules for team members to interact, devising mechanisms to manage conflicts. The leadership needs to not only maintain diversity of the project team’s expertise, but also ensure they complement each other, and inculcate a standardized approach to decision making in project teams. There needs to be fostered a culture of positive discourse and testing ideas amongst the team members. Incorporating these guidelines helps spark thinking, learning, and decision making.
Learning
Learning aids in anticipating and dealing with hurdles during implementation of Transformation initiatives. Learning enables the managers to improve the quality of the new processes. it is a process through which managers develop, test, and refine ideas before full-scale implementation. The process entails 2 critical components:
- Discovery
- Experimentation
For more information on Learning and Development and how to elevate your organization into a Learning Organization, check out the frameworks and tools on Flevy here: https://flevy.com/business-toolkit/learning-organization
The discovery element involves gathering data to identify the objectives of the change initiative and outlining ways to achieve those objectives. Before rolling out a complete implementation of a change initiative, testing and refining the individual elements of the initiative immensely assists in the success of the initiative. Gathering adequate information relevant to the initiative, setting up baseline metrics to measure performance, and identifying issues hampering customer satisfactions are the key aspects of this phase. The team should learn from the failures of prior initiatives, introduce change in a systemic fashion rather than piecemeal, and encourage people to change rationally as well as emotionally.
Interested in learning more about the other processes critical for change to stick? You can download an editable PowerPoint on 4 Processes of Sustainable Change here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Did You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Organizations have, in recent times, become more aware of the worth of regulating their Organizational Knowledge. Extensive studies in academia have been conducted on the subject, because of its importance.
Organizations learn with time and experience. The cause-and-effect relationship is gathered in the collective memory of the organization in the form of:
- Shared mental models
- Standard operating procedures
- Rules and routines
- Assets
This learning, in some cases, becomes a source of Competitive Advantage for the organization.
New learning, in organizations, is possible when redundant knowledge and bad habits are effectively erased from the organizational memory. Managing Organizational Forgetting has to be part of Strategic Planning because of:
- Wasted resources—Knowledge forgotten, that should not have been, has to be re-acquired by diverting resources that could have been used elsewhere or for acquiring new knowledge.
- Opportunity cost—Required knowledge not available (because it was forgotten) at the time an opportunity arose.
Effective Organizational Forgetting should be an Organizational Culture so as to keep organizations on their toes and maybe preserve or gain Competitive Advantage.
Organizations that intend to manage their Organizational Forgetting effectively, need to comprehend 2 dimensions of Forgetting and the relationship between them:
Dimension 1: Accidental Forgetting vs. Intentional Forgetting
The 1st element pertains to loss of valuable knowledge; the 2nd to increased competitiveness as a result of Forgetting.
Dimension 2: Entrenched Knowledge vs. New Knowledge
The 1st element relates to knowledge embedded in relatively durable objects like machines, databases, taken-for-granted routines; the 2nd to a transient setup like individual minds, association among small teams, makeshift organizational groups.
The process of Forgetting is altered depending on the interaction of the elements of the 2 dimensions.
Interaction of the above 2 dimensions results in 4 processes that constitute the Forms of Organizational Forgetting:
- Memory Decay
- Failure to Capture
- Unlearning
- Avoiding Bad Habits
The interaction of the 4 processes has been conveyed in the form of a matrix dubbed the Organizational Forgetting Matrix. These processes explain an array of Organizational Forgetting that may occur. Each of the 4 processes need distinct management approaches because each process is connected with a disparate set of challenges.
Let us delve a little deeper into some of the processes.
Memory Decay
Memory Decay occurs when concepts, practices, values are lost because of non-use or key personnel leaving the organization. Organizations can forget elements long ingrained in their collective memory triggering costly and harmful consequences, like spending large sums to regain knowledge that was a source of Competitive Advantage.
Memory Decay is exacerbated in the process of downsizing. Extremely valuable pieces of knowledge and skills can be lost if proper retention measures are not put in place.
Failure to Capture
Failure to capture new knowledge and disseminate it throughout the organization, results in loss when individuals bearing that knowledge leave. Knowledge Articulation and Knowledge Institutionalization are 2 processes that can prevent such loss.
Unlearning
Intentional Forgetting enhances organizational capability. Intentional Forgetting can be achieved in 2 ways. The 1st is strategic removal of knowledge.
Interested in learning more about Organizational Forgetting? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Organizational Forgetting here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
Studies on Team Motivation and Building Effective Teams stem from the research carried out in Psychology and Sociology. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), the Founder of Modern Psychology, is credited with conducting the 1st research on the subject.
The Social Psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) is credited with introducing the term “Group Dynamics.” The term defined the constructive and destructive forces within Groups of people. Lewin pioneered the Group Dynamics Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first of its kind dedicated to the study of Group Dynamics and how it could be applied to real-world and social issues.
The latter half of the 20th century saw attention shifted more towards studying how Group Performance could be improved in the workplace to foster an Organizational Culture of cohesiveness, and Tuckman’s study proved significant in this regard.
Bruce Tuckman’s Model on Group Development became one of the most influential studies on the subject. Originally conducted in 1965, the Model was further improved by Tuckman and his colleague in 1977.
Tuckman’s assertion was that each of the phases of the model is indispensable and unavoidable for the team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan strategically, and deliver results. Tuckman’s model has become the foundation for following models and commonly used by management consultants for Team Management and Client Management. For the model to be applicable in the work place, it is vital to comprehend the process at each stage and its concepts.
Tuckman’s Group Development Model comprises the following 5 stages:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
The 5th stage of Group Development called “Adjourning” was added in 1977, by Tuckman and his colleague Mary Ann Jensen.
Let us examine some of the stages of Tuckman’s model for Group Development in a little more detail.
Forming
The key dynamic of the first stage is Orientation. This is the stage where people are brought together in a Group. How quickly the group’s transition to the 2nd stage takes place depends on the clarity and complexity of the goal and members’ previous experience of working in groups. Some of the key characteristics of this stage include:
- An upbeat outlook of group members about what is to be accomplished.
- Anxiousness on part of members about what the other team members will be like.
Managers of the group at this stage have to be directly and intimately involved. Clear guidelines and structure by the manager are necessary to ensure that the team builds strong relationships.
Storming
The key dynamic of this stage is Power Struggle. At this 2nd stage team members feel more at ease voicing and questioning opinions, and that is when internal conflict flares up. Channeling this conflict in a positive direction will make for a cohesive team. Some of the key characteristics of this stage are:
- Perception formation about other team members’ abilities.
- Alliance formation among team members and discussions regarding the goal and the approach to achieve it.
The group leader has to show a Problem Solving Mindset at this stage, swiftly channel conflict between teams in order to avoid demoralization. Among many other actions at this stage, the leader also has to guide the team in decision-making and proffering explanations on how decisions transpired.
Norming
The key dynamic of the 3rd stage of team development is Cooperation. The members concentrate on settling differences to make way for clear definition of organizational mission and objectives. Manager’s role within the team transforms from that of leader to that of a team member.
Interested in learning more about Tuckman’s 5-Stage Group Development Model? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Tuckman’s 5 Stages of Group Development here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
The introduction of emerging, digital technologies has ushered in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To keep the competitive advantage in this era of Digital Transformation, leveraging contemporary technology is an absolute necessity. Using cutting-edge technology means not just augmenting, but in fact, revamping the whole Quality outlook.
Quality 4.0 is the complimentary Quality approach to the Industry 4.0 era. Quality 4.0 is about transforming and improving Organizational Culture, collaboration, competency, and Leadership Development among other things through the application of technology.
Quality 4.0 is characterized by:
- Transforming and improving culture, collaboration, competency, and leadership through the application of technology.
- Digital Transformation of Management Systems and compliance.
- Enabling technology and processes necessary to maximize value, resolve customary Quality impediments, and provide innovative solutions.
Quality 4.0 is not just about Digitalization, but more importantly about the impact of that Digitalization on Quality technology, processes, and people.
Companies can use the 11 pillars of Quality 4.0 Framework to identify how the existing capabilities and initiatives can be transformed and then educate, plan, and act accordingly. The framework uses the traditional Quality methods to build upon and improve them. The 11 pillars of Quality 4.0 include:
- Data
- Analytics
- Connectivity
- Collaboration
- App Development
- Scalability
- Management Systems
- Compliance
- Culture
- Leadership
- Competency
The majority of the companies are still not in a position to take leverage of Quality 4.0. This warrants making investments in improving traditional Quality and bringing themselves in a position where they can spring up to use Quality 4.0 to prepare for the future.
There are strong interrelationships between the pillars of Quality 4.0, and adding new capabilities to certain pillars facilitates new applications on other pillars. Let us delve a little deeper into a few of these pillars
1. Data and 2. Analytics
Data and Analytics form the first 2 pillars. Data is key to informed decision making. Most companies are still using fragmented data while the innovating market leaders have progressed to taking leverage of Big Data. Data can be better understood by understanding its 5 components: Volume, Variety, Velocity, Veracity, and Transparency.
Analytics help reveal the insights contained within raw data. Correct metrics are key to uncovering correlations and patterns—meaningful information. Big Data Analytics using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is beneficial if the Analytics Framework—comprising Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive, and Prescriptive Analytics—is understood clearly.
3. Connectivity
Connectivity encompasses the link between Business Information Technology—e.g., Enterprise Quality Management Systems (EQMS), Product Life-cycle Management (PLM), Enterprise Resource Planning—and Operational Technology that is used in Manufacturing, Labs, and Services. Connectivity is achieved through abundant and inexpensive sensors providing real-time feedback from Connected People, products, edge devices, and processes.
4. Scalability
Scalability creates uniformity in Quality. It is the ability to harmonize processes, best practices, competencies, and lessons learnt across the organization, be it global. Cloud Computing has played a pivotal role in harnessing scalability by providing Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Solution (PaaS), and connection of databases.
The reality of the future is Quality 4.0. It is being adopted very swiftly. Those who remain unfamiliar with it or are slow to adopt run the risk of being marginalized very quickly.
Interested in learning more about Quality 4.0? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Quality 4.0 here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
Do You Find Value in This Framework?
You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:
“My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today’s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”
– Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects
“As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”
– David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting
“FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight – it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”
– Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd
