During a recent project that involved whole scale transformation of a client’s system to manage, hire, compensate, reward and recognize, 65% of their employees are who drive their profitability.

The concept of managing change really is a fallacy.

Traditional Change

There are many statistics indicating that traditional change management is only successful in approximately 30% – 15% of all projects. With all of the money, time, and effort put into change, it is hard to believe that it is so “badly managed”.

The fatal flaw in our traditional approach, sometimes referred to as the LaMarsh approach, is that change is viewed as an event.

Traditional Change Management’s design is to push an organization through to the other side of an issue, problem or event – It’s as if we are saying:

But the truth is there is no there.

Change is Inevitable

Change is constant.  Once the organization makes it through one change, there is another.

The end state is not the end of the change but the beginning.

Two Important Things to Remember:

• Change viewed as “an event that must be completed and then things will go back to normal” is daunting and causes fatigue.
• Change viewed as a constant evolution moving from one change to the next does not seem so daunting (and could be exciting).

But…

It will still be tough. There will be some natural resistance, but if change is viewed as a constant, resistance will eventually become much lower.

If organizations are anticipating and prepared for change, there will be no surprise change event.   No one in the organization will be shocked about changing because they know that it is constantly happening.

Moving to “Optimizing Evolution”

1. Acknowledge that change is inevitable

It is imperative that leaders communicate that change is a constant occurrence within the organization. Due to globalization, technology, and competition, there is no organization that can survive without looking at both success now,  and what will enable future success.

2. Establish “Organizational Evolution” teams

Organizations need to establish central teams that are dedicated to anticipatingand enabling change throughout the organization. Similar to an internal audit function, a “central evolution team” will increase the likelihood that the organization will not be surprised when there is a new government regulation,technology, or competitor.

Internal audit plays a vital role in making sure that the organization is what is should be so when a real audit occurs there are no surprises and no detrimental findings. In the same vein, a “central evolution team” will work to be aware ofissues, challenges, and opportunities.

Being prepared will take the sting out of big changes.

3. Moving away from trying to “manage change”

The fundamentals of the primary models that have been used over the past quarter-century to “manage change” are still valid. It’s important to continue to use them.

Utilize internal resources, which not only have the most at stake, but also understand the current system better than anyone else, as the “Core Evolution Teams”.  Allow them to leverage a “weave” methodology.

In its simplest form:

Of course it is necessary to have training and communication embedded within the process, but that is nothing new.

4. Educate the organization

Critical Step: Education around this new mindset of change – organizational transformation or evolution optimization. In order for everyone to accept that change is constant, it’s important there is understanding it will be looking for opportunities to transform and improve all the time.

Each person in the organization must view themselves as change agents, actively seeking out better ways to do their jobs.

Employees have to be given some latitude to alter the way that they do things to improve performance, customer experience, or increase profit, and of course there will need to be checks and balances.

Become an Agent of Change

If everyone in your organization views themselves as an agent of change, when its time to change and transform, there will be less resistance and more buy-in and support.

There is no silver bullet to successful change. It is unacceptable that 70 and 85 percent of all change initiatives fail.  It is vital that a new way to make organization’s change is resilient.

Are you ready to leverage and embrace opportunities to become more efficient, effective and profitable? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!

Success in the workplace is determined by planning, scheduling, and efficiency. These are all aspects that must be considered when planning or working on any project in relation to your team and to your company.

Have you ever worked on a project or initiative that was not going well?  If everyone knew it was failing, why was there not even an attempt to stop it?  What does that cost us as leaders in our companies and organizations?

Take Action with Your Words

What Happens When We Don’t Know When to Say Enough?

Often times, under pressure, it is difficult for people to speak up and get the courage that they need in order to stop a project that is failing. It is unclear whether this issue is caused by a mixture of pride and hubris, dogged determination, or  just the feeling that “quitting itself is failure.”

However, it struck me hard one morning on my way to a client that in order to be a highly productive team or organization, we have to know when to end an effort that is failing.

I passed a man holding a sign that read, “Hunger Strike, Protesting not being allowed to see children since 2001.”

He had been standing in the same spot for 11 years to protest, not being able to see his children due to divorce. I was struck by the fact he was standing in front of a train station that was nowhere near a courthouse or media outlet.

When I asked him why, he stated that he had gone through his court appeals, and that no media outlet would listen to him. Because of this, his family had given up on his cause.

He told me:

“I’ll never give up because I’m not a quitter!”  

He had lost his job, his house, his life savings, his friends, his family, and everything else.

Nothing at work seems that dire.

Time to Take Note

Similarities between this man’s plight and unspoken clients in the workplace:

• Unwillingness to remove a leader that was obviously failing because “it would make us look like we didn’t know what we were doing.”
• Unwillingness to change a reorganization that occurred 2 years before because “the senior leader pushed for the reorganization, and changing things now would make him look bad.”
• Unwillingness to change a marketing plan that not only want not working but was turning customers away because “we invested time and money into this and we are going to make it work.”
• Unwillingness to find a new partner to work with on an employee survey that had proven to be flawed because “the senior leader that selected the vendor would be cast in a bad light.”

This list could likely be endless.  But why do we do it?

Failure to Quit

If your organization sticks with a mediocre idea, facility, or team too long because it lacks the guts to create something better, you have failed.

Failure to quit infects the health of your company like a disease.

Our unwillingness to admit when we are wrong, and “course correct,” limits our ability to grow, prosper, and drive innovation.

Scott Anthony, in a recent HBR blog wrote:

“That led me to think of the parallels inside some of my corporate clients. Most corporate cultures fear failure so viscerally that they will lock up great talent in a fatally flawed project, investing resources well past the point where everyone can see that the plug should have been pulled.”

What you can do better:

 Admit Failure; that there is a need to “course correct”

Honestly admitting that the initial original solution was not optimal is a sign ofstrength, even if the problem still needs to be solved.

Leaders that can admit they are not perfect and are willing to change course are seen as winners. There are also seen as profitable… see recent news aboutDomino’s Pizza.  

“Failure is a necessary part of a flourishing innovative ecosystem. Not every idea is destined for greatness. A talented individual working on an idea with fatal flaws by definition isn’t working on an idea with transformational potential. When great talent is stuck working on the wrong things, the ecosystem as a whole suffers. The failure of failure leads to stagnation.”-Scott Anthony HBR.or

 Seek input from those affected by the “fix that failed”

The people affected by the failed solution can see the good, the bad and the ugly of how the solution worked and how to make it better.  With the firm knowledge that things can’t go back to the way that they were, everyone can work towards a more effective way to solve the problem.

“Implement the “new” solution and check to see progress. Change the course if it is not working. 

This is by no means saying that you should change direction at the slightest hint of upset or when the first issues arise, but when there is a consistent drumbeat of data that shows the solution implemented is not working, (New Coke, McDLT, Netflix’s recent issues only to name a few), admit it isn’t and change it!

Refusing to admit failure or that a solution implemented is not working is a recipe for killing innovation and inviting bigger failure in the future.

Know when to quit so that energy can be put towards a plan, solution, or person that will make the difference.

As a leader do you see these failures in your workplace? Is it time for people in your organization to speak up? What can and will you do to fix this issue so that your company can thrive?

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One of the worst things that you can do as a service organization is to try to be all things to all people. There is nothing worse than when, as a customer, you have an expectation of service that cannot be delivered by the service provider.

Is it  better to turn away business than it is to promise something and not deliver?

On a recent vacation, my wife and went to the tropics. We were told by the resort that they would be able to accommodate my wife’s dietary restrictions. However, we found that not only was that wrong but that they were actually incapable of providing a level of service that they had promised.

The Anti-Chameleon

One of the best ways to avoid having this happen is to be clear about “who you are” and  the type of customer that you are looking to service as a provider.

• Ritz Carlton knows it has a certain clientele, but it will never be the kind of hotel that masses will be able to afford. That is actually not only okay with Ritz Carlton, but it is that kind of aura that they wish to project.
• Southwest Airlines do not want to be the airline of the “seat that folds into a cocoon and five-star meal” travelers. They want to cater to cost conscioustravelers.
• Apple does not market to people that want to tinker, enhance, and fix their computers.

There are thousands of great examples of successful companies that know who they are, and the kind of customer they want to serve.

Avoiding the Chameleon Fallacy

There are few simple guidelines that will help to avoid the pitfall of being all things to all people or the “Chameleon Fallacy:”

1. Be a choosy provider, be selective.

Once you are clear about the type of company that you are, and the type of clientele that you’re looking to service, it is very important to be as strict as possible with the type of customers that you can’t service moving forward. 

It is better to be up front that your organization can not help a potential customer than it is to frustrate them. Giving them names of alternatives, or pointing them in a direction in a polite and professional manner, will gain you “points” and likely engender a recommendation from the customer you couldn’t service.

People like honesty.

2. Correct mistakes quickly:

Once you’re clear about the kind of customer you want to provide service for, provide that service impeccably. Make sure that the customer is ultimatelysatisfied.

Customers are never looking for perfection, but they are always looking for opportunities to point out mistakes. Customers look to see if providers can show a real opportunity to get a customer for life.

“Take swift action the moment you determine a mistake has been made. Contact your customer immediately, by phone/email/fax, informing him/her of the error and being truthful about what happened. If you messed up, admit it, apologize profusely and offer to make things right. - Linda Nagamine

3. Follow up

Make sure that you follow up with your customers once they have completed using your service.

They are the most able to give you feedback good or bad.

This will enable you to improve your service. If you implement a suggestion that is given to you by a current or former customer, it will solidify their belief  that they are part of the brand.

If you make sure you don’t try to be a chameleon, you will set your organization apart. This will help make you sought out by the customers you want to serve.

Not only that, but your business will be less stressful, more fun, and much more profitable!

Does your organization try to be all things to all people?  What could you do to avoid the Chameleon Fallacy?  I’d love to hear your stories, thoughts and blinding flashes of insight!

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This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!

It is time that all of us get into the 21st Century regarding motivation and driving high performance in the workplace.

• Research from the Daniel Pink’s book Drive  -
  • 1. Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives.
  • 2. Mastery— the urge to get better and better at something that matters.
  • 3. Purpose — the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. NOT MONEY.
• Research conducted by The Coffman Organization
• 2011 Engagemetn study Towers Watson
• Meta-data research study by Gallup
• Forbes article by Katzenback & Khan

As a matter of fact, it is likely that the pursuit of money alone is a motivator that leads people and organizations down the wrong path (see Enron, Wall Street, Jimmy Hoffa, etc.). It could be why leaders layoff instead of innovate or employees skip safety for speed.  Is money important?  Yes, but it will not encourage those elements that turn into an organization’s strategic advantage(s).

 Mo Money?

Money plays a factor only in that people need to be paid a fair wage.  If employees are fairly compensated for the work they do and it is clear that this is the case, it generally is not a primary motivator.  The underlying issue regarding money and pay is that people really base what they believe about pay in relationship to those around them (or in their industry).  For example, if you are paying one engineer $10 and another $100 for doing the exact same job, then money is a demotivator.  However, if everyone is equally paid, relatively speaking, then pay alone is not going to make people work harder, smarter, or produce more results.

 So now what?

The solution is not as simple as pointing out that money is not a motivator to an engaged and highly productive workforce.

There are some awesome lists of actions to take created by some excellent organizations based on heaps of research.  Do some or all of the things they suggest.

Here are three things to keep in mind:

1. The money cop out – Do not let managers/leaders say that the reason people don’t perform is their pay.  That is a cop out.  It is a way to say its not their fault when in fact they are the people that can create a motivating environment
2. Meaningfulness – Make sure that every single person understands what he or she does to gain and retain customers.  They must have a clear line of sight to the end customer to understand their impact.
3. Make sure money is not a factor - Calibrate pay against your industry and ensure that you are paying employees fairly.  Make that known. Do NOT ask about it on employee engagement or opinion surveys.  NO ONE thinks they are getting paid enough. It is NOT a differentiator between low and high performance teams.

Once money is off the table as “the reason teams aren’t productive” or “the reason morale is low” the real work of creating a highly engaged, productive and profitable organization can begin.

How do you deal with the question about money as a motivator?  What have you seen as factors in highly productive workplaces?  Let me know!

Image thanks to - http://www.beanopportunist.com/making_money.htm

Executing big change-management projects within organizations is somewhat like performing major surgery on human patients.

These are not just single, static events performed within a vacuum…

They are actually a symphony of intricate processes that must be performed in sequence in order to achieve the desired outcome of healing a sick organism.

Trending Outcomes

As a consultant, I have noticed a trend in many organizations that are going through big organizational change. Often times, there is great interest in putting together acomprehensive solution that includes these elements:

1. Altering the structure of an organization
2. Putting in new processes
3. Establishing new ways of interacting together as a team or between departments (normally known as the three components to organizational change)

Only Going Part-Way

Unfortunately this is the equivalent of just getting half a facelift.

Of course, getting half of the facelift  is ridiculous. It makes no sense. Yet, the equivalent to this phenomenon occurs regularly in organizations.

Glory Daze

Taking on a long-term effort to transform or alter how the organization operates, only to stop after the first step.  Some people call it “change fatigue.”  William Bridges called it “the Neutral Zone.”

I call it “Glory Days Syndrome.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “glory days,” it is a term from a 1984 song, written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen, describing where people recount bygone days in an effort to gain satisfaction by recounting and reminiscing their “glorious” past when they were “someone” or “popular” in the highlight of their lives lived during high school.

But in reality “real life” has passed them by. And all they have left is clinging on to their fond past.

People who work in organizations do the same thing.  They remember when the company was smaller; or more profitable; or easier to manage, etc.

Unfortunately, organizations rarely get back to those “glory days” without some effort and some pain.

3 Ways to Avoid Glory Days Syndrome

 That’s right, I said it: Don’t start the change!

The truth is that 70% of change efforts fail. It is better to look in other areas or figure out other ways to improve performance than to launch an organizational change that you’re only going to be able to do the first part.

There are thousands of small tweaks that can be found to make incremental changes.

Without completing all components of the change, organizational inertia will likely pull people and teams back to the way they used to act.

Commit to the change in its entirety or don’t do it at all, going half way could make it worse.

Changes in organizations  and managers are often essential in order for your business to grow and thrive.

Let’s just be very clear about something.

If there is a need to make big changes in how an organization is performing and being managed, there are three things that will not make a difference.

1. Giving people new titles.
2. Making personnel changes without process changes.
3. Moving failed leaders into new positions.

The last one is surprisingly common in organizations.  Somehow it seems that if a leader is not performing well in their current role, moving them to another part of the organization will fix that.

That is like saying if I put lipstick on a pig, it will be sexy.  No, no it won’t.  It will just be a pig with lipstick.

Why Can’t Lipstick on a Pig Be Sexy?

The misguided belief that a long term failing leader can be moved into another role and can magically perform effectively or exceptionally is another example of Organizational Learned Helplessness, based on a theory discovered by Martin Seligman.

“People who see themselves in situations where they have no control are reported to have higher stress levels and lower productivity.”- Martin Seligman

One of the biggest factors in this malaise is the organization’s inability to change the situation, even if it is in their power to do so.  Many organizations are made up of teams that have grown and matured together.

They have long histories, sometimes spanning decades.  For the most part that is excellent.  However, when a member of that long standing team fails to perform over time there is a tendency to excuse this as “just the way they are”.

There are circumstances when it is even defended.  What if that failing person is a leader?  Should excuses for non or under performance be acceptable because “that’s just the way they are”?

How Do you Know What to Change?

When an organization is failing there is a simple process to follow:

Assess Why It is Failing

• Interview customers, employees, leaders, vendors, etc.
• Look at competitors and how they are performing.
• Determine the “line of sight” for each department and team in the organization.

Line of sight is the direct impact that an employee, team, or department makes; not the end customer.  Each and every person and group in the organization should be able to articulate how what they do either gains or retains customers.

Fix the things that are not working based on the assessment.

Replace Failing Leaders

• Leaders that have under-performing groups or are failing due to their lack of ability should be replaced.
• If it is possible, promote a high potential candidate from within who has shown promise.

If there is not anyone in that position, do two things:

1. Hire someone capable of succeeding as a leader from the outside.
2. Have that new leader mentor two or three high potential employees to replace her when she wins the lottery and decided not to come back to work on Monday.

Get Rid of Teams that are Not Positively Impacting the Customer

• Move the employees from those teams to areas that have shown their “line of sight” and are high priority to the business

Do not be naive – this change is hard and its fruits will not bear right away.

There are stages of change that organizations must go through to come out successfully.  Whether you follow William Bridges philosophy, Kotter’s or any of the other excellent models, the changes will take effort, require work and difficult choices.

The issue of leadership is clear:

If a leader has a history of not performing, they should be removed from leadership. Nothing says, “we’re serious about this change” more than the removal of a leader everyone knows is not performing.

No matter how much lipstick a pig wears, it’s still a pig.

Don’t fall into the Organizational Learned Helplessness trap.  Changing roles will not make a person or group more effective, being more effective will.

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This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!

Leaders often struggle with admitting that their companies have flaws, as well as dealing with failure. How can leaders succeed in growing a strong efficient company if they don’t face their issues and make some changes? They can’t.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Dangerous Things to Do

Here are some really dangerous ways to spend your day…

• Wrestle an alligator
• Tell your spouse they really do look fat in that outfit
• Admit that your baby is ugly
• Honestly analyze your organization, admit it’s flaws, and put a plan togetherto work on those issues.

Although there are not many ways to deal with the first three, organizations have found an excellent method to help with the fourth; hiring management consultants.

Yes, that’s right I said it…

Hiring management consultants can be a good business practice and actually helps organizations succeed over time.

Why Hire Them?

Generally speaking, there are thousands, possibly millions, of highly intelligent andcapable individuals that work within organizations. However, after a certain amount of time people get “relationship blind.”

Regardless of capability and intention, over time issues and concerns regarding our relationships or an organization tend to magnify if they are not dealt with a remedied.

Good management consultants help an organization shine light on areas of that aren’t working and help to fix them. These are usually areas that aren’t a surprise to the organization to learn about.

Yes, the solutions are things that may even have been discussed previously, but no action has been taken on them and things have gotten worse.

Enter the management consultant…

They are not all incompetent “Bobs” from Office Space (an excellent movie) or those shady characters from House of Lies.  Many management consultants are intelligent,hard working, and dedicated professionals that want to help their clients succeed.

They all allow for a purview into an organization that self-analysis does not.

What To Look For In a Consulting Partner?

There are numbers of excellent ways to find a consulting partner (find some great tools here). But, all of the processes boil down to some key things.

3 Key Selection Criteria that Will Make or Break a Good Consulting Relationship

1. Cultural Fit

The consultant is a good cultural fit with the organization.

It doesn’t really matter how smart or able the consultant is if they are the opposite of your organizational culture.  People won’t listen if the consultant is tone deaf to how the organization communicates.

Partner with someone that mirrors your organization’s style.

2. Flexibility

The consultant is willing to update or modify their approach tools to best align with the culture of the organization

One size fits all only works in fantasy.

All approaches need modifications to be a fit for …wait for it…your culture. Make sure that the consultant is willing to make changes to materials and approaches to ensure that folks will “hear” them.

3. Situational Experience

The consulting organization has a wealth of experience and experienced consultants that have lived through this situation, issue, or problem that your organization is facing.

If you are hiring a consultant to help you with a technology problem, it’s probably a good idea that they are technology savvy or have experience in IT .

Success for Consultants Now and Organizational Success In the Future

Contrary to popular belief, management consultants really want their clients to succeed for two reasons.

Reason Number One:

Many management consultants are passionate about making workplaces great.

Reason Number Two:

Great references. Those great references are former clients that are successful as a result of the management consultant’s work.

In fact, many really good management consultants want clients to be even more successful after they leave. That takes work both on the consultant and client’s part. As a client, it’s important that you pave the road for the management consultant to be successful.

• Make their role visible.
• Show leadership support.
• Give them access to the information they need.
• Encourage folks to be open with them.
• Make sure they know the scope of their role.
• Make sure that their recommendations come with implementation plans.

Don’t be afraid to end the relationship if its not working.

It is important that the organization gives enough time for the relationship to form. However it shouldn’t be too long.

Plan for the End

In the end of the project, the consultant will leave. It is important to ensure that you select a consultant that is setting your organization up to sustain the success of the project or initiative after they leave. 

It’s important that the consultant works with you to create practices and initiatives thatenable or encourage organization to pull the change instead of it being something that’s a “bolt on” or “additional step to take”.

That will increase the likelihood that the work they do will be successful after they leave.

That’s a Wrap

Management consultants are very important to the success of an organization.

Consultants Provide:

• An objective expert opinion about the progress or current situation of the organization.
• Very real feedback about why the organization or department is not as successful as it could be.

What successes have you had working with management consultants? How are you using them? What are areas that you think an outside perspective could make all the difference? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!

Do you ever wonder if people running out of a burning house are thinking about rearranging the furniture? Would you think them crazy if they did?  

And yet this is what we do so often in business. We run around doing things that don’t matter and really don’t make much sense…

We are often ignoring the real issues of leadership and process, and spend our precious time just looking at rearranging boxes on an organization chart. Reorganizing the staff can sometimes be just a blind stalling tactic that let’s us feel like we are doing something important. 

Fire?  What Fire

Organizations have historically used reorganizations to solve real performance problems that really don’t have anything to do with structure.

For example, here are some real problems that a reorganization can help fix:

• Ineffective leadership
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of, or poor, project/program prioritization
• Poor internal or external communication
• Few real measures to understand effectiveness of service (internal and external)
• No cohesive/holistic approach to outsourcing or using vendors

As a by-product of many mergers and rapid growth, many organizational structures are unruly, but not untenable.

With competition nipping or gnawing at their heels, fundamental changes are usually in order and not just moving people from one side of the organizational chart to the other.

What is Rearranging?

 Reorganization is defined as:

re·or·gan·i·za·tion  (r-ôrg-n-zshn)n.

1. The act or process of organizing again or differently.
2. A thorough alteration of the structure of a business corporation.

Or quotes found from folks I know:

• “Or perhaps you mean the kind of corporate lunacy that induces people who are far removed from operational reality to decide that they need to ‘shake things up‘ in the organization to ‘spur productivity‘ and ‘improve bottom-line results‘, without having a clue as to the true cost of their decision.”
• “Layoffs“
• “Reorganization is a ‘friendly term’ management uses to make significant structural/organizational/position changes more palatable when people are about to get ‘moved around.’”

Suffice it to say, most people do not think random reorganizations work well or at all.

Putting the Fire Out First 

The most important thing is to deal with what is really broken.

• If leadership is not effective, help the leaders gain skills to become better leaders or find new ones.
• If people aren’t being held accountable, set up processes to do so.
• If project prioritization is an issue, make sure to create a forum to have all the key stakeholders discuss and agree upon project priorities and resources.

Essentially, deal with the real problem head on.

Don’t be naive; reorganizations are necessary, but are not the answer to all organizational issues.

Rearranging the Furniture Will Not Put Out the Fire

There are times that restructuring does cause increases in positive outcomes. However, more often than not they fail.

Although there are thousands of reasons why, they mostly boil down to three themes:

1. Employee and Leader Resistance

Employees and affected leaders often believe the reorganization is a result of inability to make tough decisions or other non-business related rationale.

People hate change.

Change actually causes a reaction in the prefrontal cortex that has people resist change initially.  Outside of a very few occasions, everyone resists change regardless if it is good or bad.

If it’s determined to be necessary, make sure that the rationale for the reorganization is steeped in facts that point to improved performance.  Although people may still grumble, it is hard to argue with facts.

2. Timing is Horrible

Lenny Bruce said:

“Timing is everything.”  

Nothing could be more true when it comes to reorganizations. It is important to undertake a reorganization only during a slower time in the business cycle.

 If that is not possible, it should not be in the midst of other big changes or at peak times.

If FedEx were to restructure, doing it between Thanksgiving and Christmas in America would not be a good time.

3. The Scope and Impact of the reorganization is not realistic or fully thought through

Doing these two things will set you up for failure:

1. Trying to turn a team around in very short time frame.

2. Adding a large amount of responsibility to a team that does not have the capacity.

Change does not have to happen all at once. It should not be thought of as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.

Trying to get everything into one reorganization too quickly is like trying to jam 40 kilos of potatoes into a 10 kilo sack: something will break.

If the furniture really does need to be moved, then Move It.

Be clear about the issues that cause the lower productivity, efficiency, etc.   It is imperative that the real issues causing reduced productivity, profit, etc. are being addressed.

As a result of taking some actions to “put out the fire” a reorganization can be a natural outcome.  Make sure that the new structure works to address these issues.

Moving boxes on an organization chart will not solve deep-seated issues of performance and productivity.  It is vital to take time in determining what the true issues are.

Making the Reorganization Successful

1. Plan or the “Dip In the Delta”

Change will impact performance, but you can make that a positive.  That is why it is undertaken in the first place. The magic is knowing how to mitigate the dip in productivity and turn that quickly into a positive.  This takes planning and thought.

 Make sure you are actively working on how to utilize the change to solve organizational and productivity problems 

2. Get Buy-In from Leaders, Employees, and Other Key Stakeholders

Make sure that the people impacted by the change not only buy in, but are “pulling for it” before it happens.

3. Make Sure the Process and Metrics Are In Place

There is nothing worse than not being able to accurately tell if the reorganization is really making a difference. Make sure there are agreed upon metrics to measure organizational performance to showcase wins and point out where more needs to be done.

Hone internal processes to ensure that performance gains can be realized.

Make sure that internal communication, project prioritization, and other key processes are known, used, and enforced to maximize the impact of the reorganization.

4. Take Care of Employees and Leaders After the Reorganization.

Reorganizations and change initiatives in general fail if focus is taken off the change once it’s implemented or goes live.

This is a huge mistake.

The most important work and most critical time to focus is right after the reorganization takes place.

Leaders need training and support, employees need to know where to find answers and express concerns, and customers need to continue to be served and find resolution to problems when they arise

5. There Must Be a Willingness to Take On More Change, Just Not too Quickly

Nothing is ever perfect the first time.

It’s okay to tweak structure and process once it’s been in place for a little while if its not working. In fact, if you don’t people will learn to get around things to get what they need.

If a change is not working, admit it, but only if there is proof that it’s not working. Once time has been given to make the change work and it is proven to be unsuccessful, change it again.

Remember: Put Out the Fire First, and then Redecorate

Reorganizations can be a powerful tool to support organizational change.  They can be a tool in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization.  But it is imperative that the real underlying issues of low performance are taken care of first.

Without that, no matter how well the sofa looks against the wall, the house will still burn down.

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This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!

I certainly have!

And a recent letter that a friend showed me from their soon-to-be-adult child cemented this belief for me.

Childish Behaviors

The resounding undertones were:

• I didn’t make mistakes.
• Every bad thing I did was a learning experience.
• My actions weren’t bad, your interpretation of them was.

Everywhere we look, there are examples of this.

“I did this because of them!” Or ”my actions were their fault.”

This unbecoming attitude is shown up with Herman Cain, John Edwards, Jeff Skilling, and Bernie Madoff.

Some valuable questions:

• At what point do we/you/us/me take full responsibility and face the full consequences of our actions?
• How can we actually learn if we don’t acknowledge there are mistakes?
• When did we decide that making mistakes, failing and telling the truth were bad ideas and practices?

Unintended Consequences

“Just trying to be nice…”

Positive Psychology, Organization Development, and other bodies of knowledge have developed whole sets of vocabulary to alter the world of work.

The intentions were to shift language, when appropriate, to move from blame and ridicule to support and learning.

It seems like we have taken things too far though:

• Words are ‘smithed’ and sculpted outside of their original or real intent
• Messages are softened so as not to offend or create conflict
• Rhetoric is toned-down so as not to ruffle any feathers

All of this is done in an effort to make things easier to hear. But perhaps, I think we have taken this too far.

We are perpetuating an adolescent mindset that shuns or avoids the best that the maturing process brings and we are creating insufficient sophomoric future leaders.

Truth and Consequences 

How They Shape You

There are two truths about mistakes:

1. They happen to all of us because we are human.

2. They shape us and how we approach life.

Here’s a story to “drive” the point home…

When I was a teenager, I took my father’s brand new Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham out for a “joyride”.  I was convinced that my parents were not going to let me drive legally, so I would “show them.” Keep in mind, I was a teenager and my brain was not fully formed.

I crashed the car into…another car. Let’s just say my father was not pleased. I not only had to pay for the damages to his car, but all the other damages I caused. I had to apologize in public.

I was angry, hurt, and most of all remorseful.

My parents did not sugar coat my mistake. Yes, I said mistake. I screwed up! They were very clear that they were upset with what I had done, not with me as their son.

I faced the full financial consequences of my actions, and I was not allowed to get my license until I had fulfilled my punishment.  That whole experience taught me a lesson about life and my responsibility.  It shaped me.

 No Acceptance of Mistake, No Win

If a person does not accept their mistakes, then the person wronged can not move on from it, or forgive them. After making a mistake, the person will not be able to look at what they did and learn from it.

This will ultimately waste time in fabricating mitigations to the mistake and circumstances around it. It causes more stress than it relieves.

Saying a mistake is a “learning experience,” without acknowledging error, abdicates your responsibility in actions taken.  

Time to Learn

The more we sugarcoat a mistake, or try to act like we “don’t make mistakes,” the less likely we are to really change, learn, and grow.

“Learning experiences can come from mistakes, but they can not replace them.”

A learning experience is what you do in class or how you overcome a bad habit.  It is the outcome.  If you interrupt people on a regular basis, that is a fault or mistake.

Your learning experience can be the time you interrupted your wife and she called you out on it.  Once you acknowledge you made a mistake to interrupt her, you are able to learn from it.

Saying you did not make a mistake does not allow you to really learn from it.  It also works to undermine the relationship.

Failing Spectacularly?

It is vital that leaders understand that failure is not only an option, but inevitable.

The magic is not when you fail, but what you do about it.

There is a simple pattern that most great leaders follow:

1. Make a mistake. Generally speaking, this is the easy part.

2. Quickly admit that a mistake has been made.

3. Acknowledge the mistake and what was learned from it.

4. Implement learning publicly or transparently.

5. Repeat

How to Fail

Here is a great recent example of this from Amazon after they failed miserably and were blistered in the press:

“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle.

Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received.

We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission. 


With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos 
Founder & CEO 
Amazon.com”

Trying Not to Fail

There are countless examples of leaders that try to do damage control, “mitigate,” and pass the blame on to anyone but themselves or their company.

Here is the path they typically follow:

1. A mistake is made.

2. The mistake is covered up or shrouded somehow.

3. Mistake is made public by a government agency or the process, but blame is deflected by the organization to users, consumers, etc.

4. A non-apology apology is made, but little action is taken.

5. No one acknowledges mistakes or someone that really doesn’t have authority is blamed.

6. Repeat.

Outstanding recent examples of this “failula” (failing formula):

• Toyota blaming drivers for the brake problems in some of their cars.
• BP and their vendors not acknowledging blame during the Gulf Oil Spill.
• Netflix trying to launch a new brand and raise prices at the same time.

All of these showcase that it’s better all the way around to say, “I made a mistake,” “This is what I will do to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” and “Let’s fix what’s broken.”

If we want to survive as an intellectual society, we have to teach the next generation how to accept mistakes and recover from them. Not how to avoid them and push the blame.

 Do you find yourself accepting your mistakes and learning from them? Or do you tend to push the blame on others? What areas in your life can you improve on learning from your mistakes, and becoming a better leader by doing do? And how can you help the “teenage” adults around you grow a little more mature this year? I’d love to hear your thoughts!                                                           

This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!

The Lanyard Decree

After the “lanyard decree,” lanyards were distributed throughout our company and a memo was sent out saying that all employees, contractors, and vendors must wear lanyards. Although the lanyards were passed out, we started to notice that, for the most part, not many people are wearing the lanyards.  Especially senior leaders…

I was later told the chronology of what led us to our lanyards:

• Someone saw my team without lanyards
• They went to their boss to complain about us not wearing lanyards
• Boss told them to go back to work
• They found an obscure policy stating that all people within the building had to wear lanyards
• Went back to boss and pointed out our violation
• Boss said, even though not a good use of time, go ahead and point it out
• She wrote a memo to the person(s) we reported
• Presto – lanyards…

So after about 10 minutes of calculating, I came up with the following:

• Total time  to “resolve this issue” = 2 weeks
• Total hours spent on project = 70 hours (30 just for the person finding the rule about lanyards)
• Total money spent on issue = $15,000 (70 hours at average of about $214/hour, very conservative rate for all levels involved)
• Total return back to shareholders = (-$15,000) – that’s negative boys and girls…
• Positive impact on organization = None
• Value to organization = None
• Impact on advancement of project = None

Simply Maintaining the Same 

This is a serious phenomenon that occurs when a successful company forgets, or never really understands, what makes it successful.  While becoming successful, they turn their efforts to building infrastructure to support their success.

At some point, the company’s energy goes from becoming successful to maintaining its success; through gaining market share, building new products, etc. – to becoming more efficient, effective, better leaders, etc. All of which are powerful and can make the company more productive, but not as a stand alone.

“How many other “initiatives” are there like the lanyard one?”

At what point does an organization begin to make this kind of work okay?  Never you say?  Really?  Again, using the data from the same unscientific survey, many organizations have these types of “junkets.”

There are some groups within organizations that even encourage them!

The Cycle

Organizations have a tendency, once successful, to focus inwards as much or more than they do outwards.  The cycle, which has not been tested but has been researched, has four major phases:

Inception

This is the spark that sets the eventual company in motion.  This is generally prior to even thinking of creating an organization, it is the incubation or hatching of an idea or product that sells.

Becoming Successful

The organization is generally smaller and nimble. It has developed a great idea or product. Through things such as hard work and word of mouth. The organization begins to find a level of success that enables it to grow.  The organization is focused on selling its service, product, and the customer.

Although this is not the time of “exceptional customer experience,” the organization is laser focused on making sure that each and every customer is taken care of.  There is not focus on infrastructure, but the beginnings of “back office” support begins to take shape.

Growing Market Share

• Once a company has reached a sustainable level of success, the focus shifts from becoming successful to increasing the reach of the organization.  Oftentimes that involves growing the number of customers that are reached and driving up the share of the market they occupy. In this phase this a focus on building the organizational infrastructure to support that growth and specialization of tasks or roles.  Sales focuses on bringing in clients, marketing focuses on spreading “the word” about the organization, customer service focuses on taking care of customer needs, etc.
• Somewhere in this part of the cycle, the focus turns from growing the market share, to internal initiatives. It goes from outward to inward.
• Although there are parts of the organization that still look to the customer, it is all under the veil of “what’s good for the company”.  There is growing process, bureaucracy, etc. There are a large number of employees whose roles are to manage or work within some internal function.  It is generally as many or more than or the employees that are customer facing (either for service or sales). For example: Credit Card Company – only 15% of their employees have any contact with customers, over 75% of those employees are paid $12/hour or less
• For profit educational organization – 65% of employees have no contact with current or potential students. It is not hard to imagine that if the majority of employees have little or no contact with customers, they would not understand (or care) what the impact of their actions might be.  How could they foresee the impact to the bottom line? Experiencing competition.

Changes In the Market Landscape

• With the burgeoning bureaucracy, organizations are often taken back by quick shifts in the marketplace due to changing regulations or competition.  Even when the shift is acknowledged or discussed, there is little understanding of how to adequately deal with it because the focus has been off the market and shifted to the internal workings of the organization. This is certainly natural and understandable, but detrimental.
• Too often as the organization is growing it distances itself from how it started to become successful.  Of course that is not always the case, but there are many instances where it seems as if “they are making money in spite of themselves.”
• As the market shift takes place, the organization is not prepared to meet it.  Mostly because it does not understand what really made it successful in the first place and the long denial that takes place during the decline. There is, justifiably, a focus on self-preservation.  The reaction can be to “double down” on methods or efforts that do not reap any benefits.

What Is the Best Way to Avoid “Coasting to the Cliff?”

Always stay on top of why people do business with you. Don’t be fooled by assuming that people do business with your organization for any other reason than the real one.

Key the focus of your organization outward – Make sure there is a clear “live of sight” from each employee to the customer no matter their role.

You must develop employees, make process efficient, and drive profit. It all must be at the service of gaining and retaining customers. Understand that the market is changing all the time. No company is safe from the ever-changing marketplace.

“Organizations that succeed transform.”

As stated so eloquently in the latest issue of Harvard Business Review, companies must understand what is at their core, but be able to transform as the market changes.

Just as steam turns to water and water to ice, companies must understand what “brought them to the dance” and pivot on that to regularly anticipate the changing customer and marketplace.

If you think about it like a company, your prized position in the marketplace with customers erodes.

Are you focusing on what really gains and retains customers?  Do you know if your team or organization is headed for the cliff? Are you allowing team members to hang your company’s future on the necks of an albatross with a lanyard? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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This blog also appears on the Linked2Leadership Blog.  Please visit them!