EMPOWERING CHANGE
IN AN
UNEMPOWERED
ENVIRONMENT
Part 1 - Understanding Organizational Maturity
Some
organizations can successfully change the way they operate and reap the benefits
of improved business results, while others seem to struggle endlessly. What are
the ingredients needed to develop an empowered environment, one in which change
is not only possible, but probable?
While there
are many factors that can affect an organization's level of readiness to
change, most people would agree that the following key areas are essential:
|
Vision |
The
company has a clear sense of purpose and direction that guides its
activities. |
|
Management
Involvement |
Managers are
actively and personally involved in improvement initiatives. |
|
Employee
Empowerment |
Employees'
input and contributions are valued and recognized. |
|
Customer
Focus |
Employees
understand their relationships with internal and external customers. |
|
Process
Base |
The
company has a repeatable, evolving process to ensure its continuing success. |
To understand your organization's readiness for change, you first
need to determine your company's level of organizational maturity.
Described here
are the three levels of Organizational Maturity - Firefighting, Emerging, and
Total Commitment.
Firefighting
The
Firefighting organization is struggling with daily battles resulting from poor
quality, lack of leadership and vision, employees who feel helpless, and
relationships with customers that are adversarial at best. Without a change in
direction, this type of company is headed for serious trouble.
There may be
one or two people who recognize the need for change, but their voices are
drowned out by the sounds of people running from one crisis to another.
Emerging
The Emerging
organization is beginning to see the positive outcomes of change. Instead of
just a few lone voices calling for improvement, intact organizations with
strong local leadership are willing to take tangible steps toward business
improvement.
Total
Commitment
In the Total
Commitment company, focus on the five key areas
described above is the normal mode of operation. Strong visionary leadership
leads to empowered employees who understand how to serve their customers.
Processes are defined, documented, and improved to make the most of the
organization's cumulative experience.
What Level
is Your Organization?
Your group
may be at different levels for each of the five characteristics of
high-performance organizations.
Figure 1 describes
the three levels of Organizational Maturity in table format so you can begin to
understand your organization's level of readiness for change.
|
Phase |
Vision |
Management
Involvement |
Employee Empowerment |
Customer
Focus |
Process
Base |
|
Firefighting |
Unclear |
Authoritarian |
Lip Service |
Reactive |
None |
|
Emerging |
Wavering |
Transitional |
Limited |
Participative |
Ad-Hoc |
|
Total
Commitment |
Clear |
Leadership |
Active |
Partnering |
Process Management |
Improvement
Strategies
Looking at
the three levels, we can understand how these companies would require vastly
different approaches to successfully implement their business improvement
initiatives.
Clearly, because
of the circumstances facing Firefighting organizations, they will not be able
to make significant progress until the situation stabilizes enough for the
company to stop putting out fires. Only then can they begin implementing a
problem-solving approach to resolve their major issues.
Emerging
organizations are ready to start laying the groundwork for significant
organizational change by taking small first steps that produce tangible
business results.
Total
Commitment companies can take the actions necessary to make a broad-based
business improvement culture part of the normal operations in their
organization.
Organizational
Needs
Figure 2 provides
additional detail on the needs and goals of organizations at each level of
readiness, as well as recommended approaches to achieve the most effective
results.
|
Phase |
Needs |
Goals |
Recommended
Approaches |
Examples |
|
Firefighting |
Surviving |
Stability |
Problem Solving |
Analysis of Defect Data |
|
Emerging |
Healing |
Mobilization |
Focused
Improvement |
Defect
Prevention Process |
|
Total
Commitment |
Change of
Lifestyle |
World
Class Quality |
Holistic
Improvement |
SEI
Software Maturity Assessment |
The key to
successfully incorporating major new initiatives into your business is to
understand your level of organizational readiness and tailor your
implementation strategies to that level.
Part 2 -
Matching Your Organizational Maturity Level to Your Approach for Change
As you leave
work today, you see a man collapsed on the sidewalk, clutching his chest. Would
you...
(a) Perform
bypass surgery?
(b)
Administer CPR?
(c) Explain
how paying better attention to his stress level, exercise program, and dietary
habits could have prevented this unfortunate situation?
The most
logical choice would be (b) - administer CPR. The patient here needs immediate
intervention to help him survive the attack. The other options are appropriate
for follow-up activities and would almost certainly be necessary for a full
recovery. But obviously, suggesting aerobic exercise to a patient in the middle
of a heart attack would be ridiculous based on his life-threatening needs.
Similarly,
public-sector organizations today are feeling the pain and stress of shifting
to a quality and customer-focused culture. Unfortunately, many groups are
experiencing disappointing results because of a mismatch between their approach
to improvement and their organization's maturity level. Just as the level and
type of medical treatment must be geared towards the needs of the patient, the
approach to improvement and change must be tailored to a group's specific needs
and abilities.
About Organizational
Maturity
In Part 1 of
this article we introduced the concept of Organizational Maturity, which
identifies three distinct levels of readiness for change.
The model
recognizes that organizations are at different levels in the areas of vision
alignment, management involvement, employee empowerment, customer focus, and
process base.
The three
levels of Organizational Maturity - Firefighting, Emerging, and Total
Commitment - all have unique characteristics and all require different approaches
to change.
Three Levels
of Readiness
Like the
person collapsed on the sidewalk, the Firefighting organization is also
struggling for survival. The situation isn't always as serious as being on the
doorstep of drastic funding cuts or outright elimination of departments and
agencies; but if fundamental changes are not made, the organization will be
headed for rough times.
Groups in
the Emerging phase of readiness have progressed from the Firefighting mode and
are able to determine a general direction for their improvement initiatives.
They are operating successfully but have not achieved peak performance.
Finally, an
organization at the Total Commitment level is ready to make a significant investment
to change its culture from one of a scrambling, day-to-day view to one of proactivity and vision.
Matching
Approach to Readiness
Matching
your approach to your organization's readiness level can have a profound impact
on the success of your improvement initiative. But what happens when you select
an inappropriate approach?
The results
can be as disastrous as when a doctor recommends the wrong treatment for an
illness. Figure 3 gives an overview of which approaches work best for
each of the three levels of readiness; and, more importantly, it shows what can
happen when the approach and readiness level are mismatched.
|
Phase |
Problem
Solving |
Focused
Improvement |
Holistic
Improvement |
|
Firefighting |
X |
Overlay |
Useless |
|
Emerging |
Tool |
X |
Foundation |
|
Total
Commitment |
Small
Component |
Major
Component |
X |
Firefighting
Organizations
For example,
Firefighting organizations should focus on basic
problem-solving techniques, like analyzing or correcting defects, to gain a
basic understanding of the situation.
Asking a
group like this to work on a focused improvement initiative like root cause analysis or business self-assessment will only lead to
disappointment - people will be too busy with their "real work" to
devote the time required to make real improvements.
And
deploying companywide mandated programs will have the more severe effect of
making employees cynical and resistant to any future initiatives.
Emerging
Organizations
Organizations
at the Emerging level have a basic foundation that allows them to function in a
relatively smooth manner.
The best
approach for these groups is to pick one area to address for improvement,
measure its success, and use it as a springboard for improvements in other
areas. This also serves as an example to other parts of the organization by
showing them a successful approach to implementing improvement activities.
Problem-solving
tools, which work best for Firefighting organizations, can also be used in the
Emerging organization as needed to support the focused improvement initiatives.
These tools, however, may not allow the organization to advance to its fullest
capabilities.
A
broad-based approach, on the other hand, may be useful to understand how the
focused improvement fits into the larger picture, but it may be too much for
the organization to support as its primary focus.
Total
Commitment Organizations
Groups at
the Total Commitment level have a very clear sense of vision, have management
that is actively involved in supporting change, and have strong employee
empowerment, customer focus and process base.
These
organizations are able to initiate broad-based approaches to change like
deploying the Malcolm Baldrige model as a management
framework.
Clearly,
selecting problem solving as a primary approach would not fulfill the potential
for improvement in an organization at this level of readiness. Similarly, an
approach of focused improvement would sell the group's capabilities a bit
short. Initiating a collection of coordinated focused improvement is an
excellent way to achieve the organization's broader goals and help to improve
overall performance and effectiveness.
Ron Rosenberg will be a keynote speaker at the
Florida Hospices and Palliative Care 22nd Annual Symposium, Caring
for a Better Tomorrow. An award-winning expert
on quality and customer service, Ron Rosenberg is a nationally recognized
speaking professional and president of QualityTalk, a
consulting firm providing high-energy training, consulting, and keynote
programs.
Ron works closely with organizations, both nationally and internationally, to
help them improve performance and effectiveness. These include corporations
such as Dow Chemical and GlaxoSmithKline; educational institutions such as
Ron is author of Breaking Out of the Change Trap,
a practical guide for organizational change. His upcoming book, Take Charge
of the Things that Drive You Nuts, shows individuals and companies how to
get the service they deserve. A professional speaker, trainer and consultant,
Ron presents regularly at major national and international conferences and has
published many articles on change management, leadership development, and
customer satisfaction.