Category: Blog

In Part 1 of this three-part series, we discussed the importance of starting with a clearly defined and well-understood vision and strategy for the transformation itself. We also covered the invaluable nature of data and how critical it is to eliminate or reduce the organization noise in order to obtain a clear picture of what is actually happening during your transformation. In Part 2, we consider the implications for people and processes during transformations that are often overlooked or minimized.

People

Your organization should be designed to support transformation goals.  Don’t be constrained by your current structure.  You may need to redefine roles and responsibilities, create new teams and departments, or restructure the entire organization, depending on how well-suited the current organization structure is for post-transformation success.  Ensure you evaluate and adjust your people strategy regularly, so you have the right people in the right roles. It is essential to constantly evaluate, sort, and develop your people talent to avoid gaps and correct ill-fitting assignments.  On average, it can take approximately 6-12 months to get to know a new employee and 18 months for them to fully assimilate to the organizational culture.  Investing the time by conducting more frequent mini reviews will pay dividends in the long term.  Focus on distinguishing between someone’s knowledge/training, their abilities, and their values. The first one you can develop, the second can be moderately affected, and the third cannot be changed.  Know what you’re dealing with for each individual and act accordingly.  

Culture is often overlooked in a company, but it impacts everything about a company from recruiting to daily operations to the bottom line. Successful and sustainable companies spend time intentionally establishing, developing, and nurturing their culture in a way that aligns with their values and objectives. Ask yourself if your current culture supports your transformed company.  If it does not, you must address the biggest detractors and establish appropriate rituals, practices, and incentives to realign your culture towards your desired outcomes. Most importantly, leadership must align their actions and behaviors with their words to build trust during this time of change.  Transforming your company culture will not happen overnight, but the benefits will prepare your organization for long term success.  

Processes

Processes must have purpose.  They must drive business outcomes and increase customer value.  Applying a methodology such as Lean to processes helps eliminate waste, strive for zero defects, and establish standard work.  Everyone in the organization should understand their role and feel empowered to continuously measure and improve their respective processes.  This requires an organizational operating model designed for continuous improvement.  Focus relentlessly on driving value for the customer and reducing as much of the non-value-added activities as possible.  Review the entire process from end-to-end rather than in its component parts to ensure you always have the big picture and end results in mind. Always go to the place where the work is performed and speak with the people who perform the work to understand what is really happening before trying to change any processes.

While containment measures can be necessary to address immediate issues, they should be treated as temporary solutions.  Do not allow containment measures to become permanent or you may be unintentionally embedding additional issues and waste into the process.

Stay Tuned…

In Part 3, learn about how selecting and managing the appropriate tools and structuring the right reward programs help ensure the long term success of your transformation.

“Transformation” has been a buzzword in the corporate world for decades, but very few companies succeed at achieving their transformation goals. Why is that? Some attribute it to lack of commitment, poor change management, or leadership challenges. However, the main issue is that most see transformation as a project to accomplish – a set of tasks that once completed, equate to a new way of operating. When we are talking about transformation, we are talking about a significant change to the company’s core. This cannot be done in isolation. A holistic, system-thinking approach to transformation that includes all parts of the organization and is designed in a self-reinforcing manner is much more likely to achieve desired results. This three-part series will explore the six principles of a successful transformation strategy. It all starts with a clearly defined and well-understood vision and strategy for the transformation itself.

Vision & Strategy

The importance of the vision for the transformation cannot be overstated.  This is the North Star for why transformation is even needed in the first place.  It provides decision-making guidance as well as inspiration to keep going when things get tough.  Many people want to skip right past this stage and jump into execution.  If you cannot clearly articulate why you’re doing what you’re doing and how you’re going to measure whether you’ve succeeded, then how can anyone else get aligned behind it? 

The vision needs to be concise and relatable to all levels of the organization.  It should be only 1-2
sentences long so it’s easily remembered.  However, be careful about making it too broad to where there isn’t clear support to guide decisions or prioritization.  The statement should include a business outcome focused goal that is measurable and time-bound.

Once you have a clear and measurable vision, it is critical to assess whether you already have the correct business architecture to support it.  If not, what is the correct business architecture?  What capabilities need to be added, matured, outsourced, or eliminated so that you have the right design for your business moving forward?  It is difficult for individuals new to business architecture to distinguish between capabilities and departments.  Keep in mind that while they’re closely related, they are distinct and need to be evaluated separately for maximum impact.

Data

Oftentimes, data tends to be an afterthought or a byproduct.  This is especially true when it comes to reporting.  How many times have you tried to answer basic questions with data, only to find out that it either doesn’t exist or would require jumping through many hoops to get it?  Although it is impossible to
think of all of the questions and requirements in advance, spend time before starting any transformation to identify what the key business decisions are that you’d like to be able to make with data, what insights you might need, and what reporting (both compulsory and informative) would be required.  This information helps to design the processes and tools in such a way to ensure the necessary data is captured as timely, accurately, and easily as possible.  It also helps to train your team to capture and interpret data properly. Remember:

Poor Insights = Interpretation x (Interpretation)ⁿ

The most critical aspect of data is to eliminate or reduce the organizational noise and interpretation as it moves up the chain of command.  Access to instantaneous data that is relevant to decision makers at the appropriate level helps to reduce the errors made from poor insights. Critical data can start being collected even during the experiment phase using manual tick sheets to ensure the right type of data is captured in a meaningful way for meaningful insights. To protect the integrity of the data at all levels, it is important to establish and enforce appropriate data governance structures.  Proper data governance clearly defines each data element, ownership of the definition and calculations, single source of truth, and quality checks/measures.  The level of sophistication depends on the size of the company and the number of data elements.

Stay Tuned…

In Part 2, learn about considerations around people and processes when it comes to transformations.