Ten Commandments for CEOs Seeking Organizational Change Essay Example for Free

Ten Commandments for chief operating officers Seeking Organizational Change EssayIn our ever-changing, fast-paced world, private-enterprise(a) relationships Can shift quickly when companies respond too late to increased competition in their industry group. Succeeding in much(prenominal) a competitive and changing environment demands that CEOs reshape their organization to meet todays challenges and competitive realities. But responding to channel remains highly elusive because there is a natural resistance to change at all levels within the organization, including at the top. CEOs and former(a) members of the executive suite ingest to take a hard look at their existing organization and culture, ask tough questions intimately its appropriateness for the reliable competitive environment, and take concrete, implemental steps to forge a preferred culture and drive it downward throughout the accurate organization. But therein lies the challenge, for a couple of(prenominal) ma nagement teams both establish a comprehensive strategy for remaining competitive and take a hands-on approach to implement change internally. By not getting involved, they signal to employees that the change really isnt very important. A happen upon premise of this article is that cultural change or any organizational transformation is essentially a top-down activity. It cannot be delegated. If the CEO perceives the need for change, specifys it a top priority, and gives it a great deal of time and attention, the organization give change. By the same token, if the CEO offers only limited lip service, needed changes just wont happen. This article outlines how the CEO can be an overenthusiastic grass of change by paying enough attention to implementation to make the transformation take place. Reynierse and Leyden (1992) return a case study incorporating these steps.1. Strategy-DrivenThe subprogram I am advocating bequeath be relatively ineffective without a strategic framework to provide competitive benefit. This process is not a substitute for such a strategy. Rather, the strategy is the starting point that establishes the mise en scene for all other steps. However, strategies impart be relatively ineffective when management pays insufficient attention to their involve on the work forcefor ultimately it is the work force who entrust implement the strategy and make it succeed or fail. The point is that unless such a strategic plan is implemented and executed effectively, it will not be fully realized in the competitive marketplace.An overview of this process is depicted in Figure 1. A companys employment strategies, plans, and goals ar the starting pointnot the endof this cipher. They formalize the CEOs reverie, setting the tone and establishing direction for the company in both the long and short terms. They provide a context for all other activities and decisions, establishing the limits for making many choices along the way. In addition, they determine the direction and boundaries for get uping the new organizational culture, including molding employee expectations.Resources be scarce in every organization, and management mustiness accept the fact that it coin bank do everything. Strategic choices reflect judgments somewhat where companies think they have marketplace competitive advantage so that plans implemented here enable them to grow faster and earn more than their competitors in these market segments. Similarly, the imagings dedicated to fixing the organization are laid by this strategic focus.2. Top-Down InvolvementIf something is important, a good rule of thumb is to have a top-down approach to getting it done. Ideally, then, the CEO must get involved. If the CEO attends to the organization, it will improve and gain competitive advantage. Conversely, if the CEO gives it scant time and attention, little organizational growth will occur. In short, the CEO who enthusiastically sponsors a broadly conceived program for building the company is more likely to succeed and reap the benefits down the road. A company-wide initiative needs an enthusiastic and supportive CEO who does not hesitate to play a continuing role during the change process. But where is the top? And who is the CEO? Building organizations is often go served by dealing with chunk-sized bites rather than the whole company.Particularly for large companies, it often makes better sense to deal with natural strategic business units (SBUs) rather than the entire company. At one level, there are often unique problems or opportunities in a unit or company division. At another level, it is close meaningful for those involved to deal with issues that directly concern them and their business unit. The approach I am advocating includes determining the firms vegetable marrow set and missionary work. It is unlikely that every SBU or company division will share the same core values or mission.Individual business units often have u nique customers, competitors, product maturity, strategies, and objectives. These units need the autonomy to develop their own focus. For such cases the division executive is functionally the CEO for that unit and can provide the vision, enthusiasm, and driving force for success. Throughout, however, the CEO must remain interested and provide broad support for what is taking place. Even when the primary leadership role resides elsewhere, the CEO must be an advocate for change and reinforce actions taken at these lower levels.3. Organizational AssessmentPeriodically it is valuable to take an objective snapshot of the broader organization. This not only provides information about the companys strengths and limitations but can also unwrap how those strengths and limitations measure up to the mission and the core values. Effective organizations have employees who share these values, and a carefully conceived organizational estimation will identify pockets of agreement and resistance. Several techniques, including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, are used for these organizational assessments. The organizational dynamics survey (Reynierse and Harker 1986) has been particularly effective, because it provides an objective measure of the fundamental values that mold organizations. For example, the surveys broad customer orientation category taps a cultural value related to making customers a priority and firm their needs.Surveys are particularly important because they get every employee involved everyone has the chance to be heard. Surveys also provide an opportunity for management to pay attention to employees concerns and to build their trust. This is achieved when management openly communicates with employees regarding key issues and responds to problems by taking timely, corrective action. At the same time, establishing trust is the first step in getting employees to buy in to managements broader vision.4. Clarify Core ValuesPeters Waterman (1982) have o ne all-purpose bit of advice for management figure out your value system. Decide what your company stands for. nowadays many frequently echo this management theme. Identifying and clarifying core values are central to this approach as well. When they are integrated with a companys business strategies, core values help provide a focus mission. All too often, companies or their natural business units lack focus their employees are confuse about what the company stands for and what it is trying to achieve. However, when the focus and the mission are clear, they can drive the entire organization or SBU. Mission statements ideally should be brief, concise, and to the point.They should identify primary business activities, integrate key strategies, and reflect the firms core values. When we speak about core values we are dealing with many attractive virtuesMcLaughlin, McLaughlin Lischick (1992), for example, identify more than 100and it is tempting to include as many as possible. In m y experience, however, an organization can give proper attention to only a fewsay, triplet to fiveclearly stated core values. Anything more will be too diffuse and will only confuse employees and dilute managements efforts. In other words, management has to make some hard choices, and established strategies provide the context for focus.There are no shortcuts there is no generic mission statement. To build a focus organization, the management team has to participate in the process. We use a value clarification exercise when working with top and senior management. This exercise consists of 30 collective values that are relevant (and credible) for business and industry. Each is defined and serves as an effective probe, placing key issues on the table for discussion. Some representative examples are shown in Figure 2. Because many are presented with a different thrust or emphasis, they can generate a provocative and lively discussion. This value-clarification process gains agreement for key priorities and direction, and fosters team-building through shared values and mission. Similarly, it lays the groundwork for resolving internal differences between functional groups that whitethorn have varied goals or priorities.Finally, it sets the stage for driving the process downward through the entire work force so other employees can buy in and share the centre mission as well. The assay in all this, says Peters (1992), is that management does such a good job that these values become fixed, even though they no longer are appropriate. The needful caveat here is to return to strategy and competitive marketplace reality. Very simply, if the strategy is no longer appropriate and requires changes, the core values and focused mission probably need to be changed as well. They must therefore be revisited and modified as necessary to be congruent with any new strategies.A case can be made that because clarifying core values is so central to this approach, it should occur e arlier in the process. There are benefits, however, of having it take on the organizational assessment step because this gives management another opportunity to respond to the input and reactions of the work force. Their perceptions of what the company really values are important and may indicate that changes are needed.5. Work Force Involvement and ParticipationOne of the advantages of the employee survey approach to assessing an organization is that all employees have the opportunity to participate and read their opinion. In other words, at an early stage in the process they have the chance to level with management, provide an employee perspective, and establish an agenda for later stages. time we begin the more intensive activities at the top with senior management, we involve lower-level employees, particularly lower levels of management, as quickly as possible. Although every situation will be different and will require different solutions, management should be vigilant for opportunities to involve new participants. A valuable tool is the use of focused task forces to address any priority issues that may have emerged from the organizational assessments or team-building sessions.This permits additional employee involvement at the problem-solving and solution-generating stages of the exercise. A fundamental assumption is that a focused organization requires a work force that shares this focus. The key to successful implementation, then, is the steps that are taken to drive the process downwardto downstreamso that all employees feel they are a part of this focused mission. Implementing managements vision demands paying attention to employees, managing their expectations, and responding to their concerns.Building the firm requires taking action steps that promote the core values and focused mission. I call these steps the culture carriers. It is through them that senior management can reinforce values consistently and frequently. Put another way, the cultu re carriers provide direction for marketing the core values and mission with all employees. The five culture carriers we have identified are summarized in Figure 3 and will be discussed separately.6. Inspirational leadershipOur studies of corporate culture indicate that there are two ways management stays in touch with what is liberation on in the company 1. By visiting work areas and being visible to their employees. This is inspirational leadership at its best and is similar to the idea of Managing by Walking Around (MBWA), as developed by Peters Waterman (1982) and Peters and Austin (1985). 2. Through the balance sheet and financial focus. In general, however, many top executives underscore financial performance and focus to the extent that they neglect their leadership roles. The broad process for organizational change outlined here provides structure for MBWA and for being a cheerleader. Although executives tend to underestimate their leadership effectiveness, they in fact e xert considerable power by virtue of their leadership positions.As DePree (1989) observed, Leaders need to be concerned with the institutional value system. Each time they go out to a work area and talk to an employee or group of employees represents an opportunity to exercise influence and reinforce the companys mission and core values. This clearly communicates to employees what is important to the organization and what is expected of them. When the CEO or division head is leading the charge, everyone quickly picks up on it, and any ambiguity regarding what is taking place is quickly removed. The results are multiplied when this leadership role is being exercised by the entire management team.As an example, the management team of one of my client organizations made a contract with one another during a planning retreat to spend 15 proceedings a day walking around, getting to know employees, and talking with them in each of their subordinate organizations. Though initially they wer e ambivalent and self-conscious about their task, it in brief became an accepted and high-priority activity. They would confront each other daily by asking, Have you spent your 15 minutes walking around yet today? This, together with several other steps, quickly led to a turn-around in an otherwise demoralized work force. It was an important step for management to become informed, get on top of operations, get in touch with its people, and communicate direction.7. CommunicationPut as simply as possible, employees cannot accept or implement top managements vision if they are unaware of it. Frequent formal and informal channels of communication are needed with all employees to introduce the focused mission and core values and reinforce them over a period of time. Executives must make liberal use of meetings, video presentations, posters, newspaper articles, brochures, and so on. If there is a rule of thumb, it is that you cant do too much in this area. Some of our clients have succe ssfully used kick-off meetings in which they celebrated the focused mission and core values, gave every employee a wallet-sized card containing the mission statement, and provided other symbolic itemspins, coffee mugs, pencils, hatsthat focused on elements within the mission and its values. Primarily held to share information, the meetings were also used to rally employees and build enthusiasm for the new organization. The informal mixing that occurs at such kick-offs is also a valuable time for management to energize employees and talk with them further about the focus.8. Financial FocusWell-ran companies have a strong financial focus that emphasizes both profitability and cost containment. It can play a significant resource allocation role that simultaneously provides increased funds and resources to programs that support the core values while denying (or at least sharply reducing) funds and resources to established programs that are less important to the mission. How upper-case letter is invested and what activities are expended carry important messages to employees. It is necessary to examine investment decisions in terms of a strategic standard that includes the companys core values and focused mission. Having done so, it may be necessary to withhold capital or budgetary expense dollars for those projects that fail to qualify under this standard. When capital investments and highly visible expenses are consistent with the values and mission of the company, they will provide support for and reinforce this focused mission among employees. But when inconsistency abounds, employees will be confused and may withhold their support.