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Consulting: Transformation Road-map Planning Process
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| "I've gotten a lot of advice over the years on how to develop a high-performing organization (HPO), even a 5-day executive program at a prominent university. Most were disjointed, complex, and lacked clear guidance on what do to and where to start.
In contrast, Meyer's RoadMap is easy to digest, comprehensive yet pragmatic, and engaged my leadership team in a well-planned change process that produced powerful results." |
| Steve Monaghan
CIO and Chief of Staff, County of Nevada, CA |
An organizational strategy planning process does two things: It helps a leadership team develop and communicate a comprehensive action plan; and it helps to open an organization's climate for change.
If you're embarking on a change program (such as a transformation), organizational strategy is essential.
The Change Formula
What's the value of a documented organizational strategy?
It starts with a desire to create an organization that's somehow different from the one that exists today. It's a desire for change.
Consider the "change formula" -- the three essential prerequisites of change. Organizational strategy has a role in all three.
| Change Formula |
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- Dissatisfaction with the status quo: Change isn't easy. People won't change if it's a "nice to have." They have to be sitting in a "hot pan" before they'll jump. The people affected by the change have to believe that while we may not have failed in the past, it's not okay to stay where we are.
A strategy must explain why change is absolutely necessary -- essentially, what problems the strategy intends to fix.
- A clear, safe, compelling destination: Next, people won't jump "from a hot pan into the fire." They need a safe place to jump to -- a clear understanding of the end-state. Beyond safe, that end-state should be positive, even exciting and worth their while.
A strategy is a way to get somewhere. So it has to explain what that "somewhere" is -- the end-state that results from the strategy.
- A viable path from here to there: Third, people need to know that their investment in change is going to pay off. They may have developed cynicism as a result of past change initiatives which were much touted but made little difference in their lives. To buy into the change, people need to see a clear and viable path from the present to that end-state.
A strategy is a sequence of planned changes, in the right order and properly paced. It's the antidote to "management flavor of the month," and builds trust that the changes will succeed.
Crafting and communicating an organizational strategy is the best way to start a transformation process. But it's never too late. Even if you've already implemented some changes, you'll still get a lot of benefits from formalizing your organizational strategy.
Who
An executive has options with regard to whom to involve in an organizational strategy planning process.
An executive could develop the plan alone, or engage his/her leadership team in the planning process. A broader set of stakeholders (staff, bosses, cutomers) could be involved in some steps in the planning process.
No matter who is engaged in the planning process, the plan has to be communicated to all stakeholders. Of course, the more people who were involved in its creation, the easier communications gets.
How
Whether an executive does it alone or engages the leadership team in a participative process, the steps are mostly the same:
- Vision
A transformation begins with a clear, comprehensive, and compelling vision of the end-state.
Resources:
The RoadMap Reference Library contains a crowd-sourced and carefully curated database of the best visions of over a thousand executives in dozens of corporate, government, and not-for-profit organizations.
Dean Meyer's facilitation can stretch your thinking, raise relevant questions, and ensure that you're communicating clearly. Facilitation is especially valuable when a leadership team participates in crafting the vision.
"Keep your eyes on the stars,
and your feet on the ground."Theodore Roosevelt - Gap assessment
The next step is to assess the current organization against this vision, and identify the gaps. These gaps are the compelling reason for change (the "hot pan").
Resources:
Dean Meyer's facilitation can help you explore what your vision really means, and use those deep insights to challenge "the way we do it today."
- Root cause analysis on those gaps
The next step is to trace gaps (symptoms) to their root causes -- obstacles in the organizational ecosystem that impede staff from achieving the vision. There are five fundamental organizational systems: structure, internal economy, culture, methods and tools, metrics and rewards. When poorly designed or out of alignment with one another, they induce good people to perform poorly.
More on the organizational ecosystem that can cause good people to perform poorly....Resources:
"I've learned a lot from you -- a wealth of information that I believe will help me for many years to come." Harold W. Sallee
Administrator to the General Superintendent
and transformation program manager
Assemblies of God - Definition of systemic changes that address those root causes
The root causes are then translated into corrective actions, the specific change initiatives that you'll undertake.
Resources:
Dean Meyer's facilitation can help you understand the pragmatic organizational change initiatives, complete with phases and time-frames, which are the components of your strategy.
- Sequencing the systemic changes over time
Organizations can only absorb a limited amount of change. It's best to focus on just one or two systemic changes at a time. Thus, the corrective actions have to be sequenced into a plan.
Resources:
Dean Meyer's facilitation can help you analyze the interdepencies among the five organizational systems. That, along with your sense of urgency, guide you in arranging the change initiatives into a sequence that is your organizational (transformation) strategy.
The result is an organizational strategy that addresses systemic root causes (not symptoms), in the right sequence, leading to your vision of a high-performing organization.
The RoadMap® transformation planning process....
Senior leaders may schedule a telephone meeting with Dean Meyer to sort out the best path forward in the context of your aspirations and circumstances. Contact us....
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