10. Implementation

Implementing the BWB paradigm requires more than communicating the vision. It requires systemic changes in the organization, and meticulous management of change.

Even when people want to do the right things, an organization may put obstacles in their way. Here's a common example:

As an internal entrepreneur, you want to offer your customers the best value, so you know you should make every effort to keep your costs down.

But imagine that you work in an organization where your political stature, your title, and your paycheck all depend on how big an "empire" you run -- more headcount leads to a higher job grade. Essentially, the company is paying you to maximize, not minimize, your costs!

Organizations produce myriad signals that guide everyone's day-to-day decisions and actions. Some are appropriate, many are unclear and confusing, some may be conflicting, and a few may be perverse (as is rewarding people for empire building).

These signals determine the style of the organization, and make or break its performance.

If these signals guide people back to bureaucratic processes and behaviors, communicating the vision will inevitably lead to frustration and cynicism.

Only when an organization's signals are supportive can staff truly perform as empowered internal entrepreneurs.

Beyond just removing disincentives to entrepreneurship, a carefully designed set of organizational signals is fundamental to the implementation of the BWB paradigm.

When the signals are well aligned, they automatically control and coordinate people; so other mechanisms of control are less needed. In other words, a well-designed organization permits empowerment without any loss of control.

A BWB organization depends on replacing top-down control, auditors, and bureaucracy with a well-designed set of organizational signals that enable the empowerment of internal entrepreneurs.

BWB and Organizational Design

The BWB paradigm provides a philosophy that guides the design of a consistent, comprehensive, healthy set of signals.

For example, if a leader is concerned about clients' expectations outstripping available resources, she might focus on the project-approval process.

In traditional organizations, she might implement a series of staff reviews to filter out unworthy projects, and a client steering committee to set priorities.

The problem is that staff then become adversarial hurdles who audit and judge clients' ideas -- the opposite of customer focus. And the organization as a whole is viewed as bureaucratic and difficult to do business with.

In the BWB paradigm, she'd solve the problem quite differently. She wouldn't discourage her staff's entrepreneurial enthusiasm for selling clients as much as possible, constrained only by clients' ability to pay. And she certainly wouldn't want to risk her market share by sacrificing the organization's customer focus.

Instead, this leader might establish resource-tracking processes that show clients how much is left in their "checkbook." Then, it becomes the clients' job to live within their means and to decide which projects are funded. Staff never have to judge or reject their clients. And clients, who know their business needs best, set priorities.

In this example, the BWB paradigm guided us to a market solution rather than bureaucracy.

While the BWB paradigm guides organizational design, the relationship is symbiotic in that, by redesigning an organization, leaders can implement the BWB paradigm. Consider another example:

BWB guides organizational design: Say you want to improve teamwork. The BWB paradigm suggests a project-management process that defines a prime contractor for each project, who then "hires" subcontractors from among peer groups -- buying products and services from subcontractors, not just staff's time to do as they're told.

Organizational design implements BWB: The project-management process gets people to define their jobs as selling products and services to peers within the department, to clients throughout the company, and to external customers. This change moves staff closer to the BWB paradigm.

The way to implement the BWB paradigm is not by exhortation, but rather by the thoughtful design of the organizational environment.

Five Organizational Systems

How can leaders who wish to implement the BWB paradigm redesign an organization?

There are five organizational systems that produce most of the signals that guide people's work, portrayed in Figure 1.

"You can't legislate the human heart."

anonymous

By adjusting these five organizational systems, leaders can convert hierarchical, bureaucratic organizations into a dynamic marketplace of vibrant businesses within a business.

Figure 1: Five Organizational Systems

• Culture: the habits and values practiced throughout the organization.

• Structure: the organization chart that determines staff's lines of business, and the work flows that combine various specialists into project teams.

• Internal economy: the resource management processes, including budgeting, rate setting, purchase decisions, and tracking processes.

• Methods and tools: the capabilities of the various entrepreneurships.

• Metrics and rewards: the feedback staff get, and the consequences of their performance.

Transformation Strategy

Successful implementation of the BWB paradigm requires carefully designed changes in the five organizational systems, sequenced in the proper order, and implemented at a reasonable pace.

Implementation begins with planning the transformation strategy: what changes are needed, and what is the proper sequence?

"We don't have the time to do it quickly!"

Dave Anderson President, American Family Insurance

The transformation planning process itself is of value. Leaders explore the implications of the BWB paradigm for their organization, and translate the concept into a clear, detailed vision of their goal -- a high-performance organization.

Based on this clearly defined vision of how the organization should work, they assess the gaps in the current organization, building their commitment to change.

Gaps are traced to root causes -- the five organizational systems -- and the proper sequence of changes is determined.

Then, with each step in the transformation process, the organization moves closer to its vision, and it experiences more and more of the powerful benefits of customer focus, entrepreneurship, and empowerment.