Transformation

It’s come around again as “the thing.” And everyone wants it. The big question is, “How does an organization transform itself from mediocre to high performance?”

It took Ricardo Semler nine years to transform Semco into one of the world’s highest performing companies. So obviously it takes time. Lots of time. And lots of energy. It doesn’t just happen over night But during those years profits at Semco increased over 700%.

Here are five basic components we’ve found are necessary for effective transformation.

Sense of Urgency.

It begins with a sense of urgency, which is the “Why?” behind the transformation. Without a sense of urgency, employees see no need to put their energy into any kind of organizational change.

A Washington, DC association embarked on the first of several major organizational changes designed to transform the workplace culture. But they failed to communicate a sense of urgency. And the sense of urgency was that they were in the red several million dollars.

Without this information, employees looked at the changes as just another fad of the month. When people were told that these changes were needed to increase efficiencies and reduce cost, the support grew. Rapidly. Once the entire financial picture was presented to the employees, and how the changes would eliminate debt and insure continuance of their services, employee support increased.

Transformation begins with clearly communicating to everyone the sense of urgency. The “why?” behind every change.

Involve the stakeholders.

Transformation occurs more quickly and deeply when all the stakeholders are involved in creating the vision. This means employees of all levels are involved in identifying what needs to be changed, and how it needs to be changed. And sometimes it means involving stakeholders who are suppliers, or customers.

The most effective culture shift is when it comes from the bottom up, rather than the top down. If people are involved in creating the change, then they own it. They can’t fight it if they are the ones who determined what was to change and how it was to change.

Who are the stakeholders? They are employees, vendors, owners, investors, and customers. Listen to the voice of stakeholders. They know what needs to take place.

Create the Vision.

The stakeholders must create the vision of what the transformed workplace culture will be. In other words, how success looks. Without this description of what success looks like, people will never know when it has been achieved. This vision must be direct and clear. It is more than just a mission statement. It is a description of how the organization will function. And what it looks like. How it gets work done.

One way to get started on creating the vision is to ask stakeholders something like this: “If in five years the Wall Street Journal were to feature this organization as one of the best in the country, what would they say about us?” Now you have something to work on.

Celebrate Small Successes.

You can’t create a vision on Monday and expect it to be reality on Wednesday. Or even Thursday. It takes time. Sometimes years. And continual celebrations.

Every time there’s a success, it must be celebrated. Reduced scrap by 7%? Celebrate it. Reduce turnover by 5%? Celebrate it. Increase customer base by 4%? Celebrate it.

Every time there’s forward movement, it must be celebrated. People must know about it and how this small accomplishment fits into the big picture. Without the small celebrations, people will forget that progress is being made.

When you celebrate small successes people see the progress. And the transformation continues.

Accountability.

There is no transformation without accountability. And sometimes that isn’t easy. Too many organizations operate with the old “You have to go along to get along” mentality. But that defeats vital change.

Lencioni writes in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team “As politically incorrect as it sounds, the most effective and efficient means of maintaining high standards of performance is peer pressure.” People hold other people accountable for performance. If Tom isn’t doing what he said he’d do then his peers call him on it. Hold him accountable.

A good way to make it easy to hold people accountable is to publicly say what needs to be done and by whom. The enemy of accountability is ambiguity, and work agreements need to be in the open. If Melissa says she’ll have the marketing plan by the 1st, ask for it on the 1st. And if it isn’t ready call her out on it.

When you celebrate the small successes it will be easier to hold people accountable. Why? Because they know that as they get agreed upon actions completed, there will be a celebration of the success. Even if it’s a small success.

And that means transformation is taking place.

Imagine . . .

We haven’t read the full article yet, but an item in the current Smithsonian magazine caught our attention. It’s all about the new book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer. The review reports Lehrer as writing, “Sometimes caffeine will spur innovation; other times a relaxing shower will do the trick. Cities are often idea incubators, except when quietude is required. Ceaseless exertion is sometimes necessary although there is value in getting stuck.”

Lehrer writes in his book, “The idea for Post-it Notes came about when Arthur Fry, an engineer at 3M, was daydreaming in church, thinking how annoying it was that the bookmarks he’d placed in his hymnal so frequently fell out. He then remembered a 3M colleague’s talk about a new glue he’d developed: a paste so feeble that it could barely hold two pieces of paper together. That weak glue, Mr. Fry suddenly thought, might help him create the perfect bookmark, one that would stay put.”

Limited experience can have advantages, Lehrer writes, “the young know less, which is why they often invent more.”

One more quote: “At any given moment, our brain is automatically forming new associations, as it continually connects an everyday x to an unexpected y. This book is about how that happens. It is the story of how we imagine.” We’ve placed an order. Tell us what you think of the book after you’ve read it. And also tell us when you are the most creative.

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