Where are we now – the first step in strategy and change
If you want people to commit to change, first of all they need to see what is wrong with where they are now. Motivation for change comes from people experiencing the gap between where they are now and where they want to be. Creating this gap is your first challenge if you are a change leader.
Take the time to gather the data and engage a range of key stakeholders to look at where your organisation is now and where it is headed. This starts to build a shared understanding that can become the foundations for a commitment to action. Is there a reason to change now, and if so why, and where is the support or energy for change? If there is no compelling reason and no key support, go no further.
To understand where you are now, here are five key steps I suggest you work through.
1. What is the current strategy and performance?
I know this will probably come as a surprise to many of you, but often organisational performance metrics have been chosen to make leaders look good and support performance bonus payments, rather than provide useful insights into the current organisational performance and trends.
Consider the performance of the organisation or group against its strategy, vision and goals and ask yourself if it is clear what success looks like for this organisation. Is it positioned well to achieve this - or is it headed for problems. Review the formal performance metrics, but don’t stop there. Ask yourself the question – for a business with this strategy operating in the world as it is now, and as it is becoming, what are the performance metrics that would add valuable insight into its current and future performance?
Ask what is missing in the formal performance metrics. What do they disguise as much as what do they reveal? Dig behind the formulas and the figures to find out what that “customer satisfaction” score that looks so good in the performance report really measures, and what critical metrics are missing from the score card. What is missing can reveal as much as what is there.
And remember Jack Welch’s tip that what really matters for business performance is staff engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.
If necessary, work out how to supplement the existing metrics with some simple measures of your own that add more value in understanding performance.
2. How do you compete in the market and how are external trends affecting you?
One of my favourite models for strategy review and development is Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy which uses an “as-is” strategy graph to map performance on key competitive dimensions in your industry and compare your performance with a few key competitors. Are you competing with the pack or have you created your own strategic advantage like the blue company below? Are you clear about where you need to be successful and what is your performance in these areas?
Take the time to gather the data and engage a range of key stakeholders to look at where your organisation is now and where it is headed. This starts to build a shared understanding that can become the foundations for a commitment to action. Is there a reason to change now, and if so why, and where is the support or energy for change? If there is no compelling reason and no key support, go no further.
To understand where you are now, here are five key steps I suggest you work through.
1. What is the current strategy and performance?
I know this will probably come as a surprise to many of you, but often organisational performance metrics have been chosen to make leaders look good and support performance bonus payments, rather than provide useful insights into the current organisational performance and trends.
Consider the performance of the organisation or group against its strategy, vision and goals and ask yourself if it is clear what success looks like for this organisation. Is it positioned well to achieve this - or is it headed for problems. Review the formal performance metrics, but don’t stop there. Ask yourself the question – for a business with this strategy operating in the world as it is now, and as it is becoming, what are the performance metrics that would add valuable insight into its current and future performance?
Ask what is missing in the formal performance metrics. What do they disguise as much as what do they reveal? Dig behind the formulas and the figures to find out what that “customer satisfaction” score that looks so good in the performance report really measures, and what critical metrics are missing from the score card. What is missing can reveal as much as what is there.
And remember Jack Welch’s tip that what really matters for business performance is staff engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow.
If necessary, work out how to supplement the existing metrics with some simple measures of your own that add more value in understanding performance.
2. How do you compete in the market and how are external trends affecting you?
One of my favourite models for strategy review and development is Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy which uses an “as-is” strategy graph to map performance on key competitive dimensions in your industry and compare your performance with a few key competitors. Are you competing with the pack or have you created your own strategic advantage like the blue company below? Are you clear about where you need to be successful and what is your performance in these areas?
Example of mapping “as-is” strategy and performance against competitors
It is also important to look at the trends affecting your industry and what these mean for your future competition and success. What is likely to happen if you keep on your current course?
3. What is your customers’ and employees’ experience with your organisation?
During this assessment phase look at your organisation’s performance through the eyes of others – especially your customers, your prospective customers and your staff. What is their experience of dealing with your organisation and what does this tell you about any need or opportunities for change? Blue Ocean Strategy’s “buyer utility map” or Design Thinking’s “customer journey mapping” are frameworks that can be used to compile such a picture.
Engage a cross section of staff in this discovering phase and tap into a range of different perspectives to open up thinking and involve potential change champions early in the process. In addition to improving the quality of your discovery work, this also starts the process of creating discontent with the current situation and ownership of the need for change.
It is particularly useful to involve people who are respected by their peers or teams and who stand up and speak out on issues. These people are your potential change champions for the future and their engagement will create the foundation for sustainable change.
4. What is the culture of the organisation and its history in handling change?
Discover the stories people in the organisation tell about their past and change. What do these reveal about the culture and what you might need to tackle? These stories can give you valuable insight into repeated patterns in dealing with change, what behaviour is rewarded and punished, what behaviour leaders role model, what staff care about, and what they are proud of.
Use this insight as a basis for a new story for change that speaks to people’s heart and what they care about. Listen to them to understand the patterns you need to break to have any chance of your change succeeding.
5. What is the do-nothing option – why change?
It’s important to consider the default or “do-nothing” option. If things keep going in the same direction – where are you likely to end up? And is that a problem? How can you create enough disquiet to generate motivation for action. If your current situation is good enough for you and your team and you are not scared enough about what is likely to happen if you do nothing different – you have little incentive to change.
Have you discovered strong enough reasons to take action and have you discovered and created a ground-swell of impatience for action that could energise people to take the next step and look for a better way?
Is there enough reason and energy to do something?
By the end of this process of exploring where you are now, good change leaders will have engaged enough of the right people, discovered enough of the important facts, and created sufficient impatience to generate energy, courage and excitement from enough people to take the next step of exploring the possibilities and finding a better way.
If you’d like some help with this – give me a call.
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Coach | Change Leader