My experience with successful organizations has led me to focus on the dynamic tension between leaders’ ownership of the strategies for change and their key stakeholders’ acceptance and buy-in of the plan. (Key stakeholders here are those who are crucial to the successful implementation of the desired change.) Often, there is a dynamic gap between these two entities that must be bridged successfully if the desired change is to proceed effectively.

The process I recommend can be used with internal and/or external stakeholders, as well as for regular feedback on many topics from strategic planning to mergers and change management.

In reality there are eight parallel process steps necessary to bridge the gap between those who lead change and those who implement it. Any mis-step or short cut will inevitably lead to breakdowns later in the process and require extensive duplication of work and a slowing of the project. Briefly, I will describe how vitally important real-time meetings held with leadership and key stakeholders prove to be an integral step in this process. For a more in-depth explanation on this process and how we may partner on your implementation project, please contact Kelly@InternalBusinessSolutions.com

The purpose of real-time meetings is twofold:

1. to share information and provide feedback to the core leadership team in order to troubleshoot and improve the plans, and
2. to gain understanding, acceptance (i.e., buy-in), and commitment to the overall direction and implementation of the plan.

One important factor to remember is: people support what they help create. Thus, it is crucial to involve key stakeholders early on in the planning and change process. If this crucial step is omitted or briefly touched on, long term organizational outcomes will pay the price. Poor stakeholder motivation or ambivalence later on is an expensive problem to fix. It is much more effective to alter a plan before it is put into place, rather than try to turn back time and re-work a process mid-stream.

Successful leaders plan ahead for their organizations strategic and human change needs. Even though change is inevitable, in order to be efficient and effective, managing successful change takes preparation and planning. Simply put: investing in and creating buy-in and ownership at all levels pays off.

Moving our bodies from point A to point B requires the use of our two legs working together to achieve this simple task. If one or the other of the two legs does not fully support the body, or if one does not make a full and even stride, then the act can be diminished by varying degrees.

The metaphor holds true for your organization and its internal customers as well. Internal customers are those people who make up the other departments that work with you inside your business. For example, accounts-receivable, sales, production, finance and marketing are each other’s customers. For your organization to function smoothly, people among departments must communicate clearly, organize tasks and timelines, and implement or take “action” on these tasks.

The more effective people are at serving each other, the smoother their processes will be, and they will achieve better results (i.e., production, efficiencies, and profits). Likewise, the more efficient a person is with “leg movements,” the better they will be at walking, jogging, and even running. If they take this act seriously and become expert in this area, they may even end up running faster than others, which is, of course the objective in business — outpacing the competition.

Here are suggestions on how to provide stellar internal customer service:

1. Be aware of what you think about yourself and others. Behavior follows thought. Are your thoughts helping you and building you up, or are your thoughts hurting you and making circumstances more difficult? Practice self-respectful thoughts.

2. Communicate clearly and often. Ask for clarification when you are unsure of what is conveyed through verbal and non-verbal means.

3. Talk face-to-face or by phone to others instead of using e-mail. The benefits of this process far outweigh the time saved by using e-mail. Too much e-mail can be a “crutch” and seriously impact the fluidity of a group of people working to achieve common goals.

4. Conduct department-to-department staff meetings so that people can ask each other for information, clarification and process refinement, etc. It’s like “speed dating” for departments. For instance, gather staff from each department and give those people 10-15 minutes to ask people from another department for what they need or could provide to make their processes or organization function more smoothly. In other words, this is what we need from you. What do you need from us to make your jobs easier, more effective and fun?

Prioritize these ideas, assign who will do what by when, and then monitor in thirty days to determine results and make adjustments. In fewer than 60 minutes, the people in both departments will have gathered tons of precise information and a new outlook on their colleagues.

5. Talk about the white elephant in the corner that everyone knows about and talks about in their “cliques” but doesn’t address directly or in formal meetings.

These “TABOO” topics are the “real problems” that keep departments and companies from running faster than they currently do and could if they learned to overcome them.

Everyone knows about these white elephant topics and the professional “manipulators”, so the quicker these topics are brought to the table the quicker the organization can find solutions to them and move forward. I am not saying this process is going to be fun. All I’m saying is that I’ve done this HUNDREDS of times and in every case 99% of the people are much more productive and happier. and as a result, the organization can dump the anchors and start moving swiftly again. (the one percent that aren’t happy are the manipulators that either have to change their game to get along or are forced out).

This part of the process is often very difficult to decide on and implement. But like surgery, everyone is much healthier after the fact and the business and people within it will fly once this ball and chain topic or person isn’t keeping it grounded.

Kelly Graves, CEO
The Corporate Therapist
Email: Kelly@CorporateTherapist.com
Cell: 1.530.321.5309
Toll-Free: 1.800.704.3785
Office: 1.530.321.5309
Internal Business Solutions, Inc.™

For a project to end successfully, it must begin successfully and this statement could not be more true and the stakes higher then when it comes to any kind of merger or restructure. Long before the CEO’s are finished signing the final documents, the employees of each department or company have already started the process. In essence, the merger has already begun to take shape and for better or worse, sides are being drawn. Therefore, before engaging in any kind of merger or restructure, try to get a good sense of the cultures involved. Train yourself in being culturally sensitive by visiting other organizations and figuring out how their “cultural assumptions” differ from yours.

If you are the facilitator or are in any way responsible for the success of a department or company merger, acquisition, or joint venture, try to visit the other department or organization and experience, as much as you can, how things are done there. Create dialogue groups across any cultural boundary that becomes apparent to you. Do not expect normal communication, goodwill and experience to produce mutual understanding. Both cultural units need to learn to be reflective and to get in touch with their own and each other’s cultural assumptions; this can only be successfully accomplished with the dialogue format.

If you are trying to gain mutual understanding between two or more cultures, you must create a dialogue form of conversation. This is best achieved by an outside and objective facilitator who can choreograph the conversation as well as ensure the focus and flow remains consistent with the original objectives. Below is a general outline of what should take place for an initial meeting.

1.  Select ten to twenty people who represent the two cultures equally.
2. Seat everyone in a circle, or as near as possible. Don’t use tables as these will create boundaries and distance the people and impede honest dialogue.
3.  Lay out the purpose of the dialogue meeting: For example, “to get a sense of the similarities and differences in our cultures and from this learn to listen more reflectively to ourselves and each other.”
4. Start the conversation by having the members in turn check-in by introducing who they are and what goals they have for the meeting.
5. After everyone has checked in, the facilitator should launch a very general question, such as, what is it like to be in this company, what is known about this merger? what would indicate success for our departments or organizations as we move collectively through this merger?” Everyone in the circle should, in turn, answer the question from his or her company and perspective and with the ground rule that there be no interruptions or questions until everyone has given an answer.
6. The facilitator should be observing the group dynamics and encourage an open conversation on what everyone has just heard without the constraints of proceeding in order or having to withhold questions and comments.
7. If the topic runs dry or the group loses energy, the facilitator should introduce another question. Such as, “how are decisions made in this organization” (in my experience, body language, people communicating through eye contact etc will tell a lot about who may want to speak up but be unwilling or unable to due to ‘unspoken cultural demands.’ Comment about confidentiality or the undercurrent the group may be feeling. Key point—discuss the alligator in the corner. There will always be one and everyone knows it is there. Therefore, as the facilitator you must help them acknowledge the OBVIOUS). Again have everyone in turn give an answer before general conversation begins. This will encourage input from everyone and will detract from the more vocal members commanding the group dynamics.
8. Let the differences emerge naturally; don’t make general statements, because the purpose at this stage is to uncover mutual understanding, not necessarily clear description.
9. After a couple of hours, ask the group to pole itself by asking each person in turn to share one or two insights about his or her own culture or the other one; Another question that may encourage productive dialogue is; “what is one idea, concept, insight, or statement you received during this meeting that made our time together valuable for you?” I will always have a non participant writing all of these notes on flip chart paper taped to the walls. This way people can think and speak freely and a detailed description is available to be distributed later or for follow-up meetings.
10. The answers gleaned from these last set of questions will in turn spark new insight for both the members and the facilitator. These should be kept and used as follow-up information.

 Clarification About What Culture Is

Culture is the shared tactic assumptions of a group that it has learned in coping with external tasks and dealing with internal relationships. Although culture manifests itself in overt behavior, rituals, artifacts, climate, and espoused value, its essence is the shared tactic assumptions. As a responsible leader, you must be aware of these assumptions and manage them, or they will manage you.

Unless your organization is a brand new conglomerate of people from other organizations, it has formed a culture that influences all of your thinking and behavior. If your organization is a new mix, without prior shared experience, then all members bring their prior culture experience to the new situation and seek to impose it on that situation.  The quickest way to create a new culture in such a situation is to give the people a compelling, common task so that together they can build a new set of assumptions.

The strength and depth of an organization’s culture reflects (1) the strength and clarity of the founder or the organization, (2) the amount and intensity of shared experiences that organization members have had together, and (3) the degree of success the organization has had.

Culture is, therefore, the product of social learning. Ways of thinking and behavior that are shared and that work become elements of culture.

You cannot, therefore, “create” a new culture. You can demand or stimulate a new way of working and thinking; you can monitor it to make sure that it is done; but members of the organization do not internalize it and make it part of the new culture unless, over time, it actually works better.

A given organization’s culture is right so long as the organization succeeds in its primary task. If the organization begins to fail, this implies that elements of the culture have become dysfunctional and must change. But the criterion of the right culture is the pragmatic one of what enables the organization to succeed in its primary task.

As the external and internal conditions of an organization change, so does the functionality, or rightness, of a given culture assumptions change. Culture evolves with the fluid circumstances of the organization.

The essential elements of culture are invisible. They are taken for granted and have dropped out of awareness. But they can be brought back into awareness. Failure to understand culture and take it seriously can have disastrous consequences for an organization.

Superficial understanding of culture can be as dangerous as no understanding at all. Theory and concepts gained from Edgar Schein.

Strategic plans don’t go from plan to action on their own as most people think–or rather, hope. A strategic plan is a simple document or road map. People must be learn new behaviors and take actions not previously committed to implement a successful strategic plan. Much like people must take roads not previously traveled to arrive at a new destination.

In the same way that the strategic plan has discrete features (core values, vision, mission, action plans, accountabilities, etc.) a plan’s implementation has distinct and necessary features.

Communicating Conscious or unconscious, every organization is in a state of constant change. Programs and departments are constantly defending themselves, trying to gain market share, seeking to improve internal and external customer service practices, utilizing its dynamic and diverse people, refining its processes or striving to otherwise grow its strengths. In the implementation phase of strategic planning, the organization will be facing any number of changes and challenges; however, because we will have a common destination and common purpose as well as clearly defined checkpoints along the way, we will be better suited to talk to each other about our needs and successes.

People do better with change and challenges if they have a sense of what’s coming and what they need to do to prepare. (help them take the proverbial blind folds off and show them the beauty of the destination you have in  mind). When leaders engage in intentional, positive and proactive communication practices, their people will have a much greater sense of security and commitment. In essence, tell them in clearly defined language about the destination and then remind them how much you need their input and commitment while on this journey together.

Getting Buy-In Getting buy-in or commitment means just that: getting people to invest themselves into this idea, process, program or procedure. Luckily, most people will agree to buy-in when they can see how their individual investment will deliver a sound return. Simply put; how will this directly and positively impact them, their department, their family and well-being of the company they rely on for their economic survival? So when leaders empower their people with the ways and means to influence their work, those people will more readily buy-in to better plans. Empowered employees will support and nurture a plan and its implementation whereas powerless employees will just stand by and watch as if the plan and implementation do not apply to them. To get buy- in, leaders will need to provide visible, tangible and meaningful rewards and recognition for positive actions that lead to successful outcomes. If leaders have chosen and grown the right people (and created rewards and penalties that motivate their people accordingly) then the people themselves will seek out the opportunities to buy-in on the implementation of each variable of the  strategic plan.

Inspiring Interdependence Leaders who know their people will be able to spread personal and institutional passion as well as inspire higher levels of thinking and professionalism. Through this process of inspiring others, leaders will help their people implement a strategic plan each step of the way. Through knowing what intrinsically motivates their people, leaders will be able to guide people to recognize and share in the value of micro and macro accountabilities (those day-to-day measures along with the long-term results.) It is through this interdependence of accountabilities that employees themselves will sustain individual and departmental optimism and direction for the long haul required for a successful implementation.

Giving and Receiving Meaningful Feedback Defined also as a “feedback loop,” this feature allows leadership and line staff to inform practice in timely and meaningful ways. As each person and department moves through the day-to-day realities toward micro and macro goals and objectives this feedback loop continuously looks at human behaviors and qualitative measures that inform positive change toward specific goals and objectives. Because timeliness matters, leaders and managers need to implement changes in real time based on feedback. Equally as important, leaders and managers need to communicate those changes back to their people to show how employee feedback has successfully informed positive adjustments. Feedback loops should be internal: top-down, bottom-up and lateral, as well as external: outside (customer driven).

Leaders Acting as Exemplary Role Models What employees see, employees will do. In every sense, for internal as well as external communications and actions, perception is reality. Without fail, people will believe what they see over what they read or hear. Leaders who model high standards of conduct especially in times of difficulty, such as when an organization is facing challenges or changes in the status-quo, are leaders who will have people who are committed to integrity and character. Leaders who create a culture that rewards and supports good judgment at all levels will have more success implementing their strategic plans. (On the flip side, leaders or managers are not acting as strategic role models if they “pass the buck” or otherwise model less than professional behaviors or values including supporting silo-type responses to challenges like, “That’s not my problem. Our department is doing fine. ” Or other “CYA-cover your assets” attitudes.) Exemplary role models are those leaders, managers and individuals whose actions and statements are consistently focused on the successful implementation of the organizational strategic plan.

Offering and Supporting Strategic Professional Development Perhaps most important to the successful implementation of any strategic plan is an organization’s commitment to regular and specific individual and organizational development. This piece is huge because it is in its people that an organization will find its success. Growing people strategically will allow an organization to exceed its goals. Leaders need to ask themselves how much time and money the organization spends to maintain equipment and buildings?

How much is spent on copy paper, utilities and even sick leave? Are you spending more on maintaining your building and equipment or your people? If you are, then you need to seriously look at your most precious asset–your people! Invest in them consistently but wisely. (I don’t care how it is framed or sold; bowling, trust-fall mats, rope-climbing and other frivolous outings are entertainment, not sustainable and enriching team development). If the goal is to take the organization to the next level, a carefully planned and implemented professional development program and budget should be one of the organization’s highest priorities and successful implementation of a strategic plan requires good people who are skilled, knowledgeable and willing to grow.

So, where does your organization want to be one year from now? What behaviors, actions, beliefs, statements, systems, procedures and people would make up your organization in 12-24 months? The answer to that question is your vision. Now, thinking backward incrementally toward the present day, at each step and time along the way, what behaviors, skills, actions, etc., need to be in place at that stage?

These are your benchmark goals. As you backtrack to the present you will see that there are many steps along the way that require additional and highly-specific objectives. In order to succeed, your people need to be made aware of these big picture mile-stones as well as many details. Perhaps you can imagine it as if you are giving your people a road map with key stops highlighted along the way. Make it possible for each person to see how their part supports the whole journey. If you want to arrive at your destination on time and in good condition, your strategic plan will need to include quality assurances (you want to have a safe and sane trip), systems and procedures that take into consideration of variables known (vehicle choice, drivers’ skills, etc.) and unknown (weather and road conditions). Then, it’s time to hit the road and start your journey. This is the implementation; the process of actually moving your organization and your people across time and space to new destinations. If the strategic plan is the “what and why,” then the implementation is the “who, how and when.”

Participative Management