Enterprise Transformation
Many organizations reach a point where the acknowledge that the tools and processes that brought them to their current level of success are not sufficient to take them to a higher level of performance. The realization can be very painful and what to do about it even more agonizing.
To ensure your effective transformation, there are key elements that must be in place which include:
- Engaging People At A New Level Of Respect, Challenge, and Accountability
- Achieving Targeted Results
- Intentionally Driving Strategic Alignment
- Leveraging And Preserving “Keeper” Components Of Your Organization
Enterprise Excellence requires four key dimensions of performance in order to create and sustain great results with great behavior.
- Cultural Enablers – A work environment built on respectful engagement and active participation of leaders, managers, and associates
- Continuous Process Improvement – Team-based problem solving, trust, and transparency of problems are common throughout the company
- Alignment – People share a common purpose and bring their focus and behavior into line with that purpose to achieve great results
- Awesome Results – Measureable and sustainable outcomes are achieved by teams using a common set of principles, systems, and tools
These elements can be found in any great company, and most organizations have some degree of all four elements. An effective approach is to identify where you are strong and where you are weak, and to respond appropriately.
The Transformational Leader
In our experience, Leadership is the most critical element in an effective transformation. So much has been written on the topic of leadership but most of it lacks the specific actions of a leader required to rally, drive, and sustain those new behaviors necessary to create lasting change long after the leader is gone.
There are countless examples of companies who realized significant improvement in their culture, operational results, customer satisfaction, market share, safety, and more. However, when the leader who was at the helm during the makeover retires or moves on, often the changes begin to revert and the “magic” is lost. We have worked with many organizations, which lived through this painful, costly, and disruptive devolution from a culture or excellence back to a culture of mediocrity.
Leaders strive to achieve greater results, stronger alignment, more effective continuous improvement, and greater efficiencies; many believe they need a radical transformation to attain higher levels of performance. Yet leaders must do more than buy in and support the hard work of creative a culture of excellence. The good news is this: there are specific actions and behaviors which drive lasting, effective transformation.
The Key Systems That Drive Lasting Change
Work systems are those procedures, policies, practices, and tools in place to get work done. Systems can either enable the right behaviors or encourage the wrong behaviors. Over the course of 20+ years of experience working with companies to create a culture of excellence, we have identified a collection of key systems that drive the right results with the right behavior. These work systems complement each other to reinforce collaboration, respect, transparency, and accountability to create a culture of performance.
All of our clients benefit from the lessons we have learned over two decades of trial and discovery with a variety of industries. These lessons are embedded in the key work systems we mobilize to crate a foundation from which to cultivate and reinforce and the right behaviors in your people. Actions influence thinking and, in turn, create a new norm. We see culture as the agreed upon way we get things done. As new norms of behavior emerge, a new culture begins to form. With work systems in place designed to reinforce the new norms, sustained transformation takes place!