{"id":9492,"date":"2020-08-28T07:46:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T07:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/?p=9492"},"modified":"2023-11-15T06:59:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T06:59:21","slug":"how-to-design-your-organization-for-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/future-of-work\/how-to-design-your-organization-for-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Design Your Organization For Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The\u00a0March on Washington<\/a>, in which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech,\u00a0 is one of the most iconic events in American history. So it shouldn\u2019t be surprising that when anybody wants to drive change in the United States, they often begin with trying to duplicate that success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet that\u2019s a gross misunderstanding of why the march was successful. As I explain in\u00a0Cascades<\/em><\/a>, the civil rights movement didn\u2019t become powerful because of the March on Washington, the March on Washington took place because the civil rights movement became powerful. It was part of the end game, not an opening shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, many corporate transformations make the same mistake. They try to drive change without preparing the ground first. So it shouldn\u2019t be surprising that\u00a0McKinsey has found<\/a>\u00a0that only about a quarter of transformational efforts succeed. Make no mistake,\u00a0transformation is a journey, not a destination<\/a>, and you start by preparing the ground first.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Start With A Keystone Change<\/strong><\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Every successful transformation <\/a>starts out with a vision, such as racial equality in the case of the civil rights movement. Yet to be inspiring, a vision needs to be aspirational, which means it is rarely achievable in any practical time frame. A good vision is more of a beacon than it is a landmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s probably why every successful transformation I found in my research first had to identify a\u00a0keystone change<\/a>\u00a0which had a tangible and concrete objective, involved multiple stakeholders and paved the way for future change. In some cases, there are multiple keystone changes being pursued at once seeking to influence different institutions.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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For example, King and his organization, the\u00a0Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)<\/a>, mobilized southern blacks, largely through religious organizations, to influence the media and politicians. At the same time, through their work at the NAACP,\u00a0Charles Hamilton Houston<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Thurgood Marshall<\/a>\u00a0worked to influence the judicial system to eliminate segregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same principle holds for corporate transformations. When Paul O\u2019Neill set out to turnaround Alcoa in the 1980s, he\u00a0started by improving workplace safety<\/a>\u00a0and, more recently, at Experian, when CIO Barry Libenson\u00a0set out to move his company to the cloud<\/a>, he started with internal APIs. In both cases, the stakeholders won over in achieving the keystone change also played a part in bringing about the larger vision.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Lead With Values<\/strong><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Throughout his career, Nelson Mandela was accused of being a communist, an anarchist and worse. Yet when confronted with these, he would always point out that nobody needed to guess what he believed, because it was all written down in the\u00a0Freedom Charter<\/a>\u00a0way back in 1955. Those values signaled to everybody, both inside and outside of the anti-apartheid movement, what they were fighting for.<\/p>\n

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In a similar vein, when Lou Gerstner arrived at IBM in the early 90s, he saw that the once great company had lost sight of its values. For example, its salespeople were famous for dressing formally, but that was merely an early manifestation of a value. The original idea was to be close to customers and, since most of IBM\u2019s early customers were bankers salespeople dressed formally. Yet if customers were now wearing khakis, it was okay for IBMers to do so as well.<\/p>\n

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Another long held value at IBM was a competitive spirit, but IBM executives had started to compete with each other internally rather than working to beat the competition. So Gerstner worked to put a stop to the bickering, even firing some high-placed executives who were known for infighting. He made it clear, through personal conversations, emails and other channels that in the new IBM the customer would come first.<\/p>\n

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Build A Network Of Small Groups<\/strong><\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With attendance at its weekend services exceeding 20,000, Rick Warren\u2019s\u00a0Saddleback Church<\/a>\u00a0is one of the largest congregations in the world. Yet much like the March on Washington, the mass of people obscures the networks that underlie the church and are the source of its power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heart of Saddleback Church is the prayer groups of six to eight people that meet each week, build strong ties and support each other in matters of faith, family and career. It is the loose connections between these small groups that give Saddleback its combination of massive reach and internal coherence, much like the networks of small groups convened in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the key findings of my research into social and political movements is that they are driven by\u00a0small groups, loosely connected, but united by a common purpose<\/a>. Perhaps not surprisingly,\u00a0research has also shown<\/a>\u00a0that the structure of networks plays a major role in organizational performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to\u00a0network your organization<\/a>\u00a0by building bonds that supersede formal relationships. Experian, for example\u00a0has built a robust network of clubs<\/a>, where employees can share a passion, such as bike riding and employee resource groups, that are more focused on identity. While these activities are unrelated to work, the company has found that it\u00a0helps employees span boundaries<\/a>\u00a0in the organization and collaborate more effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All too often, we try to break down silos to improve information flow. That\u2019s almost aways a mistake. To drive a true transformation,\u00a0you need to connect silos<\/a>\u00a0so that they can coordinate action.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Make The Shift From Hierarchies To Networks<\/strong><\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In an earlier age, organizations were far more hierarchical. Power rested at the top. Orders went down, information flowed up and decisions we made by a select priesthood of vaunted executives. In today\u2019s highly connected marketplace, that\u2019s untenable. The world has become fast and hierarchies are simply too slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s especially true when it comes to transformation. It doesn\u2019t matter if the order comes from the top. If the organization itself isn\u2019t prepared, any significant transformation is unlikely to succeed. That\u2019s why you need to lead with vision, establish a keystone change that involves multiple stakeholders and work deliberately to network your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet perhaps most importantly, you need to understand that in a networked world, power no longer resides at the top of hierarchies, but emanates from the center of networks. You move to center by continually\u00a0widening and deepening connections<\/a>. That\u2019s how you drive a true transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this happens overnight. It takes some time. That\u2019s why the desire for change is not nearly as important as the will to prepare for it.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many corporate transformations make the same mistake. They try to drive change without preparing the ground first. Make no mistake, transformation is a journey, not a destination, and you start by preparing the ground first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":622,"featured_media":9493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[584,585],"ppma_author":[3337],"class_list":["post-9492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-future-of-work","tag-organisation","tag-transformation"],"authors":[{"term_id":3337,"user_id":622,"is_guest":0,"slug":"greg-satell","display_name":"Greg Satell","avatar_url":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/medium_09100e21-0736-4ca7-ac55-7140c8c4d9d2-150x150.jpg","user_url":"https:\/\/www.gregsatell.com\/%20","last_name":"Satell","first_name":"Greg","job_title":"","description":"Greg Satell is an international keynote speaker, adviser and bestselling author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change. His previous effort, Mapping Innovation, was selected as one of the best business books of 2017. You can learn more about Greg on his website, GregSatell.com<\/a> and follow him on Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/622"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34077,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions\/34077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}