Why do change initiatives fail?

It is not uncommon for change initiatives to fail.

The obvious question to ask is: why do change initiatives fail?

There are obviously lots of reasons.  However, one of the most common is that the organisation is not ready to change.  This is often recognised by the stakeholders involved in the change.  Nevertheless, leaders often believe that they must keep the pressure on and start implementation.  This often leads to investment in training programmes and projects.  However, if the organisation is ready to change the effort expended in implementation can be wasted or dissipated as change leaders often have to continuously revisit the reasons for change.

Establish the need for change – the key lessons

Oakland and Tanner (2007) developed the Organisational Change Framework which suggested that more time and effort should be made on preparing for change prior to implementation.  The key lessons they suggest are:

• The agenda for change is driven by external events
• Leaders set a clear direction and manage risks
• The need for change must be aligned to the operational issues
• A process approach is central to successful change
• Performance measurement has a key role in supporting change
• A project-based approach increases the chance of success
• External support adds value in managing change and the transfer of knowledge
• Aligning the culture to support changes in people’s behaviour
• Continuous review

 The organisational change framework

Their model is shown below:

So in summary, before you begin implementation, is every one ready to change?  If not it may be better to delay the implementation and continue the stakeholder work to establish a guiding coalition.  As the old saying goes, less haste more speed.

Reference: J.S. Oakland, S.J. Tanner, (2007) “A new framework for managing change”, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 19 Iss: 6, pp.572 – 589

The first in a series of: what books should leaders read?

What books should leaders read?

It is always difficult to decide what books you should read about leadership.  There are just so many!

So before, I list my own favorites, I thought I would  begin by sharing the list of a Max Bazerman, a business psychology professor at the Harvard Business School:

http://www.businessinsider.com/7-books-every-leader-should-read-2014-3

In a subsequent post I will let you know what the 10 best books I have on my own bookshelf.

 

 

 

Second in a series of famous quotes about strategy

This is the second in the series of famous quotes about strategy.

Although to be more accurate it is a list of ten practical implications advocated by Michael Porter but collected by Joan Magretta in her book “Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy“:

 1.            Vying to be the best is an intuitive but self-destructive approach to competition.

2.            There is no honour in size or growth if those are profitless.  Competition is about profits. Not market share.

3.            Competitive advantage is not about beating rivals; it’s about creating unique value for customers.  If you have a competitive advantage, it will show up on your P&L.

4.            A distinctive value proposition is essential for strategy.  But strategy is more than marketing.  If your value proposition doesn’t require a specifically tailored value chain to deliver it, it will have no strategic relevance.

5.            Don’t feel the need to have to “delight” every possible customer out there.  The sign of a good strategy is that it deliberately makes some customers unhappy.

6.            No strategy is meaningful unless it makes clear what the organisation will not do.  Making trade-offs is the lynchpin that makes competitive advantage possible and sustainable.

7.            Don’t overestimate or underestimate the importance of good execution.  It’s unlikely to be a source of sustainable advantage, but without it even the most brilliant strategy will fail to produce superior performance.

8.            Good strategies depend on many choices, not one, and on the connections between them.  A core competence alone will rarely produce a sustainable competitive advantage.

9.            Flexibility in the face of uncertainty may sound like a good idea, but it means that your organisation will never stand for anything or become good at anything.  Too much change can be just as disastrous for strategy as too little.

10.          Committing to a strategy does not require heroic predictions about the future.  Making commitment actually improves your ability to innovate and to adapt to turbulence.

 As Joan Magretta warns there is a danger in reducing this to a list.  However, it does provides a start point for further investigation.

Other famous quotes about strategy

You can also see the first in the series of famous quote about strategy here.

Searching and understanding patterns helps you understand your customers needs

Searching and understanding patterns helps you understand customer needs

The story about how Lego searched for patterns and then analysed the results is a really useful lesson that any organisation should seek to learn.

http://qz.com/189405/lego-turned-itself-around-by-analyzing-overbearing-parents/

They important takeaway is that you need to know where to look for the patterns and in the case of Lego:

LEGO has done a lot of research on play, but it almost becomes too academic. It didn’t really live in people, certainly not in the management. We should have been out with families. These are the real people who use our products

It is worth any organisation to spend some time thinking about where they should start the search to understand the patterns which explain their customer needs.

First in a series of famous quotes about strategy

This is the first in what will be a series of famous quotes about strategy

The purpose of this series will be introduce a range of strategic thinkers.  These will range from the military to the business world.

The first famous quote about strategy is:

Strategy is a system of expedients. It is more than a discipline; it is the transfer of knowledge to practical life, the continued development of the original leading thought in accordance with the constantly changing circumstances.  It is the art of acting under the pressure of the most difficult conditions

 

Helmuth Von Moltke

On the Art of War – Selected Writings

http://www.amazon.com/Moltke-Art-War-Selected-Writings/dp/0891415750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395090267&sr=8-1&keywords=On+the+Art+of+War+%E2%80%93+Selected+Writings

Running on rails – turning strategy into action

It is harder than you think to ensure that your strategy runs on rails.

Having a suitable strategy is very important.  However, turning strategy into action and specifically the right action is just as important.

You must gauge which activities are not in synch with your strategy.  The following article from HBR explains how to do this:

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/gauge-which-activities-arent-in-sync-with-your-strategy/

How to build a cohesive team

Start with the correct mind set

It all starts with your mind set.  In the Royal Marines we approach problems with the Commando Mindset

“Be the first to understand; the first to adapt and respond; and the first to overcome”

Next comes the values

The Commando Values are:

• Excellence.  Strive to do better.
• Integrity.  Tell the truth.
• Self-Discipline.  Resist the easy option.
• Humility. respect the rights, diversity & contribution of others

Finally in the Royal Marines we have the Commando Spirit

• Courage.  Get out front and do what is right.
• Determination.  Never give up.
• Unselfishness.  Oppo first; Team second; Self last.
• Cheerfulness. Make humour the heart of morale

By following this approach individually and collectively it is possible to build a cohesive team.

Learning about strategy

Where should you start?

A good place to start learning about strategy is the Kings College London War Studies Department blog called “Kings of War”:

http://kingsofwar.org.uk/

The blog discusses strategy (in the most broadest sense) and it is a site that I visit on a regular basis.

What Kings of War does well is demonstrate that strategy is a complex concept and it is difficult if not impossible to reduce it to a simple checklist of things to do.  If it were that simple everybody would be good at it.

To understand this idea more start here:

http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2014/03/one-thing-to-rule-them-all/

How to become “Top Talent”

The 5 top traits

Beth Kuhel over at the Personal Branding Blog suggest 5 traits that will help anyone become a “Top Talent”.

You need to be:

• Adaptable
• Collaborative
• Adept at solving problems
• Humble
• Lead

The full article is found here and is worth a read:

http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/get-known-as-top-talent-using-these-five-traits/

How to squeeze more out of the time available

There is always a challenge associated with doing the right things at the right times. Often we all tend to run out of time. What can we do to avoid this happening?

This article from Forbes is worth a look.

here