In the nearly 30 years that we have been part of a variety of transformations worldwide, whether business model, digital, technology and/or organizational, there is a consistent set of human factors that make the journey successful or one that loses millions of dollars to go. the disposal because a project is put on hold, changes hands and therefore becomes a long and difficult journey. What are these human factors?
1. Provide a clear and concise answer to the question, “What is human desire?” Also known as the WIIFH (“What’s in it for people?”).
Image from Bigstock
In the proposal phase of projects, more than 80% of the questions asked to the potential partner are about business, technology and commerce. There is a small section on the people side, which is quite tactical in nature (i.e. training strategy and approach; communication and preparedness).
From a business point of view, the description of the project hardly touches the human dimension. There is a lack of in-depth understanding of the question, “What is the desired state addressed by the change or transformation?” Desire, wanting, and fear are deep human emotions that, when concretized and qualified from the beginning, enable real and organic movement toward the “North Star” of transformation.
It reminds me of an opportunity where a customer is taking the journey from ECC to S/4 HANA. The usual consultant in me did our background research to understand the client and get an outside view. In the pre-sales process, my team had made the effort to understand the customer’s ‘change profile’ and what their desired culture entailed… and not just business objectives. What a powerful story. We were able to connect with this customer and let their COO, CIO, and CFO know that we listened, we understand, and we will co-create.
2. Invest time up front in defining: “What are our ways of working and our guiding values as a collaborative organism?”
Image from Bigstock
The initial stage of the journey is a decisive point. It is where governance is established, the project team is appointed and timelines are vetted and established.
One aspect that is spent the least time on is the culture of the project team: the way of working and the common values that align everyone with the ‘North Star’. It sits in a silo or is forgotten altogether, especially as teams grow and activities move closer to go-live. Culture sets the tone and guiding principles behind decisions, conversations and interactions between people and groups. We must ‘go slow to go fast’, which allows us to move into a deep level of Intentionality during the transformation.
Establishing the “ways of working” for the project is worth the intentional effort spent on it. In this large-scale global transformation, client leaders demonstrated that they truly believed in its values and how they translated to the project team. The involvement of the Regional Directors and SVPs in figuring out how values such as curiosity and collaboration became reality through meetings and their outcomes, problem solving and leveraging the strengths of middle management and subject matter experts, had an impact on how the project ran smoothly was addressed. challenges and barriers experienced during the course of the project. This was further reinforced during the stabilization phase, where resilience and co-creation were visible. There was no I/we; it was really an ‘us’ and we make this possible together with the mentality!
3. Intentional means: “What strengths, skills, values, behaviors, leadership, and communication styles are important to move the ship?”
Image from Bigstock
There must be some level of intentionality within the project ecosystem. It’s not as simple as bringing together people who are ‘available’, mixed with a few strong middle managers, some consultants and a dash of hope, mixing them at the kick-off of a project, and voila: we have a high-performing team. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.
Treat it as a concept choice, with specific roles to play within the team and critical outcomes each role must achieve for the larger mission. You could say we don’t have time for this; we just have to meet the need and move on. This is what sets the championship team apart from all the others.
Find the X-factor in each individual to create a high-performing team, especially around the intangibles (e.g. values, drives, motivators, fears). Intentional resources at all levels from the steering committee, program leader and functional resources through stabilization, as we all know, “hope is not a strategy.”
This is one of the most difficult components to enable, especially since most teams are already lean and limited in adding resources, especially when the goal of the transformation is “reduce costs, increase efficiency”, which also happens translates into ‘lean and efficient’. average organization. This is one that is no longer a surprise, as we have all probably been involved in a project where the project had to be put on pause, or worse, put on hold. Either because the project team couldn’t move forward, there were too many changes after the blueprint, too many open decisions requiring global support, or because there was no clarity about who could move the project forward. This is the point where a twelve-month program becomes a five-year program, losing talented people in the process.
4. Stick and carrot strategy: “What are the motivators and consequences to implement?”
Image from Bigstock
It is innate for humans to need boundaries, consequences and motivations to allow creativity to flourish, come up with better solutions and enable speed in decision making. When this is proactively designed and reinforced during the transformation, magic happens.
It is quite a challenge when the culture of the organization revolves around the philosophy: “You already get paid to do your job,” and therefore additional motivators are not necessary. Definitely an uphill battle. What made this viable for one client were experienced leaders who had gone through similar transformations in their previous lives and have seen the difference a clear reward and performance management system can make in the long-term retention and motivation of a team.
5. Last but not least: “What will it take to orchestrate the first four?”
Image from Bigstock
To achieve this from start to finish, it is necessary to invest in a major conductor: a robust transformation office. It is a small, cohesive unit that expertly steers the ship towards its North Star, attuned to the culture and values of the broader organization and the project team, has insight into when and where coaching, structure and disciplines should be deployed, and has an eye for its stakeholders and knows how to leverage the strengths of the broader group to create the best possible solution(s).
From your site articles
Related articles on the internet
