MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The objective of organizational change management is to enable organization members and other stakeholders to adapt to a sponsor’s new vision, mission, and systems, as well as to identify sources of resistance to the changes and minimize resistance to them. Organizations are almost always in a state of change, whether the change is continuous or episodic. Change creates tension and strain in a sponsor’s social system that the sponsor must adapt to so that it can evolve. Transformational planning and organizational change is the coordinated management of change activities affecting users, as imposed by new or altered business processes, policies, or procedures and related systems implemented by the sponsor. The objectives are to effectively transfer knowledge and skills that enable users to adopt the sponsor’s new vision, mission, and systems and to identify and minimize sources of resistance to the sponsor’s changes.

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Objectives

01. Breakthrough Value: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Strategic Analysis; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Change Framework; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Navigating Change; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Transformation Strategies; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Transitional Plan; departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. MBT Framework: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Best Practices: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Communication: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Employee-Centered: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Resistance: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Leadership & Stakeholders: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

 

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Strategies

01. Breakthrough Value: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Strategic Analysis: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Change Framework: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Navigating Change: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Transformation Strategies: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Transitional Plan: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. MBT Framework: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Best Practices: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Communication: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Employee-Centered: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Resistance: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Leadership & Stakeholders: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

 

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Breakthrough Value.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Strategic Analysis.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Change Framework.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Navigating Change.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Transformation Strategies.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Transitional Plan.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse MBT Framework.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Best Practices.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Communication.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Employee-Centered.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Resistance.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyse Leadership & Stakeholders.

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Introduction

Organizational Change And Transformation Planning

Definition: Transformation planning is the process of creating a [strategic] plan for changing an organization’s business processes by changing policies, procedures, and processes to shift it from a “as is” to a “to be” state.

Change Management is the process of gathering enterprise (or business) intelligence in order to perform transformation planning by assessing an organization’s people and cultures in order to determine how changes in business strategies, organizational design, organizational structures, processes, and technology systems will affect the enterprise.

Roles & Expectations: Leaders are expected to be able to assist in formulating the strategy and the plans for transforming a customer’s organization, structure, and processes, including support to that organization. They are expected to recommend interfaces and interactions with other organizations, lead change, collaborate, build consensus across the firm and other stakeholders for the transformation, and to assist in communicating the changes. To execute these roles and meet these expectations, leaders are expected to understand the complex, open-systems nature of how organizations change, and the importance of developing the workforce transformation strategies as a critical, fundamental, and essential activity in framing a project plan. They must understand the social processes and other factors (e.g., leadership, culture, structure, strategy, competencies, and psychological contracts) that affect the successful transformation of a complex organizational system.

Context

The objective of organizational change management is to enable organization members and other stakeholders to adapt to a sponsor’s new vision, mission, and systems, as well as to identify sources of resistance to the changes and minimize resistance to them. Organizations are almost always in a state of change, whether the change is continuous or episodic. Change creates tension and strain in a sponsor’s social system that the sponsor must adapt to so that it can evolve. Transformational planning and organizational change is the coordinated management of change activities affecting users, as imposed by new or altered business processes, policies, or procedures and related systems implemented by the sponsor. The objectives are to effectively transfer knowledge and skills that enable users to adopt the sponsor’s new vision, mission, and systems and to identify and minimize sources of resistance to the sponsor’s changes.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Implementation of a large-scale transformation project affects the entire organization. In a technology-based transformation project, an organization often focuses solely on acquiring and installing the right hardware and software. But the people who are going to use the new technologies—and the processes that will guide their use—are even more important. As critical as the new technologies may be, they are only tools for people to use in carrying out the agency’s work.

Figure 1. Organizational Transition Model

As shown in Figure 1, the discipline of organizational change management (OCM) is intended to help move an organization’s people, processes, and technology from the current “as is” state to a desired future “to be” state. To ensure effective, long-term, and sustainable results, there must be a transition during which the required changes are introduced, tested, understood, and accepted. People have to let go of existing behaviors and attitudes and move to new behaviors and attitudes that achieve and sustain the desired business outcomes. That is why OCM is a critical component of any enterprise transformation program: It provides a systematic approach that supports both the organization and the individuals within it as they plan, accept, implement, and transition from the present state to the future state.

Studies have found that the lack of effective OCM in an IT modernization project leads to a higher percentage of failure. According to a 2005 Gartner survey on “The User’s View of Why IT Projects Fail,” the findings pinned the failure in 31 percent of the cases on an OCM deficiency. This demonstrates the importance of integrating OCM principles into every aspect of an IT modernization or business transformation program.

Navigating the Change Process

Organization leaders need to assess change as a process and work in partnership with our sponsors to develop appraisals and recommendations to identify and resolve complex organizational issues. The change process depicted in Figure 2 is designed to help assess where an organization is in the change process and to determine what it needs to do as it moves through the process.

Figure 2. An Organizational Change Process

By defining and completing a change process, an organization can better define and document the activities that must be managed during the transition phase. Moving through these stages will help ensure effective, long-term, and sustainable results. These stages unfold as an organization moves through the transition phase in which the required transformational changes are introduced, tested, understood, and accepted in a manner that enables individuals to let go of their existing behaviors and attitudes and develop any new skills needed to sustain desired business outcomes.

It is very common for organizations to lose focus or create new initiatives without ever completing the change process for a specific program or project. It is critical to the success of a transformation program that the organization recognizes this fact and is prepared to continue through the process and not lose focus as the organizational change initiative is implemented. Commitment to completing the change process is vital to a successful outcome.

Framework for Change

In any enterprise transformation effort, there are a number of variables that exist simultaneously and affect the acceptance of change by an organization. These variables range from Congressional mandates to the organization’s culture and leadership to the attitude and behavior of the lowest-ranking employee. Social scientists use the Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance and Change, or other approaches in line with the sponsor’s environment and culture, to assess readiness and plan to implement change. The Burke-Litwin Model identifies critical transformational and transactional factors that may impact the successful adoption of the planned change. In most government transformation efforts, the external environment (such as Congressional mandates), strategy, leadership, and culture can be the most powerful drivers for creating organizational change.

Transformation Strategies

Most organizations will ultimately follow one of three approaches to transformation. The type of approach is related to the culture and type of organization (e.g., loosely coupled [relaxed bureaucratic organizational cultures] or tightly coupled [strong bureaucratic organizational cultures]):

• Data-driven change strategies emphasize reasoning as a tactic for bringing about a change in a social system. Experts, either internal or external to the sponsor, are contracted to analyze the system with the goal of making it more efficient (leveling costs vs. benefits). Systems science theories are employed to view the social system from a wide-angle perspective and to account for inputs, outputs, and transformation processes.

The effectiveness of a sponsor’s data driven change strategy will be dependent upon (a) a well-researched analysis that the transformation is feasible, (b) a demonstration that illustrates how the transformation has been successful in similar situations, and (c) a clear description of the results of the transformation. People will adopt the transform when they understand the results of the transformation and the rationale behind it.

• Participative change strategies assume that change will occur if impacted units and individuals modify their perspective from old behavior patterns in favor of new behaviors and business/work practices. Participative change typically involves not just changes in rationales for action, but changes in the attitudes, values, skills, and percepts of the organization.

For this change strategy to be successful, it is dependent on all impacted organizational units and individuals participating both in the change (including system design, development, and implementation of the change) and their change “re-education.” The degree of success is dependent on the extent to which the organizational units, impacted users, and stakeholders are involved in the participative change transition plan.

• Compliance-based change strategies are based on the “leveraging” of power coming from the sponsor’s position within the organization to implement the change. The sponsor assumes that the unit or individual will change because they are dependent on those with authority. Typically, the change agent does not attempt to gain insight into possible resistance to the change and does not consult with impacted units or individuals. Change agents simply announce the change and specify what organizational units and impacted personnel must do to implement the change.

The effectiveness of a sponsor’s compliance-based change strategy is dependent on the discipline within the sponsor’s chain of command, processes, and culture and the capability of directly and indirectly impacted stakeholders to impact sponsor executives. Research demonstrates that compliance-based strategies are the least effective.

Regardless of the extent of the organizational change, it is critical that organizational impact and risk assessments be performed to allow sponsor executives to identify the resources necessary to successfully implement the change effort and to determine the impact of the change on the organization. Further information on change strategies and organizational assessments is found in the SEG article “Performing Organizational Assessments,” and in those listed above.

Leadership & Stakeholders

Leaders need to be cognizant of the distinction between sponsor executives, change agents/leaders, and stakeholders:

• Sponsor executives: Typically, sponsor executives are the individuals within an organization that are accountable to the government. Sponsor executives may or may not be change leaders.
• Change leaders: Typically, the change leader is the sponsor’s executive or committee of executives assigned to manage and implement the prescribed change. Change leaders must be empowered to make sponsor business process change decisions, to formulate and transmit the vision for the change, and to resolve resistance issues and concerns.
• Stakeholders: Typically, stakeholders are internal and external entities that may be directly (such as participants) or indirectly impacted by the change. A business unit’s dependence on a technology application to meet critical mission requirements is an example of a directly impacted stakeholder. An external (public/private, civil, or federal) entity’s dependence on a data interface without direct participation in the change is an example of an indirect stakeholder.

Note: Both directly and indirectly impacted stakeholders can be sources of resistance to a sponsor’s transformation plan.

Resistance

Resistance is a critical element of organizational change activities. Resistance may be a unifying organizational force that resolves the tension between conflicts that are occurring as the result of organizational change. Resistance feedback occurs in three dimensions:

• Cognitive resistance occurs as the unit or individual perceives how the change will affect its likelihood of voicing ideas about organizational change. Signals of cognitive resistance may include limited or no willingness to communicate about or participate in change activities (such as those involving planning, resources, or implementation).
• Emotional resistance occurs as the unit or individuals balance emotions during change. Emotions about change are entrenched in an organization’s values, beliefs, and symbols of culture. Emotional histories hinder change. Signals of emotional resistance include a low emotional commitment to change leading to inertia or a high emotional commitment leading to chaos.
• Behavior resistance is an integration of cognitive and emotional resistance that is manifested by less visible and more covert actions toward the organizational change. Signals of behavioral resistance are the development of rumors and other informal or routine forms of resistance by units or individuals.

Resistance is often seen as a negative force during transformation projects. However, properly understood, it is a positive and integrative force to be leveraged. It is the catalyst for resolving the converging and diverging currents between change leaders and respondents and creates agreement within an organizational system.

Creating the Organizational Transition Plan

As discussed in the beginning of this section (see Figure 1), successful support of individuals and organizations through a major transformation effort requires a transition from the current to the future state. Conducting an organizational assessment based on the Burke-Litwin Model provides strategic insights into the complexity of the impact of the change on the organization. Once the nature and the impact of the organizational transformation are understood, the transformation owner or champion will have the critical data needed to create an organizational transition plan.

Typically, the content or focus of the transition plan comes from the insights gained by conducting a “gap” analysis between the current state of the organization (based on the Burke-Litwin assessment) and the future state (defined through the strategy and vision for the transformation program). The transition plan should define how the organization will close the transformational and transactional gaps that are bound to occur during implementation of a transformation project. Change does not occur in a linear manner, but in a series of dynamic but predictable phases that require preparation and planning if they are to be navigated successfully. The transition plan provides the information and activities that allow the organization to manage this “non-linearity” in a timely manner.

It should be noted that large organizational change programs, which affect not only the headquarters location but also geographically dispersed sites, will require site-level transition plans. These plans take into account the specific needs and requirements of each site. Most importantly, they will help “mobilize” the organizational change team at the site and engage the local workforce and leaders in planning for the upcoming transition.

Strategic Organizational Change Communications

Figure 3. The Strategic Organizational Communications Process

A key component of the transition plan should address the strategic communications (see Figure 3) required to support the implementation of the transformation. Open and frequent communication is essential to effective change management. When impacted individuals receive the information (directly and indirectly) they need about the benefits and impact of the change, they will more readily accept and support it. The approach to communication planning needs to be integrated, multi-layered, and iterative.

Are You Certain You Have A Plan In Place?

Consider the following declarations of strategy gathered from genuine company documents and announcements:

“Our goal is to be the most cost-effective service.” “We’re pursuing a global approach”. “The company’s objective is to integrate a series of regional acquisitions”. “Unparalleled customer service is our strategy.” “Our strategy goal is to always be first to market.” “Our objective is to transition from defence to industrial applications,” .

What are the similarities and differences between these great declarations? The only difference is that none of them is a strategy. They are merely aspects of strategies, strategic strands. However, they are no more tactics than Dell Computer’s strategy of selling directly to customers, or Hannibal’s plan of crossing the Alps with elephants. And their use illustrates a growing trend: strategy fragmentation as a catchall term. Consultants and researchers have offered executives with a plethora of frameworks for understanding strategic problems after more than 30 years of rigorous thinking about strategy.

We now have five-forces analysis, core competencies, hypercompetition, a resource-based view of the organization, value chains, and a slew of other useful, if not always powerful, analytic tools.’ However, there has been little advice on what should be the end output of these tools—or what actually constitutes a plan. Indeed, the use of certain strategic instruments tends to lead to restricted, fragmented views of strategy, which correspond to the tools’ limited reach. Strategists who are drawn to Porter’s five-forces approach, for example, tend to think of strategy as a question of picking industries and sectors within them.

Executives who focus on “co-opetition” or other game-theoretic frameworks perceive their world as a series of decisions about how to interact with friends and foes. This issue of strategic fragmentation has gotten worse in recent years, as narrowly specialized academics and consultants have begun to practice strategy using their instruments. However, strategy is not the same as price. It isn’t a matter of capacity decisions. It is not responsible for determining R&D funding. These are strategy components that cannot be decided — or even considered — in isolation. Consider an aspiring painter who has been taught that the beauty of a painting is determined by its colors and hues. But, in reality, what can be done with such advice? After all, wonderful paintings necessitate much more than color selection: attention to shapes and figures, brush technique, and post-production processes. Above all, excellent paintings rely on the skillful integration of all of these aspects.

Some pairings are tried-and-true, while others are innovative and fresh. Many combinations, especially in avant-garde art, indicate disaster. Strategy has become a catchall term that can be used to imply anything. Regular portions of business journals are increasingly devoted to strategy, usually detailing how featured companies are coping with specific difficulties like customer service, joint ventures, branding, or e-commerce. Executives, in turn, discuss their “service plan,” “joint venture strategy,” “branding strategy,” or whatever other strategy is on their thoughts at the time. Executives then transmit these strategic threads to their enterprises, erroneously believing that this will assist managers in making difficult decisions.

However, how does understanding that their company is pursuing a “acquisition strategy” or a “first-mover strategy” assist the vast majority of managers in doing their jobs or setting priorities? How useful is it to have new initiatives publicized on a regular basis, with the word strategy thrown in for good measure? When executives refer to everything as a strategy and end up with a collection of strategies, they confuse the public and jeopardize their own credibility. They reveal, in particular, that they do not have a holistic view of the business. When executives refer to anything as a strategy, they create confusion and undercut their own credibility. Many readers of literature on the subject are aware that ‘strategy’ comes from the Greek ‘strategos’, which means “the art of the general.”

However, few people have given this essential origin much thought. What distinguishes the job of a general from that of a field commander, for example? Over time, the general is in charge of various units on multiple fronts and multiple conflicts. Orchestration and comprehensiveness are the general’s challenge—and the value-added of generalship. Great generals consider the big picture. They have a plan; it is made up of bits, or aspects, that come together to form a cohesive whole. Whether they are CEOs of established companies, division presidents, or entrepreneurs, business generals must have a strategy—a coherent, integrated, externally directed notion of how the company will achieve its goals.

Without a strategy, time and resources are easily wasted on ad hoc, unrelated operations; mid-level managers will fill the hole with their own, often parochial, interpretations of what the company should be doing; and the outcome will be a jumble of ineffective efforts. There are numerous examples of businesses that have suffered as a result of a lack of a cohesive strategy. Once a dominant power in the retail industry. Sears spent ten bleak years vacillating between a hard-goods and a soft-goods focus, dabbling in and out of ill-advised industries, unable to differentiate itself in any of them, and failing to develop a convincing economic logic.

Similarly, the formerly untouchable Xerox is attempting to resurrect itself, despite internal criticism that the corporation lacks a strategy. “I hear about asset sales, about refinancing, but I don’t hear anyone saying convincingly, ‘Here is your future.”- A strategy is a collection of choices, but it isn’t a catch-all for every essential decision an executive must make.

The company’s mission and objectives, for example, stand distinct from and govern strategy, as seen in Figure 1. As a result, we wouldn’t mention the New York Times’ dedication to being America’s newspaper of record as part of its strategy. GE’s strategy is driven by its goal of being number one or two in all of its markets, but it is not strategy in and of itself. A strategy would not include a goal of achieving a specific sales or earnings target. Similarly, while strategy is concerned with how a company intends to interact with its surroundings, internal organizational arrangements are not included. As a result, remuneration policies, information systems, and training programs should not be considered strategies. These are key decisions that should reinforce and support the strategy, but they do not constitute the strategy.

When everything significant is tossed into the strategy bucket, this crucial concept soon loses its meaning. We don’t want to portray strategy creation as a straightforward, sequential procedure. Figure 1 omits feedback arrows and other indicators that outstanding strategists think in repeating loops. The aim is to achieve a durable, reinforced consistency among the pieces of the strategy itself, rather than following a sequential approach.

The Building Blocks of Strategy

If a company must have a plan, that strategy must have components. What exactly are those components? A strategy, as shown in Figure 2, consists of five aspects that provide answers to real-world questions:

• Are there any arenas where we’ll be active?
• Transportation: how will we get there?
• Differentiators: What will make us stand out in the marketplace?
• Staging: What will our movement speed and sequence be?
• Logic of economics: how will we get our money back?

1. Arenas

The first question a company must answer on the Strategy Diamond is “where will we be active?” Organizations frequently make the mistake of being overly generic, such as when they state, “We want to be the number one consulting business.” However, rather than a strategy, this is a vision statement. To avoid falling into this trap, be as explicit as possible when describing arenas. You can do so by answering the questions below: Which product categories will we compete in?

• What channels are we going to use?
• Which market sectors are we going to focus on?
• Which geographical areas should we concentrate our efforts on?
• What essential technologies are we going to use?
• Which stages of value generation will we emphasize?

It is critical to underline the relevance of these domains when describing them. Assume your plan is to concentrate on a specific geography. You sell in other countries as well. However, you do so because it is logistically simple, and your fundamental goal is to concentrate on a single market.

2. Vehicles

Now that you know where you’ll be competing, you’ll need to figure out how you’ll get there. This is where we choose the vehicle that will take us from where we are to where we want to go. Here are some examples of responses:

• Partnerships
• Acquisitions
• Licensing
• Partnerships
• Franchising
• Create in-house

Once again, be as explicit as possible. Assume you’ve decided to branch out into a new product category. You should specify if you’ll purchase or construct this capacity in-house. Don’t make this decision on an ad-hoc basis. Instead, focus on developing a reasonable strategy. If you’ve only ever built in-house, then be honest, accept acquisition isn’t suitable for you.

3. Differentiators

What sets you apart from the competition? What are your products’ USPs (Unique Selling Propositions)? What is it about what you do that allows you to succeed in business?

Differentiation must be at the core of your plan. How can you win if you can’t find a method to set yourself apart? You can’t do it.

Differentiation can be done in a variety of ways, including:

• Price
• Quality
• Customization
• Reliability and Durability
• Time to market
• Time to upgrade products
• Customer service

It’s critical to identify your differentiators as soon as possible. This is due to the fact that differentiation does not arise by accident. If you want to provide the best customer service, you’ll have to invest time and money to do it. Similarly, if you want the best-designed goods, you’ll have to invest on that as well.

4. Staging

For a moment, let’s return to our general. A general does not move all forces on all fronts at the same time when fighting a war. Instead, some people go first, then others, and then still others. In business, staging is just as critical as it is in conflict. There are numerous examples of businesses that grew too quickly and before they were ready. The majority of these businesses are no longer in operation.

From one stage to the next, your plan must progress. You run the risk of getting ahead of yourself if you don’t. You run the risk of taking on more than you’re capable of. You’re in danger of going out of business.

During this step, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the best sequence of steps to take?
• How quickly should we take these steps?

5. Economic Logic

The diamond’s last section brings everything together with one goal in mind: profit.

In a nutshell, this section is about deciding whether to compete on a low or high cost basis. Because you have economies of scale, you might be able to compete on price. Or because your replication costs are lower. Because you have a brilliant design or unique product features, you may be able to compete on price.

To demonstrate this, consider the following two examples of economic logic:

• Low-cost: Ryanair offers customers a cheaper cost per mile than any other European airline.
• Expensive: Apple may charge more because its customers are prepared to pay more for their distinctive design.

The five elements of the diamond must not only align, but also reinforce one another in order to have a solid plan. Let’s look at an example to help clarify this.

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Executive Summary

Chapter 1: Breakthrough Value

Breakthrough Value Is Unlocked Through Business Transformation
Every company comes to a point where it’s time to make a change. As a leader, you are the one who stands at the crossroads and must make a decision. Should you increase your size? Or take a step to the side? Is it possible to create new products or services? Or do you want to keep laser-focused on your best-selling book? The decisions required for effective Business Transformation (BT) can be plagued with painful self-doubt, even for superstar entrepreneurs.

The first stage is to choose a problem to tackle, but after that, you’ll need a solid approach that will allow you to go forward while being flexible. Will you make blunders? Yes. However, proper Transformation planning can assist your small business in getting back on track after a setback.

Takeaways

• Leverage the power and potential of digital technologies—in particular, AI/machine learning, IoT, and robotics—to drive business transformation and create value
• Apply advanced Design-Thinking techniques to create breakthrough innovations
• Conceive new user experiences in areas where there is no prior solution to leverage
• Overcome organizational obstacles

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Chapter 2: Strategic Analysis

Process Improvement Through Analysis

Identifying and resolving inefficiencies that waste resources and increase expense is the goal of process improvement. Analyses are conducted to establish which processes and process stages create value and which do not, as well as to determine how much non-value-adding activities may be decreased or eliminated. Using a planned strategy can help you get better results.

Methodologies for Strategic Planning

When management commits to using formal techniques, defining explicit goals, and offering employee training, process improvement initiatives will be more likely to succeed. Lean and Six Sigma are two popular approaches. Lean aims to continuously improve processes in order to increase efficiency. Six Sigma is a statistical control methodology that focuses on getting processes to an ideal level of statistical control. Employees must be properly guided and instructed in order to use any methodology effectively. To assure success, consulting services might be used.

Mapping Value Streams

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) gives you a snapshot of how things are right now. Before improvement efforts can begin to establish future-state expectations, it is important to understand current-state conditions. VSM is used by businesses to define all of the business, engineering, and manufacturing processes that go into delivering a finished product (or service) to a consumer. The value stream of the company is made up of several processes. The efficiency of each process has a direct relationship with profit levels.
VSM helps firms focus on each individual process and activity in the value stream by creating Value-Add vs. Non-Value-Add Process Maps. Assessing inputs, outputs, and process linkages can assist improvement teams in determining which activities contribute value and which do not. In the eyes of the customer, value-adding means that the activity adds to the item’s value. Non-value-adding signifies that it adds no direct value to the item but does affect the price customers must pay.

Waste

It’s possible that some non-value-adding operations will be required. Others may just contribute to resource waste. Toyota, which is widely regarded as a leader in continuous improvement, first implemented Lean principles in the early 1960s as part of a quest for increased efficiency. Toyota’s “Lean” strategy focused on removing waste from processes. The seven forms of waste, also referred to as fat, have been discovered. Overproduction, delay, unnecessary conveyance, over-processing, excess inventory, superfluous motion, and rectification are all things that improvement teams should be on the watch for.

Measure

Some method of measurement must be defined to permit a valid assessment of processes under present and future state conditions. What kind of evidence can be used to show whether a process is efficient or has been improved? Quantifiable process measures must be established. Numbers are objective and can inform management about whether or not goals have been met. The number of customer complaints received, the quantity of defective products produced, and the amount of time spent fixing mistakes are all instances of quantitative measures.

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Chapter 3: Change Framework

Many businesses have undergone significant change in recent years, and the value of organizational culture in organizational analysis and change management is becoming increasingly apparent. Change implementation, on the other hand, is a difficult process that is not always successful for a variety of reasons.

Poor communication and an underestimation of the amount of retraining required are at the root of most change failures. The major goal of this study is to determine the important actions that could help with change management. To build a theoretical foundation for the research, literature on organizational culture, the need for change, forms of change, and resistance to change was consulted.

Case studies and exploratory interviews on organizational change management were utilized to chronicle organizational change experiences and establish a strategic framework for change management. Acceptance and adoption of the designed method within a construction-based organization served as validation. The research has shown that well-planned change aids in the successful implementation of change. Not only is the development of more efficient and effective procedures important for successful change, but so is the alignment of corporate culture to support these new processes.

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Chapter 4: Navigating Change

What Is Change Management And How Does It Work?

The actions a business takes to change or adjust a significant component of its organization are referred to as organizational change. this could encompass things like company culture, internal processes, underlying technology or infrastructure, corporate hierarchy, or something else.

Adaptive or transformational change can occur in an organization:

• Adaptive changes are tiny, incremental adjustments that a company makes over time to improve its products, processes, workflows, and strategies. Adaptive changes include hiring a new team member to meet rising demand or introducing a new work-from-home policy to attract more competent job applicants.
• Transformational changes are of a wider scale and scope, and they frequently imply a drastic and, at times, unexpected departure from the status quo. Transformational change might include the introduction of a new product or business division, as well as the decision to grow worldwide.

Transformation management is the process of directing organizational change from its inception and planning stages through implementation and resolution.

A set of starting conditions (point A) and a functional endpoint (point B) define change processes. The transition is a dynamic process that develops in stages. The major steps in the change management process are summarized here.

5 Steps In The Change Management Process

1. Get The Organization Ready For Change

An organization must be prepared both logistically and culturally in order to successfully pursue and implement change. Prior to going into logistics, cultural preparation is required.

During the planning phase, the manager focuses on assisting employees in recognizing and comprehending the need for change. They create awareness of the organization’s different challenges or problems, which operate as change agents and cause unhappiness with the status quo. Obtaining early buy-in from employees who will assist in the implementation of the change might help reduce friction and resistance later on.

2. Create A Vision And A Change Strategy

Managers must design a thorough and realistic plan for bringing about change once the organization is ready to embrace it. The strategy should include the following information:

• What strategic goals will this adjustment aid the organization in achieving?
• Key performance indicators: What will be used to assess success? What metrics must be shifted? What is the current state of affairs’ baseline?
• Project team and stakeholders: Who will be in charge of the task of change implementation? At each important point, who needs to sign off? Who will be in charge of the implementation?
• Project scope: What are the specific processes and actions that the project will entail? What isn’t included in the project’s scope?

Any unknowns or bottlenecks that may develop during the implementation process should be factored into the plan, which will necessitate agility and flexibility to overcome.

3. Changes Must Be Implemented

Following the procedures described in the plan to implement the desired change is all that remains after it has been created. The specifics of the program will determine whether or not modifications to the company’s structure, strategy, systems, procedures, employee habits, or other components are required.

Change managers must focus on empowering their workers to take the necessary measures to achieve the initiative’s goals during the implementation process. They should also try to anticipate bottlenecks and, once detected, prevent, remove, or reduce them. Throughout the implementation process, it is vital to communicate the organization’s vision to remind team members why change is being pursued.

4. Changes In Company Culture And Practices Should Be Embedded

Change managers must prevent a reversion to the previous state or status quo once the change endeavor is concluded. This is especially true when it comes to process, workflow, culture, and strategy changes within an organization. Employees may revert to the “old way” of doing things if they don’t have a strategy in place, especially during the transition time.

Backsliding is more difficult to achieve when reforms are embedded in the company’s culture and processes. Change management tools such as new organizational structures, controls, and reward systems should all be considered.

5. Analyze the Results and Evaluate the Progress

A change initiative’s completion does not imply that it was successful. A “project post mortem,” or analysis and assessment, can help company leaders determine whether a change initiative was a success, failure, or mixed result. It can also provide useful information and lessons that can be applied to future transformation attempts.

Ask yourself questions like, “Did the project’s objectives get met?” Is it possible to replicate this success elsewhere if it is? What went wrong if not?

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Chapter 5: Transformation Strategies

If you’re in charge of a company, you’re undoubtedly considering drastic change. Your world is evolving due to new industrial platforms, geopolitical developments, global rivalry, and shifting consumer demand. You have upstart competitors encroaching on your firm with high valuations, as well as activist investors hunting for targets. Meanwhile, you have your own goals for your business: to be a profitable innovator, to exploit opportunities, to lead and dominate your market, to recruit highly motivated individuals, and to carve out a socially responsible role where your firm makes a difference. You should also get rid of any deadwood in your legacy system, such as procedures, structures, technologies, and cultural traditions that are holding your firm back.

A transformation program — a top-down restructure accompanied by cost-cutting across the board, a technical reboot, and some reengineering — is the traditional answer. Perhaps you’ve participated in a handful of these activities. If that’s the case, you’re well aware of how difficult it is for them to succeed. These initiatives are frequently late and over budget, leaving the company exhausted, demoralized, and little altered. They ignore the fundamentally new types of leverage accessible to firms in the recent decade: new networks, new data collection and analytical resources, and new means of codifying knowledge (see Miles Everson, John Sviokla, and Kelly Barnes’ “Leading a Bionic Transformation”).

Successful transformations are uncommon, but they do happen — and yours could be one of them. In this sense, a transformation is a significant change in an organization’s skills and identity that allows it to generate useful results that are relevant to its mission that it previously couldn’t achieve. It may or may not require a single large project, but the organization develops a continuing mastery of change in which executives and people feel comfortable adapting.

Changing economic times, as well as the increase of political and consumer turmoil, can put a company’s future in jeopardy. Consumers may start tightening their purse strings or switching to competitors’ products. In these cases, a company may choose to pursue a transformative strategy in order to position itself for long-term profitability.

Objectives

Transformational strategy is implementing major and drastic changes within a company to alter its short- and long-term viability. A change in course of action is usually necessitated by an external event, such as a downturn in the economy or the rise of a competitor, which forces the company’s owner and managers to reconsider their policies and processes. As a result, transformational strategy aims to increase revenue and market share, improve customer satisfaction and retention, and lower expenses in order to reinvest in other areas of the organization.

Tools

Enacting radical change inside a company necessitates the use of purposeful tools by the business owner and managers to ensure that the tactics they implement are useful and effective. Examining employee and management performance, evaluating financial data, redesigning technology and service programs, and refining project management plans are just a few of the tools available. A combination of tools and strategies is frequently used to help transform a business. A company losing market share to a competitor, for example, might change its customer service strategy, lower its price, and increase its marketing efforts.

Engagement of Stakeholders

Transformational strategy necessitates the involvement of the organization’s core personnel. The transformation process should include employees, board members, managers, and essential third parties such as vendors and core customers. Opening lines of communication between business owners and stakeholders can highlight flaws in the firm’s policies and procedures, as well as provide vital information into what needs to change within the company. Involving stakeholders in transformational strategy also helps to broaden and deepen the business’s resources and tools. The old adage “two heads are better than one” applies here: having additional individuals on board to strategize and implement solutions aids in the timely and effective transformation of the organization.

Setting Objectives

Setting goals and objectives is a crucial aspect of a transformational approach. Setting business transformation goals provides owners and management with a defined plan of action. Recognizing the need for change is the first stage, followed by agreement with stakeholders on the steps necessary to accomplish the change. This is frequently based on a vision for how the company should ideally look — should it broaden its market reach, strictly focus on a few items, or expand its public relations efforts into social media? Questions like this aid in the testing and implementation of improvements. Leadership must, above all, support the transformational strategy. Managers and business owners must regularly re-evaluate change plans to verify that they are on track to achieve the stated objectives.

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Chapter 6: Transition Plan

A company’s ability to grow depends on its ability to welcome change. Change management, on the other hand, is one of the most difficult business ideas to grasp.

It is undervalued by businesses; changing employee attitudes and behaviors takes time. Others are unsure how to put a change management strategy into action.

Others are having trouble completely comprehending the business implications of changes; the company is dealing with something new, which is challenging.

With a few ideas and pointers, you’ll be prepared to take on change management in your firm.

All efforts and interim needs for implementing the new organization design are documented in the Organization Transition Plan. It serves as a central location for gathering, scheduling, and organizing all tasks related to the transition from the old to the new organization. The breadth and complexity of the change program will decide the overall approach – ‘big bang’ versus ‘phased’, for example. Communication, establishing and publishing new employment positions, and generating staff discussion guides that illustrate how responsibilities are evolving are all examples of typical tasks.

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Chapter 7: MBT framework

Let’s face it: when it comes to winning consulting business in the digital transformation arena, the big consulting firms have it easy. Their logo is visible on most doors and halfway up the procurement staircase. Few people doubt their credentials. However, a closer examination of most of their ‘digital transformation frameworks’ reveals that they are virtually identical to the traditional management consulting tools that they have used for the past 30 years. Old, subjective, analog, and unfit for the digital era.

Before company leaders will take Chief Digital Officers or smaller consulting firms seriously, they must demonstrate far more insight. They must generate new ideas that are relevant to the customer’s business.

But, before you start consulting, how do you generate new ideas?

The answer: data + frameworks.

When leveraging transformation pitching frameworks and platforms, it’s simple to come up with new ideas.

The digital footprint of a company can reveal a lot about it. Those who impact their sector produce a very distinct data footprint than those who participate passively over time as a business exposes its value proposition.

Measuring a company’s digital footprint is not the same as looking at its digital marketing. A company’s digital marketing may be excellent, yet its digital footprint may be lacking.

Innovators from all industries and government agencies have comparable data success characteristics over time. Those who are simply ‘doing digital’ fall behind the innovators. These qualities can be calculated by comparing them to industry peers and a market position. The ‘As-Is’ state is provided by this type of data.

This comparison of how a company or business unit performs versus competitors both within and outside their industry generates interesting insights and discussions.

Using modern transformation consulting platforms and frameworks can be a super-fast way to demonstrate strategic transformation competency and maturity. Even for customers you don’t know much about, you’re delivering insights from the start.

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Chapter 8: Best practices

Framework for Formulating Organizational Transformation based on Best Practices and Lessons Learned:

Burke Litwin’s Organizational Performance and Change Model: Several variables affect the acceptability of change throughout an organization at the same time during an enterprise modernisation endeavor. The Burke-Litwin model (B-L) is a framework for determining the extent and complexity of various variables in a company. B-L provides a link between an assessment of the larger institutional context and the nature and process of change within an organization as a model of organizational change and performance. During organizational change, the B-L model identifies the following key factors to consider:

• Changes in the external environment drive “transformational” aspects within a company, such as mission and strategy, organizational culture, and leadership.
• Changes in the environment affect “transformational” factors within an organization, such as structure, systems, management practices, and organizational climate.
• Changes in transformational and transactional factors affect motivation, which affects individual and organizational performance.

Changes in transformational and transactional elements must be integrated and consistent for an enterprise modernization initiative to be effective and sustainable. The factors emphasized in the model, as well as the relationships between them, appear to be a good tool for communicating not only how organizations operate, but also how to effectively execute change, based on experience and practice. The SEG article “Performing Organizational Assessments” has more information on the Burke-Litwin model.

Organizational Transformation Strategy Parts: There are five important elements that make up an overall framework for change in an organization. In the transformation approach, each of these aspects is referred to as a ‘work stream,’ which is discussed in more detail later in this document. Leadership, communications, and stakeholder engagement, enterprise organizational alignment, education and training, and site-level workforce transfer are among the five pillars. The fifth work stream, site-level workforce transition, takes the preceding four aspects and applies them at the site or geographic region level to prepare and manage users in the field during the implementation process.

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Chapter 9: Communication

Any business transformation project should be built on clear and constant communication from the start, between the project team, management at all levels, and the entire organization.

Effective communication keeps everyone informed and helps employees understand their individual tasks and the resources available to assist them achieve their objectives.

Furthermore, continual communication fosters a collaborative attitude, encourages employees to speak up, and ensures that everyone has the knowledge they need to handle any grievances, bottlenecks, or other difficulties that may arise.

As a result, clear communication is essential during the company transformation process. Furthermore, statistics show that successful transformation is more than three times more likely in firms that implement this technique.

Choose the communication channels you’re going to use with caution.

If you work for a large company, you’re presumably using a variety of internal communication channels. You name it: Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, intranets, document sharing, and project management software.

Within a company, there are many different ways to communicate. Because of the complexity of this communication ecosystem, ensuring that all workers receive the information they require to successfully implement new business transformation efforts is difficult.

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Chapter 10: Employee-Centred

The 33-year average tenure of businesses on the S&P 500 in 1964 dropped to 24 years by 2016 and is predicted to decrease to just 12 years by 2027, according to a 2018 study on company longevity. What’s the bottom line? Over the next ten years, over half of the S&P 500 corporations will be replaced. How can you stay competitive in the face of so much disruption and change? You and your firm must learn to change quickly. In today’s digital world, how one changes effectively is determined by a number of elements, including the type of change required, your business model, and, most significantly, your workers. According to research, the success or failure of your company’s change efforts is determined by your employees’ experience with the change.

Employees should be at the forefront of your company’s digital transformation efforts. A patient-centered approach to care became a popular term in the healthcare business around a decade ago. The practice revolves around the patient and caters to their specific needs. It’s past time for companies to take a more holistic, employee-centric approach to their business models, particularly transformation models. Imagine your objectives as a wheel with spokes, with your employees in the hub and each spoke representing a different component of the change that will help you achieve your objectives.

• Worker Ecosystem
• Human Element
• Workforce Optimization
• Digital Dexterity
• Innovation and Growth

The Worker Ecosystem is evolving to include bots and artificial intelligence. Your ability to adapt will be determined by how you integrate this technology into your worker ecosystem. Analyzing your tasks properly will identify methods to use technology to assist you in your transformation. This is similar to providing patient portals in healthcare to encourage direct communication between the patient and the doctor without making an appointment. Even as AI becomes more common, the Human Element must never be forgotten. Humans give critical thinking, complexity, and empathy that technology cannot match. People must now be trained to evaluate, question, and explain the machine’s conclusions.

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Chapter 11: Resistance

Change resistance is natural and to be expected. Employees are afraid of losing their employment, their relationships, and their activities. They don’t always believe that the change is worthwhile or that their boss knows what he or she is doing.

It’s critical to address change resistance. Managers can work against an employee’s instinct to reject change by cultivating a change-accepting atmosphere by developing trust and articulating the change clearly.

Dealing with Change Resistance: Strategies

You’ll need to execute particular measures to address employees’ concerns once you’ve identified probable causes of change resistance.

Companies must employ many techniques when it comes to adapting to contemporary technologies or overcoming opposition to change. The correct mix of Change Management Models and Tools is required for successful organizational change.

Four of the most common reasons for resistance are detailed below:

1. Fear and intolerance

Because they fear change, many employees oppose it. They are concerned that they will not have enough time to learn the new abilities and behaviors demanded of them, which makes them feel insecure.

They are also afraid of appearing inadequate in front of their coworkers due to a lack of time to adjust. Some relationships and activities may be lost as a result of the changes, while others may be established.

If a person’s tolerance for change is low, they may actively fight change for reasons they don’t understand, which are frequently rooted in fear of failure.

2. Self-interest

Some people may believe that if they change, they will lose power, whether it is substantial decision-making authority or the ability to influence their team. Others may interpret one change as a hint that more changes are on the way, which they may regard as a threat.

If someone perceives that a change will jeopardize their career, they are more inclined to fight it. Any endeavor that they view as posing a threat to their current circumstances will be met with resistance.

3. Lack of trust

Staff are more likely to oppose change if there is already a lack of trust between the management and his or her employees. While establishing a high level of trust between employees and supervisors is tough, managers must attempt to improve these relationships.

Misunderstandings arise as a result of a lack of trust, and employees are less likely to “buy in” to necessary adjustments. Managers must rapidly dispel any misconceptions in order to prevent opposition from spreading throughout a company.

4. Ineffective communication

The manner in which the change is communicated to staff is critical. Other affected employees will certainly reject if a change isn’t shared in its totality, or if it’s just communicated to a small group of people. Employees’ reactions are determined by how the change is communicated.

Resistance should be expected if a manager cannot define the process of changing exactly what needs to be changed, how the changes will be done, and how the change will better things.

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Chapter 12: Leadership & Stakeholders

7 strategies for gaining leadership support for process improvement

Leaders are the catalysts for change. It could spell the difference between success and failure for your company if your leadership team leads the drive on process improvement.

Executives who are on board can help foster a positive process management culture by exhibiting their belief in the organization’s benefits and making it clear that they expect teams across the organization to do the same.

They also have the authority to make strategic and resourcing decisions on process improvement training and implementation.

1. Assisting leaders in improving procedures

Executive teams will have a lot of initiatives vying for their time, attention, and resources. Be specific about why your initiatives merit executive attention and support while making your case for process improvement.

There are five strategies to enlist the support of your executive team in your process improvement efforts:

2. Get a sense of what’s happened previously.

Begin by going over the reasons why the company decided to go on a process improvement journey in the first place. Make a list of concerns they’d like to solve, and then explain how process improvement may help. If any of the original organizers are still around, ask them what they planned to accomplish.

Look at the current strategic priorities that business teams are focusing on if the initial team that kicked off the process improvement journey is no longer with the organization. You might take use of this chance to demonstrate how a more effective process improvement approach can aid in aligning teams with the strategy and supporting initiatives, as well as how exec support can help to successfully embed change.

Consider what the organization wants to accomplish and how you may contribute to these goals. How can you achieve your goal, for example, if teams are unclear about what is required of them on a daily basis? Maybe your processes differ depending on where your offices are located, and there’s a lot of uncertainty about who does what – how can everyone use a single source of truth to improve cohesion and effectiveness?

3. Find out what’s important to them.

Knowing what business topics your executives are passionate about will help you make better decisions. Target the issues that they are passionate about, rather than the subjects that other executives on the leadership team are passionate about.

Have a sense of what your organization’s priorities are and what they consider to be vital before approaching a specific sponsor. Your HR director may be preoccupied with managing a legislation for teams dispersed across locations and regions. Your head of operations may be most concerned with risk management, but your director of customer success may see a platform that standardizes service levels and results in satisfied customers.

4. Draw attention to potential roadblocks.

People are generally more driven by a desire to avoid pain than by a desire to win. Raising awareness of potential stumbling blocks that your executive teams should avoid is a surefire method to capture their attention.

You’ll have a better chance of persuading your bosses to join you if you can spot problems and propose a solution. Take your discoveries to the next level. Exaggerate the issue, quantify it, and explain why it could be harmful to the company. Then demonstrate how process management, in conjunction with an improvement culture, may assist.

Another option is to focus your investigations and begin with a certain team or job rather than the entire company. For example, you may begin by approaching the CEO or the HR director.

5. Create a comprehensive image.

Gather facts to explain the impact and cost of poor process management rather than merely asking your senior executives for buy-in. Find ways to communicate the complete story about what process improvement can do for your business teams on a daily basis, and back up your assertions with data.

When discussing the software that supports your organization’s continuous improvement activities, avoid being ambiguous. Make the benefits of your platform tangible by emphasizing them. Use comments like: ‘By making processes accessible, encouraging process evaluations, and providing an easy feedback mechanism, our intuitive BPM software engages entire teams in continuous development.’

Request case studies from your software provider that show how their clients have benefited from using business process management software. Personal testimonials, client recommendations, and statistics to demonstrate efficiency benefits could be used as examples.

6. Sell the possibility of leaving a legacy.

Many leaders are enthusiastic about their work and want to leave a lasting impression on their company.

Implementing a process improvement culture can have a significant impact on business teams and an organization’s success. With the help of engaged teams that are executing processes that are aligned with the business goal, executives are well-positioned to leave a legacy.

7. Begin the discussion.

Speak in a way that your executive team understands. You can start a conversation that piques their interest and keeps their attention by knowing their pain spots and hobbies. Share stories with the proper people about how inadequate processes are impeding the organization and its teams.

Getting commitment from your leadership team to support meaningful process improvement isn’t about navigating a corporate structure – it’s about people, regardless of whether your organization’s vocabulary includes terms like business process management, workflow, process improvement, or continuous improvement.

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Curriculum

Strategic Transformation – Workshop 1 – Framework Introduction

1. Breakthrough Value
2. Strategic Analysis
3. Change Framework
4. Navigating Change
5. Transformation Strategies
6. Transitional Plan
7. MBT Framework
8. Best Practices
9. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

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Distance Learning

Introduction

Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Strategic Transformation corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.

Study environment

You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.

Study tools & rules

Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.

Successful distance-learning

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.

Self-assessment

Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.

Accepting responsibility as a student

Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.

Planning

By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.

Management

Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.

Study objectives & tasks

The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.

Study forecast

As a guide, the Appleton Greene Strategic Transformation corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.

Performance management

It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.

With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.

With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.

Keeping in touch

You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.

Work colleagues and family

You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.

Making it relevant

The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.

Distance-learning check-list

Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.

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Tutorial Support

Programs

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.

 

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Support available

You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.

 

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Support Process

Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.

 

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Time Management

It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Strategic Transformation corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Strategic Transformation program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.

 

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Distance Learning Guide

The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.

 

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How To Study

The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).

 

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Tutorial Support

Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Strategic Transformation corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.

 

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Tutorial Support Tips

Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.

Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails

Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.

Think about the impression that you want to create

Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.

Remember that quality is preferred to quantity

Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.

Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers

Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.

Keep a record of your tutorial support emails

It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.

 

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Individual training workshops or telephone support

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Tutorial Support Email Format

You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.

Subject line of your email

Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.

Main body of your email

Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)

Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.

Question 1

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 3

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 4

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 5

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.

 

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Procedure

* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.

 

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How To Study

Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.

Planning your study environment

Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.

Planning your program objectives

It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.

Planning how and when to study

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.

Planning your study tasks

You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.

Planning your time

You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.

Keeping in touch

Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.

Charting your progress

Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.

Making it work

To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.

Reading methods

Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.

Speed reading

When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.

Content reading

Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.

Making structured notes on the course manuals

When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.

Organizing structured notes separately

You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.

Question your understanding

Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.

Clarifying your understanding

If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.

Question your interpretation

Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.

Clarifying your interpretation

If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.

 

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Qualification Requirements

The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Strategic Transformation corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Strategic Transformation Specialist (APTS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.

Strategic Transformation– Grading Contribution

Project Study – Grading Contribution

Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%

Qualification grades

A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.

When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:

Pass with merit

A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory

Pass with distinction

An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory

 

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Preliminary Analysis

Research Article

Digital Innovation and Strategic Transformation

Abstract:
Digital technologies and how we use them are changing the face of business, even as those technologies that underlie computers, robots, and smart equipment are rapidly evolving, becoming more powerful, and transforming organizations much faster than in the past. Significant competitive advantage is now achievable from digital innovation and transformation. This special issue aims to generate understanding of some of today’s issues and looks at opportunities for tomorrow.

Digital technologies—and how we use them in our personal lives, work, and society—have changed the face of business and will continue to do so. Moreover, research organizations such as Gartner and Accenture, along with MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson,1 indicate that the digital technologies that underlie computers, robots, and smart equipment are changing rapidly, becoming more powerful, and transforming organizations much faster than in the past (that is, the second machine age). We are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the digital revolution of cyber-physical systems that has been unfolding since the middle of the last ccntury.2 The possibility of billions of people connected by mobile devices, in conjunction with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge via smart machines, creates enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovative managers alike.

Transformation Defined
Digital transformation is the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies, and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities brought by digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way. According to a recent study by Accenture and Oxford Economics, the increased use of digital technologies could add US$1.36 trillion to the total global economic output in 2020.3

Today, smart machines (digital cognitive systems) are gaining human capabilities (biological cognitive systems), such as recognizing voices, processing natural language, and interacting and learning with the physical world through vision, smell, touch, other senses, mobility, and motor control. In some cases, these machines do a much faster and better job than people at recognizing patterns, performing rule-based analysis from very large amounts of data, and solving structured and unstructured problems.4 Business processes and whole industries will be transformed.

The digital disruption has already started:

• Uber is the world’s largest taxi company but owns no taxis (cloud-enabled mobile location based services).
• Airbnb is the largest accommodation provider but owns no real estate (cloud-enabled lodging services).
• Skype is one of the largest phone companies but owns no telecommunications infrastructure (cloud-enabled communication services).
• Alibaba is the world’s biggest online commerce company but has no inventory (cloud-enabled retail services).
• Facebook is the most popular media owner but creates no content (cloud-enabled social network services).
• Netflix is the largest movie house but owns no cinemas (cloud-enabled entertainment services).
• Amazon is the largest retailer but produces no products or services (cloud-enabled retail services).
• Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are the largest schools but have no campuses (cloud-enabled education services).
• Apple and Google are the largest purveyors of software applications but don’t write apps (cloud-enabled mobile app services).
• IBM Watson is emerging as the largest cognitive solutions platform but does not require customers to hand over their proprietary and unique datasets (cloud-enabled cognition as a service).

The digital revolution is rapidly transforming the fundamental nature of a wide range of public and private organizations and revitalizing their digital business models across industries—including healthcare, finance, logistics, education, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, transportation, telecommunication, e-government, energy, utilities, agriculture, and more. This revolution provides the means to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and innovativeness of product and service offerings through the following:

• the design and provisioning of new types of service offerings (Uber, Airbnb, Kindle, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked-In, online banking, and microfinance);

• the performance of some activities using automation (cognitive assistants, such as Apple Siri, IBM Watson, Microsoft Cortana, Google Now, and Amazon Echo; the sidebar lists several examples);

• industrialization that often improves existing service offerings by separating a service’s traditional production (backstage) from customer contact (front-stage), thus enhancing storability, transportability, and access to knowledgebased service offerings (such as tax software, online classes, or patents);

• the design and delivery of outcome-targeted customer experiences (a key element, given that many digital transformations are a mix of customer experience optimization and process improvement-and cost savings);

• facilitations of new types of service system coordination through new and improved value propositions and governance mechanisms (Apple apps, ITunes, online broker systems, information markets, open innovation platforms, financial engineering, mechanism design, auction technology, and so on);

• reductions in the cost of backstage and front-stage service activities (such as semi- and fully automated call centers and other types of service centers);

• improvement in customer-perceived service quality (for example, the ability to standardize elements of service as well as mass-customize or personalize to the individual when appropriate, or to transition from mass production to configure-to-order supply chains that achieve productivity and customer responsiveness);

• the integration of customers into service creation and delivery (self-service education, healthcare information systems, business-to-business solutions, IT outsourcing, and the commoditization of business processes, applications, and technology); and

• the delivery of knowledge-intensive professions (such as business consultant, physician, software engineer, legal counsel, financial advisor, or university professor) to labor-intensive employment in hospitality, personal services, transportation, and many others.

The overall goal of digital transformation is to increase the productivity and creativity (decision making, connectivity, innovation, and augmentation) of individuals and organizations. Digital transformation will let organizations address market needs much more quickly than used to be possible, enabling higher levels of collaboration for sharing information much faster. Greater innovation and outcomes result as businesses have access to pools of knowledge and resources outside their walls via advanced ICT (such as smart devices, mobile, cloud and fog computing, big data and analytics, social media and networking, cognitive computing, and artificial intelligence).5

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Research Article

Sustainability: the elusive element of process improvement

Introduction
Inspired by the dramatic improvements demonstrated, many companies have undergone a process improvement (PI) programme and have found that the application of PI techniques has led to significant improvements in operational areas. Over the long term, however, many companies have found it difficult to sustain the original improvements made during kaizen “breakthrough” or “Blitz” type activities. This phenomenon has led the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ Industry Forum to investigate what causes some improvement activities to have high levels of sustainability and others lower levels of sustainability.

Industry Forum is a non‐profit making organisation set up by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and the Department of Trade and Industry to improve the competitiveness of the automotive sector in the UK. The method used to improve competitiveness is to conduct “hands‐on” improvement activities in companies throughout the UK. These improvement activities have been conducted using PI techniques pioneered by the Japanese automobile manufacturers. Industry Forum conducts several types of improvement activities including MasterClass, supply chain activity and team leader training. This research studied the MasterClass activity (Bateman and Brander, 2000), which is a PI activity that occurs over three months and in many organisations acts as a catalyst and foundation for continuous improvement (CI).

At the time of the research, Industry Forum employed 32 engineers and in addition had six seconded Japanese Master Engineers, two each from Honda, Nissan and Toyota and two UK Master Engineers seconded from General Motors and Volkswagen.

The purpose of this research was to identify enablers that could be employed by the Industry Forum engineers and change agents within organisations to improve the sustainability of PI activities. At the beginning of the research there was a large number of ideas from total quality management, change management and lean literature that could be relevant to the sustainability of the PI activities. In addition, the experience of Industry Forum engineers and academics in the field provided other more specific enablers. However, it was not clear from this mass of possible enablers which were significant and likely to have a high impact on sustainability. The aim of the research was to synthesise a “short list” of the most significant enablers.

Literature review
The principle of lean manufacturing, of which process improvement is an element, was brought to the attention of the West by the publication of “The Machine that Changed the World” by Womack et al. (1990). This was followed by “Lean Thinking” (Womack and Jones, 1996), which was more practitioner focussed. In addition, there have been many Japanese inspired books that have been focussed on company specific production systems (Ohno, 1996; Shingo, 1989; Cusumano, 1985). Since then PI has been adopted by many companies and there have been many case studies from companies outlining their successes in PI (Jowit, 1999; Sumner Smith, 2000; Griffiths, 1998).

In response to papers extolling the virtues of PI there have been many papers that identify issues with applying PI techniques, in particular focussing on problems with sustainability. Griffiths describes how Perkins Engines, from a PI activity, managed to achieve a 41 per cent improvement in operator productivity and a 25 per cent reduction in cycle time. He also states that it is often easy to make gains initially “But it is much more difficult to sustain”. Friedli (1999) identifies that a half‐hearted approach can cause problems and Mackle (2000) emphasises that a long‐term approach must be taken to avoid cynicism and backsliding.

Jorgensen et al. (2003) examine the role of the team leader in CI[1]. In their longitudinal case study based in Denmark, Jorgensen et al. (2003) identify that there was a gap in perception between the senior management and team leaders in terms of enablers that were in place. The senior managers perceived enablers to be fully present whereas in reality they were in place in name only. For example, senior managers stated that “restructuring to a team organisation” had occurred whereas the team leaders stated the existing production shifts had simply been renamed, whilst other teams of team leaders never recognised themselves as teams at all. Team leaders also reported that although they were given initial training, this was not followed up with further development to help them establish team identity. For other enablers, it appears that senior managers had taken a “tick box” approach without gaining proper understanding. Jorgensen et al. (2003) state “Top managers believed the enablers referred to as ‘training in CI tools’ and ‘clear strategy’ were in place but other members of the organization were not aware of them”. This reflects a desire by senior managers to take action to resolve problems and put new working practices into action, but in reality they are rarely prepared to undertake more radical changes required to resolve the root cause of problems.

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Research Article

Strategic transformation process: Toward purpose, people, process and power

Abstract
Abstract
Across the world, public and non-profit sector leaders face an extremely turbulent socio-political-economic environment. This environment creates additional risks and uncertainties for organizations and may hinder a leader’s ability to act strategically. Addressing these complex, constantly evolving conditions requires leaders to develop processes that involve the organization’s stakeholders and that create organizational conditions for self-generation, creativity, resilience and action planning. In this paper we provide an organizational-level, integrative framework for the strategic transformation of public and non-profit organizations to assist leaders who are committed to effective stewardship of their organizations. The Strategic Transformation Process involves an intense dialogue among organizational stakeholders designed to create a new vision, negotiate priorities, minimize risk, and create action plans and a commitment for change.

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Research Article

Process improvement through performance measurement: the balanced scorecard methodology

Abstract
One of the hallmarks of leading‐edge organisations – be they public or private – has been the successful application of performance measurement to gain insight into, and make judgements about, the organisation, and the effectiveness and efficiency of its programmes, processes, and people. The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a widely used management framework for the measurement of organisational performance. The BSC concept suggests that the state of processes of an organisation can be best assessed by taking a “balanced” view across a range of performance measures. This article seeks to offer an insight into the BSC, the key features of the concept and issues that must be addressed in its implementation as a process improvement technique. Further, it identifies the BSC methodology as a means of deploying strategic direction, communicating expectations, and measuring progress towards agreed objectives.

The challenge of assessing performance
Literally, performance measurement (PM) is the process of quantifying past action (Neely, 1998). PM systems historically developed as a means of monitoring and maintaining organisational control, which is the process of ensuring that an organisation pursues strategies that lead to the achievement of overall goals and objectives (Nanni et al., 1990). In attempting to change the focus of an organisation, Brignall (1992) suggests that PM is a key agent of change. Even when an organisation has attained such a focus, however, PM plays a vital role in maintaining attention on changing customer requirements and competitor actions. PM is a key factor in ensuring the successful implementation of an organisation’s strategy (Fitzgerald et al., 1993). Business and business unit performance needs to be measured in relation to the objectives identified in the planning process. Attention to PM in the context of modern business has been focused on by the admission that financial information that had traditionally been provided to organisations for control and management purposes was no longer adequate for fully effective PM to be achieved.

Dixon et al. (1990) suggest that inappropriate PM is a barrier to organisational development since measurement provides the link between strategies and actions. Inappropriate measures lead to actions incongruent with strategies, however well formulated and communicated. Appropriate measures should provide and strengthen this link, and both lead to attainment of strategic goals and impact on the goals and strategies needed to achieve them.

Need for a range of performance measures
The importance of PM in an organisation has been emphasised by many authors. Oakland (1993) suggests that measurement plays an important role in quality and productivity improvement to (cited in Sinclair and Zairi, 1995):

• ensure customer requirements have been met;
• provide standards for establishing comparisons;
• provide visibility and provide a “score‐board” for people to monitor their own performance levels;
• highlight quality problems and determine which areas require priority attention;
• give an indication of the costs of poor quality;
• justify the use of resources; and
• provide feedback for driving the improvement effort.

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Research Article

Process Improvement and Management

The purpose of this chapter on “Process Improvement and Management” is not about performing the systematic methodology for process improvement; it is about creating an optimal environment for effective implementation of process improvement and management within an enterprise business.

In a previous chapter, we have indicated that the (production) line activities designed to support realization of the operational concepts include projects and operations that matter the most. Projects and operations have fundamentally different objectives.

A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specification. It is a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The purpose of a project is to attain its objectives and then terminate. Projects are therefore utilized as a mean of achieving an enterprise business intended strategy. They conclude when their specific objectives have been attained. Operations are ongoing and repetitive efforts, the purposes of which are to sustain the enterprise business. When their objectives have been attained, operations adopt a new set of objectives and the work continues.

Although projects and operations sometimes overlap, both share the following characteristics: they are constrained by limited resources; they are selected following analyses of their added value in terms of costs and benefits to the enterprise business; they are performed by people; and they are planned, executed, and controlled.

Characterizing and Defining a Process
Another key characteristic that projects and operations also share is that they often use common series of sets of logically related discrete elements (tasks, actions, or steps) with well defined interfaces in order to achieve their objectives. These sets of logically related discrete elements (tasks, actions, or steps) are not goals in themselves within an enterprise business; they are mean to achieve operations and projects work. We define a process as:

A set of logically related discrete elements (tasks, actions, or steps) taken in order to achieve a particular end

In this definition, a discrete element, the performance of which is measurable, is meant to be the smallest identifiable and essential piece of activity that serves both as a unit of work and as a means of differentiating between the various aspects of a project or an operation work. Each discrete element is designed to create unique outcomes by ensuring proper control, acting on and adding value to the resources that support the work being completed.

From the perspective of this definition, a process acts on and adds value to the resources that support the activities being completed by a project or an operation work. Furthermore, each discrete element of a process has two aspects:
1. Its operational definition or specific technical content, which is addressed in our next book, and

2. Its context, which is represented by everything else that surrounds and affect the specific technical content.

A process is a set of logically related discrete element (tasks, actions, or steps) taken in order to achieve a particular end. But when most people think of process at work, it is much more than the operational definition or specific technical content of its discrete elements that they are reacting to: it is the patterns of interaction ensuing from the resulting specific technical content, plus the resulting context.

Thus a process is characterized by the patterns of interaction, coordination, communication, and decision making employees use to transform resources into products and services of greater worth. Processes include not just manufacturing processes, but those by which product development, procurement, market research, budgeting, employee development and compensation, and resource allocation are accomplished. Some processes are formal, in the sense that they are explicitly defined and documented. Others are informal: they are routines or ways of working that evolve over time. The former tend to be more visible, the latter less visible.

Processes are defined or evolve de facto to address specific tasks. This means that when employees use a process to execute the tasks for which it was designed, it is likely to perform efficiently. But when the same seemingly efficient process is used to tackle a very different task, it is likely to prove slow, bureaucratic, and inefficient. In contrast to the flexibility of resources, processes are inherently inflexible. In other words, a process that defines a capability in executing a certain task concurrently defines disabilities in executing other tasks. One of the dilemmas of management is that processes, by their very nature, are set up so that employees perform tasks in a consistent way, time after time. They are meant not to change or, if they must change, to change through tightly controlled procedures in order to avoid unproductive habits.

The best way to determine an enterprise business processes from the outside is to imagine the kinds of problems and challenges the enterprise business must have repeatedly faced and solved that have led to its success and defined its daily life. Telephone enterprise businesses have to build and maintain large, complicated telecommunication networks that must work just about all the time. Automobile car manufacturers have to coordinate a complicated network of suppliers. Medical enterprise businesses have to gain approval for new medical devices etc. For these enterprise businesses to be successful, they must have developed was to face challenges and solve these problems again and again. They need processes that facilitate their ability to get done what has to get done.

There are also less visible background processes that support critical decisions such as where to invest resources, how market research is habitually performed, how financial projections are created, how plans and budgets figures are negotiated internally, etc. Many of these important processes that define an enterprise business’ strength are not readily observable to outsiders or, as a matter of fact, to insiders.

Thus, a listing of the recurrent problems or tasks that an enterprise business has successfully, repeatedly addressed is a visible and reasonably accurate proxy for a listing of its processes. This means that if an enterprise business has never confronted a particular problem or task before, an optimized process to complete that task would not exist.

Importance of Business Processes
Most enterprise business executives struggle with the concept of why business processes are important to an enterprise business. Historically there has been little formal tertiary management education on the opportunities that business processes bring to an enterprise business or the impact on an enterprise business if they are sub-optimal.

Some of the recent literature in the process world has suggested that business processes are so important that the enterprise business structure should be turned upside down to be a process-centric organization, rather than functionally based. It is argued that changing from the traditional functional, hierarchical orientation to a process-centric orientation will mean that enterprise businesses will function with greater efficiency and effectiveness, to the benefit of management, staff, customers and all other stakeholders.

After all, a functional organizational structured view creates a silo effect within an enterprise business, and this often leads to selfish or self-centered behavior by the management and staff of each silo, sometimes to the detriment of other silo’s and the enterprise business as a whole. In most enterprise businesses, there is significant effort expended attempting to minimize, or eliminate, this silo effect but it can take years and years to orientate all the management to a more holistic approach and behavior. If successful, the challenge then is to maintain this new found focus as the management and staffs come and go from the enterprise business. If this is not successfully passed from one manager to another, then the enterprise business can regress back again to a silo-like situation. After all, this is how business has successfully functioned for decades.

While a process-centric structured enterprise business can in certain circumstances significantly benefit an enterprise business this not always true. Even if an enterprise business achieved the perfect organizational structure, this is still not a guaranty for its future success. Enterprise businesses are complex and intertwined organisms with no one aspect being dominant or the warranty to solve all its challenges and issues. The continual and sustainable success of an enterprise business is a complex set of interacting events and criteria and much has been written on how to achieve synergy.

Results are driven by the synergy of the eight overarching determining factor of strategic management outlined throughout this chapter. Business processes provide an enterprise business’ ability to deliver products and services to customers. In much the same as performance measures, they are the link between all aspects of an enterprise business. Processes are the link between an enterprise business and its:

1. Suppliers

2. Partners

3. Distribution channels

4. Products and services

5. People (personnel)

6. Other stakeholders

Of course, while a “performance measure” is a necessary condition for success, it alone is not sufficient for it. We still must take informed action. This is performed through a business process. Therefore we see business processes as the central core from which business is conducted, so long as they are supported by the performance measures and resources within the enterprise business.

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Course Manuals 1-12

Course Manual 1: Breakthrough Value

When it comes to corporate change, think large. The following are six keys to unleashing breakthrough value.

The term “transformation” is frequently used these days, yet it can imply different things to different people and businesses. Transformation today revolves around the need to create new value—to unlock new opportunities, drive new growth, and deliver new efficiencies—in a world of unparalleled disruption and market turmoil.

All transformations necessitate a rethinking of how your company generates value now and in the future. To put it another way, all transformations necessitate substantial thinking. Why? Because in today’s exponentially changed business world, incremental improvement isn’t enough to win. In the face of near-constant disruption, your organization requires continuous growth, which necessitates nimble reinvention. Today, winning isn’t enough. You must be able to adapt to changing circumstances in the future.

The Major Transformation Stumbling Block

As you explore new innovation-driven opportunities, adapt to shifting market needs, and negotiate evolving regulatory challenges, an efficient business transformation ensures that your firm can survive and thrive. You should proceed with caution, though.

Today’s transformations occur at breakneck speeds, necessitating a level of integration and alignment that many businesses are unprepared to handle. Many firms now have to manage mountains of data, shortened timescales, and innumerable decisions that touch practically every element of strategy and operations since many programs that once took five or six years to complete are now completed in a year or less. The risk of failure is high, but businesses that can bring different pieces together can achieve ambitious goals now and in the future.

To Achieve Breakthrough Value, You Must First Understand The Strategic Keys

Given the risks, aligning all of the pieces to achieve “correct” business transformation necessitates more than an A-to-B roadmap. To uncover breakthrough value, it takes an integrated approach that connects company strategy, transformation ambition, and executional discipline. There are a lot of big questions to be answered. The good news is that we already have some of the solutions. They’re useful keys you can use to ensure your business transformation delivers the value you’re looking for. There are six keys based on hundreds of engagements with some of the world’s most successful firms, and it’s possible to see firsthand how they can unlock both revolutionary and evolutionary value.

1. Start With A Strategy

Business transformation leaders usually have a well-articulated and well-understood business strategy. Strategic decisions made by an organization are frequently inadequately translated into downstream implementation decisions, despite the fact that top leadership understands them implicitly. What’s the end result? Value dilution is a term used to describe when something has lost its value. A solid strategy serves as the framework for a wide range of investment decisions, resource allocations, and performance objectives across the organization. It aids in the development of an actionable transformation ambition—that is, the value that should be realized as a result of the transformation.

Organizations that have engaged in articulating their strategy can translate strategic goals into a big but attainable transformation aspiration that the organization can carry out. These enterprises have a thorough knowledge of how they will generate, deliver, and capture value. That understanding should be at the heart of your transformation goals. Executives can connect their goals and operations by working for strategic clarity and agreement on the vision. It enables them to more clearly communicate desired transformation results, whether from a financial or operational standpoint. It also assists them in adjusting components of their transformation approach based on the organization’s ability to attain those outcomes.

2. Take The Initiative By Demonstrating Your Abilities

Business transformation leaders quickly zero in on and define the specific enterprise capabilities that will help them gain a competitive edge. In truth, just a small percentage of an organization’s entire capabilities are crucial in helping it distinguish and compete in innovative ways. Focusing on those important talents may help organizations create more value, gain a competitive edge, and fulfill their business transformation goals.

When it comes to unlocking value through a business change, knowing where to start is crucial. Prioritization enables businesses to adapt fast in order to capitalize on current market possibilities. It also enables businesses to develop the discipline they’ll need to keep evolving, as well as construct the new trajectory they’ll need to keep up with disruption. Leaders should eventually go beyond a “people, process, and technology” definition of capability to one that reflects a more holistic and full view. It’s a six-dimensional definition for any capability that provides focused support for the organization’s strategic choices: mission, insights, integration, processes, technology, and talent.

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Case Study

Here’s an illustration. To foster expansion, a food and beverage firm want improved partnerships with distributors and retailers. The organization concluded that three interconnected capabilities needed to be transformed. Rethinking its customer engagement capability resulted in a set of products, insights, and services suited to distinct segments for distributors and retail customers. The company’s market insights capacity was overhauled in order to achieve a single source of truth for converting data into action. In addition, the company’s portfolio and brand management capabilities were updated, resulting in a stronger link between customer pricing and innovation decisions. The business was able to differentiate itself from competitors and develop a platform for future growth by investing in these distinct new talents.

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The Deloitte Capability Hexagon provides a comprehensive approach to defining and designing enterprise capabilities across six dimensions:

• Mission: The goal of a capability, how it will be used, and the value it will provide.
• Insights: The information, analytics, and decision flow that enable informed and rapid decision-making.
• Integration: Clear roles, decision rights, and procedures that make it easier to integrate different competencies, functions, and relationships.
• Processes: An efficient and coordinated collection of processes for achieving the required results.
• Technology: The necessary software, hardware, and tools to make the capability possible.
• Talent: Competencies, abilities, talent infrastructure, and workforce planning that allow an ideal personnel base to execute the capacity.

Organizations can use this broader perspective to frame and link implementation to the value outlined in the transformation aspiration.

3. A Desire To Add Value

Leaders in corporate transformation explain the value they expect to achieve from the start, and they fiercely monitor, measure, and track that value throughout the process. Value should be the common thread that runs across your business strategy and change. Take the time to be specific about how you plan to produce value. Then, to your execution plans, make strong, unambiguous connections. The keystone that connects the transformation aim to capability design and execution is a well-thought-out value case. It accomplishes this by dividing the transformation program into manageable initiatives, each with defined objective values tied to capabilities. The value delivery is then driven by a results management office that understands (1) the program’s value and (2) how to manage trade-offs and dependencies to accomplish the desired transformation value.

Failure to define the intended value can lead to issues later on. This failure might lead to a reversal of steps taken to address issues that should have been discovered earlier. A manufacturing company, for example, can neglect the requirement for specific distribution capabilities to support a new multichannel business model. A multinational financial organization, on the other hand, can overlook value potential accessible through proactive tax planning. These are not insignificant considerations. They have the power to create or destroy the success of your transformation.

4. Create A Foundation For Long-Term Success

Leaders in company transformation understand that true value comes over time as a result of long-term change. Data is critical for establishing the necessary talents, competencies, and change-adaptive culture for sustaining and developing the transformation’s value. Data-driven change management solutions should be used by leaders. In order to manage attitudes, behaviors, and engagement, such solutions should offer a measurable, analytical approach. They should also be more than generic solutions that fail to address the organization’s specific needs.

Leaders may lay the groundwork for long-term value by cultivating a flexible company that embraces new ways of delivering value. They can engage and empower other leaders within the company to model and reward new behaviors, as well as educate employees to make more effective, data-driven decisions that support the company’s business transformation goals. Leaders should endeavor to integrate change throughout the business and strengthen the firm’s ability to adapt to new market possibilities as they occur.

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Case Study

A consumer goods corporation, for example, created a new function to oversee the organization’s altered capabilities. Individuals in the role were in charge of bringing a capability from its current state to its desired future state, delivering the value outlined in the business case, and ensuring the capability’s ongoing health and progress. This new job helped to integrate change throughout the organization and created a framework for sustaining and growing value over time.

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1. Be Adaptable And Agile

Because the business and technology landscapes in which they operate are always shifting, today’s leaders must be prepared to continuously evolve through transformation. Every transformation program should strive to incorporate agility, creativity, and a disruptive mentality. Quick wins and iterative progress that align with the desired transformation value can also be achieved with such an agile strategy. In addition, an agile methodology combined with agile solutions can yield early bottom-line benefits that can be used to fund transformation implementation.

Another advantage of agility over a “big bang” delivery strategy is that it provides more transparency and visibility into progress—your actual “value capture.” Through iterative and incremental development processes, an agile approach can also help your capacity to manage complexity and unpredictability. It’s critical for business executives to plan for a changing end-state, taking into account alternative market situations and new technologies. They will engage with peers, partners, and thought leaders throughout any change to question their own thinking and anticipate future disruptions that they can use to gain a competitive advantage.

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Case Study

A store, for example, established an independent innovation team to study disruptive technology and the impact of external market forces on a multiyear change. This strategy aided the company in developing a long-term solution that would remain relevant in an ever-changing environment.

6. Make An Investment In Program Talent

Business transformation leaders understand that the appropriate leader and the right people will make or break the transformation’s success. To make substantial modifications and shape how work is done, a great program leader must have influence and credibility inside the organization. Establishing the credibility and importance of the change to the organization’s strategic goals requires appointing a respected and skilled business leader.

Because top talent is focused on accomplishing near-term company objectives, many organizations make the mistake of not freeing up top personnel to support the change. However, in order to achieve the transformation goal, business transformation projects often necessitate a large investment in business resources, and the return on this investment is often directly proportionate to the caliber and dedication of the talent aligned with the transformation.

This necessitates the presence of a dedicated transformation leader, not someone who must juggle transformation leadership obligations with their usual duties. Why? Because dividing responsibilities can diminish an individual’s efficacy in both their normal and new transformation leadership roles. Leaders should be tightly linked to specific roles. This strategy can also help you retain top people during the change, allowing you to redeploy that expertise back into the business when the transformation is complete, allowing you to continue to grow value.

Be aware that “business transformation leader” is more of an integral aspect of a professional growth route than a career destination. Your top transformation leader’s talents and expertise gained during the transformation may be applied straight to the transformed business, ensuring that the transformation’s value is sustained over time.

Take responsibility for the commotion. It’s no longer enough to react to a disruption. Leaders must anticipate and own disruption with the agility and discipline that will help them stand out and stay ahead of the competition. Even the most high-performing firms can fail to execute business transformation programs without a clear vision and plan to guide them. These six secrets to unlocking transformation value, on the other hand, can help you avoid that. Maintaining explicit links between corporate strategy, transformation ambition, and executional discipline is the big idea. Those connections are necessary for delivering the benefits you want through transformation. They can assist you in putting your plan into action.

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Course Manual 2: Strategic Analysis

Introduction

In today’s global business climate, businesses must be able to adapt quickly and effectively to ongoing and developing economic and political difficulties, including some that are difficult to predict. They must be adaptable enough to make strategy shifts in response to such issues while maintaining production. Beyond survival, competitive success necessitates constant improvement in both business performance and product quality.

An organization’s leadership must understand its history of competitive triumphs and failures in order to continuously improve its processes. Although there appears to be widespread agreement that a thorough needs assessment should be a key component of all continuous improvement plans and budgets, the literature clearly notes that this is not always the case.

The vision and direction provided by strategic analysis, as outlined here, can help an organization succeed. This is done in two ways: by continuously focusing the strategic plan and establishing the context for continuous process improvement, and by developing the organization’s enterprise portfolio, which specifies the businesses that should be included and the level of performance required, the partnerships that are most likely to be profitable, and the strategies by which organizations are most likely to achieve well-defined goals and objectives.

Needs Assessment

The act of detecting gaps between present and intended outcomes is known as needs assessment. The method seeks to find gaps between needs and capabilities in a methodical manner. The identified needs are prioritized based on factors such as the cost of addressing the need vs the cost of ignoring it, as well as picking the most critical needs (problems or opportunities) for reduction or elimination. A needs analysis “determines whether there is a ‘case for action’ or a ‘business case’ for changing, improving, or replacing the current system.” The steps in a needs assessment are outlined in Exhibit 1 below.

Exhibit 1: Needs Analysis Model

A needs assessment is necessary for a variety of reasons. The assessment can help identify and clarify the issues that an organization faces, as well as the policy options open to its leadership to address those challenges. When a performance issue arises, the first step is to discover the exact nature of the issue. Following that, data indicating optimal performance standards is gathered. The existing performance can be compared to the ideal performance criteria using such data, highlighting the discrepancies. After determining the sources of the gaps, relevant solutions for closing the gaps can be identified and prioritized.

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Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry, on the other hand, is more of a sufficiency approach, focusing on what the company is doing well. Positive discourse is used in Appreciative Inquiry to unearth stories of corporate achievement. After that, the approach builds on those stories to ensure future success. The approach was created in response to action research, which focuses on identifying organizational problems that need to be addressed and then advocating the creation of an action plan to address those issues.

In contrast to the positivist paradigm, which says that social knowledge is the outcome of objective observation, Appreciative Inquiry asserts that people construct reality via their social interactions. The model is founded on the idea that every organization already has something that can be used to help it achieve its objectives.
Appreciative Inquiry critics claim that the approach focuses too much on the positive, often at the expense of the organization’s flaws. Perhaps most importantly, Rogers and Fraser suggest that Appreciative Inquiry is unsuited to discovering underlying organizational problems, which might be overlooked by focusing primarily on organizational strengths. The Appreciative Inquiry approach is depicted in Exhibit 2.

Exhibit 2: Appreciative Inquiry Model

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The Strategic Analysis Model

Organizational strategy must be intentional and proactive in today’s highly competitive worldwide business market. Such methods, must be viewed as a proactive process that anticipates trends and future changes and prepares people to meet them. Requirements can be detected in two ways: in response to a problem, and in advance, by detecting present and future needs before they become problems. As a result, while needs assessment is an important step in determining the root of an issue before making a choice, it is a reactive process by definition.

The Strategic Analysis Strategy combines components of needs assessment with Appreciative Inquiry to create a proactive continuous improvement model. The Strategic Analysis model takes advantage of the beneficial parts of each model while addressing the weaknesses of each by integrating needs assessment approaches and Appreciative Inquiry. As a result, the organization can become more anticipatory, leading to a more proactive approach to process improvement. Continuous improvement requires improving client satisfaction on a regular basis, which is aided by enhancing organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Strategic analysis is a diagnostic method for determining which parts of organizational behavior need to be improved the most.

Strategic Analysis may give businesses with a clear framework in unpredictable circumstances, allowing them to avoid becoming lost in the turmoil of change. The ability to manage strategic change is required to balance the use of past experiences, solving urgent problems, and planning for the future by spotting trends or threats. Leaders that are willing to examine a wide range of alternative transformation techniques, including unconventional ones, have increased their chances of success. As a result, it’s critical to remember that incorporating new technology is simply one part of a larger plan for addressing continuous improvement.

Exhibit 3: Strategic Analysis Model

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Appreciative Evaluation

Every company requires a legitimate and reliable method of assessing how well it is accomplishing its objectives. The evaluation must be appropriate for the circumstances in which it is carried out. Appreciative Evaluation was chosen as the most appropriate technique for evaluating the Strategic Analysis process and was included at each level since it focuses on positive organizational outcomes.

Appreciative Evaluation, which is closely tied to Appreciative Inquiry, identifies what is best about an organization. It’s a method for figuring out what makes an organization tick and what it needs more of. An evaluation strategy that focuses on what works establishes a point of departure from which to initiate organizational improvement efforts and drive the organization forward in a favorable way. The purpose is to use the organization’s assets to achieve the objectives set out by its participants and stakeholders.

Questions aimed to unearth what is best in the current system are prepared during each round of the process. The answers to these questions reveal the importance of each aspect in bringing the organization to life. Each question is answered in the positive. Those who benefit are seen as significant players in the process in Appreciative Evaluation. They are not considered as subjects or objects of research, but rather as participants in the process, rating what worked and providing ideas to overcome difficulties and hurdles. As a result, evaluation is viewed as an essential part of the process rather than as a separate activity.

Strategic Analysis evaluation entails determining how well the continuous improvement process satisfies the demands and objectives of all participants and stakeholders. The following case study of Visualization Inc is provided and studied to show how the Strategic Analysis model can be applied. A case study method examines a specific case to acquire insight into a problem or idea. The specifics of the case under investigation are only relevant in this form of study if they help to demonstrate the viability of the process under investigation, which in this case is improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness. To protect the privacy and anonymity of those involved, all firm and individual names have been changed.

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Case Study:

The use of the Strategic Analysis paradigm by Visualization Inc.

Visualization Inc. was a modest start-up software engineering technology company based in a large city. The company was started in 2000 by a management team of five engineering graduates. The company’s overall operations were supervised by Martin Rausch, a mechanical engineer. The product development team was directed by Venetria Johnson, CTO. For all product versions, she was the primary software architect. The overall operational plan was overseen by Jamie Cypher, Director of Strategic Planning. He was in charge of project teams, the company’s business and financial goals, and annual performance reviews. Janet Maddox served as Visualization Inc.’s technical advisor, advising the company on future developments. John Fang, Director of Development, completed the management team and was in charge of soliciting investments and producing grant submissions to assist their research and development operations. The company has 44 employees.

ImageSeek, a comprehensive resource for industrial information, goods, services, and CAD drawings, was the start of Visualization Inc. Using form matching technology and a product/service relevance strategy, ImageSeek enabled manufacturing suppliers and distributors to interact with their partners and suppliers. They were able to deliver information about products and services from small and medium-sized businesses to hundreds of thousands of potential customers in days using their proprietary shape matching technology and product/service relevance algorithm, revolutionizing the way manufacturers market and distribute their products and services.

Jamie Cypher identified the need for a vehicle through which the company could continuously enhance its products and services as director of Strategic Planning, and persuaded the management team of the significance of engaging in such a process on a regular basis. Visualization Inc.’s strategic aims and objectives included a promise not to outsource any of the company’s work in order to help ensure that their in-house talent pool continued to grow and improve. The authors created the Strategic Analysis model in response to Visualization Inc.’s desire for a model that would correspond with their strategic goals and objectives while also encouraging the organization to ‘think improvement.’ Visualization Inc.’s efforts to improve its business performance would be guided by the model.

Case Analysis

Preconditions: Preconditions in terms of company support and resources had to be addressed inside the organization for Strategic Analysis to succeed. The principle of continual improvement was written into the company’s DNA at Visualization Inc. They recognized the importance of staying competitive as an innovative company. They implemented the methodology into the company’s strategic strategy to effectively implement Strategic Analysis. The Strategy Analysis Model includes a strategic plan for the organization. The model’s application requires a grasp of the organization’s strategic direction. Customers, markets, people and financial resources, and technology are all part of the strategic plan, which comprises information about the external and internal environment. To do so, top management organized a Strategic Analysis team, which includes Martin Rausch, CEO, Venetria Johnson, Director of Strategic Planning, Jamie Cypher, Director of Development, and John Fang, Director of Strategic Planning. Senior management and four junior staff representatives, one from each department, made up the team. A portion of the time was set aside for Strategic Analysis during senior management’s monthly meetings. Each meeting’s Strategic Analysis segment was open to the junior members – the software development team. The project manager, requirements analyst, system architect, software tester, and support technician made up the software development team.

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Course Manual 3: Change Framework

With remarkable breakthroughs in information and communications technology, the business environment is currently shifting, making markets ever more competitive. Both competitors and customers are just a few clicks away from service providers, and product offers are constantly being modified to meet the ever-changing needs of customers, necessitating a very dynamic approach from enterprises. As a result of the requirement for dynamic and flexible business models, change and transformation management have become an essential aspect of any company that wants to stay competitive.

Change or company transformation may appear to be a simple and straightforward process, but it is a complicated process including both internal and external influences.

Strategic Transformation Framework with Multiple Dimensions

Strategic transformation entails a variety of factors and is a far more complicated process than some may believe. It’s a prevalent misperception that Strategic transformation merely entails implementing new technology. Although this is partially true, there are many additional factors to examine in order to properly comprehend the transformation framework.

Here’s a breakdown of the complete process, including each phase for a better understanding.

Source: Dr. René Bohnsack

1. Context Is The Engine That Propels Digital Transformation

The initial step of transformation, which triggers and affects it, is context – both within and outside the company. The top management team must be aware of the need for change before transformation can commence. External and internal organizational elements, which are detailed below, are often responsible for this awareness.

a) Internal variables
All firms aspire to improve operational efficiencies, introduce cost-cutting solutions, and optimize profits, and strategic transformation may play a critical part in accomplishing these top management goals more often than before. D data availability is expanding, which is pushing transformation. Simultaneously, there are impediments, such as legacy investments in machines that have not yet depreciated or software with long contracts.

b) External influences
Industry dynamics and ever-changing consumer behavior are the two most significant external forces driving transformation today. Consumers (think Gen Z) expect every business to have some type of digital presence as a result of current technological breakthroughs, and this expectation is driving businesses to update their processes and interact with their customers online. Digital adaptation is no longer a luxury for firms; rather, it has become a must.

Overall, strategic transformation starts with a consideration of how to improve current operations. And it is evident that there are various factors compelling top management to pursue transformation at this time.

2. Processes

The top management must take action in the second phase of transformation. To bring about transformation, two equally vital methods are required: innovation and integration. These two processes are utilized to revamp current redundancies in operations and change them into more efficient ones, as well as to explore new avenues for interacting with customers.

The following is an explanation of how these two mechanisms work:

a) Innovation
As the name implies, this procedure entails developing a digital company plan based on customer data and general industry dynamics. The management’s primary goal is to improve existing operations by integrating new products, utilizing the internet of things (IoT), and experimenting with new business models.

After this business strategy has been decided, the following stage is to onboard the personnel, because successful strategic transformation necessitates collaboration between employees and upper management; otherwise, the change would be ineffective.

b) Integration
The “change mindset” is unlocked by integrating the new aspects of the strategic business plan with existing business processes through the integration mechanism.

This process entails developing a transformational strategy that serves as a basis for integrating the complete coordination, prioritizing, and implementation of transformation, and it is at this point that organizations begin to notice the effects of the changes made.

3. Final Results

This is the final stage of transformation, when all of the previous plans and initiatives are realized. The consequences of strategic transformation can be visible both inside and outside the organization, in terms of process changes, adoption of new technology, new business models, and so on, as well as how firms that are part of business ecosystems affect society.

This phase also shows a shift in management style, as the organization’s previous “chained mindset” has been broken, resulting in altered business operations and the adoption of new business models, more agile organizations, data-driven processes, smart connected products, and companies that think in terms of ecosystems rather than linear supply chains.

All of these phases clearly show that strategic transformation is a multi-dimensional, multi-stage process. If an organization is considering transformation, top management must not only have a well-defined framework in place ahead of time to avoid any negative outcomes, but also the necessary leadership skills.

Creating a Lean Culture by Combining Continuous Improvement and Your Change Management Methodology with AIM

Imagine a future where a continuous improvement effort solves your organization’s most difficult issues, and then the new procedures are easily integrated into the organization. Where Lean isn’t just a process optimization strategy for a select few, but a whole-organization culture revolution. An organization that isn’t only “Lean,” but rather has a Lean philosophy that runs through it. Doesn’t it sound ideal?

You can reach that goal by combining the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) change management approach with your continuous improvement projects.

Success Is Defined As:

Every operational excellence project’s ultimate goal is for individuals to adopt and maintain a new behavior. However, one of the most important roadblocks to a continuous improvement solution is when a powerful new process is established, but the people who are expected to use it… don’t. Remember that the success of each continuous improvement initiative is determined by the following five metrics:

1. Always on time
2. On Budget
3. Technical Goals Achieved
4. Business Goals Achieved
5. Human Goals are Achieved

The difference between installing and implementing a change is ensuring that all five of these indicators, including the human objectives, are met. To consider a project successful and achieve project value realization, you must reach implementation. Because the truth is that process improvement is impossible until people change their behavior. No improvement without a change in conduct! That’s all there is to it.

Process Improvement’s Missing Piece

A consistent deployment approach that tackles the important “human side” of solution delivery is typically missing from most operational improvement programs. When a new process is implemented, for example, potential human and cultural barriers must be recognized and managed, such as:

• How can we persuade the management team to completely embrace the new procedure and to encourage their employees to do so?
• To what extent will this method affect people’s ways of working?
• How will we motivate and prepare those who will be affected by this change?
• How will we deal with the inevitable opposition, which may come from leaders with their own political agendas?

AIM provides a comprehensive range of tools and diagnostics, as well as a systematic framework for managing these and other human aspects of continuous improvement initiatives. It’s risk management for your initiatives’ human components. Lean Six Sigma teams can use the AIM change management technique to apply the same process framework approach to what is typically considered the softer side of process improvement, or what we call the people-side of process improvement.

Blending Change Management and Continuous Improvement

While it may appear sensible to use Lean Six Sigma to identify issues first and then add AIM later, we know from experience that work on establishing readiness begins in both processes at the Define step. As a result, it’s much better to combine the two approaches early on in order to change and implement business processes quickly. Every endeavor to improve a process should start with a “implementation attitude.”

When implementing the AIM Road Map’s ideas, methods, and measurement diagnostics to a continuous improvement implementation, the following are just a few of the components to consider:

• Specify the Change – Before you can assess whether you’ve achieved the human elements of change, you must first define the future behaviors you wish to see. What are people’s current behaviors, and how do you want them to act following the change? You can’t encourage or measure behaviors until you define them beforehand.

• Evaluate the Climate — Has your previous implementation history indicated a quality-hostile or quality-friendly environment? A poor implementation history can’t be overlooked because it indicates that trust will be low, resistance will be strong, and implementation speed will be slowed. Implementing your solution will take more time and resources.

• Obtain Sponsorship – The most important aspect in the effectiveness and speed of implementation is a cascade of committed Sponsors. Sponsors must demonstrate their commitment to the change by expressing, modeling, and reinforcing it.

• Improve Target Readiness – Invest in readiness now or pay later with resistance! Develop plans and methods to deal with opposition, while employing tried-and-true practices like engagement to generate readiness in a proactive manner.

• Develop Targeted Communications– Fear of the unknown can be exacerbated by a lack of communication. Communications must be cyclical, create a feedback loop, and be written in the target audience’s language. There isn’t just one message, but several, each of which is translated into a different Frame of Reference.

• Create Change Reinforcements– People are more likely to change their behavior if there are positive incentives for the desired conduct and negative consequences for failing to change. The “secret sauce” for establishing a Lean culture in your company is reinforcement. You are sustaining the status quo if you continue to encourage people in the same ways you have always reinforced them. When you start modifying the reinforcements for a process improvement project, you’ll notice the culture transformation you’re looking for.

Organizations benefit from the deployment of not one, but two proven techniques to improve process performance when they adopt both Lean Six Sigma and AIM. The first is concerned with identifying and resolving issues, while the second is concerned with the human side of the equation in order to assure a successful implementation.

The relationship between operational excellence and change management is symbiotic, not either/or. They will work in harmony, rely on each other for survival, interact to the benefit of both parties, and produce a mutually beneficial relationship when employed together. Great ideas that were effectively implemented. It’s a match made in heaven.

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Course Manual 4: Navigating Change

Terminology Used in Change Management

Change Management has evolved throughout the years, with Change Management Models, Processes, and Plans established to help businesses cope with the impact of change. So, what are the differences between a Change Management Model, a Change Management Process, and a Change Management Plan?

• Change Management Models were created based on study and experience on how to best manage change in a business or in your personal life. The majority of Change Management Models have a supporting method that can be applied to your business or personal development.
• Change Management Processes are a set of steps or activities that guide a change from conception through implementation.
• Change Management Plans are created to assist a project in bringing about a change. It’s usually made during the planning phase of a Change Management Process.

Kotter’s Chanfe Model

ADKAR Model

Deming Cycle

5 Change Management Aspects That Are Required for Successful Process Improvement Projects

Change is an unavoidable aspect of any action that involves improvement since, in the end, nothing changes if nothing changes. This may seem like a no-brainer, but during the course of a process improvement project, the attention might get sidetracked and reactive. Managing change requires a laser-like focus that is free of distractions. Managing change is a big aspect of every process or project that is performed for the aim of improvement, and it is in no way distinct from it.

It’s a good idea to think back on previous successful and unsuccessful process improvement efforts and compile a list of what worked and what didn’t. The following aspects of change management may have been used in some of your more successful process improvement projects:

• Strong leadership – Someone who sets the tone and drives change toward the end goal of process improvement. There should be a positive, inclusive, and hopeful leadership style.
• Clear aims and goals – A leader should promote a clear vision for the future that motivates, inspires, and excites people involved. The vision should foresee better future conditions than those currently in place.
• Change requirement – The need for change, as well as how it will be accomplished, should be conveyed effectively and on a frequent basis. Throughout the project, all employees, at all levels, should be aware of the importance and purpose of their job.
• Change Resistance Management – Change resistance will always exist, but it must be managed on a regular basis to guarantee that doubts, concerns, and negativity do not block progress toward the improvement goal. Resistance, on the other hand, should not be overlooked. It should be heard and dealt with whenever the opportunity arises.
• Organizational Culture Changes – Successful process improvement projects necessitate a shift in the organization’s culture. Not only should the project leader make a change in “how things are done around here” for the course of the project, but he or she should also build an atmosphere that allows for future changes as a result of process improvement initiatives.

Some process improvement programs fail because they lack the above characteristics: they have unclear goals, the need for change is often not fully understood by those affected, and those who fight change are given the upper hand. It’s worth noting that none of the topics discussed here need the use of technological tools or specialized knowledge; instead, they focus on the soft skills that already exist inside your organization.

There Are Seven Steps To Negotiating Change In Your Organization

Let’s face it: change is never easy. And, when your company is transitioning to a completely new process or technology, your employees typically need to know more than just what’s changing—they need to know why in order to accept and honor the process and campaign for it internally.

When you’re preparing for a major shift that will affect your entire team, it’s critical to establish a framework that will help your company succeed during the transition. You’ll need to be able to educate and engage your team, as well as establish a method for tracking success so you can see what’s working and what isn’t as you progress through the process.

According to Gartner, more than 80% of businesses manage change from the top down, but if you want to boost adoption, you need buy-in from every level of the organization from the start.

Here are seven pointers for negotiating organizational change successfully:

• Locate a supporter.
• Make it clear how the change will affect the company.
• Begin with tiny adjustments.
• Experiment with the new method.
• Gather information on a regular basis
• Share your accomplishments and rejoice in your victories.
• Look for resources to assist you.

Locate A Supporter

Determine a colleague or employee who can aggressively promote and educate the rest of the team about the changes, and lead them through the process. This can be a fantastic opportunity for a potential employee to advance their career by giving them management, team building, and change management experience. This person can function as a point of contact, collecting input and escalating issues to the leadership team as needed.

Make It Clear How The Change Will Affect The Company

To begin, utilize the “From/To/Because” model to define the change’s goal. “From” specifies the existing behaviors to be changed, “to” identifies the intended behaviors following the transformation, and “because” describes the underlying reasons for the change. When presenting the process to your employees, make it clear what will remain the same, what will change, and when the change will occur. Establish the metrics that will be used to measure overall success as well as each employee’s compliance with the procedure.

Begin With Tiny Adjustments

There’s no need to go from 0 to 100 with many types of organizational reform. Small behavioral modifications should be implemented before larger ones: If you’re converting your business to Stack Overflow for Teams, for example, you can advise employees to start by posting questions they’d normally post on Slack on Teams, and then make gradual adjustments in how they utilize the tool from there. Create a peer support system by forming groups of two to four people to assist one another with the new system and communicate feedback.

Experiment With The New Method

Set a time limit for trying out a new change, and make a strategy for what will happen once the trial is over, based on how well it goes. Will you implement the same modification to a broader group inside the organization if it’s effective, or will you incorporate other changes? Make sure everyone on your team understands what will happen when the outcome is known.

Gather Information On A Regular Basis

Regular input is crucial in the early phases of a new change to ensure that you’re getting things right. Using polling features in Slack, get a daily view on whether your teams are accomplishing targets or feeling comfortable with new tools. When hosting stand-up meetings, ask team members to quantify the advantage they noticed from utilizing the tool in the previous week to gain a weekly read on return on time invested (ROTI). Make sure employees are providing both positive and negative feedback—it’s critical to understand what’s not working and why so you can investigate the issues and encourage employees to help you develop a change plan.

Share Your Accomplishments And Rejoice In Your Victories

Make sure to update your entire team on how your change management process is going. Report on how successfully you’re meeting your metrics and getting ROTI votes on a weekly basis. Each week, talk about your accomplishments and invite team members to share their own. Discuss the input you’ve had and how you’re responding to it, as well as the next little adjustment you’ll be making.

Look For Resources To Assist You

Change management is difficult, but by learning from those who have successfully implemented organizational transformations, you can establish clear-cut protocols for your team to follow.

By adopting proven models, you’ll be able to track success against existing benchmarks and easily evaluate how well your team is doing.

Change Management’s Common Obstacles

The science of organizational change is continually altering and evolving due to ever-changing consumer expectations and global economic competitiveness. Because people do not enjoy change or adjust well to it, the human element of change management may be one of the most challenging to handle.

Change is difficult and time-consuming, according to most change strategies. As a result, early involvement of people, process implementation, and ongoing improvement adjustments are key to success. This entails meticulous planning, buy-in, process, resources, communication, and continuous review.

Implementing Change Management Processes: Supporting Tools and Components

Supporting activities and tools are essential for effective change management procedures. Internally, either the change management team or stakeholders in the change management process build and manage these tools. A product plan, for example, may be created by the product management team, whereas a post mortem review would encompass everyone involved in and affected by the change. These may include the following:

• Stakeholder Feedback Forums
• Product or Business Roadmaps
• Readiness Assessments
• Training Tutorials and Education Sessions
• Post-mortem analysis
• Metrics and analytics
• Resistance management
• Continuous Improvement Plan
• Business Case

There are various tried-and-true approaches available today. Some models emphasize individual development as a means of achieving cultural change, while others provide mechanisms and frameworks for guiding an entire organization toward targeted change and improvement. There is no one “correct” answer, but regardless of the size or requirement of the company, a change management strategy may be implemented with research, inquiry, and resource planning. If the change management industry’s phenomenal expansion is any indicator, the business of change is here to stay.

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Course Manual 5: Transformation Strategies

Five Crucial Steps to Accelerate Strategic Change

It’s not uncommon for strategic plans to falter during implementation. These difficulties are exacerbated when the strategy demands for a transition. Taking a company from excellent to great demands breaking free from long-standing operational and cultural traditions. When there’s no burning platform, no crisis to address, and no impending challenge to overcome, change is more difficult. Leaders must tap into people’s natural desire to improve.

Successful changes necessitate a multi-pronged approach. Individuals and organizations must change even after installing new technologies, rethinking work processes, providing comprehensive training, and using advanced measures. Follow the five stages outlined below to accelerate strategic transformations and produce predictable results.

However, you must first recognize the important functions. Leaders can’t expect to change an organization from the top down through the chain of command. Change occurs when change champions are identified and mobilized as a core activation team.

This is a group made up of high-potential employees, go-getters, and leaders from across the organization. They offer a diverse range of perspectives, levels, and attitudes to the table. The core activation team, when carefully recruited, frequently trained, and strategically deployed, becomes an effective vehicle for operationalizing a transformation.

Leaders can activate particular components of the plan with the help of a core activation team. The question is: where should they begin? That depends on what’s most important and the interdependencies between different tasks. The following five steps illustrate a sensible sequential approach for influencing change:

1. Establish A Shared Goal

Begin by bringing everyone on board and inspiring them with a compelling idea. Even though your transformation vision has been conveyed, it may not have been fully internalized by all members of your team. The vision must gain widespread acceptance.

Encourage your core activation team to communicate the changes with their direct reports in order to foster a strong sense of shared purpose. The idea is then transformed into a living success story, told and explained by rank and file employees. Having your core activation team express the transformation vision across your organization, in my experience, may enhance trust in leadership as people rally around a cause bigger than themselves.

2. Make Sure The Instruction Is Clear

if your employees have a clear sense of purpose in the workplace, they will automatically seek guidance on how to achieve it. Set defined objectives that will guide a series of actions. When team members are able to focus on fewer priorities, organizations perform better. When you try to achieve too many goals at once, you’re more likely to achieve none of them well.

Define your strategic transformation efforts and, with the aid of your core activation team, convey them throughout the organization. Describe how your team will be affected. When employees understand how their work contributes to the organization’s priorities, they are better equipped to focus on their tasks.

3. Increase Your Capacity

One of the most crucial elements in a transformation is the development or acquisition of new competencies. Leaders must evaluate their existing bench strength in comparison to what is needed to succeed. In addition to resource capacity, technology must be used to streamline procedures. Solicit an operational review and recommendations from your core activation team. While this is typically thought of as a management task, core activation team members are the ones who know the most about how work is done in their areas and can provide more accurate recommendations (with greater buy-in on the decisions affecting their work).

4. Inspire Dedication

Personal change is required for transformation. Leaders are crucial in demonstrating the desired mentality and actions. As social influencers, the core activation team learns, practices, and teaches others more effective attitudes, thoughts, and actions. Unless they are purposefully replaced with new ones that are continuously modeled and recognized by senior leaders, entrenched patterns of thinking will persist. To become more conscious of how you are regarded and how you may become more effective, you might consider taking coaching or practicing various tactics. One of the most telling evidence that the change is real is your own metamorphosis.

5. Achieve your Objectives

Successful transitions produce beneficial outcomes right away. It is the role of the leaders to continuously pushing for results by gaining momentum through small victories that may be leveraged into larger gains. The trust that the plan is functioning grows when success measurements are reported on a regular basis. The core activation team can set up visual reporting tools and identify and track important performance indicators. Measuring, reporting, analyzing, and making decisions based on performance indicators improves accountability for outcomes.

Change is unavoidable, but progress is a choice. It is a decision. Leaders can be directive in times of crisis or reversal, but they must create the environment for growth in order to advance from excellent to great. The five phases for accelerating strategic transformation lay forth a framework for executives to use to achieve both immediate and long-term gains. Leaders and change champions complement one another when it comes to bringing organizations to the next level.

Make a Strategic Brand Identity

Today, every business must have a distinct identity. It’s about creating a powerful identity, one in which the company’s value proposition, key capabilities, customer and employee experience, and culture all reinforce one other. Apple, IKEA, Starbucks, and Honda are examples of companies that have a fully defined, distinctive, strategic identity. They make a firm commitment to a single overarching business model and a broad vision of the company they must become. In a 2016 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Sean Connolly, president and CEO of Conagra Brands, expressed his thoughts on this type of organizational change: “It’s not for the faint of heart”.

Conagra was still in the early stages of its celebrated transformation from a sprawling, US$18 billion conglomerate of agricultural and food-related businesses (dubbed a potential takeover target in the press) to a focused $8 billion purveyor of consumer food brands in North America at the time of that interview. After serving as the CEO of Hillshire Brands, Connolly was hired in April 2015. He was in charge of refocusing Conagra’s mission and turning the firm around. The activist hedge fund Jana Partners took a stake in Conagra and obtained two seats on its board of directors a few months later, reinforcing the company’s mandate.Top of Form

Conagra’s transformation plan included deals and structural changes, such as selling a private-label business, spinning off a vertically integrated potato business, relocating headquarters, resetting cost structures, acquiring contemporary brands, realigning its operating model, eliminating unprofitable legacy practices (such as indiscriminate use of discount promotions), and changing the company name from ConAgra Foods to Conagra Brands.

At the center of it all was a new vision of the company’s identity: a nimble innovator with “the most enthusiastic, highest-impact culture” in the food sector, according to its vision statement. Hunt’s, Peter Pan, Orville Redenbacher’s, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Bertolli, Hebrew National, Marie Callender’s, Alexia, Blake’s, Frontera, Healthy Choice are examples of Conagra brands that are known for attracting highly loyal followers, defining a prepared food niche (Bertolli, Hebrew National, Marie Callender’s), or emphasizing quality ingredients and health (Alexia, Blake’s, Frontera, Healthy Choice).

“This is a totally new era,” Connolly told stock analysts in October 2016. “We are not the ag business that we started as almost 100 years ago. We are certainly not the global conglomerate that we’ve been for decades. For the first time in our history, we will be a branded CPG pure play.”

The “Conagra Way,” a new set of operating techniques, was inspired by smaller, more adaptable businesses. The new IT system, which was created on a cloud-based infrastructure, was designed to promote rapid innovation and cross-functional communication. CIO Mindy Simon told CIO Magazine that “where there is friction [in the digital infrastructure], there is opportunity.” “How can analytics assist our chefs in developing new products?” “How can we improve our distribution using sensors?”

The achievements include annual savings of more than $300 million and rapid growth in financial indicators, including a 40% increase in total shareholder return between May 2015 and May 2017. Conagra Brands is described by employees and retailers as a completely distinct corporation. Conagra recently acquired Pinnacle Foods (with brands like Birds Eye, Gardein, EVOL, and Smart Balance) for $10.9 billion, making it the second-largest frozen food firm in the United States after Nestlé. Even the largest and most established organizations can benefit from a well-considered transformation in identity, as the Conagra tale demonstrates.

Keep these principles in mind as you adopt the mindset of an upstart and develop a bold new vision to establish your company’s new identity.

Make A Good Tale Out Of It

All too frequently, the leaders of a transformed organization explain the change and its rationale in dry, bureaucratic jargon. However, in a successful endeavor, the business leader sets the tone by putting the company’s new strategic identity into vivid, daily language, so that everyone understands how their roles contribute and why each component of the transition is important.

This could mean establishing a firm mission that isn’t only about producing money. Employees and customers recognize that businesses are powerful, and that they exist to do something with that power: connect people, create wealth, create products and services, or provide new forms of value to society. Employees feel a connection to the new identity when there is a clear, evocative description of how the company provides value, not only for the shareholders and owners, but for the wider world surrounding it. They see how it will benefit them and how it will make them proud to be affiliated with it.

To portray this clarity of purpose and to bring the identity to life, use symbolic gestures. To recruit talent, create a high-energy collaborative environment, and accelerate decision making, Conagra merged all of its Chicago-area suburban offices into one downtown location.“[We can] see each other in the hallway, and get business done in five minutes, rather than on a conference call five days later. Everything [is] recharged.”

The Way of Transformation

No matter what type of business you run, these four aspects are essential to your design. The order in which you use them is determined by your specific circumstances; your industry, your organization’s geographic footprint, and the conditions of your company can all influence how you order these elements.

The first phase is similar to performing due diligence on another company when considering an acquisition, except it is done on your own. Consider the following questions:

Developing a strategic identity:
• What kind of business do we want to start?
• What benefit would this new identity provide to customers and the rest of the world?
• What are the vital few aspects – traits, behaviors, and key individuals — around which we may build our strategy?
• Why should we care about the business we’re starting?
• Why should our supporters be concerned?

Creating a trustworthy environment:
• How do our employees and customers perceive us, and what has influenced their perceptions?
• How can this shift assist us in realizing our people’s full potential?
• How can this change assist us in providing customers with more consistent and reliable value?
• How should we convey the transformation to employees and customers to close the trust gap?

From sprint to scale: mastering the pivot
• What are the most promising things our organization can do to deliver value that it isn’t doing now — including goods, services, practices, experiences, and capabilities — that it isn’t doing now?
• What is the greatest way to prototype those fresh ideas? Where? And with whom are you going to do it?
• How can we choose the finest ideas to nurture and scale, and then reallocate resources inside the company to support them?
• Are we willing to learn from our mistakes as we go? What kinds of observation and feedback procedures do we need to establish?

Treating your legacy as a valuable asset:
• If we were starting from scratch, which of our current activities would we continue to pursue?
• Do our legacy initiatives align with our long-term strategic goals?
• What value is hidden in our legacy activities?
• What would we have to do, either by integrating those activities into our core business or by divesting them, to capture that latent value?

These are important issues to consider since the answers may help your firm achieve its short- and long-term goals. The more you know about your strategic identity and the priorities it demands, the more certain you can be about the adjustments you need to make – and hence the more confident you can go forward and make them. That’s why fear isn’t the best incentive for a successful shift. Fear causes you to hedge your bets, which reduces the effectiveness of your transformation. Make a promise to focus your transformation initiative on desire rather than fear.

Employees and other stakeholders ask you every day how they can assist you construct the firm you want to run. If you stick to your guns and stick to your replies, you’ll find yourself in charge of that corporation in no time.

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Course Manual 6: Transitional Plan

How to Make and Implement a Change Management Plan

What Is A Change Management Plan, Exactly?

The concept of change management is to assist members of an organization in adapting to changes within that organization. A change management plan is a road map that lays out the specific measures that a company will take to carry out the change management process.

A business transformation strategy like this is usually part of a bigger project management process.

When a business change is minor, such as adding a new step to an existing workflow, the change management process may be as straightforward as training the appropriate personnel.

Because larger or more complex changes can be disruptive and disturbing to the team, they demand a more planned, strategic approach. Implement a change management plan in these situations.

Are You In Need Of A Change Management Plan?

It can be tough to know when to utilize a change management plan. Every project necessitates some level of change management, although tiny changes can occur with little or no interruption to the team, negating the need for a thorough change management plan.

Here’s a three-question test to see if a change management implementation plan is needed:

• Is the change affecting a major portion of your organization, or is it only affecting a few people? A thorough change management plan is not required if the latter is the case.
• Is the change going to influence core business operations or just a tiny fraction of operational workflows? Execute a change management plan if there is a significant change to critical procedures that will effect a big number of individuals.
• What is the extent of the change? Examine whether the extent of the change includes how you interact with customers. If consumers are affected, a change management plan is essential to enable a smooth transition and avoid customer attrition.

What Makes Up A Change Management Plan?

An effective change management plan follows project management principles. Here’s how these principles apply to change management in your company.

Goals

A change management plan, like a project, has its own set of objectives to achieve. Every change management plan has two main objectives:

• Raise awareness of the impending shift inside the organization.
• Assist the affected teams in making the transition.

Determine a quantitative set of key performance indicators (KPIs) as part of these two goals. Attaining these KPIs throughout plan execution demonstrates that you’re on pace to meet your objectives.

Once the changes have been made, the KPIs can be used to determine whether the plan was successful.

In one of my projects, for example, we utilized revenue numbers as a KPI to examine the impact of organizational changes, with the goal of avoiding a revenue reduction.

Communication

The heart of any change management plan is communication. Nonetheless, I’ve seen businesses fail at this. Many people believe that sending an email notice meets the communication goal.

In actuality, throughout the change process, change management communication must be carefully evaluated and implemented. Simply announcing a change isn’t enough.

Staff must understand the rationale and benefits of the impending shift before they can begin to embrace it.

It is also necessary to establish channels for two-way communication. Employees will have concerns or inquiries. They may require assistance in implementing the adjustments. As a result, a platform or specific mechanism is required to facilitate this dialogue.

For example, the increasing awareness component of change management could begin with a general statement at a company-wide all-hands meeting.

Follow up with individual or group follow-up to start chipping away at the aim of assisting affected teams in accepting the change.

Management Of Resistance

Every undertaking has a certain amount of risk. A change management plan serves the same purpose. The most significant danger in the context of change is opposition from the team that must adapt.

It’s difficult to change to a new method when people have been doing the same thing for a long time. People, understandably, are resistant to change. As a result, be ready to face this opposition and incorporate tactics to deal with it.

Training

Typically, assisting the team in adapting to business change entails some form of training or other educational component. This can be done by holding special workshops to introduce and educate employees about the changes.

Documentation and subject matter experts (SMEs), who are well-versed in the details of the changes and their ramifications for business operations, are two further training components.

Until they’ve fully adapted to the shift, team members will need a reference source. To ensure a smooth transition, provide materials for personnel to review to refresh their memories, or a subject matter expert (SME) who can answer more sophisticated inquiries.

How Do You Make A Change Management Plan?

A change management plan is part of a bigger project schedule’s overall framework.

As a result, it is the project manager’s responsibility to create this change plan and use project integration management to bring the entire initiative together.

The change piece, while part of a larger project, has its own set of deliverables and necessitates the use of project management techniques and planning in its own right.

So, let’s take a look at what it takes to put together a change management plan.

Step 1: Make a Goal

Establishing the plan goals is the first step in creating a change management plan.

What are the objectives of change management?

Defining the objectives can be difficult. Here are some pointers to assist you get through the first part of the procedure.

• Recognize the changes: To begin, double-check that you understand the changes being addressed and their ramifications. When it comes to rolling out new software to employees, for example, knowing how the software works isn’t enough. You should also be aware of how the program can alter the processes in existing workflows.
• Include goals for employee awareness and adoption: Every plan should include goals for increasing employee awareness and adoption of the change. As a result, make sure these are among your objectives.
• Develop quantitative KPIs to measure the plan’s success: Next, define quantifiable KPIs to measure the plan’s performance. There are a variety of metrics that can be used here, so choose the ones that make sense in the context of the changes. Reports measuring the use of a new software system, questionnaires to get staff feedback, and employee performance statistics to see if the change lowered or boosted productivity are all examples of KPIs.

Step 2: Form A Change Management Team

Change management, like any other project, necessitates the allocation of people and resources to carry out the strategy.

Here are some ideas to help you form a team and garner support for your strategy as well as the resources you’ll need.

• Obtain stakeholder support: Stakeholders are involved in any business change. Depending on the nature of the change, they may include the CEO, other members of the executive team, or others from across the firm. To increase your chances of success, gain their support for your approach, particularly in terms of incentives and resources.
• Organize a task force: Create a task force to spearhead a change management plan for an organization. People in leadership roles, such as a department head, and SMEs who can educate the rest of the team on the changes, as well as provide assistance and answer questions, should be included on the team.
• Determine required resources: While change management may not require as many resources as the project that initiated the change, identifying required materials ahead of time helps to avoid delays during the execution phase. For example, if the team requires computer training, there must be adequate PCs on hand to satisfy training deadlines. Budget requirements may also need to be specified.

Step 3: Make A Development Plan

Project planning becomes a documented roadmap in this step, which is at the heart of the change management process. This document also aids in the prevention of scope creep.

This step is similar to putting together a broad project plan. Let’s take a look at some of the subtleties of change management.

• Make a task list: Task lists are the tasks that must be accomplished in order to reach your objectives. One of the duties, for example, may be the preparation of training documentation. This list should be created with input from your task force as well as stakeholders. Components for communication are also present.
• Create a schedule: A deadline is usually coupled with a change. As a result, your project schedule should be based on that date. Every task on your list should include a time component. If some tasks cannot be completed before the changes are implemented, either change the due date or, if that isn’t possible, determine which tasks can be completed after the changes are implemented and which must be completed before the changes are implemented, and prioritize accordingly.
• Use project management software: Because change management can be difficult, project management software can help you succeed. Within the platform, you can create task lists, allocate team members and resources, and measure progress, making it simple to determine if you’re on track and to report your status to stakeholders. Monday.com, for example, offers configurable project tracking that can be tailored to any form of change management project

The interface in monday.com presents key project information in an easily digestible format. Source: monday.com.

Step 4: Make a strategy for carrying it out.

The first step is to make a plan. It takes off when it comes to carrying out the transformation process.

Because there are hazards that can occur during the implementation of a change management plan, here are some tips to assist you.

• Establish decision-making procedures: It’s difficult to anticipate all of the consequences of a business change, so problems are certain to arise. For example, a workflow that wasn’t previously considered could be impacted, demanding quick decision-making to find a solution. As a result, create a method for promptly resolving these types of situations so that staff are not left in the dark or forced to come up with a solution on the fly.
• Respond to resistance: People are resistant to organizational change for a variety of reasons. Perhaps someone will be demoted as a result of the change, or a group fears losing their jobs. Get as much staff participation in the change as feasible, and be as honest and communicative as possible from the start to effectively address resistance. To eliminate employee confusion, keep this technique throughout the project. As the project proceeds and your KPIs reveal new pockets of resistance, focus on specific scenarios to address the underlying causes of individual resistance.
• Develop momentum: Identify and communicate all victories to instill confidence in the organization that the transition is positive and successful. Incentivize people to accept the change as well. Throw a party for the first team to fully implement a new software system, for example. It harnesses the emotional energy of team members and creates a culture of acceptance of change that continues to grow by building momentum behind the change in this way. This method also lessens the occurrence of natural resistance.

Step 5: Reinforcement

After the changes have been implemented, the final phase of change management happens. It isn’t enough to presume that the team is ready to go after training.

Implement a reinforcement strategy to encourage employees to continue shifting their behaviors, attitudes, and workflows to the new paradigms.
Let’s look at some pointers to assist you create a reinforcement model that can boost employee change uptake.

• Provide positive incentives: Organization leaders are all too prone to using the stick instead of the carrot when it comes to change, adopting a get-with-the-program mentality. Resentment grows as a result of this. Positive incentives, especially if they are naturally aligned with the change, are more effective. A good example of a positive incentive is modifying a time-consuming process to make it easier for the team. Adjusting performance plans to reward employees who embrace change is another example.
• Use SMEs: During the transition, employees will have a lot of questions and concerns, and training alone will not be adequate to address them. This is where SMEs come into play. They make their coworkers feel supported and assured that they can handle the adjustments on a regular basis. As a result, make certain that teams are aware of their allocated SMEs.
• Review and adapt: Once the changes are implemented, you can truly evaluate their impact. Review the team’s progress in implementing the modifications on a regular basis, and be prepared to make more adjustments if the initial planning did not yield the best result. You may, for example, have detailed workflow adjustments that did not go as expected after the business changes. Recognize the need for change and make the necessary changes based on real-world evidence and experience. Throughout the shift, this increases team acceptance and confidence.

Final thoughts on change management plans

It’s important to remember that change management is essentially about people, rather than processes. It’s easy to get caught up in the process since it’s more plain and practical than dealing with people’s messy emotions and behaviors.

However, this approach creates blind spots, resulting in failure to implement change.

If you’re leading the transition to a new software system, for example, it’s natural to focus on the technical features of the new platform. However, if the technology automates work that was previously done by team members, it may make them feel undervalued.

As a result, it’s also critical to emphasize how these employees may now focus on higher-value work, such as spending more time with customers, rather than monotonous activities that can be automated.

Business transformation is difficult to manage, but with a well-thought-out change management plan in place, you’ll be well-positioned to champion change in your organization.

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Course Manual 7 – MBT Framework

The Modern Business Transformation Framework

There are various business transformation frameworks that provide guidance and structure when a company is attempting to transform. However, because transformations take a long time to plan and implement, it’s crucial to remember that digital transformations, in particular, necessitate a flexible architecture. When new technology are implemented, innovation does not stop.

It is constantly evolving and pushes an organization to undergo a continuous and ever-changing metamorphosis. The Modern Business Transformation Framework (MBT) was created to address the tension between day-to-day business operations and innovation.

The cyclonic MBT framework, unlike other digital transformation strategy frameworks, takes a comprehensive approach. It’s implemented in a systematic and repeatable manner, allowing a corporation to make little but significant gains.

The MBT Framework is a methodical, repeatable, and holistic framework that enables organizations to address the issues of continually, consistently, and predictably transforming themselves.

Along the value-chain of Change, the Framework is separated into three phases. In the MBT value chain, there are “connect” points between each step, which are frequently “tension” points. These three elements are referred to as ‘Discourses.’

At each step of the Framework, high-level activities are recommended. Each of these tasks contains capabilities that are divided into component types, making it even easier to chart your maturity path.

By visualizing your organization’s current and future positions along its Change Resilience journey, the MBT Framework allows you to understand its maturity.

Why is the MBT Framework in place?

Organizations struggle to keep up and alter themselves quickly enough to meet internal or external challenges in a world of perpetual change, innovation, and technological developments.

Based on more than a decade of combined knowledge and practical experience, the MBT Framework was established by a varied collection of industry specialists. The MBT Framework is designed to address difficulties of consistency in the areas of innovation, transformation, and change.

Most significantly, the framework recognizes that corporate transformation is a continuous process that must be evaluated and altered as innovation accelerates.

The Framework is built on three core pillars that are inextricably linked:
• Uplift Capability: Identifying parts of a company’s operations that should be optimized and ready for change.
• Enhance Systems: The internal system capabilities is strengthened through incremental adoption in this agile procedure.
• Embed Innovation: The core of the process is embedding the innovation and obtaining the most value from it.

While Embed Innovation is at the heart of the Framework and represents innovation, it is heavily driven by the speed and cohesion with which the outer pillars perform, and it reflects the cyclone’s methodical character.

When all of the pieces operate together, a cyclone is a highly structured and interdependent system that releases vast amounts of energy. The MBT Framework relies on the effectiveness and efficiency of the outer pillars to extract the maximum value from innovation and incremental improvement, similar to how a cyclone takes power from the outside.

What Makes The MBT Framework Unique? Who Is It Intended For?

MBT addresses the inherent tensions between innovation and day-to-day operations by taking a comprehensive approach and defines what is needed to ensure that innovation becomes a core and continuous part of the organization’s DNA.

Continuous transformation and innovation are part of the maturation process. As a result, the MBT Framework is suitable for organizations that were founded before the digital era:
• Rapid technological advancements, as well as sociological and economic upheavals, are putting pressure on businesses to adjust and evolve swiftly.
• Emerging competitors, who have established themselves with flexible structures and current technologies and can thus take advantage of emerging markets and a millennial client base, are putting pressure on these enterprises.
• The need for change and innovation is typically recognized by business leaders within these organizations, but they are caught between external pressures and internal barriers such as obsolete systems, monolithic procedures, and organizational silos.
• MBT offers a realistic and thorough Framework that improves an organization’s innovation processes and organizational agility, which is a welcome option for these firms.

Taking the MBT Journey

Assess > Plot > Advance
The three-step “journeying” exercise is a straightforward way to get started with MBT.

Assess

• You can rapidly plot how “Change Resilient” your organization is using the MBT Readiness Assessment tool.

Plot

• Create an adoption path by developing or extending the capabilities of the framework’s component columns. Only plot what is best for your company.

Advance

• Get support for your adoption plan, and then go for it!

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Successful Business Transformations are exemplified by the following examples

There are a few successful business transformation examples that can be used as inspiration. Nokia, IBM, and Netflix are three companies that absolutely identify themselves.

Nokia Business Transformation

Nokia Corporation is an excellent example of a corporation that had to alter substantially in response to changing market circumstances. Between 1985 and 1995, the company expanded its original product offering, which included paper, rubber, and cables, and began focusing on consumer electronics. Mobile telecommunication networks eventually took over this segment.

Nokia’s corporate behavior patterns, like its product portfolio, were constantly changing. Organic growth almost often followed periods of mergers and acquisitions. In addition, the corporation was not always quick to respond to market developments, client concerns, or inefficient production.

IBM Business Transformation
IBM, a worldwide technology company, is an example of another remarkable business transformation that spanned several decades. Few people are aware that the company started off making clocks and typewriters at the turn of the twentieth century. With the advent of computers, the company expanded its product line and is today regarded as the industry leader in “business machines.”

Following the most recent trend in the IT business, IBM is changing its attention away from hardware and toward the software and services model. IBM, like Nokia, was able to make this transformation through acquiring software and services companies.

Netflix Business Transformation
Netflix, a video streaming platform, is a more contemporary example of a successful business transformation. In truth, it’s a corporation that has demonstrated extraordinary technological capabilities as well as the ability to quickly adjust to changing market conditions. Netflix began as a mail-order DVD rental service before transitioning to digital distribution. In 2012, the company became a producer of original films and television programs for the first time.

To avoid server outages, Netflix became the first company in history to switch from a monolithic architecture to a cloud-based microservices architecture. Furthermore, the organization is regarded for having a work culture that emphasizes flexibility and accountability.

Conclusion

As the examples above show, business transformation isn’t simply a choice for established businesses; it’s also a must for long-term success. Choosing to ignore transformation possibilities in order to retain the status quo is a short-sighted corporate approach that can result in a loss of growth and value.

Major overhauls of current operational models, on the other hand, do not happen overnight and necessitate both competent business transformation management and a dynamic framework. Any firm may maximize its performance and undergo a digital transformation to unlock new potential with the help of business architects and a sharp eye on innovation.

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Course Manual 8: Best Practices

Top 13 Organizational Strategic Transformation Best Practices

Customers today are searching for ways to purchase goods and services that are both convenient and personalized. Companies are racing against quick transformation as a result of these expectations. However, only about 30% of such programs succeed. However, as seen in the graph below, firms with clear goals, a strategy, and execution are three times more likely to establish a successful platform. As a result, we’ve compiled a list of best practices that businesses should think about before commencing on their transformation path.

Employee engagement is one of the most crucial factors in a successful corporate transformation strategy. Younger generations like Gen Z and Millennials are having a significant impact on DX projects across the board.

Let’s look at the steps to implementing a successful transformation strategy.

1. Examine Your Current Company Condition

You need a clear picture of the scope of the difficulties before embarking on a business transformation initiative to address them.

It may be important to examine all of the present processes, procedures, policies, and practices employed by the many functions, business units, divisions, or departments you’re aiming to transform, depending on the breadth of your business transformation project.

You can better grasp how new technology and procedures can alleviate the largest business difficulties only once you have a thorough view of your current processes and bottlenecks.

Recommendation: Using domain and line of business specialists, take a design thinking approach to properly understanding and specifying user requirements.

2. Obtain Executive Support

Business transformation efforts can be difficult to market to upper management because of their complexity and the resources required. However, because the C-Suite is so important in creating the company’s culture, basic values, and goals, it’s critical to demonstrate the business transformation’s long-term benefits.

They are considerably more likely to be a powerful partner in conveying the role of business transformation in creating and achieving corporate goals after they have been convinced of the benefits.

3. Obtain Employee Buy-In

After you’ve gotten management buy-in, it’s time to get your workforce on board. Employees must grasp the benefits of your company transformation activities in order to collaborate in the process and align with your business goals.

Employees must understand why the changes are beneficial to them and the company. Only then can you expect employees to work together toward a common goal.
Internal communication is crucial in this situation. Employees must be well-informed on how the changes will affect their careers and personal life.

4. Involve All Staff In Daily Discussions

Employees must understand what is going on in the organization before, during, and after the changes are made in order for business transformation to succeed.

The best way to do so is to have daily company conversations with your entire staff. This does not imply that you send out a newsletter to all of your employees. This entails facilitating two-way dialogues in which employees are free to express themselves and share their ideas.

Even while this may appear to be a simple task, many firms are having difficulty establishing such a culture, and the main reason for this is the usage of ineffective internal communication technology such as email and intranets.

On the other hand, using new employee communication tools that provide simple access to vital information and support two-way employee communication will help streamline and succeed your business transformation activities.

5. Establish A Change-Tolerant Culture

One of the most critical elements for a successful change is culture. Changes within an organization are referred to as business transformation. As a result, effective change management is critical to the success of these programs.

You can track, measure, and analyze the changes you’re making and see how they’re influencing the entire workplace with effective change management.

Keep in mind that the teams in charge of change implementation must be excellent communicators. It’s hard to lead a successful transition without ensuring that the appropriate information reaches the right people at the right time. The following values should be adopted by such a culture:

The significance of hypothesizing, testing, and moving forward with positive outcomes.

The importance of having a sense of community in order to increase employee contribution.

It is critical to remain open-minded in your search for more effective solutions.

Recommendation: Implement targeted hiring methods to build a competent HR department.

6. Remove Fear From The Workplace

Within firms, business transformation attempts can elicit feelings of apprehension and anxiety. Employees may take out their frustrations on one another as a result of this. Internal communicators and managers are in charge of overcoming obstacles and resolving problems in this situation.

According to a study, only 38% of people enjoy getting out of their comfort zone. The remaining 62 percent, on the other hand, are wary of change.

Furthermore, many employees believe that business transformation projects will reduce the need for their experience and abilities. This is most common during digital transformation initiatives, when individuals believe that new technology will eventually replace them.

According to study, however, 67.8% of businesses say that technological disruption has had a neutral to positive influence on employment creation. Because of it, 37.3% indicate a net rise in employment creation.

Employers must therefore guarantee that their employees feel safe by implementing an effective employee communication plan.

Recommendation: Conduct surveys and use behavioral analytics tools to determine customer trends and preferences.

7. Keep In Mind The Cost Of Technology Heritage

Technology is rapidly improving. As a result, within a decade, some of its applications will be obsolete, leaving sunk expenses behind. To reduce the cost of technology legacy, businesses must first grasp current trends and their possible impact on market dynamics. Following conferences on current technology developments, enlisting the services of technology consulting firms, and monitoring competitors’ technology spending can all help in this area.

Recommendation: Calculate the ROI of new technology expenditures by considering costs and short-term gains. Keep an eye on upcoming technology developments and how they can affect your industry and markets.

8. Make A List Of Short And Long-Term Objectives

During business transformation, it is critical to set clear goals and communicate them to personnel. Employees must be aware of the objectives they are expected to meet and how they will do so. Set smaller short-term goals to encourage your personnel, as well as a few long-term goals or milestones to commemorate as a company.

9. Instill A Sense Of Urgency

It’s difficult to motivate and engage employees and other stakeholders to take action and participate in the transformation process if there isn’t a sense of urgency. As a result, in order for business transformation projects to be accomplished, senior leaders must instill a feeling of urgency. This is an area where effective leadership communication is critical.

10. Facilitate Cross-Departmental Cooperation

Because business transformation is a collaborative effort involving many different departments, they must be able to work together and communicate effectively. It can be difficult to get everyone on board and informed before and throughout a business transition. This is especially true for major companies with offices and divisions located all over the world. As a result, interdepartmental and worldwide communication must become a top focus.

You must ensure that your business has the appropriate communication technology in place to accomplish such cross-departmental synergy.

11. Be Flexible And Open To New Ideas

Organizations that are not agile are practically certain to fail in their efforts to transform their businesses. Companies who have made the most progress in their transformation initiatives have managed to change their corporate culture into an internal innovation and transformation accelerator.

Furthermore, over 47% of executives claim they are investing in creating an innovative culture at their companies. Embedding new practices in organizations, on the other hand, can be incredibly difficult. Employees must feel free to express themselves and their ideas in order to achieve this.

It is the responsibility of leaders and other internal communicators to drive those behaviors through communicating with employees in an efficient, consistent, and ongoing manner.

12. Close The Gaps Where Your Organization’s Skills Are Lacking

Most firms struggle with closing the skill gap before and during business transformation projects. According to study, 90% of employment in the future are expected to require digital capabilities. In Europe, on the other hand, 44% aged 16 to 74 lack fundamental digital skills.

As a result, investing in people and learning new skills is critical for corporate change.

As a result of this difficulty, 52% want to spend in improving staff abilities.

13. Determine The Level Of Engagement Among Your Personnel

You’ve probably figured out how critical effective business communication is to a successful business transformation.

A communication strategy without goals, on the other hand, may not be as beneficial to your company. Internal messages supplied to employees must be evaluated for efficacy and outcomes by communicators.They need to know and measure which messages are most effective, which channels are ideal for delivering those messages, and which employees interact the most.

When it comes to understanding your workers’ alignment and involvement with your business transformation efforts, such data is extremely useful.Such figures were previously difficult to track. Internal communications systems like Smarp, on the other hand, track your employees’ engagement with internal material in real time.

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Course Manual 9: Communication

A Communication Breakdown Causes Process Improvement Failure

Ideas for process improvement frequently fail. Only 23% of the predicted benefits from process improvement concepts were achieved and sustained after three years, according to a research done by Partners in Performance of 50 Australian organizations with revenues of $250 million or more.

Within three years, 77% of the promised advantages from process improvement concepts are never realized or are lost. This inadequate return on investment has far-reaching consequences for senior executives.

A effective process improvement program is required to deliver the performance improvement that senior executives are held accountable for. While there are numerous reasons that contribute to process improvement failure, one of the most prominent causes is resistance to change.

Employees develop a method of doing things, a routine, and become accustomed to it. The longer they’ve been in this habit, the more averse they are to it being disrupted or changed.

The process improvement team is in charge of altering the organization’s operations. Uncertainty, nervousness, resistance, and, in the worst-case scenario, actively seeking to hinder or stop the process improvement proposal are common employee reactions.

Employees must be properly engaged and communicated with throughout the process, from modeling the present approach to maintaining results, to overcome this resistance to change.

It Is Vital To Get Started As Soon As Possible

When involvement and communication begin too late, process improvement initiatives fail. Effective participation and communication will, at the very least, lessen anxiety, resistance, and negativity. Employee engagement and communication, when done correctly, can convert people to be supportive of process change, actively help deliver it, and sustain it in the long run.

To effectively engage and communicate during the implementation of process improvement concepts, you can employ the following six-part strategy: Explain “why” process improvement is necessary.

Involve the implementation team’s functional and communication expertise. Encourage employees to take responsibility for the solution. Create reference materials, train successfully, and keep track of your skills. Ascertain that leaders are willing to walk the talk.

Success should be communicated, and effort should be rewarded. These tactics will ensure that process improvement ideas are executed effectively and that desired benefits are achieved and sustained over time.

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Engagement and Communication Strategies for Process Improvement

1. Explain “why” process improvement is necessary

By starting with “why,” Simon Sinek outlines how great leaders inspire action.

Senior leaders must communicate why process improvement is necessary in a clear and consistent manner. This gives context for the organization, demonstrates how process improvement supports corporate strategy, confirms the predicted benefit, and proves to employees that senior leaders are concerned about how the changes will affect them.

The problem is explained via a well-structured “why” statement: “Our manufacturing failures are 15% greater than our competitors”…
“Our goal is to eliminate manufacturing faults by 50%,” says the goal…

“This amounts to a 10% boost in sales, allowing us to acquire a larger market share, and ensuring our business’s long-term viability,” – the impact.

This isn’t something that can be successfully stated via email. Allow impacted employees to express their concerns and ask questions before implementing the process improvement proposal. Respond truthfully and frankly.

If an answer isn’t available or can’t be given, a commitment to follow up at the right time must be made. Expect staff to be less than enthusiastic following this discussion.

While important, this is only the first of many senior leadership discussions that will be required throughout the process improvement process.

2. Train the implementation team on functional and communication skills.

Employees aren’t getting enough information about process improvement ideas while they’re being implemented.

To address this, the implementation team must have a good mix of process improvement skills (to develop and implement the essential changes), functional subject matter expertise (technical knowledge and business contacts), and people skills (to engage, communicate, and train employees to embed the changes).

Communication and functional skills are frequently disregarded. To ensure effective engagement and communication, the Process Champion and Communications Advisor are two key positions that must be entrenched in the implementation team.

The Process Champion
The Process Champion is a functional subject matter expert who is enthusiastic about their job and part of the business and maintains strong working connections with their peers. The Process Champion ensures that the right individuals are involved in the defining of the problem and solution (see below).

They identify and report risks and issues from the functional area to the implementation lead. Early detection of these risks and vulnerabilities allows them to be addressed before they become problems that jeopardize the process improvement initiative’s effectiveness.

The Process Champion directs the conversation back to the function of resolving the risks and challenges that were identified. When a Process Champion communicates this message to their peers, it has 100 times the effect and credibility as if it were delivered by an outsider. Once the implementation team has disbanded, the Process Champion is also crucial in integrating the process improvements.

The Process Champion returns to the business and serves as a primary point of contact for queries about process improvements. He or she also trains colleagues, checks performance, and raises non-compliant behavior.

The Communications Advisor
The majority of process improvement proposals have two elements in common:

1) We believe we are far better communicators than we are.
2) communication plans are either non-existent or created on the fly.

As a result, communication is muddled, given late, and not to essential personnel. Poor communication of process changes has a significant influence on employees who are already concerned. Employees’ imaginations automatically go to the worst-case scenario when communication is inadequate. Employees who speak up then pass on this unwarranted anxiety to their coworkers.

This can quickly undermine process improvement plans. The Communications Advisor develops an organized approach to what needs to be communicated, when it needs to be communicated, to whom it needs to be communicated, and how it should be presented.

Communications are timed to coincide with key milestones, have clear messaging, and are distributed to the appropriate people via the most appropriate channels.

3. Encourage employees to take responsibility for the solution.

Employees take ownership of the products they helped to develop. Employees who are not participating in the definition of process problems and the development of solutions will feel as if the changes are being forced upon them, will have no sense of ownership, and the process improvement initiative will fail. This is especially true for process improvement initiatives that necessitate a change in behavior.

Because behavioral changes are difficult to control, they are famously difficult to maintain. Employees who are not engaged will revert to the old, simple method of doing things, thereby killing the process improvement initiative.

To get a good cross-section of employees, use the Process Champion. Make sure there’s a decent mix of veterans and newcomers, as well as representation from all areas (if relevant). Engage these personnel in mapping out the present process, determining what isn’t working, why, and how it affects performance.

Obtain their feedback on realistic performance improvement goals. Include them heavily in the process of idea generation and prioritization. Employees, not the implementation team, take ownership of the process problems and solutions as a result of this early engagement and communication.

This reduces resistance to change and ensures that process modifications are long-term.

4. Create reference materials, provide good training, and keep track of competency.

The final process adjustments have been agreed upon and are ready to go into effect.

It is insufficient to simply communicate the process modifications verbally. A good training program is essential for a process improvement idea’s successful adoption and long-term viability. Typically, the implementation team has encountered difficulties, is behind time, and is over budget at this point.

The expenses of reference materials and training are both extremely compressible. It’s all too tempting to make up for lost time and money by cutting corners in these areas.

Do not attempt it!

Cutting the scope of material development and training saves money and time, but it’s nothing compared to the unrealized or unsustainable benefits of the process improvement notion. Develop a training program for impacted staff with the help of the Process Champion.

Create clear, visual reference materials that show personnel how to carry out the new procedure. Ascertain that the training curriculum includes demonstrations, group discussions, and hands-on experience. As shown in the hierarchy below, these elements result in much higher levels of retained information.

Keep track of how capable personnel are in executing the new procedure. Where additional training is required, provide it on a case-by-case basis.

5. Ensure that leaders follow through on their promises.

“the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” says Peter Drucker, a philosopher and management consultant. Employees model their own behavior after the standards set by their leaders.

Good leadership has an impact on staff engagement and commitment. Employees who work with underperforming supervisors showed lower levels of involvement and commitment, according to studies.

Employees who work for exceptional leaders, on the other hand, have extremely high levels of engagement and dedication. Employees are more likely to support and implement process improvements if they witness senior leaders actively supporting them through their actions. When employees observe senior executives acting in opposition to process changes, they are more likely to engage in substandard and/or non-compliant behavior.

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Consider this:

At a plant, vehicle-to-vehicle collisions have increased.

In a process improvement idea, three adjustments are implemented. 1) All other equipment takes precedence over cars; 2) Speed limits are reduced to 10 km/h; and 3) The horn must be heard before exiting and entering.

The Factory Operations Manager informs his employees about the changes, emphasizing the significance of safety and pledging support for the new procedures.

He then cuts off a forklift and exits without sounding the horn because he is late for a meeting. His actions send a mixed message to his employees about the significance of process adjustments. His staff now has a benchmark for noncompliance.

His nonverbal messages have a greater impact than his vocal messages. Senior executives must demonstrate their commitment to process improvement by publicly displaying their support.

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6. Reward effort and communicate achievement

Motivation is fueled by momentum. Motivation is essential for overcoming obstacles, keeping concentration, and completing process improvement projects.

When momentum pauses, motivation drops, and the notion for process improvement is doomed to fail. The greatest strategy to maintain momentum and motivation is to communicate and celebrate process improvement implementation successes with impacted personnel on a regular basis.

This is supported by a McKinsey survey of 1,047 employees.

According to the poll, praise and recognition from an employee’s direct management are more effective motivators than monetary rewards.

Build momentum and motivation early on and keep them going until the project is finished. A variety of communication tactics can be used to accomplish this:

Team achievement emails and impact charts at the end of the week
Thanking employees for their efforts and clearly outlining critical developments, milestones, and next week’s priority assignments, these are emailed to staff early Friday afternoon.

This demonstrates to employees that their efforts are appreciated and encourages them to keep adopting the process improvement suggestion. In your email, use performance charts to visually demonstrate the beneficial impact of your employees’ efforts. These graphics should be displayed in high-traffic areas throughout the company.

The following is an example of a contractor cost-cutting idea. Take note of how the graph connects positive behavior (process compliance) to the financial benefit ($2.5 million in savings).

Regular, spur-of-the-moment leadership check-ins
Not all communication must be organized and prepared. Informal communication has a lot of power. Employees perceive it as more relaxed and genuine. As a result, boundaries are broken down, and two-way contact is encouraged.

The framework below is a great resource for understanding the major distinctions between formal and informal communication.

Frequent off-the-cuff leadership check-ins to celebrate progress or performance, or to express empathy in the face of recent failures, are a great approach to keep momentum going as process improvement ideas are implemented. Leaders must resist the temptation to plan messages or create PowerPoint slides to accompany these discussions.

This eliminates the informality and the benefits that come with it. Simply stopping by and asking staff, “How’s your week been?” is the simplest approach to start a casual check-inn. From here, the dialogue will flow organically.

Individual excellence should be lauded, while slower adopters should be managed.
Certain personnel will adapt to process changes more quickly than others. Call out these individuals, praise them for their good work, and encourage their coworkers to do the same.

This creates a healthy level of tension in the team and encourages individuals who are more resistant to change to join in on the trip.

In group communication, never call out negative or non-compliant behavior. Show employees who are resistant to change that you care by meeting with them one-on-one.

Ask open-ended questions to learn why they’re having trouble with the process modifications. The real reason for their struggle will almost always be quite different from what you think.

It’s easy to believe that experienced personnel who oppose process improvement are just irritable and unwilling to change; however, the reality is generally quite different. The original method was designed and implemented by these skilled individuals. They may feel that they’ve failed if the procedure is changed, and that their expertise is no longer needed.

Thank struggling employees for their candor, remind them of their significance to the company, and assure them that they will have full support while process improvements are implemented.

This method allows executives to identify and address the true challenges that are preventing the process modifications from being implemented.

Conclusion

Senior leaders can’t become involved too soon, listen too much, or over-communicate vital signals.

Use these tried-and-true engagement and communication tactics to ensure that your process improvement ideas are properly implemented and that the desired outcomes are realized and sustained over time.

It has an impact on the company’s performance.

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Course Manual 10: Employee-Centered

How can people be at the center of strategic change?

Strategy

While transformation is known for its perils and challenges, one of the most typical blunders companies make is overlooking the so-called “soft side” of change. In fact, according to the consultancy People Change, successful transitions are heavily reliant on culture change. The firm’s latest book, ‘Strategic Transformation,’ will assist CEOs and businesses in better understanding the human side of transformation initiatives.

In this age of digital disruption, integrating new, innovative technology into corporate operations has become critical to modern firms’ survival. Even the largest market incumbents are being forced to change their operations as new digitally adept competitors emerge to nibble into their market share – causing the need for trasformation services to skyrocket to a billion-dollar industry.

Despite this haste to adapt, many businesses are still struggling to complete transformation programs. According to several assessments from specialists throughout the research landscape, the core issue isn’t that organizations aren’t investing enough time and money in modernizing their equipment; rather, they are underestimating the amount of effort required to help their employees make the most of such changes.

It’s no surprise that the consulting firm’s name is People Change. The firm’s transformative focus is on workplace culture and skills at all levels of a client’s ranks, and it assists clients with the complicated processes of organisational or digital transformations in their businesses.
The organization has released a new book to assist businesses better grasp why this is so crucial and what they stand to gain by taking people-driven change more seriously. ‘Strategic Transformation: Essential Insights for the Twenty-First Century’ lays forth four important stages for transformation success.

“The success of a transformation stands or falls with the way in which that change is put in place,” stated co-author and People Change founder Rogier Offerhaus during the launch. “The human approach is crucial here. In order to be able to change, the organisation needs full involvement and commitment of the employees. Every mindset reacts differently to change. The trick is to facilitate the change in such a manner that the people and teams in that organisation feel invited to change and can make a positive contribution from his or her uniqueness. Personal development and organisational development therefore go hand in hand.”

Insight

According to the book People Change, businesses have seen three types of change throughout history. Over time, developmental change sees a current performance level gradually improve. Transitional change occurs when an old way of working is replaced by a new way of working.

Transformation, on the other hand, is significantly more complicated, requiring the construction of a new mode of operation as a result of a period of turmoil that reveals the inadequacy of the previous method of doing things. Because of the chaotic nature of this last type of change, understanding what assets a company has before attempting to adapt can be a crucial element of any transformation.

To that purpose, People Change offers its People Change scan, which assesses insights in the fields of organization, leadership, and change to depict an individual’s, team’s, or organization’s initial condition prior to embarking on a change program. The scan identifies which conditions employees require for change, as well as the skills they need to be able to change and what behavior they exhibit when pressure is applied.

The People Change scan consists of an online questionnaire with roughly 40 questions that takes about 20-30 minutes to complete.

“The data entered is validated using the latest scientific ideas and our own significant experience,” Offerhaus explained the importance of this phase. “The insights can be used by change organizations, teams, and professionals to quickly build a change plan. They will be able to implement and see measurable results as a result of this. The change’s advantages are immediately apparent, measurable, observable, and cost-effective.”

Inspiration

No change can succeed unless its purpose and long-term objectives are clearly defined. A CEO cannot simply sanction a strategic transformation from the top down; they must communicate a shared vision of an inspiring future, why the transformation is necessary, why it is an unquestionable priority, why leaders must transform and step-up, and make it more difficult to back-track.

Communication is a two-way street, which might be difficult for some conventional leaders to accept. People will be inspired and invigorated for the approaching changes if a leader can make employees feel heard while also properly communicating the benefits of a shift.

In other words, it is vital to familiarize yourself with mindsets and cultivate them in yourself, and then recognize and appreciate mindsets in others for productive cooperation. Understanding each other’s worldview is the best method to collaborate.

Specific knowledge on the intended organization, leadership, and culture in terms of mindsets and value systems comes from the insight stage. This can appear abstract to leaders and employees of an organization.

Implementation

The third step on the transformation curve is to develop the desired organizational and leadership transformation after these preparatory phases. Within the implementation program, the strategy is to use a variety of interventions, including GROW group transformation sessions, leadership and team development, change coaching and training, and support for organizational change projects.

The GROW model is divided into four steps: Goal, describing the individual’s or team’s objectives; Reality, examining the actual situation and identifying the obstacles to change; Options, which outlines the many options for action; and Will, which determines what will be done. These phases do not have to be completed in this order; nonetheless, it is more useful for a GROW session if each step is reviewed during coaching sessions.

Integration

The integration phase is about the question of how do we stay here. How do you anchor an organization, team, or leader that has reached a new level? What have we learnt, and how will we apply it to the organization so that future generations can profit from, appreciate, and expand on it?

People’s alignment with the company’s aims is critical to a successful transition. It is the job of the leaders to guarantee that the organization evolves toward a shared vision during the course of a transition, and that the leaders and culture continue to act as a cohesive entity, seeking to tackle future problems as one.

You must align talent and passion throughout your team to accomplish Workforce Optimization. You can find characteristics that lead to an engaged and productive employee by using people predictive analytics. These insights aid in determining the best organizational model and culture for digital transformation.

Your company will become a learning organization if you foster digital dexterity among your employees. This is a long-term solution to invest in your employees’ technological fluency in the same way you invest in your technology, enhancing their ability to adapt to and accept new technologies as they become available. Providers are leveraging data to better communicate with customers, adopting a common language to meet them where they are in their consumer journey.

Innovative design thinking leads to growth and innovation. It concentrates creative consideration on the products and the people who engage with them. Your workers will learn how to better fulfill the unique needs of your users if you take an iterative approach to design. Consumers and professionals alike reported superior outcomes while receiving customer-centered treatment, paving the way for the organisation’s continuing expansion.

Employees and their aspirations are considered at every phase of the transformation process in a comprehensive, employee-centered approach. From hiring to training, everything is taken care of. From leadership connections to organizational design and communication channels, there’s a lot to consider. When employees are at the heart of everything, the firm takes on a whole new meaning. It’s a long-term adjustment that affects the entire model, just like client care. Staying on top entails continually inventing or being left behind.

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Course Manual 11: Resistance

Resistance To Change Can Be Attributed To A Variety Of Factors

John P. Kotter and Leonard A. Schlesinger concluded in their work on resistance to change theory that there are four basic conditions in which people’s opposition to change germinates and grows:

1. Self-interest
2. Miscommunication and a lack of trust
3. Various assessments
4. Change tolerance is low

1. Self-interest

People are more prone to resist change if they fear they will lose something worthwhile as a result of it. People are more concerned with their own self-interests (every stakeholder has their own agenda) than with the organization’s best interests. This eventually leads to group opposition to change.

In our example, the worker’s direct relationship with ‘the boss’ is deteriorating. Because of the new reporting line in place, he believes his voice is no longer heard. Small faults and downtime will be blamed on the change, and the worker will come up with reasons why the new method of doing things will not work.

2. Miscommunication And A Lack Of Trust

A lack of awareness of the implications of the change is another factor that contributes to change resistance. This misconception is exacerbated by a lack of trust between the manager initiating the change and the workers expected to implement it.

For example, regardless of what the manager says, if the auto worker believes that the new technology he is being asked to use would shorten the time it takes to do the job, he may believe that his job is in jeopardy – or that he will lose overtime and lose money. When it comes to organizational change, trust is vital.

3. A variety of Assessments

When people evaluate the effects of transformation differently than their supervisors or others who initiate the change, this predicament emerges. The manager who is implementing the change may have access to information that the workers do not. The requirement for tighter coordination with the engineering department may necessitate the realignment of reporting lines. Workers on the shop floor, on the other hand, see the adjustment as yet another (unnecessary) layer of management, suspecting that the supervisor’s true function is to micromanage the department as it prepares for layoffs.

4. Change Tolerance Is Low

Some people are afraid of change because they believe they will not be able to obtain the necessary skills and abilities. This is especially true for projects that necessitate quick change; the larger and faster the change, the more difficult it is for people to accept.

Authors Warren G. Bennis, Kenneth D. Benne, and Robert Chin address how personality impacts an individual’s ability to cope with change in their book ‘The Planning of Change,’ a concept that also runs through Peter Drucker’s management ideas.

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6 Methods For Overcoming Change Apprehension

There are six key areas in which businesses must work when evaluating tactics and techniques for lowering resistance to change.

1. Education And Communication

Fear of the unknown and a misunderstanding of why change is necessary are two common reasons for resistance to change.
People will only embrace change if the risk of doing nothing is greater than the risk of changing course. People will also wonder why you are changing something that they believe works well if they don’t understand why change is necessary.

Before the change is implemented, communication and education about it should begin. This will assist your employees in rationalizing the change and ensuring that individuals and teams have enough knowledge to make sound decisions.

2. Participation

Resistance to change is caused by a lack of belief in the organization’s ability to implement meaningful changes. Similarly, when people aren’t consulted and change is imposed on them, they are more likely to resist. This is particularly true if people fear their careers are under jeopardy.

It is vital to include stakeholders and change implementers in the design process. People will be more engaged in the change and in identifying potential challenges and solutions if they work together. People are significantly less inclined to oppose change that they have assisted in bringing about.

Participation has been proven in numerous studies to have a wide range of positive impacts during times of organizational transition. Participation, according to a 2011 study (Change Recipients’ Reactions to Organizational Change: a 60-Year Review of Quantitative Studies), reduces resistance to change and leads to positive outcomes such as change readiness and acceptance, a sense of competence, a sense of control, and improved trust. Your people’s passion to change will be shattered if they don’t participate.

Another participatory technique is to use socialization, which prioritizes people over practice and ensures that shared values overcome resistance to change.

3. Support

Assist Organizational transition is often accompanied by a shift in routines, forcing people to leave their (long-established) comfort zones. This can also contribute to tiredness, particularly if the organization is constantly changing or evolving.

People may appear to be receptive of change, yet they may simply be resigned to it. They must be provided with the necessary support to facilitate the development of new abilities and avoid change burnout.

Managers must enhance their emotional intelligence and connect with their employees in order to provide support. It takes time to provide enough support, so trained managers and leaders must use coaching techniques to be most effective while managing change in an organization.

4. Compatibility

When people believe they will be negatively affected by the implications of change, they become resistant to it. This could be due to a fear that the change will affect their earnings or professional prospects, or that the benefits will not be worth the effort.

An organization may consider offering incentives to overcome this form of change resistance. Extra compensation, greater benefits, or the provision of structured career plans are examples of such incentives. To obtain an agreement, this technique necessitates negotiation. The disadvantage is that such agreements can be costly and do not guarantee change acceptance.

5. Co-optation

People develop a strong attachment to the way things have traditionally been done. Employees who were at least partially responsible for the development of processes and procedures typically have significant emotional attachments to them. It may take a Herculean effort to form a bond with the old.

One technique is to enlist the help of people who are most resistant to change in the implementation of change initiatives. This is a relatively inexpensive way to garner the support of would-be resistors, albeit it comes with a caveat: placing persons who are perceived to be resistant to change in such positions may give them a position from which to influence more resistance across a wider audience.

6. Coercion

Coercion is sometimes essential to get individuals to accept change. This is frequently the case when people believe they are unable to master the new skills required or believe that change is merely a passing fad that will be overturned.

Using the threat of disciplinary action while insisting on people adhering to needed behaviors and actions is one method for creating change. Coercion may be the only realistic option if rapidity of change is crucial.

This technique has a key flaw in that it does not address opposition to change, which may continue to bubble beneath the surface and lead to a catastrophic atmosphere at a later period (particularly if the proposed transformation does not produce at least the outcomes promoted by the initiator of change).

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7 Ways to Overcome Change Resistance

After determining the causes (or potential causes) of change resistance in your workplace and the strategic approaches your organization should take to overcome it, the next step is to consider specific tactics and techniques for reducing change resistance that your organization and its managers can use to eventually eliminate it.

When it comes to managing change, leadership is critical, and leaders that create a cultural transformation in their employees have the best success.

According to a 2013 PwC survey, nearly two-thirds of employees believe a senior leader should be in charge of change management, and nearly half believe top leaders should be in charge of cultural transformation.

The good news is that a similar number of people believe cultural transformation is their duty as well.

The bad news is that only 14% saw themselves as having any responsibility for change management. The unpleasant reality is that effective change is decided by the presence of a business culture that encourages continuous change. In flat hierarchical organizations, it is perhaps here that inspirational leadership is most effective.

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Here are seven ways for minimizing workplace resistance to change and assisting in the integration of participation into the change process.

1. Create A Team Structure That Maximizes The Team’s Capabilities

Consider each team member’s strengths and limitations after you’ve communicated the change endeavor.

Establish how the team member is most suited to assisting with the change endeavor in one-on-one sessions, and examine how it might help the individual address personal deficiencies while also leveraging their strengths.

Give team members adequate tasks and responsibilities that allow them to put their skills to their greatest use while also allowing for personal and team growth. This type of personal engagement within the team effort will assist each team member in becoming more involved in the transformation endeavor.

2. Set Goals That Are Tough, Attainable, And Interesting

Goals and targets should be stated clearly in the advice. Break down change initiatives into smaller milestones and congratulate yourself on your accomplishments. The objectives should be progressive and consistent with one’s principles and views.

Don’t just use the whole effort to create milestones and measure goal achievement. While these are significant team milestones that will help drive the team to keep working hard, it is also critical to assess individual progress. Along the change process, look for opportunities to tie personal development to the formulation and continuation of team goals.

3. Quickly And Efficiently Resolve Conflicts

To govern and control communicative breakdowns, use the seven strategies of care-fronting. Encourage honesty and openness, as well as a climate of mutual trust and respect.

It is critical to foster a positive team spirit, so think about how you can accomplish this. Tensions may be high and personal fears may be heightened during periods of change. Team meetings and bonding sessions will make it easier for your employees to understand and appreciate their coworkers, especially if you ensure open communication and a systematic approach to problem solving that encourages a candid exchange of ideas in order to achieve a collective and collaborative partnership.

4. Exhibit Enthusiasm

Communicate with passion and show that you believe in the future vision. When others witness leaders modeling the new behaviors that are demanded by change, they are more likely to adopt the new behaviors and become change advocates themselves.

Where leaders tread, others will follow’ is a wise adage for CEOs to follow. You can only expect people to adopt the new values and behaviors anticipated if you are the change.

5. Persuade Others

By being an energetic leader, you can engage employees in change. Instead of asserting authority, focus on possibilities and persuade. As you convince change through tales that focus on positive transformation, share your experiences.

Train your narrative brain to come up with ways to use similes to communicate culture, brand, and the future vision to employees so they can relate to the organization’s reasons and ambitions.

6. Encourage Creativity And Innovation

Allow for feedback and be flexible as you adjust your course toward your change objectives. Encourage employees to be innovative, to find answers to problems as they arise, and to participate in the change process.

By framing failure as a learning experience and an essential step on the way to success, you may overcome your fear of taking chances. Assist people in taking responsibility for their own actions while also encouraging cross-sector collaboration. This will help to spread innovative ideas in an environment where people are learning more and expanding their professional capacity to think more creatively.

7. Maintain A Pleasant And Encouraging Attitude

Even though change is a constant in both personal and professional situations, people find it disturbing. As personal and team development is promoted, they will require the support of a positive leader who fosters free thought, honest communication, and creativity.

Employees look to their leaders to lead them through change. Inspiring leaders foster a culture in which everyone is responsible for change.

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Summary

In conclusion, research has revealed that resistance to change is both a psychological and physiological response (“The Neuroscience of Leadership” by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz). In a nutshell, you should expect change to be difficult. Understanding why people resist change, identifying the sources of their resistance, and then considering your strategic approach and devising tactics and techniques for lowering resistance to change are all necessary steps in managing change resistance.

The first step is to give your leaders a better grasp of the emotional effects of change. Leaders and managers with improved self-awareness and social awareness are better able to inspire and influence change – and establish a winning project transformation team.

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Course Manual 12: Leadership & Stakeholders

Managing Your Improvement Project’s Stakeholders

Every seasoned Continuous Improvement Practitioner would tell you that everything is fine until people get involved. They say, “The soft issues are the hard issues.” How do we deal with people’s apparent unpredictability while meeting their diverse needs, perspectives, and beliefs and satisfying everyone? Why do our attempts to communicate always fail? What skills and tools will we need to put our Continuous Improvement expertise to work and produce improvements that will last?

Understanding your stakeholders is the first step in managing them. Identifying your stakeholders and involving them as early as possible in the project helps to avoid misunderstandings later on and gives them more opportunities to participate in and contribute to the changes you’re trying to make. An early assessment of how your goals will effect people and their possible influence (whether positive or bad) on them will help you prepare for your first interactions. When pitching your ideas to a senior individual who could be a huge roadblock for people who are on the fringes but are generally supportive, you’ll need to use different techniques.

What distinguishes a great improvement leader? These are the 5 qualities that all successful leaders in the worlds of Lean, Six Sigma, Process Excellence, and beyond possess, ranging from cultural awareness to team empowerment.

Leaders have had to keep up with their management style and keep their teams motivated in a rapidly evolving and constantly disrupted world, where new technologies offer solutions and challenges appear at seemingly breakneck speed.

There are basic attributes of every leader that remain constant across economic downturns and market booms, and today we’re looking at 5 characteristics of great continuous improvement leaders.

1. They Are Culturally Aware

Poor culture is a major contributor to project failure.

This workshop has stated the importance of cultivating a continuous improvement culture, but it’s also worth considering from a leadership perspective.The improvement leader’s job entails leading the planning, execution, and tracking of a change portfolio, whether it’s for a team, business unit, division, or the entire company. This is a massive amount of change to manage in terms of people, processes, systems, and so on. A heavy-handed leader is one who is unconcerned about the culture of the company in which they work.

Perhaps it’s a result of an employee’s resistance to the change’s repercussions, the change’s implementation process, or a lack of comprehension of the change’s benefits. Or has change in the past proven to be ineffective? Is your company divided into silos, where information sharing and innovation are discouraged? If your company does not have have the foundations in place for employee involvement, participation, and knowledge exchange, you should make an effort to do so before moving forward with continuous improvement. Naturally, this emphasizes the significance of change management.

2. They Promote Change

In its most basic form, continuous improvement is a synonym for change management. To make the change successful, a great leader will provide a vision of change, support their teams, and be a model of appropriate behaviors.

We are averse to change because it is unknown.

Employees who feel they are a part of the fabric of their firm and do not wish to adopt a new company name, set of values, etc. encounter significant hurdles during mergers and acquisitions. You are challenging your organization to examine what is working and what isn’t working in order to construct a more prosperous, less wasteful future.

Successful leaders consider the following factors when it comes to fostering change:

1. Feeling – How does your team feel about the change? Is it excited, hesitant, furious, or upset?
2. Reflection – How are they pondering the change – do they question its necessity or outcomes?
3. Behaviour – Do they welcome new ideas, participation in or disruption of workshops, value stream mapping activities, and kaizen events?
To deal with change head-on, you must nurture the process in three ways:
1. Preach – Emphasize the importance of progress and provide instances of accomplishment.
2. Enable – Set up virtual suggestion boxes and schedule time for project participation.
3. Reward – Keep track of accomplishments, discuss results, and incentivize involvement.

3. They’re Well-Versed In Politics

While much has been stated about the significance of managing down with improvement (and improvement teams managing upwards to their team leaders), it is also important to note that improvement leaders must be able to manage upwards to their superiors.

A stakeholder analysis and engagement strategy is a wonderful place to start.Understanding your Chief Financial Officer’s, Chief Strategic Officer’s, and Chief Revenue Officer’s motives is critical to communicating value, progress, and future ideas.
Keeping these tips in mind, an effective continuous improvement leader navigates the political minefield of several critical stakeholders:

1. Know your audience – Make a list of all of your stakeholders, their motivations, how they consume information, and what they expect from your development program.

2. Present facts — You may present objective facts to back up your conversations by using continuous improvement software that centralizes the planning, execution, and tracking of your project portfolio. Hearsay is valued less than facts.

3. Provide solutions to difficulties – If you present problems, provide strategies to overcome them. If project engagement is low, recommend that project sponsors attend events to observe the difficulties firsthand and then propose a strategy for dealing with disruptive individuals.

4. Be precise – If you need to sacrifice a poorly performing project in favor of another and you can be particular about the reasons for the poor performance, explain what it is, how you would pivot the portfolio, and what the predicted advantages of the adjustment would be.

4. They’re Collaborative And Empowering

All improvement literature and thought leadership emphasize the importance of culture.

Humans are at the heart of it all, whether you’re doing process and system reviews to improve customer experience or your teams are contributing suggestions to improve customer experience.Instead of telling your employees how to execute projects and what technologies to utilize, use your recommendations to influence and guide rather than dictate.Providing the foundations for improvement experts to co-lead change, break down silos, and make continuous improvement sustainable is what empowerment is all about.

Successful leaders will empower their staff to drive change throughout the business every day, whether it’s via investing in training programs, giving templates and coaching, or embracing digital solutions to eliminate wasted efforts and copy best practices.

5. They’re Helpful

Last but not least, there is the supportive aspect of leadership.

This is an extension of the previous point in terms of mentoring and leveraging your experience to help your team build their skillset and pass on that knowledge down the line.Words of encouragement, educational resources, assisting your team in learning from mistakes, and being present for whatever reason are all examples of being supportive.Improvement is a particularly difficult business discipline since it demands change management, analytical skills, and meticulous attention to detail. Much can go right, but just as much can go wrong along the way, so having a strong leader on your side can make all the difference.

To Accomplish Transformation, You’ll Need The Following Leadership Skills:

Any substantial change comes with its own set of problems, and the organization making the change is usually met with a lot of opposition at first. The same is true in the case of digital transformation. As a result, the three leadership abilities listed below are required for successful change implementation.

1. Awareness

The entire foundation of transformation is predicated on top management’s knowledge of the need for change and acceptance of it. As a result, awareness may be the most important skill in the change process.

Managers must have a data-driven attitude and be aware of changing environmental factors such as market dynamics, consumer needs, and unforeseen events such as the current scenario. Managers must also be aware of developing technologies, their features, and how they might be used to achieve a competitive edge by enterprises.

2. Acceleration

Managers’ intellectual power to continuously invent novel processes based on available resources and to ensure that top management’s strategies are followed is referred to as acceleration.

This prospective capability is fundamentally linked to the mechanism of invention. As a result, managers must be capable of implementing and executing business strategies as needed. In order to bring about transformation, managers must be willing to experiment and quickly adjust to situations, rather than going through lengthy planning processes, as is the case most of the time.

3. Harmonizing

The final skill, harmonizing, is linked to the multi-dimensional framework of transformation’s integration mechanism, and demands managers to integrate new goods and processes into the organization’s existing operations.

Managers must be able to bring together the old “physical business units” with the new “digital business units” and reconcile any disagreements that may arise during the transformation process as a crucial change agent.

Sum of Digital Transformation – Awareness, Acceleration and Harmonizing the new Status-Quo – Source: Dr. René Bohnsack

To summarize, successful strategic transformation takes time and effort, and firms considering a change should have managers with the talents listed above to handle the challenges of transformation and reap the benefits of its outcomes.

Bringing Things To A Close

Strategic transformation is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, and understanding it on a managerial level is critical in order to build a framework for change and successfully implement it. Above all, the top management team should be aware of the changing environment and have an open mind when it comes to identifying gaps in existing operations, the ability to accelerate the execution and experimentation of new processes, and the ability to harmonize all of these within the existing organization. And keep in mind that once you start your metamorphosis, it will never end.

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Workshop Exercises

Framework Introduction Exercises

01. Breakthrough Value: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
02. Strategic Analysis: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
03. Change Framework: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
04. Navigating Change: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
05. Transformation Strategies: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
06. Transitional Plan: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
07. MBT Framework: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
08. Best Practices: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
09. Communication: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
10. Employee-Centered: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
11. Resistance: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?
12. Leadership & Stakeholders: Explain in your own words how this process will directly impact upon your department?

 

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SWOT & MOST Analysis Exercises

01. Undertake a detailed SWOT Analysis in order to identify your department’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in relation to each of the 12 Framework Introduction processes featured above. Undertake this task together with your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.

02. Develop a detailed MOST Analysis in order to establish your department’s: Mission; Objectives; Strategies and Tasks in relation to Framework Introduction. Undertake this task together with all of your department’s stakeholders in order to encourage collaborative evaluation.

 

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Project Studies

Project Study (Part 1) – Customer Service

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 2) – E-Business

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 3) – Finance

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 4) – Globalization

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 5) – Human Resources

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 6) – Information Technology

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 7) – Legal

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 8) – Management

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 9) – Marketing

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 10) – Production

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 11) – Logistics

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Project Study (Part 12) – Education

The Head of this Department is to provide a detailed report relating to the Framework Introduction process that has been implemented within their department, together with all key stakeholders, as a result of conducting this workshop, incorporating process: planning; development; implementation; management; and review. Your process should feature the following 12 parts:

01. Breakthrough Value
02. Strategic Analysis
03. Change Framework
04. Navigating Change
05. Transformation Strategies
06. Transitional Plan
07. MBT Framework
08. Best Practices
09. Communication
10. Employee-Centered
11. Resistance
12. Leadership & Stakeholders

Please include the results of the initial evaluation and assessment.

 

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Program Benefits