Technology Invoked Change – Workshop 3 (Technology Leadership)
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Technology Invoked Change is provided by Mr. Horrocks Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 12 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
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Learning Provider Profile
Mr Horrocks, M.SC, B.Eng., C.Eng. has had a long career dealing with technology in various industries beginning in his early years as an engineer with the application of computers to machine tools both in structural Analysis and automated tool changing. His development with technology has followed both the computer-based developments through CAD, CAM, CIM and robotics to materials such as carbon fibre and the use of lightweight metals. He has been in the vanguard of introducing critical technology applications, such as low-power lasers for aligning machine tools to applying visual simulation techniques for assessing manufacturing lines and warehouse design.
As the technology matured, Mr Horrocks moved from the technical design to implementation, exploring why seemingly good projects and technologies failed. This led to change management and the impact that technology has on both people and processes.
Mr Horrocks began his career in machine tools after taking a mechanical engineering degree and a master’s in machine tool technology, focusing on designing future machine tools, for example, replacing cast structures with fabricated ones. This is Mr Horrocks’s genuine interest and capability in analysis and using computer tools to provide data for decision-making. Mr Horrocks next career move was into production consulting, analysing, and improving production processes.
Gradually Mr Horrocks became engaged in computer systems for design, process planning, and commercial processes, covering designing new applications and supporting customers with their implementation. Implementation work developed from training on new transactions and data migration to helping the organization through the required change. Again, this aligns well with Mr Horrocks’s natural disposition to create solid personal bonds, building strong customer trust.
• Depth of research
• Depth of experience
• Ability to relate customer situation to his experience.
• Anecdotal capability
• Simplifying tools and examples
• Good presentation skills
• Has undertaken the work personally within a wide range of industries and company profiles.
Mr Horrocks delivers engaging workshops and support materials; his rich tapestry of experience across different industries, company sizes, cultures, and ownerships enables him to relate to each client’s unique situation quickly. His style enables him to challenge management teams and proffer solutions when they appear stuck, changing the status quo. Mr Horrocks brings leading-edge tools that provide insights and vital decision-support information. Mr Horrocks has a lengthy mentoring background and is an experienced exponent of the art through online mediums.
MOST Analysis
Mission Statement
The programme’s mission is to
1. Embed a process within the organisation to effectively manage selecting, purchasing and implementing technology within the business.
2. Build the Competence of business leaders to identify technology, select appropriate vendors and manage their teams and vendors in its implementation.
3. Build communication and listening skills across the business so that the rationale for change and its benefits are fully understood, and buy-in is achieved with most staff.
4. Build support processes in areas such as horizon scanning.
5. Developing a project portfolio process that embraces not just the digital aspects in the process but those applied to sustainability and appropriate products/services, which might include
6. Provide a suite of tools and templates that speed up decision-making and remove any subjectivity.
7. Introduce key techniques that make the capturing, analysing and remodelling processes faster and easier to assimilate.
8. Promoting the concept that there is a need for a core team of staff across all levels of the business that are skilled in change tools and techniques
9. Developing the project and programme management capability to the point of establishing a Project Management Office for larger projects and continuing developments
10. Embedding a benefits assessment and monitoring process that operates with traditional return on investment analyses and can be tracked back to actions undertaken as part of the implementation and adoption of technology.
11. Implementing or improving the balanced scorecard approach to ensure the value of any technology is correctly measured, and plan adjustments can be implemented rapidly to effect the outcome.
Objectives
1. Improve the success ratio of technology programmes
Rationale
Most Technology implementation programmes need to deliver on their promised benefits or the company’s future vision; more than 60% cost more than the original budget and are completed late. Better use of capital and adoption of the proposed solution will reduce the stress at the senior management level, improve relationships with stakeholders, improve sustainability and enhance the customer experience.
2. The commitment of the senior management team
Rationale
Technology-driven transformation requires all senior management to speak the same language and articulate the same vision. Also, when the programme hits difficulties, they are as a team committed to finding solutions and combatting the inevitable resistance to change. They need to encourage collaboration at all levels and ensure that supporting the programme is career-enhancing.
3. Compelling Reason
Rationale
Without a compelling reason(s) for the programme and the inability to answer the question ‘why’, the programme will fail.
4. Metrics of success
Rationale
For each staff member, the ability to state what good looks like at all levels within the organisation, both corporately and at the personal level, will provide momentum to the programme. Using unambiguous metrics makes reporting and celebrating success much more accessible.
5. Creating a robust, repeatable process for technology programmes
Rationale
This is unlikely to be a one-off exercise. Therefore, enacting a proven process enables management to be flexible in resourcing and use projects as personal development opportunities without risking the quality of the outcomes.
6. Raising the appreciation of change and change management skill levels
Rationale
Change needs to be understood, and when it is forced on staff is never well accepted and is unlikely to be self-sustaining. Awareness of change, answering the What is in it for Me question and enabling all staff to contribute where possible. Extensive training and career opportunities, plus rewarding success, are fundamental. Engaging Change Agents internally to undertake change actions and communicate with co-workers can be transformative.
7. Change the perception and acceptance of benefits to drive change
Rationale
In many transformations, senior executives are sceptical that benefits are just a marketing exercise to sell the project but are unattainable; alternatively, they are used by finance to pressure operational management. Engaging in the cross-functional assessment of benefits, which provides a sight of the full value available but also recognises that this will not be a single target, keeps all management onside.
8. Developing a deeper understanding of processes
Rationale
Applying any technology requires a deep understanding of the process, not just at the transactional level but as an overall operating model. The detail is essential as this highlights stories of waste in redundant and duplicated activities, mismatch of business rules across departmental boundaries and the extent of personal systems and data sources by visual models that can be shared at all levels with the detail defined by front-line staff, managers, and executives, a better level of understanding the of the impact of poor process design. All technology will be implemented at a process level.
9. Resolving the departmental end-to-end process dichotomy
Rationale
Organisations have evolved through the application of command-and-control theory. Managers are asked to manage a skilled resource, the process scope being the conversion of inputs from other departments, customers or suppliers into an output. Their responsibility is to manage the attendance and development of the team to make it capable of functioning to metrics defined within the department. These metrics maybe make the end-to-end processes they are part of sub-optimal. Helping departmental managers understand their responsibility to the end-to-end process and aligning the performance measures accordingly will be fundamental to any transformation.
10. Understanding that robust support processes are required
Rationale
Technological change still involves the staff in the organisation and requires good underlying IT Infrastructure. Therefore, the support provided by HR and IT needs to be best in class, whether supplied through internal staff, external suppliers or a hybrid. The processes and metrics must engage with the strategic elements in the balanced scorecard organisational capability, which is two-fold, cultural and knowledge-base and IT capability. Processes such as IT security, hardware provision, Training, reward, remuneration, and appraisals must align with future business requirements.
Strategies
1. Improve the success ratio of technology programmes.
1.1 Rationale
Most Technology implementation programmes must deliver on their promised benefits or the company’s future vision; more than 60% cost more than the original budget and are completed late. Better use of capital and adoption of the proposed solution will reduce the stress at the senior management level, improve relationships with stakeholders, improve sustainability and enhance the customer experience.
1.2 Strategy
Educate and validate the understanding of all key stakeholders regarding what technology is being employed, what impacts are likely, what mitigating actions can be taken and how planning and monitoring will be fundamental. The business must own the project and be prepared to make difficult decisions during the implementation.
2. The commitment of the senior management team
2.1 Rationale
Technology-driven transformation requires all senior management to speak the same language and articulate the same vision. Also, when the programme hits difficulties, they are as a team committed to finding solutions and combatting the inevitable resistance to change. They need to encourage collaboration at all levels and ensure that supporting the programme is career-enhancing.
2.2 Strategy
Senior management develops the future vision using simple tools such as the Customer Value proposition and the Business Model Canvas, collaborating as a team. Each executive and manager is trained to articulate this vision from a business and staff perspective using their own words but promoting a core message. Active listening and providing counterarguments to staff members will be encouraged.
3. Compelling Reason
3.1 Rationale
Without a compelling reason(s) for the programme and the inability to answer the question ‘why’, the programme will fail.
3.2 Strategy
Building the new business and operating models will need research to support the need for change. Presenting this as a business case will align the issues needing to be addressed with the planned actions, including training, personal development and new career opportunities.
4. Metrics of success
4.1 Rationale
The ability to state what good looks like at all levels within the organisation, corporately and personally, for each staff member will provide momentum to the programme. Using unambiguous metrics makes reporting and celebrating success much more accessible.
4.2 Strategy
Starting with the balanced scorecard and a generic set of KPIs, we will build or refresh the existing business metrics. We will seek to balance the usual lagging financial indicators with more leading ones for customers and internal processes. We will also encourage using measures for organisational capability covering culture and innovation, IT capability covering infrastructure, security management, paperless reporting and mobile device management.
5. Creating a robust, repeatable process for technology programmes
5.1 Rationale
This is unlikely to be a one-off exercise. Therefore, enacting a proven process enables management to be flexible in resourcing and use projects as personal development opportunities without risking the quality of the outcomes.
5.2 Strategy
We will discuss the process steps offered in the course and modify this to suit the company’s situation. We will examine the present processes employed to manage any technological application and redesign it where necessary. The course will encourage establishing partners with research organisations and trade bodies. During the period, we will test the quality of any redesign and modify it accordingly, ensuring that we have applied suitable metrics to monitor performance easily.
6. Raising the appreciation of change and change management skill levels
6.1 Rationale
Change needs to be understood, and when it is forced on staff is never well accepted and is unlikely to be self-sustaining. Awareness of change, answering the What is in it for Me question and enabling all staff to contribute where possible. Extensive training and career opportunities, plus rewarding success, are fundamental. Engaging Change Agents internally to undertake change actions and communicate with co-workers can be transformative.
6.2 Strategy
We will provide routes for all staff to engage in change, from those very keen to those who do not relish the thought—starting with extensive communication sessions backed up with one-to-one or group questions and answer sessions. Online training on fundamental change management skills will be implemented, and a process to identify and train change agents is expected. Success and failure will be recognised, and in the latter case, lessons learned will be documented and shared.
For those members of staff that cannot manage the change within the organisation, the programme will anticipate that alternatives are offered, such as redundancy or support to find alternative employment.
7. Change the perception and acceptance of benefits to drive change.
7.1 Rationale
In many transformations, senior executives are sceptical that benefits are just a marketing exercise to sell the project but are unattainable; alternatively, they are used by finance to pressure operational management. Engaging in the cross-functional assessment of benefits, which provides a sight of the total value available but also recognises that this will not be a single target, keeps all management onside.
7.2 Strategy
The basis of the benefits assessment will be the executive assessment process. Within this process, we categorise benefits into three impacts Displaced Costs (one-off benefits mainly),Increased Productivity and Increased Revenue. We then apply a degree of difficulty of implementation (High, Medium and Low), which relates to the level of control the company has in implementing the change; for example, the likely level of internal resistance or, in the case of revenue, the level of influence the company has over customers. Each degree of difficulty applies a different percentage to the total value of the benefit. Splitting the benefit across all three degrees of difficulty in any category is possible. Having identified the total benefit value and a more ‘realistic’ value, these values can be further modified by applying Control System Theory. This theory states that when applying any measure to monitor a process, you must allow for natural variation, meaning the initial value will have an upper and lower limit. Using this theory, we avoid the single-figure measurement and fail when it is not achieved. So managers are more committed to achieving it. It also lets us practice celebrating successes when the realistic or more optimistic target is hit but not class a failure when the measure dips one month.
8. Developing a deeper understanding of processes
8.1 Rationale
Applying any technology requires a deep understanding of the process, not just at the transactional level but as an overall operating model. The detail is essential as this highlights stories of waste in redundant and duplicated activities, mismatch of business rules across departmental boundaries and the extent of personal systems and data sources. It uses visual models that can be shared at all levels with the detail defined by front-line staff, managers, and executives, understanding the impact of poor process design. All technology will be implemented at a process level.
8.2 Strategy
Process Modelling and Management is an expensive and long-winded activity requiring specialists to perform or document. The resulting documents are used once and are challenging to maintain. We demonstrate that these issues have been addressed with technology such as collaborative tools and digital twin business modelling tools. We examine the relationship between ‘What’ the company does and ‘How’ it delivers. We use the parent-child concept to break down the core processes that the company employs through three levels; to develop the ‘What’ picture. The core processes will be selected from an internationally recognised set of process descriptions and scope.
This work is one with senior executives, managers and process staff. Once these first three levels are agreed upon, we work with managers and process staff to define the following two levels of “How’ the company conducts these processes. At this level, we can examine business rules that orchestrate the process, who does it, its effectiveness and the systems applied. Collaborative tools allow these meetings to be more easily managed and the results shared. They are enabling staff from different locations to be involved with less impact on their daily routine.
During this work, we ensure that the right level of understanding is achieved at every level of the company enabling senior executives and managers to make robust decisions on process change.
Supporting the collaborative approach to process modelling with electronic whiteboards and post-it notes, we will build a digital twin of the processes to examine how employing this technology moves the management of processes further, enabling.
• Lean and Customer Experience Analysis
• ASIS and TOBE comparisons
• System Rationalisation
• Organisational design
• Low-Code or No-code system implementations
9. Resolving the departmental end-to-end process dichotomy
9.1 Rationale
Organisations have evolved through the application of command-and-control theory. Managers are asked to manage a skilled resource, the process scope being the conversion of inputs from other departments, customers or suppliers into an output. Their responsibility is to manage the attendance and development of the team to make it capable of functioning to metrics defined within the department. These metrics maybe make the end-to-end processes they are part of sub-optimal. Helping departmental managers understand their responsibility to the end-to-end process and aligning the performance measures accordingly will be fundamental to any transformation.
9.2 Strategy
We are implementing technology that will cross departmental boundaries and improve end-to-end processes. Cutting across the ‘silos’ that are departments requires the next level of understanding of the process. To do this, we analyse the handover issues across the boundaries, such as;
• Duplication of work
• Conflict of differing business rules
• Creation of additional data sources (re-entry of data)
• Sub-optimisation of overall process performance
We will examine these issues and ensure that the technology is aimed at removing them. End-to-End process metrics are then deployed to the departmental activities undertaken to perform the process. These are then compared to existing measures and changes made where appropriate.
Conflicts in business rules will be discussed, and new rules will be developed to suit the end-to-end perspective.
10. Understanding that robust support processes are required.
10.1 Rationale
Technological change still involves the staff in the organisation and requires good underlying IT Infrastructure. Therefore, the support provided by HR and IT needs to be best in class, whether supplied through internal staff, external suppliers or a hybrid. The processes and metrics must engage with the strategic elements in the balanced scorecard organisational capability, which is two-fold, cultural and knowledge-base and IT capability. Functions such as IT security, hardware provision, Training, reward and remuneration and appraisals must align with the requirements of the future business.
10.2 Strategy
An initial capability maturity assessment will identify the status of the processes. Metrics will be set to these processes and be captured in the balanced scorecard. The evaluation will determine the performance gaps, and we will define a couple of projects focused on HR and IT to run in parallel with the technology project(s). If HR is provided through internal resources, we will examine ways in which HR advisors and L&D staff can become an integral part of the change team; in areas such as communications and training in skills such as lean, problem-solving and presentations.
Tasks
1 Improve the success ratio of technology programmes.
1.1 Rationale
Most Technology implementation programmes must deliver on their promised benefits or the company’s future vision; more than 60% cost more than the original budget and are completed late. Better use of capital and adoption of the proposed solution will reduce the stress at the senior management level, improve relationships with stakeholders, improve sustainability and enhance the customer experience.
1.2 Strategy
Educate and validate the understanding of all key stakeholders regarding what technology is being employed, what impacts are likely, what mitigating actions can be taken and how planning and monitoring will be fundamental. The business must own the project and be prepared to make difficult decisions during the implementation.
Tasks
• Conduct Stakeholder Assessment
• Conduct Individual awareness sessions
• Technology Impact Assessment
• Develop Project Portfolio
• Sign up for the Senior Management Charter
2 The commitment of the senior management team
2.1 Rationale
Technology-driven transformation requires all senior management to speak the same language and articulate the same vision. Also, when the programme hits difficulties, they are as a team committed to finding solutions and combatting the inevitable resistance to change. They need to encourage collaboration at all levels and ensure that supporting the programme is career-enhancing.
2.2 Strategy
Senior management develops the future vision using simple tools such as the Customer Value proposition and the Business Model Canvas, collaborating as a team. Each executive and manager is trained to articulate this vision from a business and staff perspective using their own words but promoting a core message. Active listening and providing counterarguments to staff members will be encouraged.
Tasks
• Conduct Customer Value Proposition Workshops
• Develop Business model Vision using Business Model Canvas
• Conduct one-to-one and group presentation sessions
• Monitor management communications sessions
• Provide Training for managers to communicate better or undertake active listening.
3 Compelling Reason
3.1 Rationale
Without a compelling reason(s) for the programme and the inability to answer the question ‘why’, the programme will fail.
3.2 Strategy
Building the new business and operating models will need research to support the need for change. Presenting this as a business case will align the issues needing to be addressed with the planned actions, including training, personal development and new career opportunities.
Tasks
• Build a business case to support the future vision
• The business case to cover corporate and personal benefits and changes
• Outline project outline and supporting activities such as training and IT infrastructure developments.
4 Metrics of success
4.1 Rationale
The ability to state what good looks like at all levels within the organisation, corporately and personally, for each staff member will provide momentum to the programme. Using unambiguous metrics makes reporting and celebrating success much more accessible.
4.2 Strategy
Starting with the balanced scorecard and a generic set of KPIs, we will build or refresh the existing business metrics. We will seek to balance the usual lagging financial indicators with more leading ones for customers and internal processes. We will also encourage using measures for organisational capability covering culture and innovation, IT capability covering infrastructure, security management, paperless reporting and mobile device management.
Tasks
• Review existing or build a new balanced scorecard
• Populate with existing KPIs, where available
• Run a workshop to select new or additional KPIs based on a generic set or other sources.
• Define a potential benchmarking partner, enter an information-sharing agreement, or join a benchmarking service.
• Add new KPIs for all sections of the balanced scorecard and set targets.
5 Creating a robust, repeatable process for technology programmes
5.1 Rationale
This is unlikely to be a one-off exercise. Therefore, enacting a proven process enables management to be flexible in resourcing and use projects as personal development opportunities without risking the quality of the outcomes.
5.2 Strategy
We will discuss the process steps offered in the course and modify this to suit the company’s situation. We will examine the present processes employed to manage any technological application and redesign it where necessary. The course will encourage establishing partners with research organisations and trade bodies. During the period, we will test the quality of any redesign and modify it accordingly, ensuring that we have applied suitable metrics to monitor performance easily.
Tasks
• Discuss and develop the proposed process.
• Examine all existing processes that are being used to manage technology projects.
• Decompose the proposed process down to the activity and task levels
• Set out the business rules and business roles
• Identify any research partners and seek cooperation agreements
• Set out process metrics, monitor and adjust processes during the project
6 Raising the appreciation of change and change management skill levels
6.1 Rationale
Change needs to be understood, and when it is forced on staff is never well accepted and is unlikely to be self-sustaining. Awareness of change, answering the What is in it for Me question and enabling all staff to contribute where possible. Extensive training and career opportunities, plus rewarding success, are fundamental. Engaging Change Agents internally to undertake change actions and communicate with co-workers can be transformative.
6.2 Strategy
We will provide routes for all staff to engage in change, from those very keen to those who do not relish the thought—starting with extensive communication sessions backed up with one-to-one or group questions and answer sessions. Online training on fundamental change management skills will be implemented, and a process to identify and train change agents is expected. Success and failure will be recognised, and in the latter case, lessons learned will be documented and shared.
For those members of staff that cannot manage the change within the organisation, the programme will anticipate that alternatives are offered, such as redundancy or support to find alternative employment.
Tasks
• Conduct a series of communications sessions, beginning with a company-wide one, followed by departmental, then one-to-one sessions, at each decomposing the impact from corporate to department to individual.
• Support the face-to-face with additional communications such as videos and newsletters.
• Contact critical suppliers and customers again with both face-to-face and other media.
• Discuss individual action plans and timelines for implementation, including help with leaving the business if that is the result of these consultations.
• Communicate through all media successes of the programme and operate workshops to discuss failures and document lessons learned for the remaining and future programmes.
7 Change the perception and acceptance of benefits to drive change.
7.1 Rationale
In many transformations, senior executives are sceptical that benefits are just a marketing exercise to sell the project but are unattainable; alternatively, they are used by finance to pressure operational management. Engaging in the cross-functional assessment of benefits, which provides a sight of the total value available but also recognises that this will not be a single target, keeps all management onside.
7.2 Strategy
The basis of the benefits assessment will be the executive assessment process. Within this process, we categorise benefits into three impacts Displaced Costs (one-off benefits mainly),Increased Productivity and Increased Revenue. We then apply a degree of difficulty of implementation (High, Medium and Low), which relates to the level of control the company has in implementing the change; for example, the likely level of internal resistance or, in the case of revenue, the level of influence the company has over customers. Each degree of difficulty applies a different percentage to the total value of the benefit. Splitting the benefit across all three degrees of difficulty in any category is possible. Having identified the total benefit value and a more ‘realistic’ value, these values can be further modified by applying Control System Theory. This theory states that when applying any measure to monitor a process, you must allow for natural variation, meaning the initial value will have an upper and lower limit. Using this theory, we avoid the single-figure measurement and fail when it is not achieved. So managers are more committed to achieving it. It also lets us practice celebrating successes when the realistic or more optimistic target is hit but not class a failure when the measure dips one month.
Tasks
• Conduct a senior management workshop to discuss benefits and explore the use of the assessment tool.
• Set out the business process model, define each technology project’s impact, and map it to the relevant projects.
• Calculate the overall benefit and apply the category and degree of difficulty to each one to create the rationalised value.
• Conduct workshops to apply upper and lower limits to each rationalised value.
• Produce monitoring template
8 Developing a deeper understanding of processes
8.1 Rationale
Applying any technology requires a deep understanding of the process, not just at the transactional level but as an overall operating model. The detail is essential as this highlights stories of waste in redundant and duplicated activities, mismatch of business rules across departmental boundaries and the extent of personal systems and data sources. It uses visual models that can be shared at all levels with the detail defined by front-line staff, managers, and executives, understanding the impact of poor process design. All technology will be implemented at a process level.
8.2 Strategy
Process Modelling and Management is an expensive and long-winded activity requiring specialists to perform or document. The resulting documents are used once and are challenging to maintain. We demonstrate that these issues have been addressed with technology such as collaborative tools and digital twin business modelling tools. We examine the relationship between ‘What’ the company does and ‘How’ it delivers. We use the parent-child concept to break down the core processes that the company employs through three levels; to develop the ‘What’ picture. The core processes will be selected from an internationally recognised set of process descriptions and scope.
This work is one with senior executives, managers and process staff. Once these first three levels are agreed upon, we work with managers and process staff to define the following two levels of “How’ the company conducts these processes. At this level, we can examine business rules that orchestrate the process, who does it, its effectiveness and the systems applied. Collaborative tools allow these meetings to be more easily managed and the results shared. They are enabling staff from different locations to be involved with less impact on their daily routine.
During this work, we ensure that the right level of understanding is achieved at every level of the company enabling senior executives and managers to make robust decisions on process change.
Supporting the collaborative approach to process modelling with electronic whiteboards and post-it notes, we will build a digital twin of the processes to examine how employing this technology moves the management of processes further, enabling.
• Lean and Customer Experience Analysis
• ASIS and TOBE comparisons
• System Rationalisation
• Organisational design
• Low-Code or No-code system implementations
Tasks
• Agree on a high-level Process model based on the “what’ and ‘how’ process breakdown.
• Breakdown the processes at level 3 into detailed sub-processes and activities using cross-functional teams
• Conduct a capability maturity assessment, produce a gap analysis
• Using the gap analysis as a steer for the cross-functional workshops, explore the reasons behind the gap; using Lean and customer experience tools, explore waste such as redundant or duplicate activity, poor business rules and multiple data sources
• Create TOBE process models based on re-engineering the ASIS
• Review the use of digital twinning and agree on a strategy for the future.
9 Resolving the departmental end-to-end process dichotomy
9.1 Rationale
Organisations have evolved through the application of command-and-control theory. Managers are asked to manage a skilled resource, the process scope being the conversion of inputs from other departments, customers or suppliers into an output. Their responsibility is to manage the attendance and development of the team to make it capable of functioning to metrics defined within the department. These metrics maybe make the end-to-end processes they are part of sub-optimal. Helping departmental managers understand their responsibility to the end-to-end process and aligning the performance measures accordingly will be fundamental to any transformation.
9.2 Strategy
We are implementing technology that will cross departmental boundaries and improve end-to-end processes. Cutting across the ‘silos’ that are departments requires the next level of understanding of the process. To do this, we analyse the handover issues across the boundaries, such as;
• Duplication of work
• Conflict of differing business rules
• Creation of additional data sources (re-entry of data)
• Sub-optimisation of overall process performance
We will examine these issues and ensure that the technology is aimed at removing them. End-to-End process metrics are then deployed to the departmental activities undertaken to perform the process. These are then compared to existing measures and changes made where appropriate.
Conflicts in business rules will be discussed, and new rules will be developed to suit the end-to-end perspective.
Tasks
• The outcomes of the end-to-end process analysis are presented to the departmental managers to discuss solutions and agree on actions to improve processes before any technology introduction.
• Remove unnecessary activities
• Remove personal uncontrolled data sources
• Implement management mandates to seek a single source of data
• Redesign business rules
• Document new business rules and communicate to staff
10 Understanding that robust support processes are required.
10.1 Rationale
Technological change still involves the staff in the organisation and requires good underlying IT Infrastructure. Therefore, the support provided by HR and IT needs to be best in class, whether supplied through internal staff, external suppliers or a hybrid. The processes and metrics must engage with the strategic elements in the balanced scorecard organisational capability, which is two-fold, cultural and knowledge-base and IT capability. Functions such as IT security, hardware provision, Training, reward and remuneration and appraisals must align with the requirements of the future business.
10.2 Strategy
An initial capability maturity assessment will identify the status of the processes. Metrics will be set to these processes and be captured in the balanced scorecard. The evaluation will determine the performance gaps, and we will define a couple of projects focused on HR and IT to run in parallel with the technology project(s). If HR is provided through internal resources, we will examine ways in which HR advisors and L&D staff can become an integral part of the change team; in areas such as communications and training in skills such as lean, problem-solving and presentations.
Tasks
• Using the outcome of the capability maturity matrix for the support processes in HR and IT, undertake a workshop to determine potential solutions.
• Use of external resources to fit skills gap
• Introduce new capabilities such as online training
• Developing present staff to undertake different roles, such as trainers or mentors
• Redesign reward and remuneration system to enable recognition of upskilling and support of any change initiative.
• Present revised departmental structure and capabilities to senior management
Introduction
Welcome to Technology Invoked Change, Workshop 3, Technology Leadership. This workshop will discuss leadership principles and the need for solid business visioning and communication capabilities. Coupled with empathy for employees viewing the coming changes and having the ability to take feedback.
We will examine a leader’s need to undertake robust strategic thinking and ask questions on your time management to enable this activity. We guide you in analysing and better managing your time using simple tools. To support your capability to undertake strategic thinking effectively, we discuss various methods for defining the business status and comparing it to competitors, such as the Blue Ocean strategy.
We review how leaders are developed, the supporting systems and how these operate in your business. How does the company apply the internal skills available, and what external resources do they use when required? We examine competency matrices and how these can be used to map out a leader’s learning journey.
Next, we look into the business and how it applies governance to manage the overall business and individual projects, particularly those with external partners. Governance is the process by which the company ensures an effective use of resources through accountability.
Stepping back to the strategy, the workshop works through Road Maps and their application to strategy. How they can be applied to provide a high-level connection between the vision, present status ASIS and future state, TOBE viewed across different themes and business processes, including products, operations, sales and marketing and organisational capability.
Early in the workshop, we discussed communication. In this later section, we examined the subject in more detail, looking at leadership characteristics and the need for good self-awareness. Finally, we explore the role of the communication plan and the use of all channels now available to leaders.
Next the workshop reviews technical management and how digital transformation drives more technical functions into leadership roles from not just IT infrastructure and software but data management and analysis, and cyber security, for example. With the growing diversity of roles and, therefore, skills, this will drive a need for more collaboration and communication to ensure successful technology implementations. This will come more into focus as businesses realise the value of their data and embark on monetisation.
Following on from the explosion of roles and skills at technical management level the workshop examines people management, the workshop explores managing staff, carer development and talent management; and the impact these all have on staff retention and organisation capability. The workshop will look at best practice and the use of competency matrices to develop leadership learning materials and application of coaching/mentoring.
The penultimate section covers partner selection and the criticality of this process to business success; especially as the business model becomes more entwined with digital capabilities. The workshop looks at culture fit and the need for clear governance of any partnership. Finally, the workshop will put forward good practice activities for managing the process and ensuring a good outcome.
The last section of the workshop explores the resistance to change that will be inevitable and how to manage it early and effectively. Referring back to workshop 1 and Product /technology Adoption and the different characteristics that employees will display. Communication will be crucial and best practices will be discussed and ways in which this can be incorporated into the organisations communication plan.
The workshop has several case studies for each subject heading and a short exercise after each one for the group to explore their understanding. The workshop text is supported by templates that can be applied to gather information for future decision-making. Finally, a short questionnaire will examine your individual and company attitudes to technology based on the adoption curve.
Executive Summary
This workshop will focus on the requirements for leaders across the business to manage technology implementations. This will require leadership from the C Suite through departmental management to leaders with the staff.
Chapter 1: Leadership Principles
Understanding the core principles that a leader will need to manage new technology in the business will provide the backcloth to the workshop contents and demonstrate the complexity of relationships between them.
• This section will cover the following subjects;
• Preparing engaging visions of the future.
• Enabling the vision of that impact to be understood at all levels.
• Managing a communication plan that sustains and builds support
• How to identify and engage the right people throughout the business
• Clearly understanding the ASIS position and the effort required to move to the TOBE
• Setting and monitoring targets
• Being agile and supporting local decision-making
As a leader, the challenge is to try and avoid being dragged into the details but require a certain level of understanding to make the correct decisions and support other managers’ decision-making.
The rapid growth in technology-driven projects has changed the leadership profile and requirements. A recent Deloitte survey suggests that technology leadership has become a team sport that relies on communication, coordination, collaboration and co-creation skills. The change is seen in the appreciation of digital technologies across the business, such as moving from a cost centre to a value and revenue-generating function; rather than being a support function seen as a leading one, extending monetising opportunities from data, multiple skills are required which is becoming difficult for a single person to deliver; a range of tasks requiring input from technology leaders is very diverse from strategy, to operational efficiency and cyber security.
We will discuss how organisations need to evolve to embrace these changes and enable the requirement to make technology leadership as effective as possible. This will examine the need for technology leaders to drive innovation, increase tech fluency, support business strategic planning, and provide data and insights for other functions, such as HR, regarding equality, diversity, and compliance to meet environmental legislation.
Survey results from Technology Leaders responses and the top five areas of focus from 1100+ respondents
• If not leading tech programmes such as innovation, tech fluency and strategic planning, then providing data and insights for equality and diversity and ESG compliance
Chapter 2: Strategic Thinking
Allowing enough time within your schedule to facilitate strategic thinking is a common problem among most C-Suite executives. We will examine ways to detox the executive’s schedule by analysing the activities; the average time wasted on worthless activities is more than 20%. However, we get addicted to busyness and must identify this waste of time and change habits correctly. We need to claim this time back because good management practice states that strategic thinking needs to occupy at least 20% of an executive’s time.
There is a need to be able to change focus from operational demands to strategic thinking, as the horizons and timelines are entirely different. It is suggested that the C-Suite focus should be beyond 12 months and their role in operations to support decision-making when operational management cannot reach an agreement.
The ideal horizon for technology should meet that of the business, which will be at least five years and as far out as 30 years. The longer horizon for technology is too long as the development cycles, though quick, will have too many unknowns.
From a business perspective, we have covered horizon scanning, which will cover technology; therefore, the technology will need to be interpreted within strategy meetings to enable other executives to fully immerse themselves in technology to understand the impact and how the business vision can be delivered. Five years on, all businesses will be subject to significant change driven by technology.
From a business perspective, simple decision-making tools such as SWOT and PESTLE are applied to look forward, assess the impact and define suitable actions. We will have two considerations about technology: the existing legacy systems and data and technology developments. In this latter category, the reference point needs to be the risk culture of the business. This will be contained in the risk framework discussed in Workshop 2; the workshop will examine the option when considering risks to add a classification for technology.
Once a technology is chosen, the company can work back from 5 years minimum in terms of finances and create a vision regarding business capabilities required for the strategic objectives, the technology chosen to be applied and the resultant change tackled in workshop two under Benefits Management.
Benchmarking and competitor analysis to meet the analysis needs are recognised as effective for operational comparisons; the workshop will examine the role benchmarking can play, particularly in digital. What sources are available? How does the company evaluate the quality of the information from all the dimensions of any implementation, software, external consultancy, or internal change management?
Chapter 3: Personal Development
When we discuss leadership, we must look introspectively and assess what personal development would be of benefit. Part of this workshop will suggest that a self-inventory of capability is undertaken. If you wish to get the most out of this, then adopting a 360 process with selected colleagues with whom you have the bulk of your interactions is discussed.
In many companies, this process is included in the Personal Development Plan managed by HR, which should align with goals that align with the strategic ones and relate to performance measures. We discuss the application of Objectives and Key Results (OKR), which aims to combine the strategic view with outcomes.
The self-inventory will relate to the key characteristics expected of technology leaders;
• Communication all forms
• Collaboration
• Co-ordination
• Co-creation
As leaders are busy and the requirements will not be uniform across the group, the strength of the internal learning capability will be paramount to the successful development outcomes.
The workshop will explore the leading platforms for delivering e-learning, certification, internal mentoring and knowledge management. Innovations in this space include conversational learning using messaging technology to provide microlearning and knowledge sharing across a geographically spread workforce.
A vital element of this development will be sharing and demonstrating your willingness to learn and develop as a leader to motivate and inspire others to take the challenge.
Relate elements of development to demonstrate a willingness to take the challenge.
Finally, this section of the workshop will investigate how technology leadership is being demanded across the C Suite, and this provides opportunities for COOs and CEOs to develop and shine, again providing a more robust response to technology discussions and decision-making. We will discuss how they can link the business vision and purpose and the capability provided by technologies. Promoting the ability to take on a broader responsibility and embracing the fact that several models might be employed to manage and deliver capability such as;
• Agile vs Waterfall
• Project or Product based
• On-premise vs Cloud
Finally, transformational develop organisational capability and creates alliances across the business to build teams and share resources and budgets.
Chapter 4: Governance
As a leader, all your stakeholders look to you to ensure the correct checks and balances for all decisions made. In technology, mainly digital-related, the impact can be significant on the business model, organisational structure and customers, and the costs can be very high.
Sometimes, the pressure on making a decision can be enormous from competitor improvements, new challengers and internal staff requesting more modern technology. Most governance systems are seen as bureaucratic and designed to slow decision-making down and removing mandates from the front line. The traditional mechanisms are designed to control, have multiple levels of sign-off, and, as a result, cause friction between layers of management and departments.
The workshop discusses implementing a modern governance system that avoids these pitfalls but provides the correct level of control. Recognising that in addition to the accounting and quality standards such as IFRS and ISO9000, there are now environmental and risk standards ISO14000 and ISO31000 and the reporting required to meet ESG monitoring.
With a matrixed organisation, there is still a need to provide the requisite clarity of roles and the provision of guardrails within an efficient decision-making structure that is dynamic to meet the pace of change and technology implementation. The mantra for design should be to move from control to enablement, bottlenecks to automated flow and from friction to co-creation. (Deloitte 2023 Global Technology Leadership Study).
Within the workshop, we will explain how to bring a governance structure into the processes used to manage the technology implementation. These processes need governance for;
• Selecting and managing internal and external stakeholders.
• Defining ranking criteria for managing ranking projects within the project portfolio.
• Clarifying the delivery capability, including the achievement of any sustainability goals
• Developing business goals and their translation into Key Performance Indicators
• Allocating and monitoring the roles and responsibilities within a project using tools such as RACI
• Managing process changes and maintaining the appropriate certification.
Reporting is the final piece of this puzzle, covering formal statutory reporting to HMRC extended reporting such as Sarbannes-Oxley and ESG. Internal reporting should cover project performance, technology impacts and notable staff contributions. Return on investment and meeting business objectives. External reporting would be selected from this list.
Chapter 5: Road Mapping
How do we connect strategic outputs and their execution? Doing this through planning is difficult as the detail required for activity planning against a timeline does not naturally happen. A road map can bridge the strategic objectives and the implementation plan. The bridge is a time-based vision of the critical outcomes required to achieve the strategic objectives. Through this process, the company can understand the organisation’s capabilities, gaps and priorities that must be addressed during the implementation.
The Road Map deals with the what and why and the implementation plan the how. The road map identifies the required changes and the rationale behind them. The Execution plan will describe how these changes will be enacted through activities, start and end dates and resource allocation.
The workshop will deal with methods for completing the road map, and though this does not need to be prescriptive, a process for completing it is recommended. For example, we review the methods promoted by Chuen Seet, Co-Founder at Jibility. If the company requires a fast and agile approach, such as an objective-based one, this can be based on strategic objectives or goals defined in the strategy process. In this case, the goals will be measurable and associated with Key Performance Indicators. The alternative to goal-based is issue-based, which has identified the improvements needed to achieve the strategy and convert these into objectives. The four steps to building the bridge are then.
• Define the organisational objectives.
• Nominate Objectives
• Build Initiatives
• Develop the road map
A more detailed approach promoted by JiBility is Capability-based. It introduces two more steps to assess the organisation’s capabilities and define the actions required to change them to meet the objectives. The capabilities are described in terms of people, processes and assets.
Chapter 6: Communication
Communication is one of the fundamental elements required to ensure that technology implementations are successful. The workshop will explore good practice in communication and then move on to how this compares with present practice within the company and the potential changes required.
It is recognised that poor communication can lead to low morale, missed performance goals and even lost sales. A study showed that poor communication can cost companies millions of dollars annually, and even smaller companies can experience losses in the hundreds of thousands. In a leadership role, communication is vital to share the vision, empower employees, build trust, and successfully navigate change within your projects.
Good communication inspires positivity, and leaders can achieve incremental change by empowering others. Poor communication can lead to information being misinterpreted, resulting in damage to relationships and, subsequently, barriers to progress.
There are several recognised skills that leaders must master to be good communicators. We will look at 8 of these in the workshop; in summary, these are;
• An ability to adapt your communication style – firstly, understand your style and then know when to tailor that style to your audience to ensure the right level of influence and reach the organisational goals.
• Active Listening – it is essential to know when to talk and when to listen; ask for employee opinions, ideas and feedback. Use open questions to enable them to elaborate their ideas and take notes.
• Transparency is a regularly recorded fact that many managers, executives and employees know what is happening in the organisation. Regular communication about goals, opportunities, and challenges will help build trust and foster collaboration.
• Clarity – always speak in specifics, goals, milestones and project outcomes. Use failures to achieve these targets as a need to improve the clarity of communication and more feedback.
• As mentioned above, the ability to ask open-ended questions is a crucial skill and using phrases such as ‘tell me more’, explain what you mean, and ‘define that term or concept for me’ will significantly enhance communication outcomes.
• Empathy – rated the top leadership skill. The better you acknowledge and understand employees’ feelings and experiences, the more valued they will feel.
• Open Body Language – it is known that over 90% of communication impact comes from non-verbal clues. Ensure you understand your body language, adjust to remove negative signs, and always maintain eye contact to establish interest and rapport.
• Receiving and Implementing Feedback builds your capability as a leader and builds trust with your team, but don’t just take in feedback; act on it.
Chapter 7: Technical Management
Since 2020, technology has been rapidly reinventing how business operates. Along with the additional pressures and influences created by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Deloitte’s words, ‘ led to a dispersion and expansion of the technical leadership role; technology increased its influence beyond an enabler of strategy to one of co-creation of it.
The spread of responsibility goes from innovation and strategy to operational reliability and cyber security. This multi-modal expectation of technical leadership is seen in the list below, which shows the top 5 areas that tech leaders stated they spent most of their time in a recent survey conducted by Deloitte’s
• Business/digital strategy development
• Business/digital strategy execution Innovation
• Security, risk, and compliance
• Stakeholder influence
• Operational reliability and delivery
• Leadership/talent development
• Driving organisational tech fluency
• Architecture Data management and analytics I
• Infrastructure and platforms
(source: Deloitte 2023 Global Technology Leadership Study)
With this broad portfolio of work and influence, the competencies required can be summarised in five main areas;
• Engineer
• Architect
• Data Scientist
• Change Agent
• Owner
We examine these in more depth in the workshop and discuss how this diversity of roles has led to tech leadership being split across multiple roles within the organisation. Effective management of these roles can have a dramatic impact on business performance. In Deloitte’s internal example, they have, since 2020, grown revenue faster than headcount and, through standardisation and automation, released 6.7 million hours.
The expanded role for tech leaders provides a unique opportunity;
• Aligning the technical leadership with the company’s purpose and strongly espousing it
• Ensure that with correct governance and decision-making processes, bureaucracy is avoided, but insecure decisions are avoided
• Look outside the tech department and take on unfamiliar roles; expand horizons beyond the technical one
• Embrace a multi-modal operating model and recognise the opportunity for matrix management
• Move from enacting transforming the enterprise to transformational leadership
Chapter 8: People Management
The rapid development of technology means companies have a skill shortage to manage the technology and work with technology suppliers. This section of the workshop will cover the following topics.
• Talent management
• Development processes for internal staff
• Leveraging projects to extend internal resources
• Use of online learning resources
• Utilising the multi-modal delivery requirement to develop executives, managers and staff with new career paths
Understanding that processes such as talent management were initially based on standardised HR processes, we will investigate how we tackle the need to make these processes more dynamic and agile and also address the wide variety of expectations across the workforce from Baby Boomers (1946=-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Millennials.
(1981-1996) and Generation Z (1995-2009). Talent Management must be closely linked with strategy and technology programmes as requirements become highlighted, which has yet to be foreseen. The process will still need planning, recruitment, development and retention. The latter is significant in technology fields. Digital solutions have been applied to Talent management through online platforms. Typical functionality will be candidate management, intelligent sourcing, interview management, applicant tracking, analysis, onboarding and learning development. The latter should offer ease to engage learning opportunities which encourage self-development.
Technology projects offer opportunities to expose internal talent to new challenges, including management or technical requirements. This is particularly relevant in the new multi-modal delivery model, where the technology can include data elements, AI, and cyber. These subjects will need suitable management at all levels within the organisation. They are opening new career paths for senior executives, younger managers, and promising junior staff.
Chapter 9: Partner Selection
Choosing the correct technology partner is vital for several reasons.
• The ability of the technology to deliver the capability it promises.
• The partner’s capacity to provide their resources on time and within budget.
• The correct cultural match to avoid conflicts during the project.
Choosing a technology and a delivery partner also means the agreement to a long-term relationship where the partner will still provide services beyond the handover point. The proper selection means choosing a solution you can afford and a partner joining the internal team. Is partnering better than internal development? The considered answer is yes, as the complexity of the solution in terms of customer experience requires external partners.
Getting into this mindset, mainly if the previous system developments have all been in-house, can be tricky to master, with engrained culture, team silos and existing vendor relationships. Plus, there is the big issue of trust, and even a very successful project in adoption and ROI will be subject to challenges as technology moves. Providing future-proofing is not possible.
For example, many websites now support FAQs, but customers want more. They expect a help centre with dynamic content implemented in real-time, reflecting what customers are searching for. Introducing AI or machine learning takes this experience in other helpful articles one step further.
Tailor your solution selection to meet your budget; look for the smallest number of suppliers to deal with and seek to implement the solution using agile and small steps or sprints with gradually developing MVPs. Using this approach encourages stakeholder involvement through testing and offering suggestions for improvement.
Trust must be earned by exceeding the essential deliverables, helping you understand the less-known features. They will be able to match the functionality of your business from their analysis and understanding of your business. Finally, as part of your internal team, this third entity, which covers both parties, must be nurtured and managed to meet the joint needs adequately.
Chapter 10: Barriers
Leaders need to be aware of barriers to change and that there are several well-respected models to help them tackle the issue head-on. The workshop will examine some of these techniques, such as ADKAR, which addresses the fear of failure and the need for knowledge and reinforcement. John Kotter’s model with 8 Stesp seeks to create a sense of urgency, build a coalition, make a vision, create a change agency, enable capability, celebrate wins, and sustain and institutionalise the change.
Each model has its approach and merits, and through the workshop, we will examine how, as a leader, you can decide which might suit the company best.
As a leader, you will need to be able to distinguish between organisational and individual resistance to change;
• Organisational resistance, the immune system wanting to stick to the status quo, internal power struggles, bureaucratic structures, poor decision-making and unconfident leadership.
• Individual resistance relates to job security, economics and habits.
With the proper communication process in place, it should be possible to detect these issues early and allocate time to determining the causes, enabling the planning of different incentives or other tactics such as self-development or new roles to be applied.
Another model of note is the Maurer three levels of resistance to change shown below.
Emotional response can be managed with empathy and support systems; as you can see from above, communication will play a big part in addressing the first and third boxes by explaining the change in terms understandable to all parties, defining the benefit to the individual as well as the business, and with appropriate empathy and understanding.
Which will create trust. By tackling existing cultures and norms, leaders must seek an adaptive, open-minded, agile, learning-centric culture.
Only 26% of transformations succeed, so what are the key reasons
• Lack of trust and engagement
• Poor communication
• Past failures
• Bad Timing – aware of context and present circumstances
There are Seven recognised ways to tackle resistance
• Communicate benefits
• Use a wide range of people across the business initially to frame the change.
• Address any concerns about the impact on the role and process
• Provide training and support
• Celebrate small wins
• Instil a culture of change to encourage innovation, experimentation and Continuous Improvement.
• Measure and evaluate the benefits at both corporate and individual levels
Curriculum
Technology Invoked Change – Workshop 3 – Technology Leadership
- Leadership Principles
- Strategic Thinking
- Personal Development
- Governance
- Road Mapping
- Communication
- Technical Management
- People Management
- Partner Selection
- Barriers
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Technology Invoked Change 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 Technology Invoked Change 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.
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.
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.
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.
Time Management
It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Technology Invoked Change 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 Technology Invoked Change 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.
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.
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).
Tutorial Support
Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Technology Invoked Change 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.
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.
Individual training workshops or telephone support
Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
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.
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.
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.
Qualification Requirements
The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Technology Invoked Change corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Technology Invoked Change 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.
Technology Invoked Change – 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
Preliminary Analysis
Core Objective
The core objective of Workshop 3 is to validate the excellent practice of Technology Leadership to build a framework that can be applied to the development of the management team.
This workshop discusses leadership principles, which should be contained in several documents; ideally, they would be detailed in a Management Handbook, including the values the business operates under, meeting schedules, outlined agendas, and how to treat colleagues. It may also detail the critical communication characteristics expected when dealing with colleagues.
Review how the company deals with strategic thinking; is this a continuous process, or is it concentrated in a single event such as Strategy Weekend with limited participants? How do you handle your own time? How good is your time management, and does this allow you to have 20% of your week available to think strategically rather than dealing with the day-to-day?
Do you have a method for managing your own time with rules to manage what you spend your time on, what you delegate and what you do not spend any time on/
Review the KPIs being applied within the business. Do they feel balanced across all the dimensions that need to be measured, such as customers, operational performance, innovation and organisational capability? Can you identify who owns the end-to-end process and the associated KPIs, and how and when these KPIs are reported?
What tools or techniques are used and documented within the business to support strategic thinking? Examine how the last strategy was developed and how ASIS’s operational performance and market situation were presented. How were the options for the TOBE future model developed and agreed on, and how did the company define the gap between the ASIS and TOBE positions? Look for ways the company utilises any input from employees and customers and how well the competition is analysed.
The following research focuses on your personal development plan; examine how you decide what skills need improving or developing, what resources are available, and how easy they are to activate. In more junior roles, does the company offer coaching and mentoring from either other staff or externals; in senior roles, are you offering coaching/mentoring to junior staff, and have you tested and validated your skills?
Is there a way to assess your critical skills as a communicator or the level of emotional intelligence which can lead to suggestions for internal training materials, external courses, or coaching? For example, if you have coaching as an option for your development, what model do they use to support its delivery?
Next in the analysis of the existing situation is the existence of any governance document, which should include
• Business Rules and Policy for
– Operational processes
– Projects (both internal and customer-related)
– Sustainability (environment, society and governance)
– Diversity, Equality and inclusion
– Innovation
• Board structure and Mandates
• Risk Management Framework
• KPIs and related process metrics
How often is this updated, is it under version control and who is responsible for it?
During the review of strategic thinking, look for any evidence of road mapping and a high-level timeline of the activities required to complete the strategic objectives. Any road map will relate to the themes related to business operations, product development, technology implementation and organisational capability. A road map will highlight the interdependency of activities in each theme over a 3 -5-year timeline.
Workshop three strongly emphasises communication as part of this analysis, establishing all the formal methods of communication used in the organisation, from board meetings and whole company sessions to departmental and operational meetings. Try to gain a sense of the effectiveness of these meetings in
• Clarity of message
• One or two-way communication
• Decision-making
• Time Keeping
Explore one-to-one and informal meetings within your working colleagues’ circle to explore similar criteria.
Within the workshop, we will examine how to manage technology best; as part of this initial analysis, it is recommended that research into two aspects is conducted. How are all the technical responsibilities allocated and managed, covering data, infrastructure, software, and security? How is collaboration delivered and budgets shared if this is a split responsibility? The second is talent management and development, including retraining employees and using external partners.
The next subject is people management, an excellent follow-up to technical management and managing talent. Review your and your colleagues’ experiences of their relationship with their managers and how that has hindered or helped career development and personal skills. Is there training in place as staff move into management roles, such as becoming more self-aware and recognising the existing social environment?
Is there evidence of good time-management practice, and are competency profiles available to manage succession planning effectively? Finally, is there a structured development programme that utilises all the available methods, such as e-learning, micro-learning, coaching and mentoring, to enable all managers to be the best versions of themselves?
Partner Selection will be a core part of the process being implemented, and as such, the initial review should examine previous selections and the outcomes experienced. Is there a stated culture that can be shared and tested against that of the proposed partner? Is there a governance process that can be applied to the selection process and avoid any subjective influence or bias? If a team has been employed to select and implement a new technology, what was their experience good or bad, and what would they change?
Finally, the workshop addresses handling resistance to change, which is to be expected. We discuss how to understand the people undergoing change, how to deliver good communications and the impact of successful change management. As part of the review, consider how many of the change management tools are documented and available to apply; review the communications plan for any recent technology projects and speak to employees who experienced that project and elicit views on the good and bad parts of the implementation from communications to poor partner interactions.
Case study: System risk in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent (SSoT) integrated care system (ICS) is responsible for delivering health and care services to around 1.1 million people across an area that brings together 10 local government councils (two county and eight district or borough), six clinical commissioning groups, two major acute hospital trusts, 25 primary care networks, 145 GP practices, two mental health trusts, 331 care homes, one community trust, one ambulance trust, two voluntary sector networks and two health and wellbeing boards.
The team responsible for building a coherent system of governance to align this disparate collection of organisations was led by Sally Young, who was, until her recent retirement, SSoT Director of Corporate Governance. The other key players are Paul Winter, Associate Director of Corporate Governance and the data protection officer for the SSoT integrated care board (ICB); Claire Cotton, Associate Director of Governance for the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM); and Rob Grant, Associate Director of Safety, Risk and Compliance with Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT).
The first job for the team was getting to know each other. Sally says: “Until two years ago, I had only met Claire once. I’ve been working in the CCG in Staffordshire since before the CCGs came into to being, and I met Rob as a result of doing this, but I was involved, as was Paul, in doing the transition arrangements from CCGs into the new ICB.
“One of the things that quickly became apparent was that it would be good to get a network together, so we did, with our system partners, calling it the governance network to start with. It was based on all the documentation we had to create to initially set up the ICB – and there was a lot of it.”
The three main NHS system partners are UHNM, MPFT and North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust. There’s also University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB) which sits just outside the system border but was included because system partners have a lot of patients at the Burton Hospital between them.
After spending some time working through the development of a constitution, policies, terms of reference, and schemes of delegation, Sally says the group sought a bigger challenge. She says: “We got to August after the ICB had formed and we thought ‘let’s take a big issue and see what we can do together’. We chose to go with risk management and the board assurance framework (BAF).”
Teething issues
One of the first hurdles was ironing out the anomalies in the way they worked – even in the words they used to describe that work. Sally says: “We started with the sense-checking bit. Do we even use the same language for things? Claire and Rob both spoke differently about what they did and how they did it.”
Paul Winter offers an example: “In our CCG environment we often confused and conflated risks and issues, which was something Claire and Rob were very clear on. We very quickly got to grips with the fundamentals, which made life a bit easier when talking to our ex-commissioning colleagues who got a bit confused about the difference between the two, even though we’re all risk managers at heart.”
Claire Cotton says: “One of the things that Rob and I came together on was the way in which we’d worked with our organisations in describing risks and formulating risk descriptions. So Rob and I used a similar approach, where we break it down into an ‘if… then… resulting in…’ type description, which many organisations will be familiar with. And that wasn’t something that the CCG had used previously.
“The risk register that had almost been inherited by the CCG was a bit of a mishmash, in terms of risk descriptions. It was really beneficial to agree how we were going to word our risks. We did a piece of work where we challenged one another to redescribe the risks on the risk register and that’s been adopted by the ICB. I think just being able to have that similarity of language got us onto the same page quite quickly.”
Rob Grant says coming to terms with these cultural and language differences required openness and collaboration. He says: “Part of it was coming together, not being defensive and really supporting each other to just chew over the differences to create a common language. We also had to recognise that moving from provider and organisational board assurance up to a system approach was about understanding that everything is in layers within your organisation, then building up those layers into the system. Some of the things that you might have as strategic risks in a provider organisation are pretty small fry when you get to the system, whereas others are much bigger. So it was about trying to understand how those two things interplayed, so that what happens within system board assurance made sense to the system rather than each of its parts, and how we layered that up.
“It was a mutual journey of learning for all of us in terms of testing both our board assurance processes within the organisations that we work for and building that up to a system.”
Ambulance waiting times
Claire offers the example of ambulance waiting times to illustrate how risks might be assessed differently at different organisational levels. She says: “Obviously, ambulance delays are a massive issue nationally. And there were people within my own organisation saying that we needed a specific risk on the board assurance framework about ambulances, responding to the national pressure that all NHS boards are under to address this issue. But we pushed back, saying that actually ambulances are just one element of a broader strategic risk around capacity and flow through the organisation and the work that we’re doing in relation to ambulance holds is one of the control mechanisms to support that broader strategic risk. I know at ICB level there were similar conversations. Eventually we got to a place where we were able to reference ambulance holds but it wasn’t the strategic risk itself – it was a product of a broader strategic problem.”
Rob continues: “That mapping process helped us to understand which risks would be strategically significant for a system. Part of that was recognising that those strategic risks – risks that affect your chances of delivering your objectives – are long- and medium-term rather than those quick operational risks we talk about. Our task was to move the system culture away from being reactive more towards looking at the longer-term planning and strategic work that takes time and planning and controls to manage.
“That was the cultural journey we were trying to embark on ourselves, and encouraging our system colleagues and the board to do the same. People were easily distracted back to big, meaty issues that preoccupied them at the time. But it’s about trying to bring it back to that strategic conversation about the wider determinants of health, inequalities and other things that are so important within a system context.”
Sally feels there’s been a breakthrough in focusing on the right things. She says: “We had a conversation with our NEDs because previously, we’d been taking our risk register and our BAF to the board and every time the BAF wasn’t getting attention, the risk register was. Everybody was piling into a huge maul, wrestling with the detail of it and our NEDs said: ‘actually we don’t want the risk register at strategic level’. That’s been really helpful.”
Eight strategic risks
One of the ways the team moved things on was by encouraging the integrated care board to identify eight strategic risks, which were then used to agree a framework for the 2023/24 BAF. The eight risks were informed by the risks identified at an organisational level and they’re not set in stone, but they helped the ICB to focus their thinking.
Claire says: “I have used this approach for a number of years now and it was useful to be able to present ours to the ICB, during the conversation we had around agreeing theirs, as food for thought. It makes the whole thing a two-way process, where what’s happening on the ground influences the ICB strategy and vice versa.”
Sally says it was no small achievement to identify the eight strategic risks. She says: “Claire came along to do a presentation to our execs. She had just 45 minutes to get these eight strategic objectives out of them – it was originally an hour and a half, but the agenda was pinched and pushed – but my gosh she pushed them hard!
“Claire coming in was really useful. With her long history of doing board risk at UHNM, she was able to be really challenging with my execs, which she did in a really good, positive way. She was cheeky, she pushed a bit, she went a bit further and a bit harder than someone working in the organisation would be able to.”
Another breakthrough was achieved in the early stages of working together, when the team jointly developed a risk management strategy and signed up to a risk appetite statement that is used across the system. Sally says: “We know that risk appetite is one of those areas that some are not as comfortable with as others. And I think we’ll probably look to refine the strategy and statement as we go forward and really start to gauge people’s understanding of appetite tolerance. But we’ve now got a starting point – that important building block is there in our risk management strategy.”
Sharing learning
Turning to some of the lessons learned, Claire points to the way the team have adapted the three lines of defence model that will be familiar to any organisational risk specialist. She says: “We’ve done some thinking around what the three lines model might look like at a system level, with a view to utilising existing assurances, because we find ourselves in this new landscape of systems and anyone working in a provider organisation will feel the frustration at times at being asked for different things for different meetings. So we’ve applied the three lines model at a system level whereby the system BAF as a first line of assurance is available from our providers, so we’re not asking for different information.
“The first line of defence is what’s available and used as a source of assurance at provider level, then the second line of defence is at the system level. An example might be that we all have our own financial plans as provider organisations and that is a source of assurance. But collectively as a system we’ve done a lot of good work around the development of a system financial strategy. The third line of defence is unchanged – it’s that assurance is available from external sources such as regulators.
“We’ve presented this as a concept initially to the ICB and it’s made some pennies drop in terms of how they might start to build on that and start to use existing assurances from our providers as that first line. We’re hoping this is going to be really useful and something that we’d look to share if it works well.”
Another point of learning has been around a system of process bells the team introduced. Claire says: “When we talk about risk, there are two parts of the conversation that I like to drive. There’s an ‘are we managing the risk in line with our policy?’ conversation. But then there’s also the detail of the specific risk. But risk registers are ugly documents to look at, aren’t they? There’s a lot of information in an Excel spreadsheet. It tends to be dependent on how you’ve exported it, and it’s very difficult to you understand. So, to drive the process element of the conversation, we’ve introduced a system of alarm bells.
“The first bell is triggered if a risk score hasn’t changed in six months. Another will flag if actions haven’t been identified, because that was a common problem – people putting something on the risk register, but failing to add any future actions. And the third trigger is when a risk has not been reviewed in line with policy, so it’s sat on the risk register for X months and nobody’s even looked at it.
“So now, as well as having the detail, we frame a report that draws people’s attention to: you’ve got this on the risk register, but you haven’t identified any actions against it, or you’ve got this on the risk register, but you’re telling me that you’ve done all of this stuff, so why hasn’t that changed the consequence or likelihood and therefore impacted on your score? Or finally, you’ve got this on the risk register, but you’re not doing anything about it because you’ve not got any actions in. It’s worked really well for us here at UHNM and we’re introducing it to ICB level as well for the risk register. Just to summarise it and focus attention a bit more on managing risks rather than just presenting a risk register.”
Rob adds: “If you’re identifying that a risk hasn’t changed for a period of time, this helps to prompt that risk appetite and tolerance conversation, where we ask: ‘Are we happy to tolerate a risk staying at the current level for a period of time? Are some of the controls out with our controllers and organisation and therefore do we keep it on the risk register, or do we recognise that we’ve got to accept that risk because it’s outside our control?’ It all helps people to understand appetite and tolerance in a practical, working way.”
Paul sets out another challenge the system team faced: “We were starting out as a new organisation with certain documentation that was required as part of the establishment process, but we didn’t yet have something like an integrated care strategy as the big ‘why are we here and what have we got to address?’ document, which hamstrung us a bit in terms of generating aligned strategic objectives.
“That was a year-one problem that was probably to be expected given where we were. We addressed it by purposefully developing some simpler strategic objectives that were a bit more grandiose in nature by looking at the quadruple aims. That was very much the language everyone was using – they were coming together at board meetings and saying ‘okay, we’ve got these new quadruple aims – what are we doing about it?
“Now that we’ve done a lot of the substantive work on developing the integrated care strategy for the integrated care partnership, we’re starting this 2023/24 year with eight objectives and risks that align to the emerging strategic imperatives of that document. So it’s a lot easier to plot back on what we’re doing and why. Why is this an issue? Why is this a risk? How does it link back to what are we here for? What’s our core purpose?”
Rob adds: “Putting the BAF before the strategic plan might mean that you’re almost artificially creating a BAF, but it gave us an opportunity to warm up those ICB execs to: ‘This is what a BAF looks and feels like; these are the ways that we need to consider tolerances and assurance’, and avoiding all the pitfalls of developing people so that they can use a BAF effectively. We got out of the way so that when we got to the point where we’re creating the 2023/24 strategic objectives and the BAF, their knowledge was so much further ahead. That made it much easier to develop that product.”
Taking on the difficult conversations
Paul says the attitude of all system partners was also key. He says: “We also had a very early acceptance that we were going to not shy away from elephants in the room and difficult conversations. That could have been a challenge that would have held us back in doing a lot of the collaborative thinking and understanding. But we avoided it by being open and learning from each other – the show-and-tell, how are you doing this? Why do you do it like that? And genuinely learning from each other. That could have been a real challenge because people are sometimes not prepared to let go. It was great how quickly we put all that to one side.”
Reflecting on other lessons learned, Sally Young says: “Don’t be precious about who does what. We all have the same aims and ambitions. Try and drop your frontiers around your own organisation and be honest and authentic. We knew we were all in the room to take things forward. We’ve talked about all sorts of really difficult stuff, but we can help ourselves with that and support each other through it.
“The other aspect where we had challenge was on the health inequalities risk. I think we were originally on a 20 there and the programme manager responsible for it dropped it to a 15 on the basis that we’ve got a strategy and we’ve had a few meetings. My NEDs hit the roof about that – just because you’ve got a strategy and you’ve been to a meeting it doesn’t mean the person on the street is getting any better service. And we’ve had quite a hard battle about that because I understand the programme manager’s point of view. They’ve only just started doing this piece of work; it’s absolutely massive. And the fact that we’ve got a strategy signed off now it is great, but we’ve got to actually do something about it, haven’t we? We’ve got to make it real.
“From that we’ve learnt that whatever’s on our BAF needs to be smarter in some cases than it was last year, because it’s very difficult to measure progress if your objective is health inequalities because it’s so big.”
Finally, Sally says there’s a lesson about what real collaboration means. She says: “We haven’t always had full participation from our system partners. We’ve got one trust that’s had some organisational change, and local authorities tend to dip in and out. But that doesn’t matter. We’ve carried on anyway because we’re working together rather than working as a provider coming to a meeting.
“We’re not here to represent our organisations, we’re here as a collective to do the same thing and do the right thing.”
Case Study: The Abbey National
Background
Abbey National introduced Personal Development Diaries early in 1993 following a pilot scheme in 1992. The diaries were introduced as part of a wider review of performance management within the company and were intended to encourage individuals to take more responsibility for their own appraisals and personal development.
Coverage, content and process
Personal Development Diaries are available to all Abbey National staff and their use is completely optional, although other aspects of performance management, eg year‐end and interim appraisals, are compulsory. This emphasis on personal responsibility — particularly in relation to development — is an extension of the approach taken with career management; any individual can have a ‘Career Management Profile’ (based on generic competences), but nobody has to have one. To date, over six thousand diaries have been requested (over one‐third of the total workforce).
A diary can be requested at any time, but requests often coincide with induction, participation in training or education programmes, or are generated by the appraisal process. Diaries are also distributed to graduate trainees and participants in Career Development Workshops. The diaries are designed to be employee‐driven, although feedback from users emphasises that they work more successfully when the manager takes an interest or initiates discussions on the contents.
The diary contents cover career history, personal motivations, job context, performance records, and the planning and monitoring of learning/development. Individual users are encouraged to adapt the diary to suit their own needs, adding or removing elements as they see fit. Whilst most of the diary contents remain with the individuals, there is also the facility for them to submit their Career Management Profiles to their personnel office. The profiles were expressed in terms of competences, and this enables individuals to receive reports comparing their own personal competency profile with that demanded by their current job, the next job up or the average profiles of their peer group, to help them plan their personal development.
Implementation
The diaries were designed by a working party of managers from different levels across the organisation. This was part of the wider project to review performance management and make a number of recommendations on how the process could be improved. Members of the project group also took on responsibility for presenting the findings and recommendations from the project.
Abbey National offer all staff a range of learning resources, including interactive computer tutorials, self‐assessment tools, and a wide range of videos and books. Use of the resources helps individuals and managers to determine development needs and identify solutions that fit with differing local demands and work patterns (many staff work part‐time).
Impact and evaluation
Enhancements were made to the original diary design following the pilot study, prior to its full launch in early 1993. Since then, only the number distributed has been rigorously monitored. But a full evaluation study is currently under way, with findings and recommendations due by late Summer 1994. During June, a questionnaire was circulated to ten per cent of diary users, so that the content and usage could be evaluated and improvements made as necessary. The questionnaire has been designed to measure the effectiveness of the diary in helping individuals to manage their own jobs, careers and development. Managers are also being asked if the diary has helped in the management of others.
Abbey National appear confident that the diaries can be considered instrumental and of benefit to those using them, although their worth seems to be more appreciated by those in the junior/middle management ranks. However, all staff in the company are now in a position where the mechanisms exist for them to drive a dialogue concerning their own development which should, in turn, lead to more focused skills development and improved performance management
Case Study: TSB Bank PLC
Background
Personal development has a long and varied history at TSB. Its origins lie in the performance management system introduced in 1988 in which personal development plans played a very small part. In response to a worsening recession and an increasingly competitive financial services marketplace, TSB introduced a new corporate strategy which included a re‐organisation and downsizing in 1990. To support this strategy required a shift in attitudes to learning away from the provision of training, towards independent, proactive, individual learning. Consequently, a new policy statement was issued emphasising individual responsibility for personal learning. At around the same time a Total Quality programme was initiated which also encouraged individual ownership of learning for continuous improvement.
In 1991 the profile of personal development within the performance management system was raised, and in 1992 the personal development section was separated out from the appraisal documentation. Over the past two years TSB has merged banking and insurance operations, streamlined support and operations processes, and made major moves forward in the development of different customer service and product delivery channels. Not surprisingly, this has created a major challenge for the introduction of the espoused learning culture, and different parts of the business have progressed at different rates.
Coverage, content and process
Personal development plans in TSB apply to senior clerical grades upwards. They are utilised by various parts of TSB Retail Bank, potentially 12,000 users, but not by other companies in the wider TSB group. At this stage in the evolution of the personal development plan concept, the spread of PDPs is not uniform throughout the Bank and some areas are only now ready for their introduction.
The scheme is optional. Line managers we spoke to said they pushed hard for its completion but generally acknowledged that not everyone would complete it. Some users expressed the view that the success of the scheme depended to a large degree on the enthusiasm and commitment of the line manager. They could play a key role in encouraging individuals and giving the message that PDPs were important. Some users believed that greater clarity on who owns the PDP, and what it is meant to achieve, may help individual commitment.
The scheme is not monitored at the centre, although there are measures in place to track use. This was a deliberate decision as central monitoring did not sit comfortably with the ethos of personal ownership.
As described above, personal development plans are an outcome of the performance management process, but their production is also encouraged as part of a framework of management development programmes. Personal development is an integral part of these programmes. Line managers and local personnel teams are partners with the individual in terms of getting development plans actioned. The senior level Challenge Programme, concentrating on the skills needed for senior management, is also supported by a formal mentoring scheme.
Nominees for the development programmes must have an active PDP, as must internal recruits for the Management Trainee Scheme.
Implementation
The scheme was designed and launched in a step by step way by the Training and Development Department. Publicity for the initiative included leaflets to all staff, a letter from the Director, plus a question and answer sheet. Managers we spoke to commented that they would have liked a more formal launch.
As the initiative of personal development plans was so new, it was felt that individuals and line managers needed guidance to complete the process. Consequently, supporting documentation gave detailed guidance and was much more complex than before — so much so that many were daunted by the prospect of its completion. A far simpler version was therefore re‐issued in 1993, in the belief that employees had now grasped the concept and were comfortable with its application. It seemed however, that this new, simpler document had not penetrated to all areas, as not every manager we spoke to had seen it. Some that had, believed it had become too simple and would have liked more guidance as part of the form, a view echoed in our discussions with individuals who said they would have liked more help.
On‐going support is provided by local personnel specialists. Central HR learned that gaining their commitment was essential for the effective roll‐out of the scheme. The centre maintains an integrated approach by involving local personnel staff in activities to promote personal development.
Impact and evaluation
TSB’s training policy states that each individual should be enabled to develop his/her potential. TSB have set a target that within two years everyone should be operating an effective PDP.
Individuals commented that they believed that managers had an important role to play in maintaining the use of PDPs. By discussing the PDP at quarterly review meetings they gave the message that the scheme was important. Some individuals commented that their managers did not show much interest in their PDP and consequently they themselves lost enthusiasm. Those individuals who had completed a PDP via the Challenge Development Programme spoke of the benefit of peer support and the time given on the programme to work through development needs. Overall, the attitudes of users we spoke to varied. Some spoke of the opportunity to knock down barriers to development or career moves, of forging closer and more supportive relationships with managers, of increasing confidence and employability. Others were more cynical and believed there was much confusion over who and what the PDP was for, that there was much rhetoric but little real support, and that some managers’ attitudes meant that certain things could not be shared with them, hence the PDP only containing what was acceptable in that public domain. This difference in view, from the very positive to the negative, may be a reflection of the difference in enthusiasm of line managers.
Managers felt that there had indeed been a shift in culture, that development now took place in the context of a wide range of resources and was more self driven than company driven. Individuals tended to be better focused and more forward thinking. There were signs, however, that the scheme needed a boost as completion was declining. Undoubtedly the initiative was launched at a very difficult time and alongside other high profile initiatives such as TQM. Some users that we spoke to contrasted the high profile given to TQM with the quieter introduction of PDPs, and believed a higher profile launch would have helped. In fact a decision was made to implement via steady growth and gradual reinforcement to avoid possible negative reactions to there being too many HR initiatives.
Course Manuals 1-10
Course Manual 1: Leadership Principles
To be a leader, there needs to be a vision of where the business is going, how the staff contribute to that vision, and what the rewards will be when the vision becomes a reality. When this is applied to technology, we immediately look to IT and treat it, at best, as an enabler. The rapid rise of technology and its diversification means that this is no longer true, and if correctly applied, technology can be the driver of strategy.
This means that technology will form a fundamental part of the business vision, Influencing how the business model is enacted, the customer experience and how the environment is protected. Technology can be a subject that can switch non-technical staff off, and therefore, expressions of its use must be expressed in terms of deliverables, either through products or services.
Making visions of the future engaging requires skill and an ability to express the vision with commitment and passion. This capability is described in some circles as storytelling; the essential skills to be a raconteur are only invested in some, and many technologists have chosen their profession to reduce the level of human interaction, even hiding behind their language dominated by three-letter acronyms.
Fortunately, technology has several tools available to enable communications, including presentation tools, videos and podcasts. Building a suite of communication tools is the first step in supporting the development of this capability. In addition to providing the tools, the business will need to provide training and identify super-users who can buddy up with staff requiring support in a particular technology.
Selecting technologies must be married to the leaders’ natural talents and communication style; for example, many people do not like appearing in videos but can be encouraged to create a podcast. Building a vision will require training in storyboarding techniques and working back from the business capabilities imagined within the strategy.
Understanding and developing your style is critical and relies on self-awareness; some simple steps can be followed to support this task. First is that your style should be genuine and not be an imitation of anyone else. Your style will require you to apply different qualities depending on the context and situation. Documenting your qualities and validating these with colleagues, friends, and families is a good start. Communication characteristics and below is a selection;
• Good Listener – communication requires two or more parties to be active in the conversation; active listening shows respect and learning more about the speaker.
• Concise – Direct and clear communication avoids confusion and slows understanding; being straightforward respects the other person’s time.
• Empathetic – empathising with others builds trust; understanding the other person’s situation and sympathising makes you more approachable and encourages others to communicate with you.
• Confident – Builds your credibility as a professional.
• Friendly – another way to encourage others to communicate with you using a pleasant tone; the ability to remember a person’s name is a fundamental skill worth nurturing.
• Observant – Reading other people’s body language provides a good insight into how they are feeling and maybe also reflect on how they think about you.
• Appreciative – recognising other people’s contributions is motivational and will encourage them to build on their skills.
• Polite – always be polite in both verbal and non-verbal communications.
• Organised – avoid random structures in your written and verbal communications; wandering around a subject will lead to a lack of attention and poor understanding.
• Sincere – be sincere when you communicate; sharing your feelings and opinions will help you to have meaningful interactions with others.
• Good Judgement – judging the most appropriate communication method and timing can ensure peaceful and effective interactions: envision how you want the conversation to go and the required outcome.
• Respectful – relates to being polite and respectful, allowing them to finish before you reply, active listening and considering the words the other person uses to help frame your response.
• Consistent – relates to predictable and reliable communication channels, regular times and dates, structured information and determining the required response speed for ad hoc communications.
• Retentive – remembering details of previous conversations and interactions is a skill that will make you more efficient. Remembering personal information is valuable as it can introduce a softer element to the conversation and show that you are keen to build a closer bond.
• Inquisitive – the ability to ask detailed and thoughtful questions provides clarity and learning of new things. Use this skill to strengthen your understanding of expectations, intentions and feelings.
• Honest – speaks for itself and means you have a positive reputation
• Reliable –your ability to recognise when a conversation is required and how to respond effectively to others.
• Proactive – effective communicators address conflict promptly and start the conversation when needed, reducing misunderstandings and creating a responsible reputation.
• Reflective – self-reflection is an essential aspect of communication. Thinking through before speaking, ensure a clear and intentional message, and also consider your body language.
This analysis will help you determine your strengths and weaknesses and identify improvement areas. One might be your application of emotional intelligence, which will be core to coaching teams, managing stress, delivering feedback and collaborating with others. This skill is sought after by over 70% of business leaders when managing talent and undertaking recruitment.
In the technical arena, where IQ and technical competence have always been considered essential, emotional intelligence still trumps both. It is defined as the ability to understand and manage your emotions but also recognises and influence the emotions of those around you.
Any lack of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts in the workplace. A person might need help appropriately recognising a colleague’s concerns or actively listening. Signs that you might not have pleasing EQ include outbursts, blaming others when things go wrong, and strained conversations.
The core components of emotional Intelligence are
• Self Awareness – the ability to understand your strengths and weaknesses and also your emotions and how they affect your and your team’s performance
• Self-management – the ability to manage your emotions, particularly in stressful situations, and maintain a positive outlook despite setbacks
• Social Awareness – the ability to ‘read’ a room and the dynamics in play in the organisation and your team
• Relationship Management – the ability to influence, coach and mentor others and to resolve conflicts effectively.
Reviewing these in more detail, 95% of people believe they are self-aware, but the facts are that less than 20% are; this can cut a team’s success in half, with increased stress and decreased motivation (Tasha Eurich). As well as undertaking the 360-degree assessment of your communications skills, adding questions about how your colleagues see your performance against your view.
Self-management is about managing the natural tendency to react to stress and adversity and having strategies for coping and moving into response mode. Looking for ways to pause, breathe, collect yourself and think about how to respond to the situation.
The essential skill to be practical in social awareness is empathy, the number one communication skill. Understanding your colleague’s feelings and perspectives enables leaders to communicate and collaborate more effectively with them. Leaders who master empathy are 40% more effective at coaching, engaging with others and decision-making, according to the Centre for Creative Leadership.
Addressing conflict head-on can be very effective for both team morale and productivity. Research shows that each unaddressed conflict can waste up to 8 hours of productive time with gossip and other unproductive activities.
Leaders set the organisation’s tone; a lack of emotional intelligence can result in wider consequences, such as lower employee engagement and higher turnover rates.
As with all communication, any vision must be understood by all business stakeholders; this might need more than one communication to achieve good results and guarantee engagement. Undertaking a stakeholder analysis will help define each individual’s profile and enable similar profiles to be grouped and addressed with the same communication. Typically, an analysis will aim to identify.
• Technical competence and interest
• Business or personal focus
• Internal or external
• Area of Influence
• Level of influence
• Area of interest (sales, operations, product development, finance, environment, net zero)
• Preferred communication method
From the storyboard, it will then be possible to build the correct level of detail and structure in the message to meet each stakeholder’s preferences. This form of personalisation will ensure engagement and positive feedback.
The journey to the vision expressed in the storyboard will require a clear, unambiguous, in-depth understanding of the ASIS position. By comparing the ASIS with the TOBE that should be reflected in the vision, the business can define the steps needed to achieve the vision. These steps will be a mixture of organisational, product, and process-related activities and will naturally have a level of interdependence, which must be reflected in the communication.
Communication is crucial for all executives, team leaders, and external parties, from customers to suppliers. With the advent of multiple communication channels for all customers, suppliers and staff, the communications plan becomes a central plank in the management and implementation of the strategy. Reviewing the communication demands the business needs to identify all the topics that will require communication, such as strategy, Key Performance Indicators, project progress and successes, product developments and staff achievements. There will be a frequency and a delivery medium(s) associated with each one. Not all of this communication needs to be top-down. It is good practice to encourage managers and executives to visit work areas in the administration and the shop floor to view results and facilitate face-to-face exchanges with staff.
Management of the plan must be invested in a single person, with content delegated to individuals with the information and knowledge. Two-way channels must be available within the plan, such as
• Brown bag lunches
• Town hall meetings (company briefings)
• Departmental briefings which can contain a core corporate message
• Chat rooms
• Conference Meetings via Teams or Zoom
• Company and departmental surveys
Calendarise the plan in the company schedule and the delegated contributors’ schedules off et with preparation time. The surveys should elicit issues with communication across all the channels so that improvements can be sought, be that at the individual communicator or channel level. With project communications, identifying any impending or existing barriers to change and building responses into the project plan will be critical. We have discussed that the Project Management Office will play a significant role at the project level, as will Process Owners reporting through KPIs.
Leadership requires that the goals and targets for all staff are unambiguous so that progress can be reported on, and if adjustments to the plan need to be made, they can be identified and agreed upon quickly. These measures will exist at the top level alongside the strategy captured in a dashboard that should reflect a balanced scorecard covering customers, internal processes, and organisational capability. Technology will have a part to play in all these areas; therefore, the choice of measures and suitable targets will be crucial to effective management. As we deal with later technology, leaders will be involved in a much broader scope of influence from the traditional IT subjects such as infrastructure, software systems and tools, and cyber security to innovation and internal capability.
Reviewing potential measures for each of the sections above, the business should consider the following;
• Customers
– Product Quality
– Retention
– Growth
– Brand Image
– Buying experience
• Internal process
– Product innovation
– Product Development
– Process Efficiency
– Data Accuracy
– Customer Relationship
– Leveraging partner capability
– Sustainability
• Organisational Capability
– Knowledge base
– Digital Literacy
– IT robustness
Financial measures, the outcome of these, will measure profitability and return on Investment turnover growth. As. Technical leaders ensure that the correct measures are recognised and set targets. Examples might be
• Product Development – monitoring the impact of systems to support the development cycle and, in terms of budget management, days early/late to the release date
• Product Innovation – recognising the number of developments that have been launched driven by technological innovation
• Buying experience – measured by customer satisfaction measures such as Customer Effort Score (CES), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score and the retention rate
• Digital Literacy – measuring the number of staff gaining accreditation in key skills and digital terminology and the number of suggestions for improvements that refer to digital solutions raised by staff from outside the It function.
• Knowledge base – number of updates and accesses, ability to easily share knowledge across the business.
Unlike financial indicators, all these should be leading indicators and can be used for actual figures and trending measures. In technology implementations, if there are phases to the implementation, guides as to the effectiveness.
The final element of sound leadership principles is being agile in decision-making and enabling local input. It is typical within technology implementations that there may be some unknowns, such as business rules, data incompleteness and levels of automation beyond the original concept. This is true in both product and process development.
In product development, there may be a need to quickly make changes in design identified by the engineers on the ground that require changes to component specifications, supplier of choice and product data. Speed will be of the essence in these cases, and delegated responsibility within the project to make these decisions will be vital to effective development. The key will be to ensure the decisions are recorded and then revisited later in the project to validate the decisions.
Taking a process example, delegated responsibility should be enabled at the transaction or shop-floor level where both process design, technology impact and likely benefit will be easy to identify and measure.
These engagement forms will drive motivation and make technology adoption more of a reality.
Case Study: Elon Musk – Tesla, Space X and Twitter
LEADERSHIP FROM THE FUTURE
THE FIRST BUSINESS STEPS
During the tech boom at the turn of the century, in 1995, Musk co-founded first company: Zip2. They developed an interesting concept, digital maps with business data (like Google Maps). After only 4 years, in 1999 Zip2 was sold to Compaq for USD 307 million in cash and Musk received USD 22 million for his 7% share.
Majority of people with 22 million in cash would decide to retire in the Bahamas or Hawaii, but not Musk. He invested into his next business vision – X.com, online payments platform. After only one year X.com was acquired by PayPal and there is a high probability that Musk was able to convince senior executives there to go deeper into digital payments. In 2002 PayPal was bought by eBay for USD 15 billion and Musk cashed USD 165 million. What is interesting is that Musk was not happy with this transaction at all. He wanted to continue investing and building PayPal, however the decision was taken when Musk was away on vacation and he could not stop it.
SPACEX: “Mission to Mars”
After the PayPal experience he started drifting more and more into his youth passion: Space. 50 years after the US landing on the Moon he announced his new visions: Mission to Mars. With this vision he challenged NASA and the European Space Agency as no private business had been able to explore space before. It was unprecedented and extremely challenging. Once he found the right people, he created SpaceX. Originally, Musk wanted to use one of the existing launching rocket systems. He even went to Russia and met with people from the Russian space business. They wanted to buy a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile system. The deal did not materialize and they went home empty-handed. During the flight back to the US, Musk was frustrated with progress they were making and he came up with an idea… he wanted to design and construct own rocket. One day the idea became an inspiring vision in SpaceX: they wanted to build a rocket system which would allow humans to fly to Mars and which would be used many times. The next several years were spent on contracting Falcon 1. The first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket took place in 2006. It was a failure as the rocket did not reach the Earth’s orbit. The next two attempts failed as well and SpaceX was centimetres from announcing bankruptcy. Finally, in 2008 the Falcon 1 succeeded in reaching Earth orbit and as a result of this unprecedented success, SpaceX signed a contract with NASA for resupply services to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle program from 2011, when the Space Shuttle had retired. SpaceX got a massive cash injection: USD 1.6 billion. In 2012, the Dragon spaceship docked safely and connected with the ISS. From that moment things started to line up in SpaceX. In 2015 they executed a successful landing of a new rocket, Falcon 9 on an inland platform, which was replaced later by an autonomous spaceport drone ship operating on oceans. In 2018, Musk launched the Falcon Heavy system, which had the fourth-highest load capacity of any rocket designed by humans. Finally, in 2020 launched its first crewed flight and became the first private company which was able to place astronauts into orbit and the ISS.
When we talk about SpaceX, we have to spend a bit of time on Starlink. Starlink is a low-Earth-orbit satellite system to provide Internet access on Earth. In Sep 2022 they were able to install 3,000 satellites and there are plans to expand it to 42,000 in the future. One new rocket launched puts 50 new satellites on orbit. At the moment there are 500,000 people who decided to subscribe to Starlink services. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk decided to establish the Starlink coverage above Ukraine and Ukrainians received Starlink terminals with free data transfer subscriptions. There are some plans that from 2023 Starlink will be a global phone service provider.
Case Study: TESLA: “Tech King”
Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhad and Marc Tarpenning and they were looking to create eco transport. Musk invested in Tesla USD 6.5 million in 2004. In 2008 they marketed the first serial produced all-electric car: the Roadster. They sold 2,500 pieces only and initially Tesla faced lots of challenges with technology and money. During the next decade they launched several EVs: Model S in 2012, Model X in 2015, Model 3 in 2017 and Model Y in 2020. In 2019 Musk unveiled Cybertrack as well, however until today they have not started a serial production.
First profit was made by Tesla in … 2020 only, 17 years after the company was founded. The key driver to realize the profit was the opening of the gigafactory in Shanghai (China) in 2019. This is the third Tesla gigafactory after two in the US. In 2021 Tesla sold 473,000 cars and half was sold in China. In Q1 2022 they generated USD 19 billion revenue and achievedUSD 3.3 billion profit.
In 2018, Musk was sued by the Security Executive Committee (SEC) for manipulating the Tesla stock with his activities on Twitter. The SEC claimed that Musk’s tweets were misleading, false and influencing the markets. Musk settled with the SEC, he paid USD 20 million fine and he was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman (he remained as CEO).
TWITTER: “Chief Twit”
In 2022 Musk decided to enter an unknown business area social media. For USD 44 billion he, together with support from other investors bought Twitter. There is a plan to work on Twitter 2.0. From the beginning Musk introduced a typical Musk’s leadership and working style, it’s like a shock therapy. He claimed that there was a mismatch between Twitter’s mission and with his vision, that there is a clash between Twitter culture and his ways of working, that there is a significant mismatch between Twitter business model and his plans. People describe it as Pre-Elon and Post-Elon era.
First Musk fired many senior leaders at Twitter, including chief executive Parag Agrawal. Additionally he introduced massive job cuts. Almost half of the Twitter Team (4,000 stuff) were made redundant. There are many Twitter employees who decided to accept a voluntary redundancy scheme and they left the company. For sure we will get more exciting news from Twitter in the future.
MUSK’S VISION
Musk is disappointed with greatness or excellence and “Moonshot” ideas are not good enough for him at all. He shares visions which break the status quo, go far beyond the most aggressive and controversial “out-of-the-box” thinking and create a new paradigm for humanity. He is super visionary and super inspirational. There are no limits to his breakthrough ideas and revolutions. Musk is ready to take risks which other people are not.
MUSK’S WAYS OF WORKING
Musk is a workaholic. He works 80-100 hours per week and he expects exactly the same behavior from all his employees. There is no relief, no rest, no giving up. There is a hardcore work culture. Musk believes that if you work 100 hours weekly and others continue working 40 hours per week, you will be able to achieve in 4 months what they achieve in 1 year. It’s an extremely controversial idea, but… logic is there.
Musk wants to work with people like himself, people work extremely hard and solve problems, not generate them. He promotes a common sense approach in all his business and delegates decisions to an individual level. Musk’s employees are empowered to forget about the typical business hierarchy. They have to communicate directly with people to discuss problems, find solutions and make decisions. He democratized leadership and empowerment to the extremes.
There is also a very specific meeting etiquette in Musk’s businesses. People are encouraged to avoid large meetings. They should participate only when they are needed and where they can contribute. If they believe that they participation is not necessary, they can … leave the meeting.
MUSK’S LEADERSHIP
And finally, we need to mention one key element. Musk does not have different standards for himself and others. He leads by example every second. He follows his working philosophy and pushes to extremes every person every day. His leadership style sets new standards and is like leadership from the future.
Musk has already changed our lives. PayPal pioneered online payments. Tesla leads the EV business and revolutionized autonomous cars. SpaceX explores space and will take us to Mars. It’s only the beginning and Musk is only warming up.
Case Study: Steve’s Jobs journey to become Apple CEO
Steve Jobs was not a natural born CEO. As a hippie, without a formal higher education, with specific personality and high work expectations, he was not seen as a candidate to lead Apple, the company he created. After the first 10 years in the company he was fired. Apple did not want to give him a chance to run the company. They believed he was not ready. He had to leave to do his homework, to focus on developing his leadership, finance and communication skills. He was looking for freedom to play with innovation without any limits or boundaries. His CEO university in NeXT lasted 10 years. When he came back to Apple he knew how to lead the business, how to talk to people, how to communicate with customers, how to create the most valuable brand in the world.
“Start up” (1976 – 1986)
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, friends from high school, founded Apple in 1976 with an idea to build personal computers. It was a start up, no office, no team, no money. What they had it was an idea only that their products will change the world. Wozniak was the engineer and Jobs was the vision-idea man who kept an eye on the business.
From the beginning Apple key principle of all activities was an innovation which was supposed to distinguish between a leader and followers. First computer, The Apple One, was launched in 1976. With the price of USD 666.66 they sold 200 pieces. In 1977 they launched the Apple Two. It was an innovation, single board computer with a colour (!) video interface and with onboard ROM station. After the success of the Apple Two they continued launching innovating products. In 1984 Apple put on the market another innovation. They launched the Macintosh computer which had 128k of memory and it was expandable. The Macintosh had a mouse which was used for personal computers for the first time and had a new graphical used interface. It was the most innovative and revolutionary personal computer in 1984.
Neither Jobs nor Wozniak had an experience in running a company. One of Apple’s earliest investors and employees, Mike Markkula, had an idea to hire an external CEO. They brought Michael Scott he was Apple’s first CEO and led the company until 1981 when Apple’s IPO was executed. In 1981 Markkula became the CEO for 2 years. In 1983 Jobs headhunted John Sculley, PepsiCo CEO, not knowing that it will be a reason of him leaving Apple in a few years time. That time Jobs wanted to be Apple’s CEO but this idea was not supported by the Board of Directors. Key problem was Jobs’s leadership and working style. During his time in Apple he earned a reputation for being difficult leader, manager and co-worker. His attention to details, open and straight communication style were reasons for many tough discussions and arguments. All that escalated in 1985. Apple launched another innovation. It was Lisa, the first-ever computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). GUI is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with a computer via icons and not via text based user interfaces. It is popular nowadays, but in 1985 it was a technical revolution. However not every technical revolution translates directly into sales. It was the case with Lisa, it was a total flop sales-wise. Apple was not able to win the PC market controlled fully by IBM. They were loosing and business was not profitable. Sculley took a decision to remove Jobs from the Macintosh project. Jobs decided to fight against this decision and went directly to the Board of Directors. Unfortunately for Jobs the Board supported Sculley. What happened next is a mystery. There are two scenarios. Jobs claimed that he was fired from Apple and Scully said that Jobs put his resignation which was accepted. He lost the power fight with Sculley and had to go.
First decade of Apple was a constant flow of innovative products which were gaining the market but still not able to compete with IBM.
Apple struggled to find a suitable CEO as they had six. Jobs had an ambition to become CEO but nobody in the company supported it. He had to do his homework outside the company he created.
Apple CEO (1997 – 2011)
From the moment when he was appointed as interim CEO, Jobs started implementing changes. First, he broad a new executive committee. Innovation work on computers, systems and different tools, they did in NeXT, was put into reality and gave an adrenaline shoot to Apple. In 1998 Apple launched iMac which won the market. Step by steps the situation in the company started to improve. In 2000 Jobs became a permanent CEO. Under a new Jobs leadership Apple was changed into an innovation machine. They developed and marketed many innovative products and services. Each of us knows it best: iPhone, iPod, iPad, iMac, iWatch, AppStore and iTunes shaped the market and pushed people to queue for hours in front of Apple stores on release day.
Via creation of Apple Stores they revolutionised street shops as well. There was no shop with counters and cashier anymore. Innovative, new, fresh shopping experience with Apple boosted sales. Once they focused on innovative products they did not forget about finances. Jobs implemented tools and controls to keep costs under control. It had a massive impact on business profitability. Jobs knew that this is what shareholders were looking for.
In 2005 Apple net income was USD 1.3 billion. In 2007, when the first iPhone was launched, net income achieved USD 3.5 billion. From that moment if going north. In 2018 Apple’s net profit achieved his highest, USD 59.5 billions. The value of the company reached USD 1.4 trillion and made Apple to most valued company in the world.
Steve Jobs died in 2011. He was the most inspirational CEO. Apple under his leadership created products which changed our lives. He created a powerful brand – Apple.
His journey to become CEO was long and challenging. Passion and believe kept him on a course to achieve his
Case Study: Emma Walmsley -GSK
Changing today to win in the future
On 1st April 2017, the GSK Board of Directors made the decision to appoint Emma Walmsley as the first female CEO in the 300-year history of GSK. By many key stakeholders, it was recognised as a controversial decision, inconsistent with GSK and common practices in the UK. She was the first woman to ever lead a major pharmaceutical company. Emma Walmsley succeeded Sir Andrew Witty who was leading GSK for almost a decade. Her mission was to make GSK innovative, customer focused and successful again. Today, we can create a business case by retrospectively reflecting on the past 3 years, drawing some conclusions and analysis on what has happened.
CEO gambling
When Emma Walmsley joined GSK’s Consumer Health business as the European Head in CH, nobody thought she may eventually become their future CEO. She was headhunted to lead CH globally, but not the entire company. Her expertise was with the consumer business. She spent 17 years in L’Oreal; holding various general management and marketing roles and her last position in L’Oreal was Head of consumer business in China.
In October 2011, she was promoted to the position of President of Consumer Healthcare worldwide. Under her leadership, the sales of CH business had doubled. She successfully closed a deal with Novartis, creating one of the largest consumer health companies globally.
Business performance, building a new, winning culture in CH and her leadership style could not be unnoticed. Board of Directors were impressed with all these achievements and started thinking about appointing her as the new CEO. They reviewed a potential from the GSK Pharma talent bench but, in April 2017 had finally decided to appoint ‘The Outsider’ as the new CEO. It was an incredibly controversial and brave leadership decision.
Changing today to win in the future
She had to face many challenges from day one:
• Uncompetitive structure and size of R&D spending
• No oncology drugs in pharmaceutical portfolio
• Talent
• Lack of confidence within investors
But she had two critical success factors: her vision and her leadership style. This is on top of the fact that she had unique personality attributes – analytical thinking and assertiveness. Each decision in her professional and private life are always supported with solid and true arguments by looking at the costs and benefits. She is open to a discussion; however, she expects people to be prepared, objective and rational.
R&D
GSK’s Pharma business without a rich R&D budget and pipeline cannot compete with global drug giants like Pfizer, Roche, Novartis or Johnson&Johnson. Without blockbuster drugs, it is downgraded to a lower class and then finally it competes with any generic company. When Walmsley was appointed as CEO, only about 13% of sales revenue was invested into R&D, top notch companies on the other hand spend on the level of 25%. Glaxo ran a strategic review of R&D projects, about 30 projects were deemed to have no consumer potential and were killed (termination or divesture). She pushed the organisation to stop all “hobby” projects in R&D.
Oncology
These days, pharma companies cannot afford not to have an oncology business if they want to play in the Pharma Premiership. Witty’s move to divest the oncology unit by transferring all oncology R&D to Novartis benefited shareholder returns, but not GSK’s long-term earnings. Emma Walmsley understood how critical oncology is for drug companies very quickly and in December 2018, GSK announced an acquisition of TESARO, an oncology focused biopharmaceutical company based in the USA. The $5.1 billion transaction strengthened GSK’s Pharma operations and enabled them to be competitive in the oncology area. Additionally, in her first year as CEO she sold off GSK’s rare disease unit and began a strategic review of its antibiotic business.
Talent
From day one, Walmsley started driving a challenging talent strategy focused on upgrading talent profiles and building long term succession planning. She replaced about 40% of top executives within the first few months of her leadership. There have been two critical talent acquisitions. First, the employment of Hal Barron as Head of R&D (he used to be Head of R&D in Calico, Alphabet’s start up run by Google) and second, the recruitment of Luke Miels as the Global Pharma Business Head (he was Head of Global Product & Portfolio Strategy / Business Development & Licensing / Corporate in Astra Zeneca).
Case Study: Jurgen Klopp -Liverpool
What we should learn from Klopp’s football philosophy?
Let me introduce you to the one of the best football managers in the history – Jurgen Klopp..
In 2015, Klopp joined Liverpool FC, an iconic football club in the UK, which celebrated many successes in its history but no honours were achieved for a long time. In 2019, Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League finals!
The following year, the club also won the 2020 Premier League with 99 points – it was their first Premier League title in 30 years. Further, there is another cherry on top… over the season, Liverpool also set a number of English top-flight records.
Amazing story, but is there anything universal that we can all learn from?
VISION
The foundation of Klopp’s successes is to have a clear vision. He knows exactly what the team needs to achieve… winning the Bundesliga, the Premier League or the UEFA Champions League. Being in second place is a failure. The vision is to win – to be the best! It is the ultimate and only goal.
CULTURAL ATTRIBUTES
There is always a set of principles helping team remembers to stay on track every day: to decide what is important and what is not; to aim for the ultimate and only goal. There is no ready-to-implement list of principles. I have read many articles on Klopp’s successes, his interviews and feedback from players. Here are the key takeaways:
First, is a passion to win. All team members need to be hungry for success. A bunch of professionals doing everything that they can, every moment of their life just to win the next game. It is all about the team. There are no superstars, only a super team. Everyone is equal and should contribute to the performance and success of the team. The next cultural attribute is critical and, at the same time, is the most difficult to achieve: promise big and deliver. You may have a bunch of amazing players, clear strategy, effective tactics and… little or no success. Aspiring for a very ambitious goal (e.g. colonising Mars) will challenge us to do everything to think about it and to deliver at the end. Every football season has one winner, a team which has to win over and over again. Professional teams play 100-120 matches during one season. They are still humans and, from time to time, they lose. The day following a defeat they still need to wake up and remind themselves about the ultimate aim and start preparing for the next upcoming game, in line with a motto: never give up. And finally, the last one is all about continuous improvement. After each game, regardless of whether the team won or was beaten, they sit down and analyse the entire game, performance of the team and every single player. This is based on statistical data, observations and feedback. All minds have the capability to carry on learning and keep on improving. I am sure that these are not all cultural attributes but, from my perspective, I believe they are the most impactful and important.
INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS
When Klopp starts working with each team, it is not always alongside the biggest names in Football. They scout and take promising players who fit their football philosophy. After some time, these players become the big names (e.g. Salah, Lewandowski, Götze), whilst during their beginnings under Klopp’s management, they’re not ones to be compared with top footballers.
Klopp makes stars; each having their own individualised physical training plan. They need to have the physical capabilities of a superhero and are required to work hard to achieve them. Once this is done, Klopp focuses on their ‘can-do mentality’. All players have to be believers. Not some, or most, but the whole team, including substitutes, physiotherapists and technicians need to believe that what they are dreaming about is achievable and will be delivered later. Each person has some training on risk taking and creativity; be ‘wild’ if needed.
It is not only about a specific scheme, but how to play a specific element of the game. It is all about observing the team that you’re playing with, reflecting and being creative on the pitch, during the game, even if it sometimes means taking a risk in doing so. When they see the chance of scoring a goal in a non-standard or unique way, they know that they can do it. When all individual players are physically and mentally ready to play, they start putting a winning team together.
TEAM
When you observe a football team playing inline with Klopp’s philosophy, you will quickly understand that this is about a TEAM and not about an individual. Individual preparation of each player, suitable to the overall strategy and tactical plan, allows the team to play fast and aggressive football. We call it ‘Heavy Metal Football’. On the pitch, there are not only professional footballers, there are also warriors. For the next 90 minutes, the team will do everything to challenge everything and everybody. They play like it is a big final and there are no more games after.
They change positions and roles, so everyone can score a goal. During the game they use resources in a smart way. If you played any team sport, you know that it is impossible to always give 100%, you’ll need to have some rest. They know when to accelerate, which player from the opposing team should be challenged, and when to give 150%. They know exactly what to do to score one more goal than their opponent. And they’ve been winning in Mainz, Borussia and Liverpool.
Following victory, they do not forget about celebrations. The team works extremely hard to achieve an incredibly ambitious goal and now is a time to enjoy it with the team, families, friends and fans.
WHAT IS IN FOR US?
I hope that after reading this article, you will be able to understand Klopp’s philosophy, reflect on this and think about you as an individual or your team. It is all about passion. Everything; each success, starts from the moment when you and the team say “Yes, we can do it.”. If you are not hot about the business goal, or you do not believe in it, then don’t even start. Do something else.
Passion is everything. The next critical element is a selection of individuals. It is not about being the best in an area of competence, but instead to be prepared to execute all tasks related to this position with excellence. Next steps are to create a team, not just a bunch of individuals, but a team. A group of people who will trust, support, coach and challenge one another
Case Study: H.Lawrence Culp Jr – GE
A story of an external CEO in GE
This case study will not be yet another piece about the successful leadership style of Jack Welch. You will be able to understand more about what has happened in GE during the last few years and how specific leadership decisions impacted the GE’s reality.
GENERAL ELECTRIC
GE was founded by Thomas Edison in the 19th century. The company was entirely based on innovation whereby they produced and sold bulbs, dynamos, electric motors, etc.. Over the years, they expanded into a diverse array of business areas: energy, aviation, finance, healthcare, industrial, NBC Universal, plastics, oil and gas.
Under Jack Welch’s leadership, GE grew from a market capitalisation of USD 14 billion in 1981 to USD 410 billion in 2000. GE’s operations corresponded with ~1.25% of the 2000 US GDP. Once we truly comprehend the magnitude of GE from this perspective, we can confirm that the operations of GE were massive. It was a giant! It was the biggest global company that time.
The corporation’s stock suffered two major hits, firstly in 2000 during the dotcom crash and then 8 years later in 2008 by the global economic crisis. Since 2008, GE’s market value has experienced a downtrend and in December 2018, it reached the lowest valuation of USD 60.92 billion. GE completely missed Dow Jones’ strong recovery and bull market following the financial crisis. Whilst GE has itself been in a bear market, the DIJA index has climbed over 200%. After the company’s century long tenure, in June 2018 GE was removed from Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, which tracks the performance of the 30 largest public companies in the US.
GE CEOs
In the entire history of GE, the company has had 11 CEOs (excluding the current, H. Lawrence Culp Jr.), for which the average tenure in the position is 12 years. Until H Laurence Culp Jr.’s appointment in 2018, a new CEO was always selected internally. GE used to have innovative and effective talent programs; top notch CEOs were put on long term developmental plans for years before their final promotion. For a long period of time, they were changing jobs, levels, divisions, functions to ensure that after many years they are ready and appropriately equipped to manage the corporate giant. If they had best talent, excellent development programs and unlimited money, why did GE’s talent strategy to promote CEOs internally fail?
GE-TANIC?
There is no single reason why GE collapsed in a ‘house of cards’ like fashion. There are many external and internal circumstances, decisions and factors adding to a challenging situation for the corporation.
Complexity
For decades, the continuous growth of GE was driven by acquisitions. Over time however, the corporation became too complex to manage, due to the lack of a clear cut focus and over 300,000 employees around the world. In many companies there are lots of activities and processes design to keep business simple thereby allowing for it to compete with many start-ups and drive innovation. This was definitely not a priority for GE.
Market changes
The leadership overslept, missed or ignored changes happening within capital markets. During the last few decades, business and consumer behaviour moved from industrial to digital.
Expansion financed by debt
When GE’s financial situation was good, leadership had used debt to further fuel the company’s growth. GE’s top credit rating secured debts with low interest. In the 21st century when GE’s overall financial situation was worsening, it negatively impacted their credit rating whereby it was no longer possible to get cheap credit. Additionally, interest rates on existing debts increased as well. Resulting in GE’s total industrial debt ascending to levels of USD 54.4 billion as of mid 2019.
Short-term focus decisions
Some short term business decisions negatively impacted GE’s long term business results. Retrospectively, there are two key decisions of this kind: 1) Entering financial services via ‘GE Capital’ and 2) GE stock buybacks on the NYSE. In the long term, and especially after 2008, ‘GE Capital’ undermined overall GE results. In the case of stock buybacks, interventions on NYSE were supposed to positively impact the stock’s price. However, following the decrease of GE’s share price, it was equivalent to throwing cash out of the window.
Leadership
Retrospectively, we observe that the GE talent machine made a few mistakes. A crucial mistake was the necessity of the CEO to be sourced internally. There was a belief that only internal talent understands GE and is able to manage such a giant. Following this ‘11th commandment’ until 2018, GE had only appointed internal candidates for the CEO position.
Jack Welch was a leadership guru, a business wizard. As we mentioned earlier, during his leadership GE grew from USD 14 billion in 1981 to USD 410 billion. You may wonder, “What’s wrong with that?. This is exactly what is expected from a senior commercial leader!“. However, we still see that there are some lessons to be learned from his time as CEO. Welch managed GE as a financial company with too much focus on shareholder value. All focus was directed at the top and bottom line. As such, the organisation and people were stretched too much.
Jeffrey R. Immelt did not have a fair chance to be successful in the role. In 2001, GE was a corporation on steroids, reaching its extremes. Additionally, there were many external challenges such as the stock market crashes in 2000 and 2008, alongside the digital revolution impacting our lives and specifically our consumption behaviour.
In 2017, John L. Flannery was appointed as CEO. He spent 30 years in GE and he knew the company inside out. As all other leaders before him, he was selected in line with the GE talent standards. In 2018, Flannery’s contract was terminated.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
In 2018 H. Lawrence Culp Jr was announced as the CEO. The Board of Directors developed a recovery plan based on external leadership. Firstly, he focused on business simplification. GE reduced their stake in the oilfields service business by USD 2.7 billion. GE’s Biopharma and rail transport businesses are currently on the market; sales of those businesses should generate about USD 38 billion cash. GE’s dividend was cut twice. The company’s employee pension plan currently carries a deficit of USD 21 billion. The pension plan is no longer guaranteed for employees and was recently frozen for 20’000 GE FTEs. Furthermore, GE closed their final salary pension scheme for new joinees in 2012 and is planning to implement some changes for 100,000 pension scheme members. Once all of these pension changes are finalised, it will help reducing pension deficit by 5-8 bln USD. It is clear that there are two key focus areas for H. Lawrence Culp Jr: streamlining GE’s operations and paying off GE’s debts as soon as possible. It looks like the recovery plan has started to work. GE stock increased to USD 11.28 per share; up from around USD 9.04 per share at the beginning of Culp Jr’s tenure as CEO.
The CEO is a key person in any company. The right person with a vision as well as a complex understanding of business operations, external world with consumers expectations, competition activities and changes happening every day is priceless. Companies in the 21st century deal with the same resources, products, services and markets. A key differentiator will be talent. The war for an exceptional CEO will continue to rage on, stronger than ever. It does not matter if this person is internal or external, what matters is what added value the new CEO brings to the organisation.
Exercise: Leadership Principles
• Good Listener
• Concise
• Empathetic
• Confident
• Friendly
• Observant
• Appreciative
• Polite
• Organised
• Sincere-
• Good Judgement
• Respectful
• Consistent
• Retentive
• Inquisitive
• Honest
• Reliable
• Proactive.
• Reflective
Course Manual 2: Strategic Thinking
Strategic thinking is fundamental to the development and growth of all businesses. It requires time to set aside for it to take place, a mindset that looks beyond the operational horizon and a suite of tools to choose from that can be easily accessed by executives and senior managers.
The first is creating the time within the executive’s diary and establishing the correct strategic environment. The minimum time allocated to this task must be 20% per week. Most executives will tell you this is impossible as they already work more than 100%. How do we square this circle by examining the activities undertaken during a typical week and analysing their added value to the business and the executive?
The first step is a review of the schedule, categorising each entry into a simple classification system, such as
• Meetings
– Operational
– Strategic
• Performance Reviews
– Personnel
– Business
• Personal development
• Networking
• Communication
– External
– Internal
– Whole company
– Departmental
– Individual
• Planning
• Customer Liaison
• Supplier development
• Research
Doing this over four weeks will provide a good sample, allow for ad-hoc inputs, and account for some activities. The next task is to apply an analysis metric to enable the executive to identify the necessary and valuable activities that others can drop or do. As with everything in life, we can tend to collect and hang on to the tasks and must remember to apply basic common sense.
Productivity is vital for leaders and their teams, particularly in the fast-paced, mainly digital economy. Time management is crucial for leaders to master, as you are constantly inundated with requests for information, guidance and approval. This is on top of managing the overall business goals and vision, which is further complicated by the day-to-day problems arising in any team. Minor adjustments can make a big difference and prevent you, the business and your team from suffering.
What is good practice in this area? Firstly, you will probably only get some things done as a business leader, but you must feel accomplished and satisfied without burnout. Applying time management is a crucial skill. The following suggestions are courtesy of John Hall, Co-Founder of Calendar.
Keep your calendar Fresh – how many meetings did you attend last week that added no value to your role? There may be calendar entries that have remained in the schedule for several years but now conflict with your top priorities. As you and the company have developed, you can consider delegating tasks to your team.
A regular purge and starting with the audit mentioned previously is a good place to start; begin the habit of saying ‘no’.
Be Agenda-driven -an HBR study identified that to be successful, one needs to have a clearly defined agenda; without one, those that shout loudest will take precedence. The agenda must enable more extended-term thinking, combining specific matters that are time-bound and need addressing with more open-ended priorities. This demands that CEOs review their agenda every three months, undertaking a similar audit as mentioned.
Think about tasks as debts and assets – Sujan Patel promoted this concept, a concise way of defining which tasks give you time and which take it away. Time assets are easy to set up through process streamlining, automation and delegation. Debys come in two types;
• Tasks that take up time without freeing up time down the line may be essential, but can they be automated or delegated; one example is answering e-mails and the trend to be cc’d on non-essential e-mails.
• Tasks that create more work later on are a symptom of not getting it right the first time.
One of the skills is to recognise assets early before they turn into debts; for example, delegating tasks without sufficient instructions does not assume everyone has the same knowledge base and avoids vagueness and ambiguity.
Tackle tasks in the correct order – understanding your time of peak effectiveness to complete your most important or ‘must-do’ tasks, leaving the ‘nice-to-do’ for other times during the day.
Reduce the phantom workload – coined by David Peter Stroh and Marilyn Paul; this relates to tasks that are either handled with expedient shortcuts or not taken on as essential. Such tasks can include complex ones such as
• Clarifying mission, vision, and values
• Identifying and resolving conflicts
• Refining and streamlining decision-making processes
• Providing candid, constructive feedback
• Differentiating people with sanctions and rewards
• Launching innovative projects
• Making decisions that require disinvestment in programs or projects
If these subjects are not addressed, it leads to unproductive meetings, rework, organisational conflicts and fractured relationships. The problems tend to reoccur, creating stress and reluctance to engage in complex tasks.
• Seek resolution by
• Reducing the number of goals you are trying to achieve
• Plan tomorrow tonight
• Make your time precious and avoid distractions; practice saying no
• Ask for help through delegation
• Use the right tools
Limit small decisions – avoid wasting time on small decisions, leaving you with more energy to devote to the ones that matter. Think about firing yourself from all things you do not need to be directly involved in. Employing capable people requires you to trust them to do the job they were hired for. If you are a micro-manager, you need to recognise that spending time and energy on these small details distracts from the critical decisions only leaders can take.
Avoiding one-size-fits meetings has been the focus for several years with management experts, with business rules such as a maximum of 25-minute meetings and standing only. These rules work well in the proper context; for example, daily operations meetings and IT SCRUM meetings operate very well using the standing maxim. However, when there is a need for collaboration and creativity, this will require the right people to present and take some conversations offline.
Avoid repeating yourself – software programming has adopted the don’t repeat yourself mantra to make code reuse a fundamental part of software development. Use the same technique when reviewing the outcome of your audit of last month’s tasks and use of time.
Create ‘if-then’ rules – a leader’s day is naturally full of interruptions; recognise and plan for it. For instance, you enable a colleague to deputise and run a meeting in an emergency. Well-designed rules will reduce your workload, allow you to maintain your priorities and encourage your team to work independently.
Manage your email time effectively – it is stated that, on average, people spend 3.1 hours reading and sending e-mails, 15.5 hours per week and 20 weeks of your working time. Design a regimen that suits you and avoids constant distractions from e-mail. We will cover de-coupling from your devices later.
Some essential techniques include;
• Organising your inbox into subject areas such as projects, customers, and staff for all that needs to be retained.
• Create e-mail templates for regular communications, but avoid making these too robotic and losing your personality.
• E-mail scheduling enables you to write e-mails ahead of time and send them when appropriate.
Design delegation in advance – understanding what you are uniquely qualified to do and what tasks you should delegate. Match the strengths and weaknesses of your colleagues to meet the task requirement. Always arrange a check-in meeting, so you and your colleague know the next point to talk again.
Use Calendars effectively – all meetings have to have an agenda, and the rule must be that no AOB items can be raised at the meeting only 24 hours before; this prevents you from being ambushed. It is sometimes a good idea to book meetings back-to-back as this helps your brain to stay on track. It moved between meetings and other activities, such as complex problem-solving or collaborative development.
Having created space in your previously crowded schedule, what is strategic thinking, seeing the big picture, learning from the past, solving real problems, weighing choices wisely, adapting to change, thinking creatively, and basing plans on fact – to achieve goals and getting stuff done. The essential skills are;
• Visioning – imagining the future and creating a plan to make the vision a reality.
• Big Picture thinking – being able to step back to see how different pieces come together instead of focusing on just one part. This helps you to notice how choices could affect other areas.
• Pattern Spotting – recognising patterns from previous experiences and learning from history so you do not have to reinvent the wheel
• Problem-solving – analysing what’s causing an issue, not just the symptoms on the surface and going to the root cause to solve it.
• Decision-making – weighing the pros and cons to pick the best options when you have tough choices.
• Flexibility – adjusting your plans when life throws you curveballs since things don’t go as planned.
• Creativity – coming up with new ideas instead of doing the same old thing and thinking outside the box.
• Research skills – Gathering facts for the strategy rather than relying on guesses and hunches.
Strategic Thinking can be applied in innovation, strategy planning and operational planning. Innovation covers more than creating new products; looking into how things are done and developing new or updating processes and procedures to improve existing methods.
An oft-quoted example is Amazon turning the shopping process upside down. In addition to providing a wide range of products to buy, the company has transformed how we view shopping online. Introducing subscriptions to negate the impact of delivery charges shows the levels of innovation to improve the customer shopping experience.
The strategic plan is the bedrock of most business plans by articulating the mission, vision and values within the management system framework, products and market—simple tools such as SWOT and PESTLE help gather and sort data.
Blue Ocean has devised its Strategy Canvas to enable companies to compare their and competitors’ performance on critical factors that customers would recognise. They recommend three complementary qualities for an effective strategy: focus, divergence and a compelling tagline.
Focus – is a defined profile and avoids being everything to every customer
Divergence – breaking away from the industry standard to stand apart from the competition
Compelling Tagline – a clear, truthful message that accurately reflects your strategic profile.
Apple, as much as anyone, demonstrates the Blue Ocean perspective, thinking different approaches and continual challenges to the status quo have enabled it to steer clear of the red ocean of competition by creating phones with more appeal. At the same time, other manufacturers merged additional functionalities such as MP3 players, game consoles, and digital cameras before adding numerous desktop-like features.
Apple invested in a more reliable operating system and intuitive user interface, making the iPhone easy to use. The curve below shows how this strategy is displayed in the curve. (courtesy of Blue Ocean – circa 2000)
image too blurred
The Australian wine producer Casella Wines used a Blue Ocean approach to turn the usual factors of traditional wineries on its head instead of trying to compete on prestige and wine quality at a particular price point, which relies on wine personality and characteristics of the wine reflected in the uniqueness of the soil, winemakers skills, and the ageing process for example.
They redefined the factors into easy to select, easy drinking and fun and adventure; as a result, they became the fastest growing brand in the US and Australian winemaker, and the number one imported wine in the US in the early 2000s, despite several adverse market conditions including intense competition, mounting price pressure and increasing power in the hands of the retailers and distributors.
Yellow Tail was the brand, and its tagline was a fun and simple wine to be enjoyed daily.
The Charity sector in the UK is ultra-competitive and a typical Red Ocean marketplace. Conventional thinking was to provoke guilt and pity to raise money through large donations and year-round campaigns.
Comic Relief replaced this with bi-annual events to reduce donor fatigue. They were broadening the target audience to include children wishing to donate pocket money to purchase a red nose for £1. Creating a compelling value proposition with an unbeatable profit proposition by dropping the critical fundraising methods such as hosting galas, mass-mailing, cold calling, and operating charity shops reduced operating costs by 75%.
Reviewing Comic Relief’s strategy against the Blue Ocean criteria, we find
• Complete divergence from the competition
• Focuses buyers on the leap in value (recognition that matter how small the donation, transparency, fun and sense of belonging, for instance)
• The compelling tagline is, ‘Do something funny for money.’
Three differentiating factors being
• Recognition of donations – every £1 to the cause
• Interaction and participation – celebrity-driven glamour and popularity
• Fun and mayhem – Symbol of belonging
Further examples of why strategic thinking is essential are
• Setting Direction – to do this, executives need to understand the external environment, the internal strengths and weaknesses and match these to develop a roadmap
• Identifying Opportunities – opportunities and threats come from the other part of a SWOT analysis; good strategic thinkers will identify both early to capitalise on the opportunity through analysis of market trends and competitive landscapes.
• Resource allocation – by prioritising initiatives and investments based on strategic importance, suitable projects and teams will be allocated the right resources.
• Collaboration – strategic thinking will promote collaboration by involving employees in the planning of the business, sharing a sense of purpose and engaging team members in the business mission and vision.
Investing time and developing strategic thinking skills will bring many benefits. Some specific lessons include employee engagement, which will significantly enhance team performance, so a positive and supportive environment is fundamental. Satisfied employees also drive better results because they are valued and engaged. They can identify their purpose and role in achieving the mission, significantly motivating them to perform well. This will require a supportive leader who is an empathetic, approachable and empowering leader who will be the core of this environment.
Applying these principles to a sales environment, the team leader might use a strategy focusing on personal customer relationships, which can be framed by the following.
• Emphasise the customer experience to team members
• Personalise the approach to each customer, driving the team to do the same
• Leverage word-of-mouth marketing and ensure the understanding that recommendations are invaluable
• Prioritise customer retention, looking after existing customers before seeking new ones.
Poor strategic thinking also has consequences, and Motorola and Kodak are two examples. In the early 2000s, Motorola was a dominant player in the mobile phone industry. Still, a failure to see the changing market trends and competition from Apple and Samsung meant that their decline in market share led to the sale of the mobile phone division to Google. This is all due to a poor reading of smartphone developments, both the innovation and speed of product development.
Kodak also feels dominant in the photography industry because it focused on traditional film-based photography and ignored digital developments despite devising the first digital camera. By the time they recognised the mistake, their market had collapsed, and they had to declare bankruptcy.
So what leads to this failure in strategic thinking;
• Keep up with changing customer preferences, maybe instigating customer forums for both present and future product discussions
• Adapt new technologies and embrace innovation to stay ahead
• Be proactive, not reactive, and avoid the trap of waiting until a change you have foreseen has taken place
• Listen to customer feedback. Make this a core part of the thinking process
• Continuously Improve business processes, especially to enhance the customer experience and stay relevant.
• Unambiguous communication channels with stakeholders
• Listen actively to feedback from stakeholders
• Implement stakeholder communication plans
• Always respond to stakeholder queries and concerns
Polishing and enhancing your strategic thinking skills should be part of most executives’ personal development plans; some examples of topics that might be useful to review. Starting with ensuring you have as much information about the present situation and the challenges you face. The pace of change means that some form of forecasting will be required. Use all the resources from customers, suppliers, staff and research institutes. Workshop 2 discussed establishing a knowledge base to collate and provide this information type. Also, review your existing business data and trends.
Don’t be afraid to seek guidance, using your personal or professional network to be able to pass an objective view on your thinking. Strategic thinking requires creativity applying well-known techniques for thinking outside the box, such as brainstorming with or without colleagues and noting ideas down on post-it notes, which you can stick on the wall or capture on an electronic whiteboard.
Always revisit parts of the strategy and take an opposing view to what you have come up with; you might need to come up with the best idea the first time around and put yourself in the customer, supplier or departmental position.
As with all leadership skills as an executive, you must always continue learning; new techniques and knowledge are being developed continuously. As part of the strategic thinking time within your schedule, allow for reading, attending events and taking courses. Explore the company knowledge base to extend your understanding beyond your professional field.
There are other thinking methods that we will not discuss in depth here but can be applied to problems with the strategy, such as
Convergent thinking – used when you want the team to focus on one solution to a specific problem; a linear method of thinking using logical reasoning with established rules.
Divergent thinking – a broader approach that encourages multiple solutions; working in this way uses visual representations such as tree graphs, bubble graphs and flow charts. It promotes collaboration, highlights unexpected connections, and fosters problem-solving creativity.
Lateral thinking is a form of divergent thinking with a more restrictive view and looking for better quality solutions than the number of them, which drives the divergent approach.
Case Study: Aqualisa
Aqualisa is an English company which manufactures showers. The firm has a pioneer name in the UK market for its superior quality, and high-performance showers, reliability and great servicing efforts. The company launched its premium brand shower known as the Quartz in May 2001. The basic purpose behind launching this shower was to address the issues of plumbers and consumers which were not been addressed at that time. However, there were several products in the market but they were not able to satisfy all the needs for consumer as well as plumbers.
Aqualisa quartz case solution
In addition, the company has three products in the shower segment. The company launched its premium Quartz brand to solve low water pressure issues, and for giving balanced temperature control for water. Furthermore, due to designing matters, showers has low pressure and variable temperatures. On the other hand, electric showers were dominating almost 60% of the market while Aqualisa has around 20% of this market. While these showers were placed awkwardly in the bathrooms and were not able to solve the problem for providing proper temperature and low pressure.
On the other hand, the electric showers do not need heat water supply separately instead they were able to heat the water thyself. However, they were far cheaper ranging 200–400 euros. Nonetheless, mixer showers had two products in the market one with the pump and second without the pump. Their price range was around 40—700 Eurosand they took two days for installation. These showers also created a huge room for the electric shower. Finally, the Quartz solved the issues for these showers since, Quartz was able to be installed in half day and it also has its own temperature configuration buttons and its installed box can be placed away in a close place.
However, the cost of the Quartz was slightly higher than traditional showers in the market. Since, its cost was around 850-1100 Euros. Furthermore, the company was targeting the premium segment of the market. Now, because of targeting the premium segment and the reluctance of plumbers to learn installation of the new product, Quartz was not able to meet the expected sales target and the company was only able to sold only 15 units a day which was insufficient to meet the break even as the company needed almost 50 units a day to break even in almost 2 years.
Reasons behind Declined Sales of the Quartz Shower
The company’s initial target of the company was to design Quartz in a way that it could be able to target the premium segment of the market because of its higher price and special features as compared to the present product in the market. However, the product was also designed to appeal consumer as well as plumbers both. On the other hand, the initial launch of the product faded the positioning of the product and its features since, very few units were sold during the first month of launch. However, the reasons behind lacking in selling the product to that particular niche includes
Higher price
The product has a very high price as compared to other competing brands, as the product was costing the consumer around 850 euros which was not affordable by everyone however, the company was targeting the elite class but still the customers of Aqualisa were skeptical about the price as compared to the performance of Quartz.
Incorrect Initial Strategy
Initially, companies offer lower prices for even high quality products to make the consumer addict to the product but in case of Quartz it was not looking the same as the managing director refused to give any discounts or promotional offers and believed that Quartz is a premium product therefore, it should be sold on premium prices.
Case Study: Cirque Du Soleil
Summary of backgrounds and facts
Cirque Du Soleil is a circus, which was founded by groups of road performers in 1984. Those groups of street performers were known as Le Club Des Talons Hauts that means high-heels club. Few members of those street performers are still with the company like Laliberte, who is now the Chief Executive Officer and President as well. When the company began its operation in 1984, there were only 73 employees and now the company has more than 4000 employees globally. The company is known to be one of the most important Canadian entertainment companies with its global presence in more than 200 cities in five continents.
Employees and workers of Cirque Du Soleil include 500 artists like clowns, mimes, musicians, acrobats, productions professionals and gymnasts. The workforce of the circus is based on more than 40 nationalities with more than 25 languages spoken by the employees. Shows that have been presented by Cirque Du Soleil include: Le Cirque Du Soleil, La Magie continue, We Reinvent the circus, Tour with Cirque Kine, Nouvelle Experience, Fascination, Saltimbanco, Mystere, Alegria, Quidam, O, La Nouba, Dralion and Varekai (Vijayyaraghavan & Delong, 2011).
Statement of core problem
Core problem identified in the case is related to hiring and retaining employees in the organization. Retaining employees are important for the company because companies engaged in entertainment are solely based on having creative employees. This theory is especially applicable on Cirque Du Soleil because the business of the company is circus without animals. Management of the company needs to make their employees satisfied and content with their jobs so as to make most out of them and to make business profitable in the long-run. Research and development of the company also includes hiring and recruiting of employees that is often a time-consuming and costly procedure. From the company CEO’s viewpoint, to hire one talented person, the company needs to jump into database of around 20,000 acts from all over the world.
During the process of hiring and recruiting, the company needs to analyze five major characteristics in candidates that are accountability, creativity, passion, commitment and team-play. Initially, the newly hired employee spends his time in the process of learning the company’s environment and applies it on their jobs.
Secondary problem
There were many secondary issues faced by the company that was a hurdle for the company’s success; thus, they should be resolved. Firstly, cultural difference was a big issue among employees of Cirque Du Soleil as they are from various cultural backgrounds and they need to make adjustments according to the Canadian lifestyles. In addition to that, training was also a Human Resource problem that people from all over the world felt difficulties in bending according to the requirements of Cirque Du Soleil. Further, corporate culture of Cirque Du Soleil has become one of the major issues. To solve that, performers are trained for nearly six months; they are given empowerment to give their views and ideas about the performance. Moreover, they were given a bucket full of opportunities in terms growth both personally and professionally. As a result of cultural differences, communication problem arise as well because people from different countries do not understand the languages spoken by others. Besides that, the company has re-invented circus and as a consequence of this, the market has become stagnant and growth will suffer. Additionally, injuries of performers during the performances are other major constraints for the Cirque Du Soleil’s business (Bohalnder & Snell, 2012)
Solutions
Offering attractive benefits and packages:
In order to retain employees, Laliberte and Gautier can offer attractive and competitive packages and benefits to their employees. Increase in benefits and packages motivate employees to stay in Cirque Du Soleil. These benefits may include giving health insurance and benefits with respect to their health risk because the lives of performers are always at risk and the injury rate is also very high. Further, additional benefits like telecommuting and flexible working hours is a way to show the artist in Cirque that they are important and being valued as well (Bohalnder & Snell, 2012).
Fostering artist and performer’s development:
Training in terms of development should be given to employees so that new skills and expertise can be developed. In this way, performers may find a path to see themselves self-motivated in the organization and certain about their own success.
Open-communication:
Performers and artists like to feel connected with Cirque Du Soleil, therefore; the management at Cirque Du Soleil should focus on creating open communication between management and the artists of the company (Randy, Vivienne, & Thomas, 2010).
Have one human resource professional:
Although, Murielle Cantin as a casting director has performed tremendously during the past years and is still good in gathering talent all around the world but still Cirque Du Soleil should have one human resource professional as well. Cirque Du Soleil required 50 new artists every two years in the past and saving talent is a challenge for any company whose success is based on the creativity and skill of its employees. This is especially true for the Cirque du Soleil, spectacularly successful “circus without animals,” whose 2,100 employees include 500 artists – mimes, clowns, acrobats, gymnasts, musicians and production professionals. Management of the company is full of creative people juggling itself, between keeping their artists happy and conducts successful strategies to attract more business and talent.
Case Study: General Electric
Problem Diagnosis
This case highlights the origin of GE since the inception of the company and also how the company became the largest corporation in the world under the leadership of Jack Welch. The chosen successor of Welch is Jeff Immelt and after becoming the CEO of the company, Immelt has been facing a number of different challenges such as the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and also the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
As a result, the stock price of GE had plummeted and it has been lower as compared to the stock market recovery. Therefore, the current strategy employed by Immelt is to focus more on the industrial engineering at GE. Furthermore, Immelt has also been selling the financial assets and ultimately, GE’s capital, which has been the financial arm of General Electric and this is generating huge cash for the business. Now the main problem faced by Immet is to decide where to invest the cash generated from the sale of the GE capital and what should be the next course of action for the company.
Case Analysis
We begin the analysis of the case with the identification of the resources, capabilities and the core competencies of the company. These are discussed in bullet points one by one below:
Resources, Capabilities and Core Competencies
Through the identification and discussion of the resources, capabilities and the core competencies of the company, we would be examining the internal environment of the company.
Resources
• There are different categories in which, the resources of the company could be divided such as tangible, intangible, human resources, etc.
• The financial strength of the company is huge and one of the businesses identified from the case is the GE capital, which is the financial arm of the company and it supports all the other businesses of the company.
• GE capital had generated around half of the total revenues for the company in the year 2001.
• GE capital had developed rapidly under the leadership of Jack Welch, who provided the required input during the late 20th
• The company also has strong physical resources. For instance, GE has a global presence and has set up offices all over the world. For instance, some of the departments of the company were also repositioned under the leadership of Immet. X-Ray departments were setup in China and the equipment produced by China was used in US.
• The company has also strongly pursued the ‘company to company’ strategy such as the collaboration with the French government and this has strengthened the resource base of the company.
• Reverse innovation is another important resource of the company through which the company has been developing products that match the characteristics of the emerging markets by providing them with some cheap healthcare devices. Later these were then brought to developed economies such as US.
• Technology is another important resource of the company and an important part of the GE culture. This could be seen by the large number of the acquisitions made by Welch of the technology companies.
• Immelt had pioneered innovation at GE and a high portion of the revenues was invested back in the research and development at the company.
• The brand image of the company is strong which is based on high customer value, innovation, customer retention, numeric system and the integrated systems.
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard
Course Manual 3: Personal Development
Whether you are an aspiring leader, in a management position or an existing leader that recognises that there is room for improvement, a structured plan will be required. What is the difference between a manager and a leader? Essentially, a manager leads his team to complete projects or operational tasks on time and within budget, helping them to make good decisions. Leaders provide motivation and inspire people towards a shared goal. Being visionary, they are capable of enabling teams to achieve extraordinary results.
This is born out of a clear understanding of the big picture strategic thinking and can make tough decisions for the organisation’s benefit. Technology has increased the pace of business change, requiring leaders to handle change and uncertainty. Perhaps guiding their team to strive and reach the stated goals despite adversity. Typically, they will encourage and demonstrate creativity and collaboration and have empowered their teams to take calculated risks and try new things. By taking their teams to the next level of performance, leaders
• Create a culture of excellence.
• Drive innovation.
• Enable growth within the business.
Defining the key skills that a good leader will display includes:
Having a leadership mindset – the largest difference between management and leadership is that managers are focused on the day-to-day smooth operation of the business; leaders are responsible for inspiring and motivating the team towards a shared vision. This can be summarised as management focuses on tasks and leadership on people. The focus on tasks is to ensure they are completed efficiently and effectively. The focus on people is about inspiring and motivating teams to achieve their full potential and reach their shared goals.
For managers, this tends towards them maintaining the status quo to keep things running smoothly; Leaders tend towards innovation and pushing towards growth and change. The second difference beyond focus is the short-term and long-term horizons. Managers will be operating with shorter timescales, days, weeks, and months to meet deadlines and targets. Leaders tend to operate with longer horizons, months and years, driving the organisation towards a vision.
Shifting from management to leadership is crucial for businesses in these times of change and uncertainty, providing a guiding hand through challenging times. Managers will gain a greater sense of purpose and be more fulfilled by adopting these leadership skills. Building on their drive to achieve results in their day-to-day operational activity with their vision and values will increase their passion for the business and moving the whole organisation forward. This more strategic position will emanate from the strategic thinking about the vision for their team, which is both inspiring and motivating. Management and leadership are interchangeable, but for teams to excel then the business needs leaders who inspire, motivate and drive the vision forward.
Strong communication skills – we have discussed this part of a leader’s skill set at length, it promotes trust, builds strong relationships, and helps to develop a culture of openness and collaboration. From the key skills we discussed earlier, three are picked by leadership educators: Active Listening, Clear and Concise messaging and the ability to adapt your communication style to suit the audience. Besides these verbal skills, emphasis is made of non-verbal observation, including tone of voice and body language.
Building empathy and emotional intelligence – good leaders understand that managing is more than making decisions and delegating tasks, which can be the focus of many managers. It is also about understanding the team’s emotions and motivations and creating the right environment for them to flourish. This requires leaders to develop emotional intelligence, the ability to recognise and manage their own emotions, and understanding and empathise with other people’s emotions. These skills of empathy, self-awareness and managing emotions were not widely expressed requirements for a manager, but these so-called soft skills can radically improve a leader’s capability and subsequently improvements in the working environment.
Foster Collaboration and teamwork – developing teamwork and collaboration are crucial to a productive and successful workplace. Building a collaborative culture will empower team members to work together. This will require a clear common goal, and promotion of opportunities to work together on projects or assignments. This should be backed up by recognising and rewarding collaborative efforts, reinforcing the importance of teamwork and developing an environment of shared ownership and accountability.
Encourage innovation and creativity – This is recognised by good leaders to promote growth and success in the organisation. Creating opportunities to experiment, taking calculated risks and celebrating failures as lessons learned. Team members with a ‘safe’ space to do this will develop more innovative ideas and solutions. Celebrating failures and documenting the lessons learned removes the stigma and fear of failure, translating this into opportunities for learning and growth. This will push the boundaries of what is possible and greater levels of success.
Provide mentorship and coaching – effective leaders have to focus on people, and in order to develop the team, mentoring and coaching are two techniques that can be very effective. Using coaching and mentoring, team members can be encouraged to understand their strengths and weaknesses, plan to address them and embark on a continuous learning journey. For this approach to be successful, the business cannot assume that all managers or other leaders in the team understand these terms and can apply them effectively.
Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a coach, supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. There are a number of techniques to make this effective, such as using GROW; Setting a Goal, recognizing the Realities of the situation, defining the Options and establishing a Way forward. To implement this takes skill, particularly in questioning the coachee; and therefore, all proposed coaches need to have a form of training to apply the recommended technique.
Mentoring is when someone shares their knowledge, skills, and experience to help another person to progress. In this instance the mentor will be relaying how they have handles specific situations, what tools and techniques they have found useful and be there as a sounding board for when the mentee feels the need to unload or has found a situation that they have not covered in previous sessions. Again, training and a definition of the skills and knowledge the mentor can provide may be required.
Embrace continuous learning and Improvement – all good leaders understand that this is a journey not a destination, meaning constantly learning and improving. The business must provide opportunities for all managers to attend events, seek mentors or coaches and pursue formal training programs. Finally, reflection is to be encouraged in all managers and executives, including seeking feedback from team members and colleagues on areas to improve.
Experienced leaders will state that a lifetime learning plan is required to ensure their leadership skills are good enough to drive a business in these times of change. A personal development plan will need to follow key elements
• Timeline for the plan
• Goals and mission to be achieved
• Network – who you can speak to or act as a coach
• Knowledge base and research access
The first step will be an in-depth, honest analysis of the executive’s strengths and weaknesses, based on an agreed set of skills and capabilities. This analysis needs to have an element of 360 review built-in. A regular review should be planned; ideally, this should be online so external stakeholders can monitor and review progress.
Each executive will need a mentor/ coach sourced from the internal team or as an external. Whether this resource is internal or external, it needs to be assessed in terms of capability and matched to the candidate executive. In some cases, reverse mentoring might be required when the executive needs coaching on technology, diversity or sustainability issues.
From the analysis the executive in concert with their mentor, needs to identify the goals and route forward. It is advisable to have a coach/ mentoring model to manage this process. By doing so all internal and external mentors can be trained and tested in its application. One such model is the GROW model developed by Sir John Whitmore and his colleagues.
The GROW model presents Goals, the Reality of the situation, Options that can be employed and the Way forward as four clear steps when applying this to establishing the goals, mission and actions; there is guidance on the type of questions that can be used to ensure a successful outcome.
Image too blurred
The Grow framework is unpacked below:
Goal:
The Goal section of GROW is addressed at the beginning of each session and referred to again from time to time to keep the focus moving forward, especially if the business leader becomes stuck. It raises energy and clarifies thinking. Identifying what we want to achieve puts us on the path to accomplishing it by focusing on the solution rather than the problem.
Some Goal questions are:
• What do you want?
• Over what time frame?
• Where would you like to be on a scale of 1–10?
• Imagine you have achieved it:
– What does it look like?
– How do you feel?
– What are people saying to you?
– What are the benefits?
• What do you want to achieve in five years/one year/three months?
• How could you say your goal in a few words?
• Which part of that is the real focus?
• How will you know when you have achieved it?
• In an ideal world, what do you really want?
Reality:
This is an exploration of the coachee’s world at the moment. Time spent here helps people get clear about what is happening and how it affects themselves and others. It provides an opportunity for viewing issues from different perspectives.
Some useful questions here are:
• What is happening at the moment?
• How important is this to you?
• If an ideal situation is 10, what number are you at now?
• What impact is this having on you/how do you feel?
• What have you done so far?
• Who else is affected?
• What are you doing that’s working towards your goal?
• What are you doing that is getting in the way of your goal?
Options:
Business leaders being coached will move naturally towards the Options stage as their Reality becomes clearer. Often they show a new energy by sitting up and smiling, or a lighter tone of voice. Then it is useful to ask some of these questions:
• What are your options?
• What could you do?
• What else?
• If there were anything else, what would it be?
• What has worked in the past?
• What steps could you take?
• Who could help you with this?
• Where could you find out the information?
• What might someone else do in your shoes?
• Imagine you have achieved your goal; look back on the journey and tell me you got here.
The following questions probe for more information and, in order not to commit the coaching sin of ‘leading’ the business leader, should be used only when the business leader has raised the subject in question, for example:
•Business leader: I need some help.
•Coach: Who could help you with this?
•Business leader: I need more information.
•Coach: Where could you find more information?
Will or Way Forward:
As opposed to ‘Options’, which brings to light all possibilities, ‘Will’ is about discovering which actions the business leader can commit to undertaking. When asked, ‘What will you do about this?’ there is a danger that the business leader will make a list of what they think they should do, rather than choosing a pathway which suits their talents and ways of behaviour. The classic example is where a man commits to joining a gym because he wants to lose weight. However, if he is never going to attend because he hates going to the gym, he would get more benefit from committing to walk his dog every morning, if that is something he would enjoy.
Some examples of Will questions are:
• What will you do about that?
• How will you do that?
• When?
• What will it take for you to commit to that action?
• What could you do to become more committed?
• Could you do more?
• How many?
• How much?
• How often?
• Where will you find that?
• Who will you talk to?
• What else you could you do?
If the coach senses a lack of commitment, a question like, ‘How committed are you to doing that?’ should be asked straight away. If there is any hesitation, it is best to go back into the GROW process to clear any blocks and find the most comfortable way forward.
Having identified the agreed action layout, the tasks to complete them, and any dependencies such as research sources, role opportunities and keeping an eye on maintaining the right work-life balance. Create a road map of the activities against the timeline, then plan activities and review points into the executive’s schedule. From an executive’s perspective, the aim should become the ‘best version of oneself’.
1. Cultivating Effective Leaders: A leadership development plan helps identify individuals with leadership potential and provides the necessary tools and resources to develop key leadership skills. This ensures that organizations have a qualified pool of leaders who can successfully guide the company towards achieving its goals.
2. Improving Employee Engagement and Retention: Effective leadership directly impacts employee engagement and retention. Employees feel inspired, motivated, and valued when leaders demonstrate strong leadership skills such as effective communication, empathy, and transparency. This, in turn, leads to higher employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and reduced turnover rates.
3. Enhancing Decision-Making and Problem-Solving: Leadership development plans focus on developing critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. Effective leaders have the skills to analyze complex situations, make informed decisions, and devise effective strategies. This enables organizations to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition.
4. Promoting a Supportive and Collaborative Environment: Leadership development plans emphasize fostering supportive and collaborative relationships within teams and across the organization. When leaders prioritize teamwork, open communication, and inclusivity, it creates a positive work environment that encourages creativity, innovation, and effective collaboration.
5. Developing Future Leaders: A well-designed development plan prepares individuals for future leadership roles. By providing opportunities for growth, mentorship, and skill development, organizations can create a talent pipeline that ensures a smooth transition of leadership positions and sustains the organisation’s long-term success.
What infrastructure is required to enable a successful personal development programme in leadership? The first is an effective network of coaches/mentors; the second would be a knowledge base populated with articles, reading references and any lessons learned from the mentoring group. Ideally, this would be showcased with keywords and continually refreshed by recognised leaders within the business. Any specific tools should be included, along with instructions on how to use them effectively. For example, SWOT or PESTLE and guide notes on the technique and the use of brainstorming sessions to develop the data.
Technology will be a key area for most executives, and therefore, as projects involving technology are being planned, use the opportunity to develop new leaders or extend the knowledge of senior leaders with roles within the project. Measuring progress in this area should be performed at two levels: the personal level using the achievement of goals within the personal development plan, and the second through organisational level measures for increased organisational capability.
Measures such as the following can be applied to the balanced scorecard
• Management techniques – project management, benefits assessment, risk management and portfolio management
• Technology Understanding – Big data, BI analytics, generative AI and IoT
• Communication capability – active listening, empathy, observational, and style adaption
• Change Management – lean techniques, customer experience, problem-solving and development of others
• Talent Pool size – the ability to provide successors in all key positions, percentage of talent pool experienced higher positions, and level of churn
Overall measures could include employee engagement scores, leadership competency assessment and career progression rates. Collect data through surveys, focus groups, interviews and performance evaluations. Always gather quantitative and qualitative data to ensure a comprehensive picture of the programme’s impact. Use the results to make adjustments to the programme to increase its effectiveness.
What challenges will the business face in enabling this development to take place and to be successful? First will be the resistance to change and new approaches; to overcome this challenge, first communicate the benefits, address any concerns and involve each individual in designing and implementing their personal programme. The second issue will be the limited time and resources, prioritising leadership development programmes, particularly with managers, executives, and up-and-coming leaders ensuring time within their schedules and using technology such as e-learning platforms to address the difficulty of freeing up larger swathes of time.
The implementation of Goals for each individual and monitoring progress both at the individual and organisational level, will help in terms of accountability and follow through on the programme.
Leadership development programmes can be a key element in the business’s diversity and inclusion efforts by providing opportunities to people from diverse backgrounds. But also by promoting diverse leadership models through cultural sensitivity training and seeking diverse perspectives as part of the programme.
A well-designed leadership development programme should improve the existing leadership team’s capability in problem-solving and decision-making, engaging with employees and leading to greater employee retention. While also developing future leaders, nurturing high flyers and making succession planning easier, enabling the company to continue to grow.
Case Study: Guardian Royal Exchange
Background
Guardian has introduced PDPs gradually since 1986. Their first major use was in helping delegates to development workshops to plan their subsequent personal development. These workshops initially covered senior managers, but have now spread to other levels in the organisation, although there are still only a limited number of places available.
More recently, PDPs have been incorporated into the documentation supporting Guardian’s Management Performance Standards (MAPS). MAPS is a combination of MCI levels 1 and 2 with Guardian’s own personal competences model (derived with the assistance of consultants for use in the development workshops). The standards were introduced to provide a better focus for the development of management ability. Finally, the use of PDPs was promoted throughout the organisation when they were made part of the standard appraisal documentation for all staff in 1992. The Development Workshop, MAPS and appraisal processes (incorporating PDPs) were presented to and approved by the Executive following development by HR.
PDPs are seen in Guardian not as a separate initiative but as a means within other development processes to ensure that relevant action takes place. Indeed, when talking to non‐HR people in Guardian, it was found that they did not readily distinguish between the PDP concept and the systems within which PDPs are used. This was especially true of appraisal.
Coverage, content and process
The principal use of PDPs is within appraisal, as the corporate appraisal system covers all 7,000 employees. Within this system, the completion of PDPs is strongly encouraged such that there has to be a particular reason for an individual not to complete a PDP. Indeed, managers we spoke to believed PDPs to be compulsory. Completed forms are retained by the individual and the line manager. The training officer also gets a copy to assess training needs.
The appraisal system requires both the manager and employee to complete forms focusing on the individual’s competences and performance requirements. The development needs identified are then used to create personal development plans. Up to a maximum of three development needs are pursued at any one time in a rolling programme.
The appraisal and resultant PDP tends to focus on the current job, but not exclusively. The career review that often follows the appraisal, enables development needs for achieving future aspirations to be explored and worked into development plans. The development actions are classified under three headings: Experience, Open learning and Workshops. Where appropriate, the training officer follows up development plans. Most needs are met in‐house including open access to the learning resource centre.
PDPs are also created as a result of development centres/ workshops. These are limited to those with perceived managerial potential. Over the course of two and a half days, individuals are assessed against nine personal competence criteria. Four to six weeks after the workshop the delegate, their line manager and someone from HR meet to discuss development needs and create a development plan. The workshops operate at three levels according to seniority, with different emphasis given to strategy and operational management in each.
Guardian were able to let us see six anonymous, completed PDPs. These were analysed and showed that development needs were equally expressed in terms of knowledge, job related skills and personal skills. Development actions to meet these needs were most frequently expressed as job based activities and self study/open learning.
Implementation
The concept of PDPs was piloted to some extent through the development events. The later MAPS and appraisal initiatives (incorporating PDPs) were supported by manuals for all managers. Each launch happened gradually unit by unit and was accompanied by a staff circular and an entry in the in‐house newspaper.
Managers admitted to being reticent at first about the new appraisal system because of all the extra paperwork, and also initially confused by the changes to a well established format. All the managers we spoke to had experienced a large increase in time taken to conduct and write up the appraisals. The consensus was that the discussions with individuals were taking around five hours and the writing up was predominately taking place at home. Encouragingly, the extra managerial burden was felt to be worth the effort.
On‐going support is provided by training events, the manuals and an appraisee guide. HR can also be called in by units for support. Managers commented that they were not always sure what training was available, as a new guide had not been issued at that time. This has now been addressed.
Impact and evaluation
The HR specialists in Guardian perceived that PDPs (within Development Workshops, MAPS and appraisal) had brought a number of direct benefits, specifically a greater sense of purpose. Individuals we spoke to also believed that development was now much more focused, and the competences framework had meant that areas of weakness could no longer be ignored. Individuals commented that they had seen a personal improvement in their performance against the competences framework. An internal in‐ depth review of appraisal had been undertaken by HR which showed that generally the scheme was working, was being completed well and was liked by appraisees. Another review had shown that use of the Resource Centre had tripled. Managers’
views varied; one spoke of overwhelming enthusiasm and team spirit generated by the MAPS and appraisal initiatives, another felt that there had been little effect. Generally, managers felt the scheme was less enthusiastically received by those who had plateaued in terms of their career, and that therefore PDPs should be applied with discretion. Some sections had seen an increase in sideways job moves and there was a general perception that interpersonal skills had improved and consequently team working had improved also. As one manager pointed out, the new appraisal system draws attention to personal skills which the previous system did not. This was felt to be an important benefit.
Individuals commented that commitment can be difficult to maintain. The PDP format is constructed to prompt review but in practice follow up varies widely. Use of PDPs also varied; in some areas everyone was enthusiastic, in others some individuals had plateaued and did not want to know. Take‐up in different sections varied from 100 per cent to around 60 per cent. Managers generally believed the initiatives had worked well and felt that the commitment and enthusiasm from the top had helped.
Overall, the users of PDPs felt that the culture of developing people was moving in the right direction and that more development initiatives were happening
Case Study: Scottish Power
Background
Following privatisation in 1991, the Company re‐organised into ten separate divisions. In the past three years there has been a drive to develop an ethos of personal accountability, with managers accepting greater responsibility for their areas of work. The concept of personal accountability was highlighted by the Chief Executive as a main focus for management development. The new HR director championed the resultant initiatives of PDPs and career development.
There were two key elements to the HR strategy: a culture change programme putting greater emphasis on the development of the individual, and an employee relations strategy aimed at building a partnership with the trade unions based on the need to establish best in class, business focused, conditions of service.
The cultural change demanded of managers should not be underestimated and there were aspects of this change programme which required significantly new management behaviours.
Coverage, content and process
The approach to personal development planning in Scottish Power is a generic one embraced by a number of initiatives. PDPs are currently completed by the more senior managers via the performance management and appraisal process (around 200 individuals); graduates through the graduate development programme and others with potential or who feel they are stuck in career terms. In several of the divisions, the appraisal process only covers managers and supervisory staff which were the original target group. In other divisions the process has been cascaded down to all staff There are close links between the appraisal process and the creation of PDPs. For managers, the PDP is closely related to the competences used in the appraisal process and these are predominately focused on the current job. Those created in the development workshops tend to be more future orientated and the latest development workshops in the Generation Wholesale Division are very much whole person based.
The new performance management and appraisal process was based on the concept of management objectives alongside competences — a scheme developed with the line in a total quality team. Both merit and performance pay for managers are linked to the appraisal. One consequence of this is that the appraisal interview can be an inappropriate vehicle for development discussions. Subsequently, a separate personal development review was introduced to take place two to three months after the appraisal itself. PDPs are an outcome of this development review, signed off by the manager and individual with a joint responsibility for actioning. The PDP action and appraisal data from the most senior people, are used as part of the succession planning process. This operates through various review meetings at business unit level and annually with Chief Operating Officers. They look at key individuals and produce the annual succession plan for the business as a whole, and nominations for management development programmes. Succession planning is reserved for the most senior individuals and posts.
An alternative source of PDPs is via self development workshops which have different emphases in different divisions. The Information Systems division concentrates on assessing individual performance against competence statements and includes the use of psychometric tests. For example the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) is used as a 360 degree feedback instrument. Candidates are given feedback throughout the workshop and think through ways to enhance performance. Originally, managers acted as assessors but now this role is undertaken by project leaders who have been through the development workshop themselves. This helped the process, as these
individuals were more empathetic to the candidate’s needs and more enthusiastic. The Generation Wholesale Division does not use competences but instead focuses on the person and self‐ awareness. Irrespective of these differences in the focus of the development workshop, a common outcome is that the initiative for actioning development needs is placed firmly with the individual. The resultant PDP is not signed off and remains personal to the individual, unless they choose to share it with their manager or mentor (although this is encouraged). Individuals at this level do not form part of the succession planning process and therefore the completed PDPs are not used in this way.
We were able to analyse some completed PDPs that had originated via self‐development workshops. The most frequently expressed development needs were in personal skills areas, such as assertiveness or interpersonal skills. At 65 per cent of all development needs this was by far the most common category. Knowledge acquisition; improved business awareness, was the next most frequently cited development need at 21 per cent with experience and job related technical skills at five per cent and nine per cent respectively. The resultant proposed development activities were most frequently job based, followed by non‐ academic courses and self study/open learning.
Implementation
The scheme was launched using a range of communication processes: workshops, the company newspaper, and a briefing session for managers. The creation of the Open Learning system has emphasised the importance of personal development within the company.
The development workshops were accompanied by training for assessors and the use of assessor manuals. For individuals nominated to attend, there was an informal cheese and wine party at the start to help ‘break the ice’. There was also a workshop for individuals and their prospective mentors to create a mentor network. However, this had not worked particularly well to date.
Impact and evaluation
It is too early to attribute any significant change in employee behaviour to the introduction of PDPs. However, consultants working with the company on other projects, who knew Scottish Power three years ago when the company was formed, have commented on the significant change they now observe in managerial behaviour and performance, and in the performance and competence of other staff.
The scheme feeds into senior management succession planning where appropriate, with each division holding annual reviews of their human resources, using data that were not available in the past. Other ways of assessing its impact have proved difficult as the entire scheme at Scottish Power is very new and, therefore, is still at a developmental stage. It is intended that the scheme will be monitored and assessed in each Division and that a full company review will take place in 12 to 18 months
Case Study: BP Chemicals
Background
In 1989, the Chairman of BP set up a project team to examine ways in which the company needed to change. At that time BP was seen to be too bureaucratic and hierarchical. This team believed the way forward demanded new behaviour, summarised as:
O pen thinking P ersonal impact E mpowering N etworking
These OPEN behaviours underpinned many subsequent initiatives. In 1990 various groups were set up to examine processes such as appraisal. The climate at this time was one of financial uncertainty and reduced opportunity for upward progression. In the circumstances self‐development was seen as key — a fundamental culture change initiative of which managers were very uncertain. It did, however, have strong top level support.
Coverage, content and process
All non‐unionised staff are covered by the PDP initiative: in BP Chemicals some 4,000 individuals. Internationally, in the USA take‐ up is 100 per cent. Worldwide it is approximately 50 to 60 per cent. The scheme is completely optional. The form itself is very simple and is given to employees as part of the appraisal pack. However the PDP process is separated from the appraisal process by six months. Central HR thought that this may not always be observed. As trust in the PDP scheme has grown, managers and employees may be able to integrate it closer in time to performance appraisal. The appraisal covers performance through the demonstration of OPEN behaviours which, expressed in terms of competences, encourage appraisees to think in this way.
The formulation of the personal development plan is supported by a software package called ‘Connections’, with the emphasis of around 70 per cent on the current job, 25 per cent on the future and five per cent person focused. The software leads the individual to consider various issues such as work/family balance, what the individual wants for the future and the skills, knowledge and experience needed, and how these can be acquired. They are encouraged to talk to people at home, peers and anyone else who may be helpful. Once again the software leads people through this. Most of the users we spoke to had used the software package and found it useful. They commented that its main value was when personal development was a new concept. Once experience was acquired the package was less important. The package took some time to complete but many of the sections would not have to be repeated very frequently, if at all, as they gave insights into learning styles and the company. The case study discussion group of managers had experienced more mixed reactions to ‘Connections’ and many had found that use among their teams had been variable. One believed it was aimed at too low a level, others had received comments that it told individuals what they knew already, but others believed that several of their staff had found it useful.
At the site we visited, individuals are expected to have a development discussion with their line manager every six months, which can be initiated by either party. The individuals we spoke to would normally initiate this themselves. Managers agreed that individuals should take the initiative but would themselves initiate meetings if individuals failed to do so. Managers felt that development discussions were not applicable to every individual. Some had reached their desired career goal and did not want to progress.
Other than via the appraisal system, BP Chemicals also run both development and assessment centres which are structured around helping develop realistic PDPs.
Once completed, the hard copy of the plan is signed off as an agreed plan. The employee is responsible for progressing it but the company is a partner: the employee thinks creatively what to do, the manager helps them to deliver it. In fact, responsibilities are explicitly assigned in the PDP. It is then retained by the manager, the employee and HR. At BP Chemicals’ Hull site, individuals can choose to present their completed PDP to staff development teams. These consist of the individual’s line manager, their senior line manager and a manager from another section. The panel can provide a broader outlook and give an overview on how desired experiences can be achieved. They can also act as a reality check by encouraging individuals to look at realistic options for development. Each user would normally present their PDP yearly, but less frequently if this was more appropriate. Both individuals and managers believed that staff development teams played an important role in keeping the PDP initiative going. However, managers expressed concern that attendance at the meetings was now viewed as mandatory whereas they were trying to encourage individual choice.
As part of the selection process for job posting, PDPs accompany individuals’ applications to demonstrate why they want the job.
Implementation
PDPs were an integral part of a number of other HR initiatives, united by their support for OPEN behaviours, that were conceived at company wide level and then taken forward by the businesses individually. Within BP Chemicals their introduction was overseen by a line steering group and the detail worked up by a multi‐ disciplinary project team in HR. The launch itself was clearly a massive undertaking in this international setting. All employees were given a guide to employee development, a book was produced for managers, and all team leaders had to present to their teams. A booklet was produced which was sent around the world, and small groups at each location piloted the scheme. As a consequence of feedback from this piloting, the books and software were substantially amended. At the final product launch, use was made of internal newspapers and a video. This demonstrated how the initiative fitted in with appraisal and competences. It was felt at this time that existing managers needed some help in developing coaching skills to try and ensure quality conversations on development. Therefore all managers went through a coaching course, and booklets were produced to assist the coaching process. All materials were provided in a range of languages.
On‐going support varies from location to location. In the USA there are support hotlines and advisors for both employees and managers, this is reflected in the uptake of 100 per cent. Elsewhere some support for individuals is available from HR. All new employees get a booklet on arrival, and the scheme is also covered in the induction programme. The coaching course continues to run.
Impact and evaluation
At implementation assumptions were made of a likely take‐up of 25 per cent over the first two years, which has been well exceeded. At the site we visited, uptake was estimated at 100 per cent. A recent, company wide, attitude survey showed that 62 per cent of individuals felt they took responsibility for their own personal development, and 45 per cent thought managers encouraged the development of skills. This is a major change in attitudes compared to 1990. HR have seen instances of job moves and individuals widening their responsibilities within their current job. There has been an overall trend towards more project type work. Most dramatically the take‐up of central courses has decreased by 70 per cent in one year as the organisation moves to more tailored training.
Individuals spoke of the PDP process providing a vehicle to hang development on, leading to varied development outcomes. Some had asked for, and been placed on, an MBA programme. Others had been given job related training or experience. There was general agreement that lateral job moves had become more difficult in the current climate. Individuals also commented on the process giving them a longer term view and increasing commitment to development generally, and to self development particularly. There was a strong view from users that PDPs worked but that the commitment from the line manager was essential.
Managers believed that the culture had moved to become more open and that this was healthy. Most believed that their relationship with their staff had changed as a result of PDPs. The development discussion had become more relaxed and the discussion process had helped managers get to know their staff better. PDPs eased the manager’s role as individuals took more initiative and managers devolved more. They also spoke of more networking and greater realism about opportunities in the company as a result. Despite the greater time burden on managers, they commented that it was time well spent.
Case Study: Marks & Spencer
Background
At Marks and Spencer, PDPs are an integral part of a management development programme. This programme was originally conceived as a way of addressing various business issues that the company was grappling with at the time. Like others in this study, the effect of delayering and reducing numbers of people led the organisation to look for individuals who could self‐start and be able to take responsibility for their own development. The company wanted to move away from the culture of paternalism and therefore the development scheme with its emphasis on self‐directed learning was an important lever for change.
Coverage, content and process
The PDP scheme at Marks and Spencer covers executives, senior and middle managers and supervisors via the management development programmes. Prior to the executive and senior programme there is a one day seminar where potential participants learn about the course. They complete psychometric profiling and are given advance work to do assembling a profile of themselves from the viewpoint of peers, subordinates and managers. The latter two programmes are not preceded by psychometric profiling and are more work focused. The comments of individual users and line managers refer to the senior manager scheme.
To date, most of the executives have been through the scheme and around 60 to 65 per cent of the 1,500 senior managers and approximately 85 per cent of middle managers and supervisors.
The development plans are an integral part of the management development programme, which is very much a whole person development event, designed to challenge individuals’ perception of themselves, to give them greater self‐insight and more awareness of how others see them. A key outcome of each development event is to create groups that trust and support each other in this process. These groups consist of those that attended a particular management development programme and can be both the entire cohort and a much smaller set that form a more nuclear support group both on and off the programme. They are encouraged to continue to meet and it is in this context that the PDP is updated and progress discussed. Individuals described how some formally update their PDP via these groups. Others tend to keep it in their heads and update it via verbal conversations. Most individuals share their PDP with their line manager. Also integral to the scheme is the role of mentor/ sponsor who will support both individuals and groups. Mentors are selected from volunteers who have already been through a management development programme.
The development programmes themselves are self‐nominating, although those that do not nominate themselves may well be encouraged to do so: attendance is seen as a very positive thing.
The original form used was a glossy leaflet but individuals preferred a less perfect version. The form was issued in two variations. One simply covered areas to be worked on under general headings; the other looked at these areas for development action in a more focused way, by dividing the form into the ten core skill areas. Individuals could choose for themselves which form they used. In practice, nearly all individuals chose to use the less structured version of the form.
Actions cover behaviours, skills, attitudes, and networking. The actions themselves vary: it can be sharing the action plans with peers or subordinates, or talking to others to get feedback. Individuals are encouraged to tackle small, achievable objectives rather than be too ambitious initially and possibly fail.
PDPs can also be created via an appraisal system which has variable impact in different parts of the business, with take‐up generally greater in the stores. There was a view that PDPs created via the management development programme had much more impact than those arising from appraisal, and we therefore concentrate on the former in this case study.
Implementation
The management development programme was the initiative of the Management Development Manager and developed in conjunction with a consultancy who have been closely involved with the scheme ever since. The introduction itself was fairly low key and initially delegates for the course were the subordinates of senior managers who were known to be keen and supportive of management development. This created an informal network until the scheme was formally launched. At that stage in the programme’s development, line managers had to go on a two day briefing before their subordinates attended the course. This was abandoned later as being too unwieldy and increasingly redundant, as more and more managers themselves attended the course and therefore did not need to be briefed. Individuals spoke of a certain mystique about the course prior to their experiencing it. This they felt was due to the difficulty of describing to others what was for most a profound personal experience.
Since implementation, there has been an integration of core skills, which individuals we spoke to felt gave greater clarity to the process of development outcomes. Psychometric profiling used to happen on the course and now precedes it as individuals are then better prepared. It also takes place on a one to one basis rather than in a group forum.
Impact and evaluation
There has not been any formal evaluation of the development programme and the role of PDPs within it. There is, however, some evidence of the scheme’s success, for example the drop out rate prior to attendance on the course has fallen from ten per cent to around two per cent. Target groups continue to come on the course and give time, despite increasing work pressures. There have also been some key commercial benefits arising from the development programmes. For example: individuals have undertaken development projects on issues such as customer service; cross‐group networking has produced some tangible benefits including the introduction of new lines; different parts of the business have developed a greater understanding of each other; and individuals have used their support network to help them examine their units’ objectives.
Managers and individuals we spoke to had clearly been very impressed with the development programme. Managers felt the programme had had a huge impact; individuals were more self‐ motivated and could see the rewards, one had made a lateral career change as a direct result of the management development programme, others had undertaken very different tasks. The company culture had changed significantly, there was more honesty and openness and the executive development programme was perceived to have had a critical effect; executives now talked openly about their own development needs which had not happened previously. Individuals also believed the company culture had changed significantly from paternalism to partnership. The permission to seek feedback was part of the management development programme culture. One manager described the culture at Marks & Spencer as previously being one of ‘Don’t bring me the questions, bring me the answers’, whereas now there were open and frank discussions, and as a consequence the organisation was significantly better at bringing about change.
Individuals also believed they and others were more honest as a result and more willing to seek and accept feedback. Some mentioned the empowerment of the course with its emphasis on individual impact, others had found the effects of the course to be almost entirely personal.
Other than these cultural changes, managers spoke of a change in development outcomes away from a set of courses towards other forms of learning and development.
Case Study: The Wellcome foundation
Background
Wellcome have been running a Management Development Programme for selected middle and senior managers worldwide since July 1992. This includes a 11⁄2 day session on Personal Career Planning and 360 degree feedback is used as a diagnostic tool in the process. Prior to this current programme through which PDPs are created, career development was a process carried out by the line on behalf of individuals without their direct knowledge. The company wanted to improve its succession planning in a way that gave better information to managers involved in the process. To do this, individuals had to take part. This not only improved the information available, but was also designed to address the realisation that many individuals had not managed their careers very effectively. A further objective was to broaden more senior managers and give them experience of working in other functions and countries. Another influence, which came later, was the drive for personal responsibility, to move away from a culture of paternalism and also to prepare people better for a future where lifelong employment with Wellcome could not be guaranteed.
Coverage, content and process
One of the main ways in which PDPs are created is via the Management Development Programme which is designed for high fliers at middle to senior management level. The programme is divided into two modules, the first a two week course in London followed after four months by a one week course in the USA, which starts with one day devoted to career planning. The resulting career plan is logged with HR. Prior to attendance on this programme, participants have to complete Schein’s career anchors questionnaire, a 360 degree review and a self‐rating questionnaire. Individuals are encouraged to use the feedback of the development programme to develop objectives and to utilise these in team building with the other attendees.
Other ways of creating career profiles and plans are via the appraisal scheme (in the UK and USA), by being considered for a job or, indeed, as a stand alone document. The opportunity to develop a career plan is open to anyone. Career plans are optional, but as they feed into the succession planning process which is not optional, their completion is strongly encouraged.
The PDPs themselves tend to concentrate on job moves as a development process, but will also contain projects and task forces, secondments/transfers, training courses and formal education. Those arising from the development programme tend to use more competence based language, and more assignments as a development tool. Perhaps because of the links to more formal succession planning, the more personal development needs tend to be held back. Individuals themselves agreed that this tends to be the case especially in the current climate of driving down costs and overheads and large scale reorganisation. In the completed PDPs that we were able to analyse, these impressions were upheld. The most frequently occurring development needs were categorised in terms of gaining experience, usually of a different function or country, or of acquiring knowledge. Development outcomes were nearly always expressed in terms of job moves or secondments.
The manager’s role within PDPs is to give feedback on the individual’s own assessments and aspirations, to provide opportunities for development, to pursue with the individual other avenues and to help make some of the development actions happen. On the development programme individuals are also encouraged to log their plans with their manager’s manager, as they may have a wider view of the career opportunities available.
Implementation
The current management development programme was readily accepted and rolled out top down, with full support from the Chief Executive. It formed the first international management development programme for 15 years. The introduction was overseen by a formal steering group of senior line and HR managers and utilised the results of a survey designed to find individual views on the key issues facing the business. Two levels were created: the management development programme already mentioned, and a senior management programme comprising two one week modules separated by four weeks. This was marketed as a forum for strategic debate which made it more acceptable to its target audience than a training course would have been. Both programmes were delivered in conjunction with a business school. The launch of the programme was via face to face briefings, a brochure, and a video for key people.
On‐going support for career planning discussions is offered to line managers by HR and individuals can also come and talk directly to central HR for career counselling. In both the UK and USA performance appraisal skills training has been offered.
Impact and evaluation
Objectives were not initially set for the Management Development programme with the initial approach being low key, thus allowing the programme to build on its own success rather than undertake a very public launch. There has been one major review with external consultants to understand the relevance of the work and its contribution to the company’s objectives, which took place approximately one year after the programme’s launch. This review surveyed all those who had been through the MDP, their peers and subordinates. The results were very positive and individual career planning was especially appreciated. Individuals and colleagues were seeing things done differently, individuals felt that there was a broadening of perspective and understanding of the business.
Individuals we spoke to were mixed in their reaction to creating a PDP. Some were hazy in their recollection of this part of the programme. Others were more enthusiastic and referred to the PDP as being their opportunity to log what they wanted and needed to do. None of the individuals we spoke to had updated the development plan they had created on the programme, and they were also unclear about how it was used by HR. They felt that development had been caught up in a lengthy exercise — Activity Value Analysis (AVA) — which required detailed analysis of the way individuals spent their time. AVA is a major organisation wide review of activities and costs and has clearly
been an uncomfortable process. The outcome of this exercise was a short term focus on reducing costs, which meant that some had experienced development needs not being fulfilled. Moves had become more difficult and dependent on enlightened managers who had been less affected by the budget cuts following AVA. Managers we spoke to were hopeful that individual development needs would be addressed once more when Wellcome returned to a more certain environment.
In the course of the interviews conducted for this research, HR believed that there were improved communications between different functions and also within functions, with more team working and the ground rules being laid for a new culture. Lateral job moves had been tangibly greater, which included the whole of the company, not just the UK. There were more short term assignments and more cross functional moves. Individuals we spoke to were aware of a culture change in the company but less sure how this impacted on their behaviour. A key understanding was that working for Wellcome could no longer be considered a job for life. However, many were continuing to try to secure a future in the company by broadening experience through working in other functions and gaining some international experience. Individuals also commented that they believed that the development programme and PDPs had made them more employable in that the opportunity for reflection had enabled them to clarify the experience they had and the development opportunities they needed.
Individuals commented that the most recent senior appointments had come from people who had been through the MDP, which was felt by some to be as a result of the participants on the programme becoming more aware of their development needs and doing something about them. Alternatively, some believed that the development programme was in fact assessment orientated and that individuals were being identified with promotion potential.
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard
• Communicating with Staff
• Recognising good performance
• Team Building
• Developing Others
Course Manual 4: Governance
Organisations exist only to meet the needs of the stakeholders, whether this is a small executive team or a wider group from the board to employees, suppliers and the community. As this latter view of stakeholders becomes more fashionable, the difficulty in implementing it becomes more apparent. Each group will have competing needs and maximising their share of the outputs. But the benefits will come from cooperation amongst these groups, enabling the organisation to succeed.
Examples of this cooperation are
• Employees and suppliers working together to make goods and services customers are prepared to buy
• Balancing the level of pay required to attract and retain the right staff against making the business uncompetitive and having to shed staff
• Organisations are expected to be good citizens and not expose the community to hazards in the form of pollution, toxic waste or substandard goods/services; the community also need to understand that to benefit from the goods and services, there will be some form of pollution.
To successfully manage stakeholders, the organisation needs to be creative, as the key is to minimise the damage and maximise the benefit for each group. Since the management group is a robust set of stakeholders, governance is required to prevent this group from exerting undue influence and gaining too much benefit from the organisation. There are many examples of governance breaking down and the team losing focus on the ‘big picture’ for short-term gain.
To paraphrase Sir Adrian Cadbury’s 2002 definition: “Governance is balancing economic and social goals and individual and communal goals. The governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to align the interests of individuals, the organisation, and society as nearly as possible.
The functions of governance must include
• Defining the objectives and ethics of the organisation
• Creating the Organisational Culture
• Providing a framework that enables governance to be correctly implemented throughout the organisation
• Ensuring accountability by management and compliance by the organisation
Once the governance framework has defined the objectives, culture and ethics, the management team must work within the cultural and ethical boundaries. Projects and Programmes are a fundamental part of any company’s growth and successful development. They impact all stakeholders and require management within the governance framework. The project and programme engagement with its stakeholders will take its lead from that used within the business. This will require a strong project management capability and a culture established and reinforced through good governance.
Best practice will indicate that projects that demonstrate shared benefits will be the most successful.
The Association of Project Management defines governance as
The framework of authority and accountability defines and controls the outputs, outcomes and benefits from projects, programmes and portfolios.
This form of governance will sit below and inside the governance framework for the organisation, which is defined and managed by the board and senior management team. This is the mechanism whereby the investing organisation exerts financial and technical control over the deployment of the work and its realisation. It will cover business as usual and business change, which will be implemented through projects, programmes and portfolios.
A general governance framework will capture the business rules, roles, responsibilities, and compliance with the applicable regulatory structure. Good governance is empowering and, within projects, enables professionals to execute their responsibilities within delegated limits of authority supported by escalation routes to tackle issues and change requests.
The framework must clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the team and wider stakeholders. Project governance gives the board and operational directors confidence that project investments will be well-managed. A good governance framework provides all stakeholders with timely and accurate information throughout the project lifecycle. The framework will include an element of assurance through internal and maybe external audits. The level of security and audit must be independent, objective and proportionate to the size and scope of the work. Audits and the accompanying assurance must focus on the projects posing the most risk.
Projects, programmes and portfolios commonly employ a governance board or Steering Committee to apply the appropriate governance. This board/committee will oversee the deployment and make decisions throughout the project lifecycle. They will assign the rules that apply to the project relating to financial and other resources and be tasked with looking after the company, users and providers’ interests. Governance will cover the usual subject topics such as meeting agendas, frequency of meetings, attendance mandates and progress monitoring. Regarding roles and responsibilities, many projects adopt the Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed structure and apply the roles to each critical activity within the project/programme plan.
These project-related roles will override any other accountability held by that person outside the project.
Therefore, governance is a framework for managing the business and, through its implementation, creating and maintaining the organisation’s culture. Traditional governance frameworks will cover the fiduciary and strategic elements of managing an enterprise; this covers the management of physical and human assets, finances and the implementation of strategic priorities to protect and grow the company whilst meeting its commitments to all stakeholders, including society and the planet. The process of developing and delivering the framework will be undertaken by the senior management team and the board, supported during implementation by audit processes and reporting.
The critical components of a framework will cover the following;
• Performance of the company and board
• Relationship between board and executive management
• Appointment and assessment of board directors
• Board membership and responsibilities
• The ‘ethical tone’ of the company and how the company conducts itself
• Communications between the board, executive management and stakeholders
A governance framework will have a minimum;
• Mission, Vision and value statements – the mission is focused on the long-term, maybe more than ten years; the vision should capture all the thinking around how the mission will be delivered, and the value statements will detail how the business will act concerning customers, suppliers, society and the planet. Essentially, the ethics of the company.
• Business structure relating to the enterprise, trading entities, divisions and the management structure to manage them; Job titles and role and responsibilities; the business operating model expressed as end-to-end processes decomposed to level 2; business rules relating to each of the processes; the balanced scorecard KPIs
• Business management describes the processes and how they are orchestrated, such as;
– Strategy development and review
– Portfolio Management
– Risk Management
– Compliance legal, tax, environment and employment; in all these categories, there will be regulations and standards to meet and be certified, but there will be voluntary codes such as Modern Slavery, Bribery and Corporate Social Responsibility, which must be recognised and responsibility allocated.
– Roles and responsibilities for managing these will be defined across the management team and related to a board member for oversight.
• Audit – process for independent assessment of the business’s operations; this is common in financial circles when the business is of a specific size; some processes will be subject to ISO audit for certification, such as 9001.
When building a framework, the typical questions to ask are;
• Who has authority in the business?
• What information is required, and how is it accessed?
• How are we organised?
• How does the way we are methodical affect decision-making?
• What are the reporting obligations?
• How should the information flow around the business?
• What are the relationships between entities, departments and stakeholders?
• Does the location of entities change any of the above?
• How do we manage compliance risk?
What makes a robust governance framework when its role is to keep the board updated and provide a structure that drives the strategic plan; it can, therefore,
• Supports considered, data-based decisions
• Identify weaknesses within the board or management
• Connecting the Leadership with Operations
• It provides a tool for conducting board oversight; just the development of the framework can be insightful.
• It brings authority and accountability whilst supporting effective decision-making.
We have discussed that classical governance covers the fiduciary elements to manage assets and the best use of resources and strategies to address the strategic priorities while scanning for any disruptive changes in the internal and external environment. In both cases, the board and management team work harmoniously to achieve the organisation’s best outcomes.
Both these modes of governance are fundamental to maintaining relevance and a sustainable business model. But there is new thinking that there might be a third mode called Generative (Governance as Leadership, Chait, Ryan & Taylor; Boardsource). In this mode, the board and management team work on solutions to the business’s issues. In this mode, the board is more creative, challenges norms, and helps frame the solution rather than being presented with several options, with one recommended by the management team.
Being involved sooner uses the talent around the table regarding intellect, political understanding and social. This involvement needs to be managed in a deliberative and robust process that enables this level of participation but still reaches a decision point. Using a board in this way will drive the need for better skills and diversity and allow the board to provide a more meaningful contribution to the development of the strategy and better outcomes for the organisation.
Good governance should be a thread running throughout the organisation; how often do you check the culture and mindset of the organisation? Governance leaders will exist at all levels and enable the organisation to adapt quickly to changing times, endure and thrive.
Recognising good governance leaders gives employees a sense of satisfaction, creates strong connections to the organisation and builds trust between employees and their superiors. Leadership in governance is about taking ownership of a part of the organisation and continually doing the best for the organisation. Influential business leaders rely on the foundations provided by good governance, using the mission and a clear strategy on which to align their decisions. By following the specific plan, leaders naturally create a culture conducive to success, and employees who embrace this become leaders.
Leaders, as we have discussed earlier, have specific traits: engage in two-way communications, have vital emotional intelligence, are keen and practice team building, understand the competitor landscape, share solutions to enable their team to take ownership and finally, have empathy for the other persons, position and can express it appropriately.
Being a good leader takes courage, especially in constantly changing and challenging times. Courage expressed through transparency and fairness can be developed in employees and should be added to team building, empowerment and trust; the latter is never better demonstrated by the ability to take feedback on your performance.
Research supports the fact that recognition of leadership in governance benefits companies. Recognition: Approximately 28% of staff say they have had meaningful praise from a manager and 24% from a CEO. This then reflected in them being happier at home and work. The research states that happier employees are 12% more productive, and unhappy ones are 10% less effective.
Trust is a massive issue between people in leadership positions and their staff; many must realise that trust begins with recognition of a job well done. Doing this regularly will help to develop a more profound and more robust connection to the organisation.
Alexander Kjeruffs is the founder and chief happiness officer of the Denmark-based Woohoo Inc. He touts happiness as the ‘ultimate productivity booster.’ Kjerulf says that happy people work better with others, fix problems without complaining, have more energy, and are more creative, optimistic, motivated and healthy. They don’t worry about making mistakes and make fewer of them because of it. Also, they learn faster and make better decisions.
As a researcher and professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, Teresa Amabile states that creativity is vital to business success and can’t thrive in a hostile environment.
A light-hearted governance review in this next section is provided courtesy of the Association of Project Management. Good governance is a critical success factor in delivering successful outcomes. But how much is enough? Too much and you can stifle innovation and personal accountability; too little and anarchy can pervade. In other words, how can you ensure your governance is in the Goldilocks zone?
Once upon a time, there was an organisation, Goldilocks Ltd, whose board decided it ought to establish good governance for its project, programme and portfolio environment.
Why? They understood that the APM Body of Knowledge explained that governance refers to the policies, regulations, procedures, responsibilities and relationships which define the establishment, management and control of projects, programmes and portfolios. They also believed this was critical in delivering successful projects and programmes. They aimed to make each project and programme successful, fulfil the objectives of their portfolio and, therefore, be more profitable.
They had an appetite for good governance that would suit their organisation perfectly. But what and how much governance would be suitable for them? They weren’t sure, so they contacted other organisation boards.
They contacted the board of Big Bear Ltd and found they had processes and decision-making bodies for everything written down, robustly deployed, and assured. But they were uncomfortable that all decisions seemed to be made at the top table with little delegation. And would that suit Goldilocks’ dynamic and innovative culture?
They contacted the board of Medium Bear Ltd and found a different style and approach to governance. Theirs was a less bureaucratic approach with some flexibility and delegation of decision-making.
They next contacted the board of Small Bear Ltd and found a very different laissez-faire and light-touch approach to governance. Communication lines were concise, and everyone in the business worked physically and closely together in the same space, unlike the environment at Goldilocks Ltd.
Finally, deciding which was best for them, the Goldilocks Board contacted APM to see if they could help.
“We can do better than that!” said the APM Governance SIG. “Come along to our Annual Conference on 5th October 2017. Listen to and engage with our wise and experienced experts. They will share their knowledge with you. They will facilitate workshops where you can discover and appraise different approaches. And in this way, you’ll better understand exactly what’s right for your organisation.”
Goldilocks Governance – getting it right for your organisation. It’s no fairy tale.
Case Study: CrossRail – Lessons in Governance
Governance of projects matters because there is a strong correlation between good governance and project success” said Martin Buck, Crossrail Transition and Strategy Director speaking at the APM Governance SIG meeting on 17 December 2014. Martin gave plenty of food for thought to the large audience that attended.
Crossrail is often cited as one of Europe’s largest projects. Having spent more than 3 years being considered by parliament through a ‘hybrid bill’, permission was finally granted in July 2008 and the main phases of the project started in 2009. The project is being delivered by Crossrail Ltd (CRL), a company which was established in 2001 as a 50/50 joint venture company between Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT). However from 5 December 2008 CRL became a fully owned subsidiary of TfL.
Critical to the success of the project is the governance arrangements to enable CRL to make decisions on behalf of funders and stakeholders. The project has gained much praise from both industry and government, with a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) recently commending the management approaches adopted by CRL.
Infrastructure UK – Project Initiation Routemap
Martin highlighted that experiences at Crossrail had influenced the development of the Governance Module within the Project Initiation Routemap (see diagram below) developed by Infrastructure UK, a team within HM Treasury. The Routemap supports the governance of megaprojects by considering the following factors:
• Complexity of the project and it’s environment
• Capability of the organisations involved
• Alignment of capability with complexity
Martin stated that for major infrastructure projects good governance is about achieving a balance between the natural desire of sponsor(s) to retain control, and the need of the delivery team to have sufficient freedom to allow it to manage the risk to meet the project objectives.
Martin highlighted the definition by the Independent Commission of Good Governance in Public Services and the APM Directing Change and how he saw the latter as an attempt to “projectise corporate governance”.
Martin spoke of the five areas of governance to consider in designing the model for a project:
• Where does accountability (and risk) lay?
• Authority levels – who has the authority to commit what?
• Alignment – Are the project objectives and goals aligned with business success and benefits?
• Disclosure – How is the project reported on and communicated to the key stakeholders?
• Scale and complexity – are these matched?
Crossrail Governance and Funding
One of the core principles of the governance structure for Crossrail is the clear separation of the sponsor group (or commissioning body), the delivery body (or executing body) and the users. In Crossrail’s case the sponsoring group comprised the two main funders, the delivery body was undertaken by the executive board of Crossrail Ltd (supported by the project management team and supply chain) and the users are the operational team. This separation is vital as some organisations, e.g. TFL, have a role in each of these elements so clarity of reporting and accountability line is essential. CRL has put prominence on core governance principles such as:
• Clear statement of objective and parameters – including arrangement for remedy
• Sufficient autonomy with a single ‘controlling mind’
• A clear system of delegation and process for timely decisions that fall outside the limits of delegation
• Process for controlling changes
• Process for reporting and other communications
• A collaborative culture and working relationships
• Boardroom understanding of project objectives, strategy and approach of what needs to be achieved
A defined system for assurance at all levels.
Martin explained how the Crossrail project was driven by finance and the securing of funding. Key to initial success in bringing the project to life were the project champions like Ken Livingstone and Alistair Darling. However more importantly was securing the £4 billion contribution via the London Business Rate Surcharge. Together with TfL and DfT, the team managed to close the initial £8 billion funding gap to enable the £14 billion project to proceed. The Sponsor role was therefore focused on the main two primary funders, TfL and DfT. However, in the case of the smaller funders, “funding a project doesn’t necessarily equip you to play a project sponsor role!”
A novel part of the governance structure was the signing of a Project Sponsor Agreement (between the two main funders), followed by a Project Development Agreement (between the Sponsoring Board and the Delivery Body) and a Stakeholder Agreement. This triangulation was built on the previous governance model used by the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project (HS1). These agreements brought the key parties together for the project.
Martin then touched upon the Sponsoring Board and the respective roles including a rotating chair. This mechanism was put in place by the Sponsors to ensure control and reporting. Martin explained how the level of delegated authority increased in four increments as trust and governance maturity has grown. [“Empower and deliver” has become the motto of the governance strategy. – don’t recognise this!]
Outlook
One of the challenges will be to bring Network Rail closer to the project as it nears completion as it will ultimately be responsible for managing and maintaining Crossrail’s lines and signalling. This is critical as Crossrail now needs to demonstrate how benefits will be realised through the operational life of the railway.
The NAO has stated in their report that “Crossrail had successfully managed the funding elements but needed to get better with benefits realisation” pointing particularly to the increase in “land value uplift as a result of Crossrail”. As The Treasury said “to fulfil the funding gap – the beneficiaries must pay”.
Summary
In summary Martin spoke of the complex nature of the multiple stakeholders, the relationships and their management and the essential nature of formal agreements. The project is 60% complete and the London section due to open in 2018 with through running to the surface sections in 2019. The key governance lessons learned to date include:
• Be clear of the importance of governance for project success
• Ensure clarity of governance structure and roles
• Use Sponsorship Agreements to build relationships and commitment
• Provide funding certainty
• Allow autonomy and delegation of power to manage risk and take decisions – but allow it to mature over time
• Provide project champions both political and financial
• Ensure disclosure and transparency
Case Study: Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust – supporting the implementation of a new quality governance structure
Context
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust had been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and placed in the special measures improvement regime.
A significant management priority was to strengthen the organization’s governance systems. GGI was appointed to undertake a review that considered the quality governance aspects of the trust’s overall governance arrangements and to work with the trust to implement the review’s recommendations.
Programme
The programme adopted a hands-on, development-by-doing approach. It was designed around the following interconnected streams:
Supporting the transition to a new quality and clinical governance framework and instilling appropriate mechanisms for assurance reporting – ward to board. This was underpinned by monthly workshops, which provided a forum to jointly reflect on progress and learning points.
Providing hands-on support to the trust’s newly formed five clinical divisions to establish monthly cycles of governance meetings and improve assurance reporting.
Supporting the establishment and embedding of a monthly cycle of trust-wide quality assurance groups, with these groups acting as the internal regulators for quality across the organisation.
Measurement of progress on an ongoing basis against two GGI maturity matrices – developmental tools to support the improvement of quality and clinical governance.
Promoting the structural reforms to staff across the organisation.
Outcomes
A bespoke quality governance manual for staff, to instil trust-wide understanding of the new quality governance structure.
A stronger emphasis on empowering newly formed clinical divisions around clinical governance.
A clear and more structured approach to discussion, reporting, and escalation at quality and governance meetings, and effective assurance processes that deliver authentic ward-to-board insight.
Greater structure and focus to the sharing of information and points of learning, with the trust’s five clinical divisions demonstrating sustained progress with regards to enhancing their quality and clinical governance mechanisms to the benefit of patients.
A fit for purpose central quality management capacity and capability.
Impact
The implementation of the quality governance reforms directly supported the trust to exit the special measures improvement regime in January 2019. The trust now has a combined rating of ‘good’
Case Study: England and Wales Cricket Board – Governance Improvement Programme
Background
Prompted in part by a transformational change in its income thanks to a five-year broadcast media deal, the ECB resolved to improve its governance, for three key reasons.
• Most ECB board members were chairs of county cricket organisations and directly elected by ECB members. This meant there were perceived conflicts of interest between directors’ own organisations and the ECB.
• As the ECB grew, so did the importance of its board having the right mix of skills and experience. The election process made it difficult to ensure such a balance and rotation of skills.
• The extra income triggered a requirement to comply with the high standards set out in Sport England’s Code for Governance.
Programme
There were three elements of GGI’s review.
• Interviews – GGI conducted structured interviews with a range of senior stakeholders from across the ECB and throughout the recreational and first-class game.
• Benchmarking – GGI compared ECB governance with 11 sporting and professional bodies from around the world, including Cricket Australia, which was also in the process of moving from a representative, state-based model to a skills-based board.
• Documentation review – GGI studied ten key ECB documents, including the directors’ handbook, the terms of reference for various committees and its articles of association.
Outcomes
The outcome was a series of 14 recommendations encompassing board representation, skills and experience, diversity, regulation and compliance, and independent assessment. The ECB embraced all 14 recommendations.
Within six months of our review, 30% of board members were women, 30% were fully independent directors with specialist expertise, and 40% were rooted in the game of cricket.
All new directors now go through an extensive induction process, which gives them a good working knowledge of the ECB and the wider business of cricket. They are also given a handbook filled with important information such as an overview of ECB corporate governance, directors’ roles and responsibilities, board processes and procedures and the code of conduct and conflict of interest policy.
There is a new annual internal performance evaluation process, offering board members a chance to assess their performance, both individually and corporately. This includes appraisals of each board member – including the chair – and of the board as a whole.
And the board reviewed the structure and processes of its sub-committees, making some key changes. As well as the new governance committee, the board appointed former England captain Sir Andrew Strauss as chair of its cricket committee, restructured its regulatory committee, and developed a new professional game group to consider issues affecting the first-class game.
“I am extremely proud of the changes we’ve made to our governance processes. We knew we needed to update our approach and reshape the board to embrace different backgrounds and viewpoints – both from inside and outside the game – to help us make good decisions. What we were less clear on was exactly what needed to change and how to change it. “With their broad perspective on governance across many sectors and regions, the GGI team were the perfect partners for this exercise. Their input was invaluable, helping us to find a way through the complicated process of bringing our governance up to date and ensuring we’re in the best possible shape to deliver our central mission of raising standards at all levels and attracting more players and spectators to this wonderful sport.”
Case Studies in Bad Governance: Boeing
This week, we continue our conversation about corporate governance with some evidence about how bad governance can actually get.
Last week we reviewed several reasons why boards can be lacking when it comes to corporate governance; lack of challenge, group thinking, dominant leader etc. This week we will look at two case studies where poor board governance has led to dramatic and disastrous outcomes.
Case Study # 1: Boeing, accountability and risk
In February 2021, Boeing shareholders filed a lawsuit against the company’s board of directors. They argued the board had neglected their oversight duty, failing to hold Boeing accountable for safety before and after the crashes of two 737 MAX airplanes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. “Safety was no longer a subject of Board discussion, and there was no mechanism within Boeing by which safety concerns respecting the 737 MAX were elevated to the Board or to any Board committee,” they wrote in the 120-page filing.
Boeing’s strategy was to minimize training costs in order to keep the overall cost of the aeroplane low. The real world cost was several hundred lives, billions of dollars in losses, and reputational damage that Boeing is still trying to recover. The shareholders suing Boeing argue the board could have prevented it.
Boeing’s fall from grace didn’t happen overnight. Rather, it occurred over time as the processes that made Boeing a trusted engineering company were eroded.
By the time of the crashes, the Boeing board was light on safety and engineering experts and heavy on former government officials. Four of the Boeing board members named in the suit were former government officials in positions unrelated to the aviation industry, including a former ambassador to the U.N. and a former White House chief of staff.
Moreover, out of its 13 members, three sat on the board of Caterpillar, and two on the board of Marriott. These inter-relationships increase the difficulty of getting an objective opinion and can foster sectionalism.
“Any cross relationship is a problem because it interferes with objectivity,” noted Charles Elson, professor of finance and former director of the Weinberg Centre for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
The Boeing board had five committees (audit; finance; compensation; special programs; and governance, organization, and nominating). Audit oversaw risk, but its charter focused on financial risk, and it had no mandate to discuss safety.
Moreover, the committee had no mechanism for receiving alerts from whistleblowers. According to the lawsuit, this is at odds with the industry where several different airlines, including Southwest, JetBlue, and Delta have board committees specifically established to address safety.
Boeing didn’t establish a board committee to address safety until April 4, 2019, which was six months after the first crash in Indonesia, and nearly a month after the second crash in Ethiopia.
Instead, safety issues were reviewed by a “Safety Review Board” run by employees, which had neither a mandate nor a mechanism for reporting to the board. Meanwhile, the Boeing board was not even aware the Safety Review Board existed until after the 737 Max Jet had been grounded in 2019.
Despite CEO Muilenburg’s several missteps, from failing to ground the 737 Max jet immediately to insisting that the issue would be fixed with better training and a software upgrade, the board continued to back him up.
On November 5, 2019, Board Chairman David Calhoun told CNBC that the board believed Muilenburg had done “everything right.” Muilenburg wasn’t let go until December 22, 2019, and he left with an $80 million exit package even without severance. He was succeeded by Calhoun.
To add fuel to the fire, the shareholder lawsuit alleged the CEO exit package was allowed by the board to protect any exposure of the board.
By continuing to back the CEO and letting him walk away with nearly $80 million, the board sent the message that it condones his missteps, which inspires very little trust in them and their ability to right Boeing’s wrongs. It’s no surprise that the board is being sued.
Boeing’s board failed in many ways but buried in its failures are lessons other boards can learn.
As Professor Sandra Sucher and Shalene Guptat of Harvard Business School write “You can set yourselves up for success by ensuring you have the right members, are structured correctly, and are able to have intentional, open, honest, and timely conversations where issues of accountability can be fully addressed.”
(An interesting watch is the recently released Netflix documentary: Downfall – the case against boeing)
Case Studies in Bad Governance: Wirecard
Wirecard filed for insolvency in 2020. The former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives have been arrested or otherwise implicated in criminal proceedings. In June 2020, the company announced that €1.9 billion in cash was missing. It owed €3.2 billion in debt.
Wirecard is one of Germany’s biggest postwar accounting frauds. The spectacular accounting scandal disgraced the country’s banks, investment funds, regulators, auditors and police.
Wirecard was worth €24bn at its peak. It turned out the CEO, Markus Braun and COO, Jan Marsalek, had hoodwinked auditors with forged documents, hounded critical journalists and investors, stifled internal investigations and fired whistleblowers for years.
The cause of Wirecard’s collapse was clear cut — half the group’s sales and €1.9bn of the cash on its balance sheet were fictional. In Munich, a team of more than 20 prosecutors and 100’s police officers spent 21 months grinding through the complex scandal, which involves dozens of suspects and companies in about 25 countries, including Singapore, the Philippines, Mauritius, Belarus and Russia.
German law enforcement held 450 interviews with witnesses and suspects, raided 40 properties and sent out 90 requests for co-operation to foreign colleagues. The indictment against CEO, Markus Braun, stretches to 474 pages.
The court documents and testimony reveal a company shaped by persistent mismanagement. Wirecard had presented itself as one of Germany’s rare technological success stories; but on the inside, it was a byzantine and ineffective organisation.
In subsequent investigations by the Financial Times, it was found that CEO Braun, had little, if any, tolerance for dissenting views and scolded fellow management board members raising them.
According to Robert Peres, the Head of the Minority Shareholders Initiative, the chief problem of German corporate governance is that shareholders lack the power to hold management accountable. Wirecard shareholders tried to question CEO Markus Braun at annual general meetings, but they did not have a chance to grill him as German law makes it easy for a company’s board members to evade awkward questions by talking in platitudes.
A related problem is that Germany’s two-tier system of a management board and a supervisory board does not produce the necessary stringent controls. Wirecard’s supervisory board say they did not have a clue about how executives were cooking the books.
Shareholders and other stakeholders suffered as legislation and the federal high court reduced their influence — already small by international comparison — to allow for rapid approval of mergers or capital increases.
The silencing of investors reflects the determination of German corporations to thwart active shareholders who like to ask questions. Lack of accountability created a breeding ground for large scale misconduct and the most skilled fraudsters take advantage of lax legislation.
Much work lies ahead in Germany to fix governance system and the laws that protect it. In the meantime, the Wirecard scandal offers a cautionary tale for outsiders willing to learn from Germany’s mistakes
Robert Peres recommends overhauling the corporate governance system and provide transparent accounting mechanisms. Good corporate governance requires effective means of private enforcement.
Peres points out that class action lawsuits and UK-style disclosures to investors are long overdue in Germany. Those who seek compensation from German companies are also hampered by its 1879 civil procedure code, which forces claimants to litigate individually – with associated risks and clogs the justice system.
Interesting, Peres believes that protecting and strengthening the rights of investors is the surest way to promote corporate accountability.
Key takeaways
• The processes of governance should always be tailored to a board and its business.
• Risk assessment is not just about the financial state of a business; risk should consider any event which could impact the business including regulatory, financially, and reputationally.
• All board members should act independently and challenge actions they feel are wrong both ethically and for the business.
• Board should be mindful of their stakeholders when making decisions including shareholders, employee, consumers and investors.
• Dominant personalities on boards should be challenged to understand rationale for decisions, boards should use voting power where the majority disagree with a dominant member.
• If a director is uncomfortable with decisions being made by the board they must declare this and, in some cases walk away. Directors must remember the jointly and severally liable for decisions made by the board.
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard
Image too blurred
• Stakeholder Communication
• Risk Management
• Roles and Responsibility and accountability mandates
• Compliance Management
Course Manual 5: Road Mapping
Motorola introduced the roadmap concept in the 1970s to support the alignment between technology and product development. Since then, it has been adopted by many organisations worldwide, from individual companies to industry sectors and government agencies. They support innovation, strategy, policy development, and deployment. Over time, the additional benefits associated with developing the roadmap have been cited, such as communication across functional and organisational boundaries, because the development process brings together various key stakeholders and perspectives and requires consensus-building.
Potential Roadmap framework below.
Bob Galvin, who was CEO of Motorola during the period when roadmapping was established, provides the following definition: “A ‘roadmap’ is an extended look at the future of a chosen field of inquiry composed from the collective knowledge and imagination of the brightest drivers of change in that field”.
Once built, it can be widely disseminated as a reference point for dialogue and action. The roadmap should be designed with the target audience in mind so that the points needed to be understood and applied are represented.
Why is the roadmap so crucial in execution? It is reported that 61% of executives have stated that they have failed to execute their strategies.
This technique started in technology-intensive industries, and the whole semiconductor industry sector achieved critical development milestones with adoption. 1990, recent applications of the technique in the UK include the construction industry addressing the issues with Connected and Autonomous Plant and Transforming Infrastructure Performance.
What is a roadmap? It is a graphical representation providing a high-strategic view of the topic of interest. The diagram below shows a generic chart which combines
• Functional perspectives
• Knowledge sources
• Information types
• Timeline
With this type of roadmap, we can examine both the ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ side views, balancing ‘market pull’ and ‘technology push’. This holistic map enables us to link some of the fundamental questions that apply in any strategic context;
• Where do we want to go? Where are we now? How can we get there?
• Why do we need to act? What should we do? How should we do it? By when?
The roadmap can be seen as a strategic lens through which complex systems can be viewed and understood, promoting discussion, alignment and consensus. It will enable employees to stay on track and complete work on time by providing information to
• Guide decision-making for future projects when you can see where they relate to the overall strategy and other projects; decisions are therefore not made in isolation.
• Determine current and future position; as with all strategic activity, it is critical to know your starting position and the direction of travel, and a visual roadmap will facilitate this presentation.
• Setting goals, objectives and deadlines, the timeline in a roadmap is relatively high-level, but it still provides a framework for completing critical activities. Each project mapped within the roadmap will be assigned a rationale, a goal and at least one measurable objective.
• Improve budgeting by laying out the key activities over the roadmap time horizon. Short- and long-term cash and other resource requirements can be outlined, and any constraints that appear can be managed through additional resources or changing priorities, project scope or timing.
Road mapping will utilise much of the work undertaken researching the competition and marketplace, the output from strategic alignment bringing strategy and operations together with the communication of the strategy across the company and subsequent feedback.
Several critical steps need to be undertaken. The first of these is defining and communicating the company’s strategic position. We have discussed using tools like SWOT and PESTLE to gather and present information to stakeholders. Through this process, the company will refine its thinking and ensure all stakeholder groups are on board. During this step, it is worth revisiting critical statements such as the Mission, Vision and Values to confirm that any proposed changes are compatible. To complete this work, a robust competitor analysis is required, and in these rapidly changing times, this will require examining potential ‘challengers’ that may be driven by customer expectations and technological changes.
This work will define and refine the ASIS position and outline the potential TOBE position. A second step will be to collate the changes that the business has identified; this might be in the form of proposed projects or ideas raised by the company or customers. We have discussed project portfolios, and this step covers that work.
Pulling the outputs from steps one and two will require the business leaders to create a vision of the TOBE state that aligns with the mission, vision and values that can be communicated to all stakeholders. The road map must satisfy the achievement of the vision through workstreams aligned to process, customers, technology and organisational capability. Each workstream will be assigned a goal(s) and objectives, and having determined the timeframe for the roadmap and, therefore, the achievement of the vision, a description in metrics of what success looks like.
At this point, it is also helpful to confirm through the roadmap where the impacts of change will be felt and what roles and personnel will be impacted.
With a timeline and activities in place, the next task is to evaluate the use of resources. Finance includes additional assets, hardware, software, and machinery, for example, people in training, new hires or sub-contractors. The level of detail required is total number and budget values rather than specifics unless the company can identify a specific need for skill or hardware directly attributable to one of the work streams.
At this stage, the company should be able to determine any points of resource overload and expenditure beyond planned budgets. Both these could be solved by changing the order and timing of projects or seeking additional resources. This will include sub-contract labour, which needs to be balanced against any missed opportunity to increase the organisational capability. If the timing cannot resolve the budget issues, seeking external sources of funds or looking to increase revenue might be solutions to adopt.
Beyond the evaluation of the resource, the company should use the road map to
• Examine impacts on the present business model, for example;
– New product sales will they cannibalise current sales, and to what extent
– Drop off in sales as an unused returns policy is introduced
– Removing the internal IT department and replacing it with a SaaS provision
• Ensuring that the timelines’ objectives met the longer-term ones; for example, if the roadmap is two years, how does it align with a five or 10-year plan?
• Look for the unexpected when reviewing the roadmap and assess the impact and likelihood.
The Strategic Roadmap should
• Convey the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ specific actions are being taken.
• Contain business vision, objectives, strategies, market requirements, product/service plans, technologies and capabilities.
• Have a built-in process for continuous review and subsequent revision if required.
There will be different roadmaps for new products/services/markets, organisational change, digital transformation, regulatory/environmental and gaining investor buy-in. These might be combined into a single roadmap to examine the cross-functional impacts thoroughly.
How do we build a strategic roadmap? The core of the process will be driven by workshops using information from multiple sources we have discussed that the key components are strategic objectives, initiatives, actions, timelines, milestones, dependencies and risks and that having the roadmap provides the company with benefits such as alignment across all stakeholder groups, prioritisation, communication tool for simplifying complex solutions and flexibility to adapt the strategy to meet changing business environments and strategic objectives.
The roadmap is more than just a plan. It is also how you will execute it, making that vital link between strategy and execution. Keep it simple to ensure anyone in the organisation understands it. Avoiding jargon and unnecessary complications and involving stakeholders across the organisation will foster a sense of ownership. Flexibility is crucial in the design of the roadmap, and using tools such as collaborative whiteboards can simplify the original development and ongoing maintenance.
The roadmap itself is a communication artefact, but regular updates about changes and milestones achieved are a vital part of the communication landscape.
Participation is more important than the outcome, comms, and consensus-building benefits; considerations must be made in building, maintaining, and deploying the roadmap.
Each roadmap will be unique, but the underlying process will require workshops to review information and make decisions. How these are organised and will be related to the scope of the road map and timeline being considered. A whole company road map will be structured around themes that include customers, internal processes, products and services, and organisational capability (IT and people; at this level, this is likely to be a long timescale and elements on the plan may require separate roadmaps, to be developed in additional workshops with subject experts in that area. In these workshops, more analysis tools can be applied to examine the requirement, say in product innovation, how technology can be applied to realise customer expectations.
A proven and well-documented toolkit is advisable supported with internal experts on their use; this can avoid the cost of external resources, though objective facilitation will be required to ensure robust outcomes and efficient workshop delivery. A typical tool kit will include
• Stakeholder Maps
• SWOT and PESTLE
• Risk Radar
• Policy Deployment matrix
• Push-Pull Matrices
• Portfolio Analysis
• KPIs and balanced scorecard
• Bubble Charts for project value risk and reward
• Capability Matrices
These key tolls will be supported by traditional workshop tolls such as brainstorming, HOW-NOW-Wow matrix and impact and effort matrix for example.
LEGO developed a toolkit that enabled the roadmap process using tools appropriate to the groups engaged, from senior management to cross-functional and functional teams and the programme and project teams. The diagram below provides and example.
Research has indicated some good practices to be aware of in the three phases of Roadmapping: planning, implementation and maintenance.
Planning
• Roadmapping is part of the overall strategic initiative and cannot be undertaken in isolation.
• As with change initiatives, a ‘sense of urgency’ is helpful to create momentum.
• There must be a high level of commitment from day one.
• Visioning and goal setting is important to provide focus and drive consensus.
Implementation
• The roadmap format will be unique to the context.
• Momentum is essential to achieve an outcome and keep the process and outputs enjoyable.
• Roadmapping is exploratory, so the process needs to be flexible to accommodate learning.
• The process requires participants to be open and honest in their contributions.
• Finance and other resource requirements will be key and must be shared to enable a robust and achievable outcome.
Maintenance or Follow-Up
• Roadmapping is inherently an iterative process and must be reviewed regularly.
• Updates to progress, reporting on milestones and achievements and identification and the treatment of disruptions in the business environment need to be managed.
• Metrics need to be reported and changed if bettered or incorrectly set.
The case study, courtesy of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering below, demonstrates how road mapping can support the alignment of technology strategy across a large global organisation. Similar approaches have been applied to sector, regional and national strategy and foresight.
This case focuses on a global packaging company with a central European corporate R&D facility and business units distributed worldwide, organised in geography and product lines. The company had grown through a series of acquisitions, with the corporate R&D Centre a legacy from one of the original companies. The central research laboratory provided troubleshooting and development support, funded directly by business units on a project basis. In addition, a ‘tax’ was levied on the business units to fund longer-term research, focusing on new materials, products and processes.
A key challenge for the company was more alignment between business unit goals, which tend to focus on the short- and medium-term, with investment in longer-term R&D in the research laboratory. There was a history of exciting technology developments not deployed in the business units. This led to a concern that corporate research budgets would be cut substantially and the central research laboratory potentially closed.
The S-Plan process was used in a series of workshops, each focusing on particular business units, bringing together staff from both organisations, with the commercial perspective provided by the business unit and the technological perspective by the corporate R&D centre (see Fig. 8). The process was piloted first in one business unit, and then applied across other key business areas.
In each case, three key people worked together to plan and run the workshop and ensure that the outputs were taken forward, both within the business unit and the research laboratory:
1. A senior manager within the central research laboratory, responsible for the interface with the business unit. This person tended to instigate the process, liaised with the business unit to ensure their commitment, ensured that appropriate technical experts participated in the workshop, and ensured the outputs were implemented within the laboratory.
2. The General Manager of the business unit, who ultimately ‘owned’ the resulting roadmaps generated in each workshop, focused on innovation opportunities and strategic options for the business unit. This person ensured that the business objectives were clearly understood, that appropriate commercial, development and managerial staff participated in the workshop and that the outputs were implemented within the business.
3. The facilitator is an expert in roadmapping techniques who helped to design and coordinate the process and facilitated the workshops. An external consultant initially undertook this role, but one of the aims was to ensure that the learning was transferred to the company. After the first three workshops, staff in the research laboratory took on this role.
The main outputs from each workshop were a prioritised set of innovation opportunities and strategic options for the business units. They agreed on plans to take these forward, combined with an understanding of the technologies needed to support these plans. This included short-, medium- and long-term technical priorities aligned with the laboratory’s troubleshooting, development and research activities. The priorities established during roadmapping were compared to the existing R&D portfolio. Where existing programs matched the business unit priorities, these were strengthened, and where gaps were identified, budgets were reallocated.
The overall benefits of the process were:
• Reinvigorated innovation strategy in the business units with new opportunities
identified and pursued.
• A realigned corporate research budget linked to the future business needs of the
company.
Corning, a leading diversified technology company, uses roadmaps. In particular, Corning brought products to market faster by using the Roadmapping process. Before using Roadmapping, Corning focused on entering new markets, but strategic planning across the organisation was not aligned with portfolio planning, R&D efforts or market trends. The company used Roadmapping across three divisions to align corporate strategy, R&D and portfolio planning.
This helped them identify and select new market opportunities, enter markets early, and earn positive returns for the company within 24 months. The company also saw a decrease in development costs due to fewer last-minute changes that were difficult to integrate further down the development chain.
In summary, roadmaps clarify thinking among stakeholders and enable the rapid communication and sharing of ideas. They also reveal valuable linkages among functional areas of a business that are often disconnected from each other, much like the roads that link and connect across a map.
Case Study
A large recently divested global technology services company needed to replace large parts of their HR technology landscape. Preos developed a roadmap which consolidated the HR technology by reducing standalone systems and integrations by over 65%.
The challenge
The business was splitting from a parent organisation and listing separately on the NYSE and their technology strategy was to move to a small number of strategic platforms for their core operational toolset.
The legacy Workday solution was very narrow in scope, with significant complexity driven by lack of centralised governance and limited standardisation across geographies. The tenant had been tactically rather than strategically maintained.
The complex integrations landscape needs simplification and some challenging TSA deadlines and tools that were not particularly fit for purpose created some difficulties in identifying where to start.
Many different legacy payroll, time and attendance solutions needed consolidating, some requiring Workday HCM changes as prerequisites.
The organisation needed Workday to act as a strategic solution within a new systems architecture.
Their commitment to being a much leaner and agile organisation meant the HR processes need to be optimised and standardised, and the employee experience significantly improved.
What was done
Launched a review of the tenant, the support solutions and wider people-related architecture. Through a series of interviews the process ‘pain points’ were analysed to support identification of priority areas to be fixed and optimised. The CIO, CHRO and COO teams were brought together to co-create business priorities and objectives to guide development of a roadmap. Roadmap create using the objectives, TSA and other system subscription deadlines, commercial drivers, employee experience and optimal sequencing of the Workday implementation to ensure minimal rework and interim solutions.
A documented roadmap with the Scope, Business Benefits, Main Risks with mitigations, Prerequisites, Dependencies and Impacts of each roadmap component was created. This formed the basis of a high-level plan showing sequencing, effort and key costs.
Alongside this, Preos provided commercial and technical advisory support to ensure the client maximised their Workday subscription.
The result
Quick wins identified for Year 1 of a 3-year roadmap to deliver fast results for the business.
The three-year roadmap was used to socialise the transformation programme and bring the various stakeholders on board with an understanding of the prioritisation and a clear view of where their contribution would be required.
Tenant reset taking place in Year 1 to put strong foundations in place for a multi-year programme of work. Business case created to support the investment required to deliver the roadmap activities within a wider transformation program. Mobilisation of full team to execute the program.
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard; use either SWOT or PESTLE to establish overall strategic position. Create the chosen template on the whiteboard, with SWOT a four box matix as below and for the PESTLE the subject headings down the left hand Side
Course Manual 6: Communication
What is leadership communication? Covers communication within the company to employees and externally to clients, customers, and shareholders. Research shows that over 60% of managers feel uncomfortable communicating with employees. Delivery is a big part of communication because leadership communication inherently has an inspirational nature. Any leader’s communication can engender positive or negative attitudes, behaviours and performance.
With this level of criticality of leadership communication, it is worth investigating what communication styles are appropriate and how to apply them; Gunn, a Forbes contributor and thought leader, states that the strength of a great leader lies in their ability to “communicate difficult orders and directives with expectations even in the face of not being liked”.
Good practice communication states that leadership communication should be action-orientated. This is demonstrated through listening to employees’ concerns and maybe lack of understanding, committing to actions to fix issues, speaking from the heart and considering others on the team. In summary, effective leadership communications allows leaders to share information quickly, empower their employees, respond to their needs and desires, and drive change and results.
A critical function of leadership communication is enabling employees to feel safe to progress at their own pace and contribute to the organisation’s success. This requires a good understanding of each employee’s emotional and motivational needs. As a leader, you can motivate, inspire and engage them; build trust and cooperation; maintain honesty and transparency; and create a stress-free working environment.
Two Professors at Harvard Business School, Anthony Mayo and Joshua Margolis, viewed leadership styles through three frameworks;
• Imprint looks at the way others perceive their leaders
• Functions of how leaders mobilise their teams
• Motivations examine various stimuli and incentives that prompt leaders to perform a certain way.
The theory is that reviewing our impacts through these frameworks will help us determine our leadership styles and become more effective leaders. We need to look at three common leadership styles to assess your leadership style. Imprint is a critical tenet of leadership style that has three primary dimensions.
• Approachability – being approachable means showing openness and empathy in your interactions with colleagues. This requires a high degree of emotional intelligence, the ability to understand and manage your emotions and those of others.
• Credibility encompasses competence, humility, and resolve, enabling you as a leader to impart knowledge and authority, set a plan, and guide others in the right direction. This leadership style requires trust between the leader and their employees or teammates, plus strong decision-making skills even when facing difficult choices. The ability to make tough calls will build resilience within the team.
• Aspiration combines two characteristics: elevation and faith; the first is the ability to set high expectations that others will be motivated to pursue, and the second is the ability to create a sense of belief and confidence in what can be achieved. Aspirational leaders bring out the best in themselves and others through empowering and nurturing them.
Identifying your style requires building self-awareness through honest reflection and using tests such as Myers Briggs and 360 colleague feedback. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses and taking steps to apply and address them will make you a better leader. Those leaders with a strong sense of self-awareness are more effective, have better working relationships and report lower stress levels.
Next is to understand the function you are fulfilling in the organisation; two sets of practices are suggested: structure and direction, which requires that you mobilise others and communicate tasks that need to be done; the second is support and development, focusing on rallying others and providing instructional guidance. The role will likely fall somewhere in the spectrum between these two practices, and understanding the balance will be critical to the leadership style required and the communication skills applied.
Finally, understand your motivations, examine what external rewards stimulate you, salary for example; what intangible forms of motivation work for you, such as the opportunity to work on new and exciting projects, seeing others develop and grow and a sense of belonging in an organisation. Understanding what drives you will enable you to unleash that potential in others to help them face future challenges and help grow the organisation.
Armed with this understanding of the role and your capabilities, we can apply various communication styles to suit the situation, including customers, suppliers, partners, and employees. The key styles are
• Listening – this should be the most used form of communication. There is no ideal ratio of listening to speaking, but it should always tip in favour of listening. Listening to what your team are saying and what they are not saying is crucial; listening between the lines will indicate the frustrations and challenges that the team are facing. If you truly hear what your employees and teammates are telling you. You will have all the necessary information to evaluate and address the situation.
• Coaching combines teaching and advising, leaving employees to develop their skills by understanding what they need to perform to get the desired results and implementing their action plan. Judging the correct level of coaching to teaching will be down to the time allowed to resolve the issue. A longer time will permit the use of coaching; shorter timescales may require teaching.
• Teaching – this style applies when someone struggles with a particular skill; underlying this style is laying out the foundation for the steps to be taken and the benefits the employee will gain through completing them. Communicating why you are teaching this skill is a good starting point.
• Directing – this communication style lays out the steps the team needs to take to move the project forward; for example, the =steps in the form of activities and tasks required to complete a project. Be careful to direct but not dictate; the key is delivery, providing a framework for orders. Dictating can be used sparingly as a form of escalation.
• Mentoring/Advising – a good leader will spend much time in these modes.; providing applied experience and knowledge to clarify a specific situation or clear up a misconception. When employees come with a question or challenge, you mentor or advise them of potential solutions based on your skills and experience. Within projects, the leader can take a helicopter view to formulate guidance; this might provide solutions to roadblocks, help redefine timelines when interdependent activities fail to be completed and ensure that reporting is honest even under challenging situations.
• Motivating – all teams need some encouragement, none more so than if an event or situation has not worked for the best. The type of motivation must be tailored to the group and its dynamics; sometimes, just rolling up your sleeves and working alongside them might be the best solution.
Most situations will require a blend of styles; use your analysis skills to determine the correct blend by listening and observing; it does not harm to ask your employees what they need and how best you can help them. The most important thing is to be adaptable and change the style to match the situation.
This course aims to manage change emanating from the implementation of technology, and the key to successful change is authentic leadership communication. Terry Pearce suggests that for any leader to achieve this authenticity, there are three pre-requisites
• Discovering what matters to you – having an awareness of your convictions and vision, we all have something we are passionate about, based on our make-up and personal history.
• Finding your voice – leaders must abandon the conventional voice that will have been honed from an early age to their authentic voice that reflects who they are and their beliefs.
• Deciding to lead – discovering what matters to you and finding your voice will not be enough; leaders must commit to creating inspirational interactions with others. This will mean, as mentioned, getting to know your and others’ emotional landscape.
Pearce suggests that enabling a comprehensive communication plan for change requires a platform with four quadrants that he calls Territories.
Readiness – establish Competence and Build trust
To inspire others, you must build your credibility through communication that displays your competence and helps to build their trust in you. People assess competence by your clarity of purpose and credentials; purpose relates to what you state is vital to progress and your credentials to your work-life experience and education. This is always relevant to those you work with, so connecting to the presented challenges may be required.
Trust is vital, as we have discussed many times, as this enables [people to listen to you without filters of fear and suspicion, giving them the confidence to follow you.
Insight – Create Shared context
Leaders must see the challenges and situations they and the organisation face to communicate effectively. In the present context, this is challenging, mainly when technology is being implemented in an already rapidly evolving market. The impact is local and global, and the leader must be able to answer the question, ‘Why should we change?’. Creating a bigger picture that people had been seeing the leader can help them focus their aspirations and hopes for the organisation, engendering trust and reinforcing trust.
Vision – Declare and describe the future
The future is not waiting to happen; it is shaped by what we do and don’t do. As a leader, you have a crucial role in shaping these actions and providing a vision everyone can envisage, including their role. The leader must present this communication as an exciting prospect to engage and excite others.
Commit to Action
The leader’s commitment to action is the culminating step of the change process, with actions that show value over habit, meaning over safety and creativity over conformity. The unmistakable attribute of leaders is the willingness to ask for action and expect it. Acting on your convictions takes confidence; inviting others to do so takes courage.
The benefits of good leadership communication are
• Improving engagement with employees – engaged employees stay with the organisation longer, work harder and contribute to better business outcomes. Engagement begins with trust in the organisation and its leaders, beginning with communicating a clear vision and what actions a leader has dedicated to that vision. Open and honest about what is going on, either positive or negative, and not siloing information across different groups.
• Aligning employees with strategic goals – leaders must continually reinforce the goals, updating on progress towards them and any changes that have been agreed upon. The communication must include the rationale for choosing these goals and how the organisation intends to reach them.
• Building Trust and Transparency – a study in 2021 by the Edelman Trust Barometer states a worldwide leadership crisis. No matter what type of leadership, from government leaders to religious leaders, from CEOs to journalists, there is. There is a growing trust gap. Trust in CEOs has dropped to an all-time low in most countries; for example, in Japan, their credibility stands at 18%, while in France, it stands at 22%. While grappling with problems within their organisations due to all forces at work today, this lack of trust will seriously impact their capability to address these issues. Despite lacking credibility and trust, people still expect businesses to step in where governments are absent or ineffective. Businesses score higher in 18 out of 27 countries than governments, NGOs and media. This lack of trust will not be down to one factor, but good communication is an excellent place to start. Engaging and communicating honestly and transparently enables observers to understand the vision, goals and route forward. They will engage positively with it, particularly if it resonates with their visions and objectives.
• Creating a collaborative and accessible workplace culture – influential leadership communication will permeate all communications in the workplace. Leading by example will encourage others to do likewise. Added to that, with better accessibility to the information, colleagues can ask for clarification, and even new employees will be able to get robust and correct answers to any query.
• Creating influential leaders –focussing on improving communication skills will address several areas, making managers more effective. Good Communication skills bring with them improved problem-solving, better mentoring, and more effective project management. The result is more confident and booming leaders who can handle any problems.
In summary, the following tips provide a good framework for delivering effective communication;
Be honest
Always tell the truth even if the news is not always pleasant. Employees hate being lied to and will start looking for other opportunities. But remember, words need to be backed up with actions.
Follow through on promises.
Honour your commitments; this is particularly relevant in feedback sessions when you might commit to an action to fix an issue raised by one or more of the employees. They will remember your promises. A credible and reliable leader will engender trust and employees willing to go the extra mile.
Communicate with a plan.
Avoid classical communication errors, such as not understanding the importance of a subject or poor communication, which means the information is lost or misunderstood. Plan all communications, and use tried and tested techniques such as telling people what you will say to them, telling them that and then telling what you have told them.
Get your boots on the ground.
To successfully communicate, listening is essential, which cannot be done from behind a desk. Be visible, get to know your employees so you can ask their thoughts and opinions and then listen to what they have to tell you. One-to-one interaction has multiple benefits; the first is the development of trust. An essential skill proposed in the 1980s was titled Managing By Walking About MYWA, and the information gained could be about
• Issues.
• Routines.
• Customers.
• Equipment.
• Workflows.
• Other aspects of business operations.
It is another way of building trust but also allows teams to share ideas, overcome problems and sub-standard practices, and boost productivity.
Be empathetic.
When building relationships with employees, always default to empathy. Any lack of understanding of the other person’s emotional context will immediately destroy trust. So put yourself in the other person’s shoes, listen attentively and actively, and try and understand the situation.
Distil complex into simple and memorable.
Excellent communication is memorable; consider slogans and tag lines good examples. Good communicators want to break down complex subjects; they avoid jargon and business-speak.
Embrace openness and honest feedback.
Do not shy away from difficult conversations; speaking with people with opposing viewpoints provides different perspectives and will lead people to understand you are open-minded and fair. Welcome honest feedback. This will build on the level of trust and build a reputation as a good communicator.
Learn how to speak to groups as individuals.
A good communicator can make each member of a group that they are interacting with feel as though they are communicating with them. Using the style and language appropriate to the group in front of you and any one-to-one time spent with employees will provide an excellent foundation to deliver the proper communication.
Be consistent in communication and actions.
People thrive on consistency, and they expect that from their leaders. Always plan your communication, review previous communications on the subject and transmit information and opinions that are well-informed and considered. This will avoid conflicts and any tendency to flip-flop from one day to the next.
Communicate equally with your employees.
Good communicators will address all levels of the organisation and avoid any glaring differences between you they speak and listen to. They avoid favouring one person, department or level of employee.
Unite around a single cause.
Common goals effectively unite diverse groups, including targets, company mission, values or long-term goals.
Transmit confidence
Good leaders are always confident in their actions and words; they will handle this confidently even when they do not know the answer.
Three in Four employees see effective communication as the number one attribute of a leader; one in three say their leaders do it well. It is reported that leaders are accountable for 70% of employee motivation and happiness.
A workplace survey completed by the Economist Intelligence Unit and LucidChart outlines 11 reasons for good communications.
Facilitate Innovation – there is a direct correlation between the quality of communication, employee engagement and their contribution to innovation.
Email overload – Though an employee, on average, spends 25%+ reviewing e-mails, many of these are not directly relevant to them or their job
Communication silos – the poor quality and lack of relevance of information means that essential data can get lost.
Interdepartmental communication – if there is little strategic thinking in communicating, then interdepartmental communication will suffer.
Employee productivity – four out of five employees believe that internal business communications helps them perform their job, yet they spend 2.5 hours per day searching for information
Employee turnover – good communication will lengthen the time employees stay with the company, reducing costs of recruitment and training
Remote employees – added to the traditional silos caused by departmental boundaries, new ways of working, geographical spread and maybe multiple languages require clear and precise communication.
Knowledge sharing – part of any well-structured internal communications strategy will be to increase the effectiveness of knowledge sharing and reduce the risk of knowledge loss due to retirement, promotion, redundancy or resignation
Knowledge advocacy – better communication will help to encourage a company’s employees to be brand ambassadors.
Company culture – good communication requires open and transparent communications, which automatically leads to improved workplace culture and greater employee motivation and satisfaction
Customer satisfaction and Retention – happier, motivated and well-informed employees naturally perform better when dealing with customers
When asked about the consequences of poor communication, respondents said:
• 52% of employees said that they feel higher stress levels.
• 44% of employees said that they failed to complete their projects.
• 31% of employees said that they missed their performance goals.
• 20% of employees said that they experience obstacles in innovation.
• 18% of employees said that they lost new sales opportunities
The trends for 2024 are, therefore, based on ten key goals
• Aligning employees with the company’s culture.
• Align employees with the company’s strategic goals.
• Build trust in the workplace.
• Keep employees engaged.
• Encourage two-way conversations.
• Boost employee collaboration.
• Keep employees informed.
• Communicate changes effectively.
• Prevent internal miscommunications.
• Make important information available.
The following topics should be considered when building the communications strategy 2024, which might have the following objectives.
• Keeping employees engaged with the business and aligned with the Strategic Goals
• Building robust relationships with all staff to withstand the inevitable disruptions in business life and naturally act as brand ambassadors.
• Create a workplace culture that has trust at its heart and thrives on transparency and openness.
• Build a communication system that prevents miscommunication and misunderstanding.
This will require a strategy with the following components
• Reaches every employee – by ensuring that the primary method of communication is by mobile and the content is tailored to each individual’s needs
• Use the most appropriate and effective channels and tools – to maximise impact and reach with social media and intranets, for example, using tools such as video for short facts and supporting training with conversational learning
• Content development that can encompass all that want to participate – encouraging employee-driven content and using video, GIFs and humour to make content engaging.
• Training employees in communication skills will drive bottom-up communications and more employee-focused content.
• Communicate more regularly, using smaller pieces of information and encouraging participation through surveys or access to research.
• Make information easily accessible whilst still protecting critical business information from competitors.
• Measure the effectiveness of communications again through one-to-one and group sessions to assess understanding; use surveys to determine the level of engagement and the value of the tools used; organise focus groups to help review performance and provide input to the strategy. Pick appropriate KPIs related to the objectives, such as employee involvement in content creation, percentage reach across all levels, and satisfaction levels.
Case Study: Brené Brown: Seek strength in vulnerability
Vulnerability is often associated with weakness, but according to Brené Brown, the opposite is true. The research professor’s five bestselling books, two viral TED talks and Netflix special, The Call to Courage, provide a valuable perspective for those looking to hone their leadership communication skills.
“Vulnerability is not weakness,” Brown explains in her famous 2012 TED talk. “I define vulnerability as emotional risk, exposure, uncertainty. It fuels our daily lives. And I’ve come to the belief … that vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.”
After recounting a time when she was asked to speak less about shame and more about innovation, creativity and change at a business event, Brown points out that vulnerability is really the birthplace of each. “To create is to make something that has never existed before,” she says. “There’s nothing more vulnerable than that. Adaptability to change is all about vulnerability.”
Being open is critical for having difficult conversations with your colleagues, but it’s also necessary for chancing new initiatives and testing ideas. Try to seek courage, not comfort, and be willing to put yourself in situations where you won’t always be right or have all the answers.
Case Study: Scott Kelly: Common ground brings teams together
The best leaders know how to rise above the small stuff and help their teams achieve a shared goal—a trait exemplified by American astronaut Scott Kelly. Despite their differences, he and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko worked together on the International Space Station, circling the planet for 340 days, displaying unity, solidarity and professionalism.
Kelly has flown to space four times in his 20-year career as a NASA astronaut. While he acknowledges that personal issues or politics can potentially get in the way of a mission, he says there’s always an opportunity to find common ground. “Even when you are not the greatest of friends, you could work together for something you both believe in, feel strongly about and [that] has mutual benefits,” he said in an interview with the Harvard Business Review.
It’s a leader’s job to articulate a common vision, objective and set of values that resonate with the whole team. Kelly was once encouraged by fellow astronaut Cady Coleman to be more transparent and keep the public in the know at all times, so he made it a point to share his stories and experiences. His friendly leadership communication style helped build public interest and support for NASA’s work.
Case Study: Michelle Obama: Be authentic, humorous and human
Some leaders prefer to show perfect composure; others tend toward off-the-cuff candor. Michelle Obama does both—often at the same time.
While touring to promote her memoir, Becoming, the former First Lady sat down with poet Elizabeth Alexander in front of a full house at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. As the two of them discussed barriers to women’s equality and success, Obama spoke frankly about the failure of the “lean in” philosophy to make a meaningful difference.
“Marriage still ain’t equal, y’all,” she said. “It’s not always enough to lean in, because that s— doesn’t work.”
Immediately the audience erupted in cheers and laughter. Not only was a prominent personality willing to speak the truth, but she did so with humor, earnestness and authenticity. One of the smartest things you can do is engage with your employees in a way that helps them see you as another human.
Obama never swore in front of a packed arena when she was First Lady (at least, not that we know of), but her form of leadership communication embraced real and relatable themes. She would often fill her speeches with personal anecdotes about her life, work and family.
“Your story is what you have, what you will always have,” she writes in Becoming. “It is something to own.”
Case Study: Indra Nooyi: Don’t pretend it’s OK if it’s not
When Indra Nooyi took over as CEO of PepsiCo in 2006, prospects for the company were uncertain. So Nooyi used her position to publicly address the challenges the company was facing head-on.
“The one thing I’ve learned is: Don’t lie to the people,” she said in an interview with CNBC. ”Don’t tell your people one thing when the reality is something different.”
Her resolve to tell the truth wasn’t limited to speeches. Fortune describes Nooyi leading a team of executives on a daylong excursion to various retail and restaurant vendors, meticulously pointing out and photographing every merchandising faux pas so that it could be forwarded to the person who made the mistake.
“We ought to keep pushing the boundaries to get to flawless execution,” she said. “Flawless is the ultimate goal.”
This unflinching (and sometimes unpopular) forthrightness was a huge factor in Nooyi’s success. And over the long term, she proved her detractors wrong as PepsiCo’s revenue increased from $35 billion in 2006 to $63.5 billion in 2017, with shareholders seeing a 162% return.
The moral of the story? Say what you mean, be true to your word, and follow your conscience. Nooyi’s fearless leadership communication style shows that being honest to a fault may not be a fault at all
Case Study: Empathy: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern
Even before she was elected for a second term as PM of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern stirred the world with her authentic, kind, and empathetic approach to leadership. Her decisiveness and resolution have proved crucial for her country in times of trouble.
In her own words, leadership is all about bridging the gap between different opinions:
“To me, leadership is not about necessarily being the loudest in the room, but instead being the bridge, or the thing that is missing in the discussion, and trying to build a consensus from there.”
Ultimately, Ardern’s greatest strength is her ability to show empathy through her work, which has secured her position. What’s more, she’s well aware that engaging her people and calming them in times of crisis is what will ultimately get the job done.
Case Study: Culture: HubSpot Co-Founder Brian Halligan
In the early days of HubSpot, culture wasn’t Brian Halligan’s main concern. According to him, the founder’s job is never done, so there’s no time to pause and reflect on what you’re building:
“As a founder, you’re always fighting a fire, there’s always a problem, you’re always working on some issues where you can’t really step back and look back and take stock of what you’ve done.”
According to a Jungle Ventures interview, both Halligan and his co-founder Dharmesh Shah believed that thinking about company culture was a “waste of time” at the beginning of their careers.
So, what changed their minds? Well, talking to other CEOs, notably iRobot founder Colin Angle, helped Halligan and Shah understand that culture helps leaders build a big company. That made them invest in their company’s culture as one of the major products of their company — and the thing that helps them attract talented employees.
The decision that helped HubSpot transform the way it communicates with prospective and current employees was elevating an employee from the marketing team, Katie Burke, to be their first HR employee. The move exemplifies Brian’s thoughts on employee communication at HubSpot — it’s a marketing approach.
Even though Halligan stepped down as CEO of HubSpot in September 2021, the influence of his leadership communication style is still felt in the company. That much is evident by the number of awards HubSpot continues to receive on an annual basis from Comparably’s user base.
The founders of HubSpot took a while to realize the importance of company culture. If you want to prioritize it from the get-go, check out this guide to building a collaborative company culture:
Case Study: Values: Founder of Brother Vellies and the 15 Percent Pledge Aurora James
Awarded the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund for emerging talent, Aurora James has quickly become a big name in the fashion industry. She stands behind Brother Vellies, a people-oriented and sustainable luxury brand with workshops in Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, and Morocco, providing jobs for hundreds of people.
More recently, in June 2020, James launched the 15 Percent Pledge with the goal of diversifying the beauty and fashion community and closing the racial wealth gap.
Her initiative prompts retailers to dedicate 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned brands. James remains hopeful that the fashion industry will be able to reevaluate what business usually looks like and have more consideration toward the people they work with.
Aurora James’ enterprise is primarily influenced by her social values — and so is her style of leadership.
Ultimately, according to Aurora James, it’s all about being reflective:
“Success is evident in thoughtfulness and longevity.”
Case Study: Persistence: Peloton Founder and CEO John Foley
Back in 2013, John Foley and a few engineers of Peloton only had a prototype in their hands. Fast-forward to today, and we’re looking at a billion-dollar business led by Foley, an aspiring visionary.
Putting his team first has helped Foley establish Peloton as one of the best companies to work in — a company that “sells happiness”.
In an interview for the Radiate CEO Series by Nasdaq, Foley said that most great leaders are characterized by the same things — hard work, compassion, and leading from the front.
Ultimately, Foley believes that work environments that allow employees to make mistakes are the road to success.
According to Foley, perfection is overrated — which is why his advice to young leaders boils down to making incremental progress:
“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Just get stuff done, every day. If it’s not perfect, fix it the next day. But keep putting points on the board every day.”
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard. Define your communication style and with strengths and weaknesses then define what you would like to change or develop. Use the key style to record those used most often in the present situation and those that you like to develop;
• Listening
• Coaching
• Teaching.
• Directing
• Mentoring/Advising
• Motivating
Course Manual 7: Technical Management
In this course manual, we examine the change that has taken place in Technical Management over this period of digital transformation. IT used to be the function that kept the on-premises hardware running, the software up to date, and the data secure and backed up. Not anymore; according to Deloitte’s 2022 Global Technology Leadership study, technology management can make or break a business. The organisation’s C Suite needs to become tech-savvy, increasing its technical knowledge and acumen to support technology decisions.
We can identify how technology is part of all business decisions.
• Developing new business models through improving operational performance – increasing margins, and improving the customer experience, thereby increasing customer retention and loyalty
• Developing new products and services, for example, introducing machine monitoring to reduce breakdowns and improve maintenance efficiency, be this in industrial machinery or consumer white goods; introducing new materials that are more eco-friendly and improve the sustainability of the business; or creating new product lines.
• Improving information for decision-making to make the organisation more agile and reduce the manual effort required.
• Enabling the monetisation of the organisation’s data into new services or improving the performance of internal departments and reducing their external costs
Technology leaders point to the following as their top focus across the enterprise such as tech fluency (43%), innovation (37%), and strategic planning (13%); they state that the majority of their time is spent on business/digital strategy (35%), innovation (22%) and tech fluency (15%).
Whereas technology would have previously been seen as an enabler for business change, it is now seen as leading business transformation. This has impacted the skill set required to implement technology, moving it away from the single officer in charge of technology to a demand for digital transformation, data management, and cyber security skills. These skills can be aligned to several competencies covering operations, data science, technology vision, change agency, and owner. These might be identified in the organisation’s roles, but they need to exist on a set of competencies.
• Operational Focus – applying a deep operational focus and a commitment to increasing operational value, using highly developed technical acumen to manage and improve the technical infrastructure in the most effective, efficient and secure way.
• Technology Visionary – seeking new ways to apply technology to improve resilience and scalability whilst increasing agility. Continually explore and experiment to help keep the organisation competitive.
• Data Science -dedicated focus on designing, collecting and managing data that can provide accurate and valuable insights and identify monetisation opportunities to grow the business.
• Change Agency – a range of skills that provide the basis to instigate and deliver complex transformation; the focus is always on processes, employee capability empowerment and customer experience.
• The owner manages stakeholder relationships, deeply understands the business and its marketplace and can facilitate and instigate innovative solutions.
Reviewing this, it will become apparent that one person must work on undertaking this skill set and individual focus. Therefore, the solution is to integrate several leaders across the business to undertake this function. This ties in well with the process promoted within this course, for example, using the horizon scanning process to identify threats and opportunities for new value within the business and how these can be delivered by new technology.
An example will be the democratisation of data using technology-developed insights that the business can see as an asset. This asset development perspective can be replicated from data insights, cyber security, and data privacy, which can be brand-defining technology applications. This is also true for more emergent areas of board interest, such as
Sustainability and regulatory compliance. Again, data management and insights enable boards to identify ways to reduce their eco-footprint, and technology can be applied in logistics and energy-efficient data centres.
Deloitte points to its efforts at transformation through a process that standardised processes and streamlined them before introducing automation. The result has been the liberation of 6.7 million hours that can be applied to consulting revenue rather than administration, thus addressing the strategic objective of increasing revenue without increasing headcount. Similar stories can be found in manufacturing, with process streamlining focusing on removing management layers and conducting insourcing. Another example would be the application of process monitoring technologies across different functions, from detecting anomalies in clinical trials to reapplying the same manufacturing process control principles.
In technology leadership and any other leadership role, some good practices will be fundamental to effectively delivering technology transformations and acquiring, developing and retaining talent. We start with the need for technical leaders to align the technical leadership to the organisation’s mission and vision and demonstrate how technology positively enables and delivers the purpose.
Next is good governance practices to ensure that technology decisions are correctly evaluated for fit and benefit and that suitable checks and balances occur during development and implementation. This becomes more important as software capability becomes more commoditised, and the effectiveness of any automation programme relies on clean, accurate data and the definition of business rules. Digital governance will require a mindset change to see enabled processes rather than manual control, automated flow, and cocreation rather than friction caused by resource conflict.
Technology leaders must embrace other business domains to deepen their understanding and improve tech fluency within the business. Developing new services through leveraging developed software and monetising data will require presentation to the company. Presenting this and the better use of data to optimise operations will require that the change and costs be balanced with benefits to ensure the business buys in. This also plays into the presentation of tech budgets, and a good presentation will show that this is as much an art as a science and, therefore, requires well-developed and honed delivery skills, which 6 out of 10 Technology professionals find difficult. Focus on delivering value, such as the speed to provide data analysis to support decision-making rather than just presenting data. Still, personal development will be critical, as well as buddying up a colleague in an external role such as sales and marketing to refine the skills.
We have stated earlier that the delivery of technology will demand that the usual top-down structure will hinder innovation and speed of delivery. Utilising the most appropriate delivery method might change across different projects depending on the type of project being implemented.
Finally, good technical leadership will morph into transformation as the scope and impact of technology continue to grow.
Looking at talent management within the technical leadership, we recognise a shortage that will not be fixed in short to medium term. Talent development rather than outsourcing should be a critical strategic objective. If this is an undertaking with a specific objective, then the next question is, how do we retain the talent?
The organisation’s top three tech agenda items are optimising business operations, modernising legacy, and improving cyber security. Failure to fill the talent requirement is likely to impact the ability of the organisation to grow, particularly when you consider that these agenda items do not cover the ambition to build new tech-enabled products, services and platforms; that is revenue generating activity, which is probably the key to growth.
The following considerations are essential when developing a talent pool management strategy.
• A working environment must accommodate people across the in-person, virtual, and hybrid ranges. Remember that other functions may not view the tech environment the same way as the leaders in that function.
• Creating the right culture to encourage collaboration across various technical skill sets and working styles, from high flyers, specialists and generalists.
• Finally, costs, history states that IT has always been considered a cost rather than a benefit, and it is accountable to tech leaders to begin to change the mindset by looking at talent as an investment and measuring the ROI
Tech leaders will need an effective and sustainable approach; some of the critical elements of this are outlined below.
• Flexible work environments – surveys highlight that over 50% of tech staff prefer the remote-first model of working, with over 40% stating that they would consider leaving if remote working was unavailable. There is also a benefit from the company’s point of view, with access to broader geographies. Almost 60% of organisations state that remote and hybrid working across multiple geographies is the most effective way to retain talent. Tech leaders must recognise and manage that business leaders outside the tech function are more likely to prefer in-person models. The key to overcoming this will be to demonstrate both the accomplishments and the value added to the business by the tech team.
• Promote the meaning of the work – ensuring the mission, vision, and values are a core element of the communication and culture of the organisation. This has been stressed throughout this course, which is not different in the tech function. It is recognised that the work that a tech professional will undertake represents 50%+ of the attraction of any position. This can be achieved by highlighting the business challenges the tech function is helping to solve and expressing the role in exciting and engaging terms, demonstrating each individual’s contribution through meaningful measures and enabling them to grow.
• Self-directed career paths – like other employees, tech professionals want to see a career progression. As the technical aspects of their jobs tend to become outdated in about 2.5 years, the pressure is on them to see progression in non-technical subjects. As a tech leader, there needs to be a focus on developing breadth within the team during their careers. This requires both a learning and development path and options for different career paths. As the organisation transforms, the changes in the tech organisation and the required skills portfolio must be articulated. Key features will be frequent feedback on their performance and how they see the business performing, supported by coaching and buddying provisions. Also, reflect on the overall educational route from apprenticeship to degree.
• Equate Human and technical skills – as the core of technical leadership and their teams will be transformation, the hiring and development processes need to place equal emphasis on human skills; this is highlighted by the fact that tech leaders state that non-technical skills will be more critical than technical skills for success in the future and their top 5 are
– Leadership is expressed as communication, inspiration and presence
– Problem-solving and decision-making
– Relationship skills such as partnership, influence and collaboration
– Creative and Innovative thinking
– Data Science and Analysis
We have already highlighted the rapid decay in technical skills. Still, these skills are more enduring, and the development of these skills relates to the personal development section of this workshop.
• Flexible Hiring Strategy –It is evident that the hiring strategy will need to be flexible to meet the skill shortage and gaps. The gaps will not be filled by hiring outside the organisation or utilising a partner’s consulting resource; there is the drive to develop your skill base and utilise your internal capability to teach and share best practices. Thinking about the employee experience, organisations mustn’t rely on an array of partners to deliver that experience; plus, there is a realisation that time can be better spent than managing vendors on projects. Reducing the number and growing the organisational capability will be fundamental.
• Focus on Inclusion – DEI must become a key focus for tech leaders; it is a long way down the priority list, with over 30% of companies reporting that tech plays no role in driving DEI in initiatives; DEI is only a priority in less than 10% of companies. However, tech leaders must recognise DEI’s importance in the younger workforce to ensure a robust talent pool. Generation Z and Millennials will carefully review their employer’s efforts in this space, and those performing well can expect their employees to stay for more than five years. To attract a broader range of people, strategies such as mentorship, apprenticeship programmes and teaming up with partners focused on developing tech skills in underrepresented groups. An example at Nationwide demonstrates some of these principles. They set up a DEI steering committee within the tech function. Meeting every month, they had clear goals – to attract, retain and develop diverse talent. In addition, they created Catalyst for Change sessions as a safe environment for leaders and staff to share concerns and their points of view. The basis is constructive conversation and solution development. To ensure inclusivity, build appropriate measures into the leader’s KPIs.
People represent a good ROI as they will transform your tech function, not the technology, and they need to be empowered, prepared, and integrated into the business. This can be seen in their likelihood to stay, referencing others to join and contributions to innovation, Reviewing the tech workspace and how it looks in the future, being able to paint a picture of the future environments as well as the work being performed will help to retain staff and build organisational capability.
Alongside the more traditional tech functions of infrastructure management, systems development, data management, and latterly, cyber security tech functions are now becoming engaged in data monetisation initiatives, though this still ranks behind infrastructure modernisation and advanced analytics, where 60% plus of companies have top of their tech project lists; closely followed by master data management at just below 60%.; monetisation comes in at 20%.
The key is that as Master Data Management is being performed, the opportunities for data monetisation should be considered to ensure that the final structure enables these fully. Data Monetisation needs an external perspective and the internal value of business operations cost and efficiency. Without organisational transformation, there will be no digital transformation, and data will be vital to understanding and setting direction.
Four critical approaches to monetisation are
• Selling data sets to customers as a batch of business intelligence. An example might be anonymised patient records of patients who use cancer drugs sold to oncology research organisations to guide the increase in the diversity of clinical trials.
• Selling insights include market-based data on customer purchasing habits before and after a new product launch.
• Embedding data and insights into existing products. An example might be an online marketplace advising on sales prices, item conditions, and shipping costs to its sellers as part of its listing process.
• Selling to ecosystem partners, for example, sharing data with an aggregator who combines your organisation’s data and insights with other sources to feed into one of their clients. Consider passenger data from airline tickets and combine this with duty-free spending patterns to support the development of the shopping experience with airports.
All Monetisation initiatives need to prioritise data privacy and protection. Understanding the categories and potential value within your data sets and who might be a customer for it should be a part of the overall product portfolio management process. An overview of some of the data dimensions that can be relevant
Product
• Attribution
• Brand and Performance
• Sales and Financials
Consumer & Individual
• Demographics
• Financial Health
• Travel and Life events
Health
• Provider data
• Client data
• Claims data
Business
• Financial data
• Geographic
• Operational
Supply Chain and Logistics
• Supplier Relationships
• Shipment Records
• Spend patterns
In addition to data, some organisations have developed unique software suites that can add to the company’s product and service offering; for example, Lenovo developed an internal system to manage the transition to the cloud. This was commercialised and offered to customers to help them manage their journey to the cloud from the build through the transition to management.
As with all new product or service developments, a compelling Customer Value Proposition must exist. Evaluate the options using a tool that can assess each opportunity from delivery costs and value points of view. Pick the right leader for the project with the right attitude and technical background and frame a project that utilises your organisation as the first customer but not the only one. Always look outside your industry and select the development team to have that flavour of experience beyond the organisation’s boundaries.
Manage the process with a robust governance system and consider how the monetisation goes beyond the pure numbers to increase resilience and better insight into the future, supporting the horizon scanning process.
Tech budgets are still increasing, focusing on optimising and augmenting present business capabilities, followed by new value-generating business models or entry into new markets. When questioned about technology investment and the critical impact areas, the top four responses are cyber security and risk mitigation, core modernisation and legacy system removal, shift to the cloud and data analytics. This indicates that the tech budget is used to build a solid foundation rather than forging new value-generating businesses.
However, those businesses using technology to develop new value-generating companies will continue to invest and seek ways to apply technology to new business models and data monetisation.
We see that more of a percentage of the tech budget is being controlled by business and functional leaders, moving in a recent survey from 20% to closer to 40%; this is anticipated to grow beyond 50% very quickly. Additionally, businesses recognise the increased subjects that technology impacts from infrastructure technology (hardware and software), data management and analysis, cyber security and automation.
The present focus is cyber security and risk mitigation (50%+), Core modernisation and legacy renewal (50%+), shift to cloud (50%) and data analytics and science (45%).
AI will become a significant differentiator between companies, with those leveraging the technology performing and being valued more than those not.
The growth in the tech budget will bring greater scrutiny; therefore, tech leaders will need to apply appropriate techniques to demonstrate the value of the spending. Over two-thirds of companies state that they constantly discuss how to measure the value of tech and effectively that the measures are inappropriate, one such measure being ROI.
Many tech investments will have an impact over time, and several soft benefits range from reputational improvements to risk mitigation. Designing KPIs and defining a method for expressing these benefits can be achieved using some of the techniques we have covered earlier;
• Building road maps – aligning the technology to elements of the business strategy, particularly those that are part of any digital transformation
• Managing Change – ensuring that technology is adopted and employees impacted are re-employed into value-added activities. Companies have developed a more cross-functional approach to managing projects where digital transformation is at the core.
• Balance quantitative and qualitative benefits – begin measuring the people’s ROI through productivity and moving to higher value activities. Quantitative measures can cover strategic outcomes, growth and how effectively the tech has delivered new products and services.
• Change the budgeting process – the traditional approach of reviewing it once a year needs to become more agile and be based on value generation. A more agile approach will recognise that change is inevitable; using a project portfolio will enable the business to reprioritise funds as different projects move faster than expected and, if funded, can release resources further down the line.
• Never present the costs without the benefits – this aligns with changing the tech function from being considered a cost to value-generating and ensuring that chosen KPIs go beyond the simple uptime and data security to achieve business outcomes.
• Recognise that measuring benefits is as art as science – understanding and engaging your stakeholders in their expectations for tech investment and how they see the outcomes is an excellent first step. Examples exist of companies combining IT and people-focused metrics reviewing the impact of transformation initiatives, operational security and reliability, organisational health, culture, skills development, and employee engagement. Engaging in scenario planning with business executives will blur the boundaries between business and tech and provide a better alignment between business and technical priorities and the required outcomes.
Finally, technical managers need to embrace the portfolio management approach. With this mindset, tech investments can be short and long-term and are aligned with strategic objectives and business outcomes. Moving the It budget from an annual event to a dynamic, living strategy you visit every quarter or month
Technology leading transformation
Used to be one officer in charge of Information technology now splitting this role to cover data, digital and security focus
Case Study
Client profile
Disruptive start-up without technical leadership
Challenge
Hiring technical leadership
Action
• Deep dives on vision, business strategy, stakeholder expectations, and potential IP
• Analysis of existing team strengths and gaps
• Partnered with Talent head to craft job spec, interview pipeline, and acquisition strategy
• Performed technical vetting
Results
• Automated a fair early-stage selection process that could be used for other roles
• 3 rejected finalist candidates so sold on vision they recommended others from their network
• Hired Head of Engineering who is widely considered key to success
Case Study
Client profile
Leading FinTech in crypto tax solutions
Challenge
Develop content marketing strategy
Action
• Company needed a strategy to merchandise its thought leadership coming out of a recent rebrand
• Acting as a Virtual CMO, led team in creating an editorial calendar that produced a strict schedule of blogs, social posts, PR and research
Results
• Partnered with business to develop timely marketing themes that supported product launches
• Helped craft blogs, write and post social media, oversee conference and PR schedule
• Generated incoming leads from prospects and media using Hubspot to manage and track
• Grew social media followers by 200%
Case Study
Client profile
Major bond e-trading platform with significant market share
Challenge
Launch a new FinTech company in a crowded field
Action
• A group of Wall Street’s top corporate bond traders wanted to launch an e-trading platform where Goldman Sachs and Blackrock had failed
• A new brand had to be constructed from scratch that would standout from its competitors and attract top institutional investors
• Developed brand positioning including naming of company, product suite, tagline and all communications: website, brand video and pitch deck
• Developed and executing an entire go-to- market strategic marketing plan from press strategy to lead generation programs
Results
• Resulted in industry-leading order and transaction volume from 250 institutions onboarded in under one year
• Pre-launch Series A valuation of 75M and Series B co-led by Soros and Thiel of 35M
• Ran all PR efforts pre and post-launch resulting in 25 placements totaling 10M+ impressions
Case Study – Google
Google, the world-leading multinational internet and technology company, developed Squared Guru to enhance its understanding of digital transformation. Guru grows the leadership and Change Management skills required to drive digital transformation.
The Squared Guru vision is to empower today’s and tomorrow’s leaders to drive transformation and growth where they work. Squared Guru is based on four pillars:
• Have a vision
• Benchmark yourself
• Liberate brilliance
• Become a committed learner
Solution
Impact ran three days of this two-week face-to-face experience. The first two days combine immersive, live projects with discussion and feedback in order to create a risk-free environment, develop skills, understand the principles of leadership in a digital world and learn to learn. Impact returns on the final day of the programme where participants develop influencing skills, consolidate their learning, reflect on how behavioural and organisational change actually happens and define an action plan
Results
• 92% Overall score
• 94% Facilitator score
• +45 NPS
But the real results are for participants and their organisations. “Impact’s expertise in behavioural change has been core to our Squared programme. They are collaborative and insightful partners for the Google Digital Academy and other teams here at Google and we’d recommend them highly.” Sarah Logan – Head of Google Digital Academy
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard
• Cyber Security
• Modernisation of Legacy
• Data Analytics
• Cloud Computing
• AI
• Blockchain
• Data Monetisation
• Technology
• Business Impact
• Strategic Priority
• Gap
Course Manual 8: People Management
Even with the march of technology, people are your most precious resource, and those you have trained and are committed to the organisation are the most valuable.
Line manager’s trustworthiness is defined with dimensions that measure benevolence, integrity and predictability, and the CIPD has further described actions and behaviours.
• Respects me as a person.
• Recognises when I have done an excellent job.
• Is successful in getting people to work together.
• It helps me perform well in my job.
• Provides valuable feedback on my work.
• Supports my learning and development.
• Can be relied upon to keep their promise,
• Is supportive if I have a problem
• Treats me fairly.
When surveying these traits amongst employees, it was noted that the context in which a line manager had to operate would also impact what employees thought of them; that is, the company policies and practices of the organisation and the workplace climate in which employee-manager interactions occur. Managers in smaller organisations got better ratings than those in larger ones due to the increased visibility, and the scope for building personal relationships outweighed any disadvantages arising from the greater informality of the organisation.
Employees who never worked from home rated their managers lower than those who had done some working from home. Management’s core function is to maintain and improve their teams’ productivity, and the highest-rated managers’ performance confirms this. Managers can significantly influence employee commitment and engagement with the core purpose and goals of the organisation, which will directly correlate to their performance on behalf of the organisation.
Looking at employee performance through three lenses, we can see the impact a line manager will have.
• Job Competence – over 80% of employees felt competent to perform the tasks required as an average across all managers; this drops to 64% for those who rated their managers as poor and rose to 90%+ for those who scored their managers as good.
• Discretionary Effort – encouraging employees to undertake tasks beyond the job description or the employment contract is a real test of line management competence. Employees with line managers in the bottom quartile of performance are less likely to volunteer for duties beyond their terms of employment; the percentage is 34%, but 74% of those with line managers in the upper quartile are likely to volunteer.
• Innovation – finally, line management significantly affects employees’ contribution to improving quality or productivity; over 60% of employees working for managers in the bottom quartile say they would rather sit on their hands than contribute.
How managers manage their employee’s workload and stress is also reflected in the scores; over 50% of employees working for bottom quartile managers state that the workload pressure is too much. The most common reasons for stress-related absence are the workload and management style. This pattern is also reflected in employee mental health, with better managers seen to be more empathetic to these issues and helping to manage their workload to reduce the impact.
It is not a surprise that job satisfaction is also significantly impacted by line management competence, with over 60% of employees with poor-performing managers stating they were dissatisfied with their job, but this reverted to less than 12% for those working for managers in the upper quartile.
Working relationships are crucial to job satisfaction and performance, and on the downside is the likelihood of someone quitting their position. When surveyed, employees valued their manager’s personal qualities, such as treating them with respect and fairly, over and above their support for learning and development. The likelihood of quitting rises threefold when an employee is not getting on with their manager, though the lure of better pay and conditions is the underlying reason.
Reviewing career development as part of the role of a manager, and in any survey, it is recognised as one of the weakest traits of managers, alongside coaching and feedback. Unsurprisingly, managers rated highly in other skills sections, which was also reflected by employees with upper quartile managers, who stated that 87% had supported their career development. Still, less than 10% felt that if they worked for a bottom-quartile manager. This impact has a long-term effect on those who think about their expectations from their working lives.
For line managers to be effective, they obtain proper training and information and are given time to undertake their people management duties. This will require systems and processes to support them, including personal skills such as communication, taking feedback, managing meetings and groups, performance measurement and goal setting, and change management. With the level of change experienced in business today and the introduction of more and more technology, these aspects are now paramount.
There is a strong link between the level of support and information given to managers and the time to do the job. Managers who believed they had enough support and information were more likely to recognise they had time to do their job. The opposite was the feeling when there was considered to be inadequate support and information. Managers in this category were less likely to achieve their objectives. Therefore, there is a real benefit to designing the manager’s job correctly and achieving the right balance between personal performance and the time spent enhancing the performance of others they manage.
In summary, managers need the skills to manage and develop people properly, the key pointers being.
• Treat people fairly
• Provide feedback and support.
• Help their development.
• Provide opportunities for people to work together.
This will lead to happier, healthier, and higher-performing teams. Given that this skill is important, organisations need to ensure a system to support and train managers and that the selection of managers is carefully considered to reinforce the workplace culture.
Moving into how to establish or assess your people management processes, we start with
Tips to help a manager build good team-working relationships include:
1. Be as open as possible with team members and trust them to do what is expected.
2. Please get to know each team member and take the time to listen to their concerns and ideas.
3. Understand employment rights
4. Deal with worries and potential disciplinary matters promptly
5. Set objectives with clear outcomes
6. Communicate clearly and honestly, and hold regular team meetings
7. Listen to the ideas of team members on how best to achieve goals
8. Treat all team members as you would want to be treated yourself
9. Promote training and development opportunities to keep team members interested and motivated
10. Give credit where due and highlight successes
Any team will contain people with different motivations and concerns; as a manager, you must be socially aware and self-aware to build relationships and lead the team irrespective of the situations that will arise.
Summarising what we have discussed earlier in the section regarding personal development, then
For self-awareness.
• Think about the emotions and moods you experience at work,
• consider what you think and do because of these emotions, and how they might impact you and your team.
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and try to improve critical areas.
• Try to manage and control your emotions before addressing situations and making decisions.
• Continually reflect on the outcomes of situations and how they might be better approached next time
For social awareness.
• Listen carefully to what team members say and note how they respond to social interactions.
• Seek to understand and empathise with team members’ emotions, needs and concerns.
• Identify how best to communicate with each team member so it meets their needs where appropriate.
• Make an effort to consider the needs and feelings of any affected team members before making decisions.
• Continually reflect on how you manage your team in situations that arise, the outcomes, and how such circumstances might be better approached next time.
Motivating a team requires managers with a good working relationship to know what motivates each team member. Some common factors will be
• Making team members feel valued, just a simple thank you for a job well done will suffice.
• Top of most employees list would be treated with fairness and respect
• Tailoring work where possible to meet employee’s objectives
• Reinforcing the organisation’s goals and ensuring each team member is fully aware of the role they can play in their achievement
To support managers in developing and improving their skills, the people management system needs to provide access to face-to-face and online training, coaches and mentors on subjects such as communications and meeting management, listening, and giving feedback. Regarding meetings, the advice and training need to cover formal team meetings (how to avoid lateness and talking shops), one-to-one meetings, informal chats, phone, email and notice boards. Key to many of these personal meetings will be the ability to listen, apply active listening and observe people’s body language.
Managers should ask for feedback on their performance regularly and be able to process both negative and positive feedback into action. They should also perform the same task with their employees and not wait for annual appraisals or performance reviews. Good practice states that possible feedback should have three elements to it: positive, focusing on something the employee has done well; developmental, what they could improve on; and then re-emphasise the positive again.
There will always be difficult conversations, and training needs to be provided to help managers plan for these occasions, allowing them to understand that these conversations will require patience and judgement and may require input from an HR professional.
Beyond this, training can be focused on
• Managing day-to-day tasks
• Setting common goals
• Delegating tasks
• Managing resources and workloads
• Managing the budget
• Handling leave requests and short-term absence
When managing personal and team workloads, the manager needs to be conscious of priorities, apply delegation wisely, and be organised to avoid missing critical tasks, targets and milestones.
Understanding how your team fits into the business model and delivers value to the business is a vital attribute of the manager. Through a thorough understanding of the business process model, the manager can relate the team’s role in activities, tasks, Key Performance Indicators and appropriate targets. The manager should be able to help the team analyse their parts of the end-to-end processes and identify waste and opportunities for both change and technology, the latter at a high level.
This work and that of setting other goals for the team need to be developed in team meetings so that all actors are present and able to contribute. In dealing with priorities, a manager needs a simple method to categorise the tasks in front of the team, such as three categories: non-urgent, essential, and critical. The renowned expert on
Leadership Stephen Covey uses the states of urgent, non-urgent, essential and non-important to guide how to deal with tasks to be effective. He recommends moving all your energies to Non-urgent and vital functions in a less stressful and more fulfilling working day.
Delegation is another skill where training and coaching/mentoring will help managers more effectively complete their tasks and develop the team. ‘I can do the job quicker if I do it myself’ is often heard. This might be a truism, but if you and a team member should not do this task, it can be developed to do it, and then we can begin to address the target of important and non-urgent tasks being performed by management.
When delegating work, a manager should:
• Clearly define the task, what needs to be achieved and when
• Choose someone appropriate and capable of the task, but try to vary the work around the team where possible
• Consider what resources may be required to complete the task. For example, equipment, money, or further training
• Check that the team member understands the task and is comfortable doing it
• Inform others relevant to the task about what is happening
• Provide support and advice where necessary
• Trust the team members to do the job
• Give them constructive feedback once the task is completed
There are some fundamental principles you must follow when designing a leadership development programme, and the organisation will need to be aware of the impact technology will have on leadership competencies and the delivery and assessment of leadership development materials and delegate progress.
The first of these principles is the requirement to define the business drivers; this should be available from the business strategy and expressed as leadership challenges; there may be a number of these, but choose the top three to five. Some examples are increasing product innovation, raising customer centricity, improving profitability, and increasing sustainability. These statements will help to define the leadership culture being sought and maintained.
The next step is to build a competency framework and, to do that, begin by expanding the business driver statements with a more detailed definition: what are the related competencies and the leadership behaviours that are required to reach that strategic goal? This might break into primary and secondary competencies that come into play in certain situations. Lastly, related personality traits, which may be more appropriate at higher levels of the leadership structure, might still be relevant to identify personality traits that can enable or derail behaviours.
Looking at an example of how this might look, courtesy of Development Dimensions International 2022
BUSINESS DRIVER – Build Strategic Partnerships and Relationships
Definition
Builds strategic alliances and partnerships with other leaders inside the organisation to execute business strategies collaboratively.
Competencies – Primary:
• Cultivating Networks and Partnerships
• Strategic Influence
Competencies – Secondary:
• Compelling Communication
Personality Patterns – Enabling:
• Interpersonal solid relationships – Even-tempered, calm in a crisis
Personality Patterns – Derailing:
• Poor interpersonal relationships – Difficulty building trust, emotionally detached
The Competency Framework will help clearly define your leadership goals, helping to create a leadership language to align expectations and actions throughout the leadership structure. In addition to the business drivers, the framework will be focused on well-defined competencies based on observable behaviours, be differentiated to meet the different management levels, be part of a management development process, and match the current business situation and strategy.
What is a competency – a cluster of behaviours and abilities, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, business management skills, and personal attributes? They must be applied by leaders to influence the attitudes and behaviours of others successfully.
For competencies to be applicable and training and development courses to be designed to support them, Competencies must be
Clearly defined – providing insight into how the competency will look in practice.
Behavioural – be associated with behaviours that a leader must display to perform the competency.
Observable and measurable – the behaviours related to the competency must be observable and measurable so that leaders can receive feedback on their performance.
Applicable across the employment lifecycle – the competencies must be consistent across all HR processes, from hiring to promotion, assessments, and development.
Provide a framework for coaching and feedback – team members must be able to give feedback about how a particular competency is being performed and provide appropriate coaching advice.
Appropriately specific – it is essential that the competency is unambiguous but must not be specific to a role or job function. The diagram below shows an example of leadership competency courtesy of Development Dimensions International.
The application of competencies might change across different levels of leadership, and this needs to be considered so that any differences in competence are relevant to the level in question. The differences will support processes such as selection and development.
Applying this principle to leadership levels such as staff, team leader, middle manager, and senior executive across three competencies, operational performance, change, and decision making, we might see the required change in competence, as shown below.
The competency framework must sit within the business operating model, and the appropriate end-to-end process is HR Hire to Retire. The diagram shows how the framework can be integral to the critical talent management process, covering recruitment, learning and development, succession planning, performance management, and career planning.
Review the competency framework as business strategy changes, and this will be brought into focus as technology is applied, and digital transformation is being considered. The framework will be a part of developing organisational capability strategic objective or goal combined with knowledge capture and sharing, experience and culture. This will be reflected in the capability by measuring what people know, what they are competent at, what attributes they have developed, and what experience they have had. These dimensions must be addressed to create a robust and capable leadership team capable of driving the business forward through all changes in the business environment.
In summary;
• Ensure that the competency model or framework is closely coupled with your business strategy and update it as the plan is updated.
• Make all behaviours actionable and measurable.
• Differentiate competencies by leadership level only where it is justified.
• Use the model as an integral part of talent management.
To support leadership growth, opportunities for learning and development will be required. Traditional methods had been classroom and teacher-led, but technology has significantly disrupted this model along with the constraints on time and the drive for sustainability, reducing items such as travel. There is a drive to make all learning and development activities put the leader first.
This does not mean that all structure and governance are thrown out and become a free-for-all. The key is still design but recognising that it must accommodate all learning modes, including articles, short courses, micro-learning, videos and podcasts.
Therefore, the design of any learning programme needs to embrace several key elements that leaders will want to enable them to improve. The first of these will be relevant to the challenges they and the organisation face. In some situations, it is essential to experience the challenge safely away from the working environment. They will need to be able to trust the source of the learning and also know that they will get value out of it. Finally, they would be delighted if this provision was personalised and available in a size and delivery method that suited their time constraints and learning style.
With careful design and the use of all the tools and vendors at your disposal, it should be possible to develop a learning platform that combines the key elements and can be tailored to meet the demands of the leader based on their role and present competence. Even with the breadth and depth of digital options, it is still vital to have good facilitation to reinforce the learning experience. The figures below from a survey (courtesy Development Dimensions International 2022) of over 15,000 global leaders what the top four learning options are
• External Coaching 48%
• Developmental Assignments 48%
• Assessment to diagnose leadership strengths: 42%
• Formal in-person training 39%
The next choice is whether we can use our people; if not, external facilitation will be required, and if we do have the capability, do they have the necessary skills? Also, consider if your leaders will respond better to external facilitators about coaching and feedback. On the other hand, internal facilitators will understand the challenges the leadership will face and the context or the organisation in which they operate.
Not all leaders can become good facilitators, allowing enough time for preparation and being able to handle difficult conversations; plus, outstanding leaders might curtail the opportunity for learners to share experiences and expose their weaknesses. When choosing internal facilitators, consider the following.
• Understand the organisation from all aspects and can identify problems and opportunities from another person’s perspective.
• Creating a learning environment that fosters the trust and commitment of the learner
• Innovation: can this person encourage innovative thinking in others without forcing their solution; can they enable the learner to see the need for change?
• Effective and efficient at developing and implementing plans
• A good communicator who engages their audience and conveys ideas clearly
• Has a track record of engaging in continuous learning, which is verifiable on a day-to-day basis
• Works collaboratively naturally to achieve their and the organisation’s goals
• Comfortable adapting to new structures, processes and cultures; able to translate that capability to others in their work environment
• Enjoys the opportunity to facilitate other learning and is motivated by it.
Abstracting these criteria into a set of competencies means that leadership facilitators need to
Facilitating learning – through clear direction and understanding of the subject, using learning aids effectively, managing remote attendees, the ability to summarise what has been taught, and ensuring the benefits of the course are well explained.
Engaging communication – the ability to convey information supported by example and personal experience, capable of effectively using verbal and non-verbal techniques even with remote learners.
Guiding learners – providing timely guidance, coaching and feedback to ensure learners absorb the content and strengthen their skills, checking understanding, redirecting learners to other sources of information, and planning and managing time effectively.
Applying Emotional Intelligence – creating and maintaining trusting relationships by managing and understanding your and others’ emotions, demonstrating this skill to provide a model for others.
Remember, great facilitators build great leaders.
When building a leadership development programme, please remember these good practice maxims.
• Using both macro and micro learning approaches ensures that they complement each other, with the macro providing a foundation for a subject and the microlearning providing bite-sized information as skill refreshers or examples. Micro techniques will also offer the opportunity to provide continuous assessment and feedback. Design the macro approach to include face-to-face training and coaching, which were applicable with core materials available online 24/7.
• Provide the opportunity for group and self-directed development, make self-directed more effective with good course communications and senior stakeholder support. Personalise the learner journey to meet the role and experience of the learner and provide guiding principles as to the objective of the learning and the expected outcome. Ideally, a subject matter expert should be identified, an internal resource can act as a mentor, and external should be available through the Internet. Consider using peer networks, as discussed below, to allow learners to explore and expand their understanding; this can be provided through virtual classrooms. The learning schedule and content should be part of the Personal Development Plan.
• Use Peer Groups to enable leaders to learn together; they will build connections and share the culture. The broader and diverse perspectives can then be applied to support self-directed learning.
• Decide how to make the learner journey personalised for each leader. This can start with an assessment related to the subject, using a subject matter expert to review the evaluation and select a learner journey, choosing learning materials and practice tools from the toolset below and testing competence where appropriate.
• Apply assessment to guide both progress and the next steps in development, online assessment centres, 360 feedback, tests, and personality tests. Self-assessment undertaken during the learning using micro-learning elements will reinforce learning and can be applied as off-line practice.
• Always apply practical tools to enable leaders to practice new skills; a toolbox could likely include chatbots, templates, games simulations, manager support, VR/AR, and group or individual exercises.
• Design the programme with both episodic and continuous feedback and mentoring. Digital technology such as chatbots, online meetings and online tests and surveys will meet the requirements of the norm of hybrid working.
Consider the need to train business leaders on the need to develop the customer value proposition, a key ingredient for most marketing initiatives, but also for checking the alignment of strategy. Several new approaches have arisen with the growth of new businesses driven by technology. The macro part of this course would be to put the technique in context within the business planning process, identifying the key inputs and outputs, identifying the process steps to developing a CVP, and demonstrating examples delivered through online learning modules. This could then be supported by micro-learning elements covering each section of the approach, such as customer segments, pains and gains, customer relationships and channels.
Additionally, using AI tools, the learner can access a company knowledge base and use collaboration tools to ask colleagues. Both the macro and micro elements could support assessments and surveys relating to training content and application of the technique.
All this is then wrapped in a coaching and mentoring overlay that feeds back progress and updates the Personal Development Plan.
Case Study- People Management: ArcelorMittal
The Head of Leadership Development at the world’s largest steel company, Brian Callaghan, describes how people measures and performance management systems are helping ArcelorMittal build their talent base.
The HR function at ArcelorMittal works closely with other business units to find and develop suitable talent through their Global Employee Development Programme. Rigorous gathering and analysis of their performance management measures ensure that their talent is well supported throughout their career. The insights that there people measures provide has allowed ArcelorMittal to develop a robust succession plan (83% of movement in 2013 came from their plan) as well as increase their employee engagement scores across the organisation.
Recognising the value of people
There are impressive foundations. Resourcing a company of this size with over 230,000 employees and 500 top managers is a continuous process. The HR function works closely with ArcelorMittal’s various business units to find and place the most suitable talent. ‘It hasn’t always been like this,’ says Callaghan:
‘There has been a growing acknowledgement amongst leadership that a positive climate and engaged employees deliver value. […] I believe that if you have good people processes that are executed by good people managers you can do remarkable things. Generally, good managers don’t need to be taught good processes. It comes naturally. But some need good support and frameworks to help.’
The framework at ArcelorMittal is also impressive. The Global Employee Development Programme (GEDP) focuses on improving skills, motivating employees and ensuring the group has a pipeline of talent for the future. Perhaps the most striking element of the pipeline is the pivotal role the group’s top talent plays in the development of current and future talent in the business
Building a robust evidence base
‘Basically our GEDP is a classic performance management process,’ explains Callaghan. ‘Managers agree objectives aligned with the business strategy; they provide regular feedback and coaching; they hold a mid-year review; they provide more feedback and coaching; they hold an annual appraisal, which includes rating their direct reports, a five- point rating for performance and a five -point rating for potential. The process was designed just after the merger and every year it has matured. Managers and employees have become more familiar with it and the process improves year on year. At the end of the year when the annual appraisals take place, ratings require moderation. So, “Career Committees”, as we call them, are scheduled. These start in the steel plants where the managers will review the performance and potential ratings of the people in that plant, making sure that the ratings have been applied fairly across the different functions. These ratings are then elevated to the next level, along with ratings from other plants, for further moderation. In all, there are about five or six levels of moderation culminating in a final Career Committee where Mr Mittal [the chairman and CEO] and the GMB [Group Management Board] will spend two full days reviewing the top of the pyramid – executive vice presidents, vice presidents, general managers – making sure that the ratings are arrived at in a fair and transparent way. This is important as ratings can impact other processes such as executive appointments, succession management, incentive plans and so on.
Using talent’s talent for talent, analytically
Ensuring ArcelorMittal’s top talent plays a role in developing others is not just a nicety the business would like to have. It sits at the heart of how all leaders across ArcelorMittal are evaluated and rewarded and is driven home in the performance management and data collection systems.
But the search for data to inform the people strategy does not finish there. The exceptional people talent ArcelorMittal has in place is regarded as a key source. The placement of an individual in a key position is not just for the formation and implementation of the business strategy, but the position’s incumbent becomes a direct line of insight into the current and future strategic and operating challenges facing the business, and a reflection of the capabilities required to tackle them. The group is not just creating qualitative data by validating candidate profiles. They are building an internal capability that represents a sustainable architecture of value based on the collective capability of its executive cadre.
Looking at talent through a risk lens
Ensuring people are aligned with the business is not the only goal. ArcelorMittal has built a risk management element to their talent management.
Far from de-personalising employees and their aspirations, then, ArcelorMittal’s analytics are ensuring employees’ hopes and aspirations are factored into the evidence base the company uses when placing talent, representing a hugely valuable return on insight from their investment in the analytics underpinning the GEDP.
‘It’s not perfect,’ suggests Callaghan, but the returns go beyond this impressive understanding of ArcelorMittal’s top managers.
‘We have a very robust succession management process for the top 500 positions within the company. There’s nothing extraordinary about it. At the end of the day, we have for each of those key positions people identified as replacements. Last year, 83% of movements in that space came from the actual succession plans. Our target was 80%. We don’t want 100% because we believe that some strategic external hiring will bring different thoughts and different ideas to the company. Eighty-three per cent is very good and it demonstrates to our people that there are career opportunities.’
Talent: the c-suite’s view
Key to the success is the way in which human capital strategy is aligned with the requirements of the business.
Perhaps most tellingly of all is the impact this maturing evidence-based human capital strategy has had on employee engagement. Measured across 24,000 employees, the group’s global survey of employees has not just seen its response rate increase from 56% to 75% over the last four years, but engagement itself has risen from 62% to 69% over the same period, in what have been incredibly challenging market conditions. Little wonder, perhaps, that during the conversation with Callaghan, he just happened to mention that his CEO Lakshmi Mittal made a presentation to the institutional investors during one of their regular meetings. As Mittal himself suggests, human capital strategy and the communication of the results from analytics can have a very positive impact:
This case study was written by Dr Anthony Hesketh, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University Management School.
Case Study: ASDA
ASDA’s people are at the heart of the organisation’s growth and success, and reflecting the diversity of the communities in which the business operates is important for the business to continue to meet the high expectations of its customers. Utilising this diversity in the workforce is a powerful way then for the business to connect with customers and deliver the type of service they desire – as a result HR strategy and operations are tailored to reflect the individual needs of employees
The changing landscape of retail
Innovation and change are driving forces for organisations like ASDA. Changing consumer behaviour means that for the business to operate in the highly competitive retail
market, employees must be equipped to operate within complex and challenging environments. For example, over half of in store transactions at ASDA now go through a self-scan checkout; employees are now hosting customers, helping with queries and managing multiple checkout sites at one time. This shift in customer service and customer management within the business model is challenging the traditional supermarket retail skills that ASDA has built ever since its founding in 1965. Where once repeatable and predictable tasks could be trained and operationalised through training of customer service staff, now more complex and individual-based skills are required. Decision-making and autonomy are a pair that are thought to be of particular importance to ASDA in the future, as Hayley Tatum, Senior Vice President for People and Stores at ASDA explains:
‘The challenges are about helping our colleagues to understand that delivering great service and meeting future business needs requires an acceptance that the business must change and adapt quickly. Therefore, being able to manage with autonomy and agility is an essential skill and is something to be relished and prized, not something to resist and be afraid of.’
Rapid growth in online and mobile shopping is also acting as a catalytic force for the business, pushing for innovation throughout operations and people development. Workforce planning is one particular aspect of ASDA whereby innovation, and in particular automation, will radically alter the makeup of the retail business. New skills and capabilities are therefore being planned into the future workforce, and mapped against current capabilities – the gaps being addressed through new HR interventions, training and deployment of workforce skills. With this disruption only on the increase, the business is tracking its performance through two key HR measures: customer satisfaction and engagement.
People as the drivers, analytics as the enabler
ASDA’s people are at the heart of the organisation’s growth and success, and reflecting the diversity of the communities in which the business operates is important for the business to continue to meet the high expectations of its customers. Utilising this diversity in the workforce is a powerful way then for the business to connect with customers and deliver the type of service they desire – as a result HR strategy and operations are tailored to reflect the individual needs of employees. This is particularly apparent when considering workforce demographics and the very personal needs of staff which if met correctly can drive long-term performance. Working at this individual level is just one of the ways by which HR analytics is bringing HR teams closer to the needs of individual employees and is enabling them to tailor the function accordingly.
As a result the organisation’s HR strategy is built around the three key pillars of culture, talent and ways of working. Engagement in particular is an area which the business focuses on within the culture and engagement pillars, with considerable attention paid to appreciating the relationship between engagement and performance. The organisation has a dedicated role within the function: the Engagement Analytics Manager, who leads the organisation’s push to better appreciate this relationship, and is responsible for managing and reporting on engagement data:
As a driver of performance ASDA is aware that engagement is one of the major levers that can be used to ensure that customer satisfaction remains high. Senior leadership teams are most interested in this because along with developing and providing quality goods, customer engagement is one of the most important activities the business can deliver on to create value. By exploring engagement data the leadership team is encouraged to sense check how HR processes and systems are driving the right behaviours in employees, and particular aspects of engagement which are believed to be directly correlated to crucial measures of business performance, including both sales and customer satisfaction.
But while many organisations may view surveys as the be-all and end-all of engagement, ASDA is clear that it is the conversation and behaviours that result from surveys which are of value. The engagement team recognise the value of this ongoing dialogue and discussion with employees, and therefore communicate openly during and outside of the survey period. Instead of forcing responses and driving the wrong behaviours in the line management community, team leaders are encouraged to lead powerful conversations within their teams that are proactive and open, designed to create dialogue and create the right conditions for high quality customer interactions:
The people analytics function
Retail, with its significant workforce and vast geographic footprint, is naturally driven by operating costs, one of the biggest being its workforce. Payroll then is one of the most important data-rich activities within the wider HR function; and given the desire of the organisation to drive performance whilst efficiently using resources, productivity is a key performance indicator for both internal and external stakeholders:
To drive these cost control activities the business draws on basic productivity and performance measures which help to illustrate how employees across the business are delivering in their roles. Based around time to delivery, these measures of productivity play an important role in maintaining service level standards, and help focus the training and development of staff:
The analytics team has worked hard to develop core measures that the business holds as standard measures. These standard measures are applied by HR, the custodians of people data, to all the information they manage, with the aim of drawing comparisons and moving the business towards potential benchmarking against peers and competitors. For ASDA the metrics order into a logical hierarchy of value to the business:
The size and scope of ASDA mean that within the organisation there is real talent and capability available and ready to be leveraged. Following ASDA’s acquisition by American retail giant Walmart in 1999, ASDA has been able to access people analytics capability which was previously unavailable. And whilst UK-based ASDA has only recently started to delve in to HR analytics and explore how people data may help drive performance, the Walmart team has long invested in attempting to answer the people performance question. So much so, that the Walmart function has a highly capable people analytics team, and is now driving insights in collaboration with their ASDA-based counterparts:
This global perspective on people data is now helping ASDA to build its own capability and deliver insights across its UK operations. Investment for the business is now in building individual capability by sourcing highly capable analysts with a basic understanding of people and the HR function. At present analytical skills at ASDA are based around an equal weighting of data understanding, plus the ability to communicate and influence using evidence. For ASDA, both skill sets are needed: one without the other can lead to misinformation to the business with potentially damaging results.
Customer data and employee data to create insight
While measuring standard metrics is important for HR operations, the value of data grows significantly once it is used in the form of insights across the business. A fundamental role of the HR analytics team is to build clear reports which deliver timely insights across functional teams and senior leaders. And because data availability is increasing, the number of potential reports that HR must develop and understand is also going up. It is for this reason that ASDA is now looking to rationalise their HR measures and present them as a simple dashboard which illustrates key performance indicators connected to the three HR strategic priorities. The business is working with external experts to use HR data within the dashboard report which will feature alongside other business metrics. Accompanying the dashboard will be narrative information which is intended to provide a holistic perspective of ASDA’s people, in the context of focusing on business and customer performance. This tool is now in development by the HR team, and is one which they believe will radically change the way the business uses HR data:
It is clear then that ASDA recognises the importance and value of high quality people data. Across the business data is used in multiple ways and is now being utilised alongside other types of business information. ASDA has put in place senior leaders with oversight and governance responsibilities within the data and analytics space, predominantly around customer data, where value is driven from insights through to increased sales. Market insight in particular is important in the highly competitive retail environment, where customer loyalty is shrinking and customer behaviour is increasingly fickle.
This direct action from market insight through to alterations in customer service or operational delivery models, is driving real value-creation in the business. Leaders too are now using this data in various ways, and it is during its combination with employee data when truly powerful people insights can occur. ASDA has recognised this and is focusing much of its analytical development on building this multidimensional analytics capability – and while there is some way to go until the business is able to benefit from these insights, there is definite belief that utilising data in this way will drive business performance in unique and innovative ways.
Data as the weapon in the war for talent
ASDA then is very much future-focused, and in preparation for the increasingly competitive retail environment the chain is building its capabilities in analytics and focusing on modifying its human capital through various HR activities and interventions. Through all of this, data is playing a vital enabling role, and the analytics that HR is applying to data is uncovering fascinating concepts the business is now building into its workforce, engagement and customer service plans. Management capability is one area of focus which the business now believes should be enhanced and made to be future proof. The new context and evolved business model mean that managerial roles are expected to decline in number, but the need for strong capability to innovate and drive customer service will continue to grow:
‘In the future I believe we will have fewer managers and more engaged, contributing teams of colleagues who figure stuff out for themselves. I’m certain those closest to the customers will come up with brilliant and the best solutions.’ Hayley Tatum, Senior Vice President for People and Stores
For Hayley and her colleagues it is HR analytics which holds the key. By applying the same techniques of customer segmentation and analysis to their engagement and people data, the team believe that they will unlock the ability of employees to behave and engage with customers in such a way that they deliver high quality service every time, and deliver the competitive advantage the business needs to succeed today and well into the future.
Case Study: HALFORDS
Halfords, a specialist retailer of leisure and car products, provides a useful current case study of effective human capital management reporting in action and demonstrates the importance between the successful alignment of business and HR strategy underpinned by clear HCM measures.
Situation
In May 2013, the new CEO of Halfords, Matt Davies, took the opportunity, during a discussion of the company’s preliminary results to investors, to reveal the board’s strategy to restore performance in the company to what he believed would be a permanently higher level (Halfords 2013).
Addressing an audience of investment analysts, and combining narrative and data in a way that would later be supported in the company’s 2014 annual report, Davies took considerable care to describe the strategic challenges that explained Halfords’ poor performance to date, and the human capital-centric means by which he intended to transform the company’s performance.
With around 70% of its customers requiring some form of advice in order to make a purchase, Davies confirmed that Halfords was a speciality retailer. ‘Specialism is something we should celebrate,’ he said. ‘That’s our business. We’re experts.’
Yet Halfords’ customer satisfaction rating measured using a Net Promoter Score (NPS) ranked alongside that of low-cost organisations competing on price and generalist retailers that compete on assortment and range: not on expert service.
And because previous management teams had failed to recruit the right staff and to equip employees with the product knowledge required in their role – and because they had failed to embed a service culture into the company – Halfords had left itself vulnerable to competition from business models that were not encumbered by high staff and product choice costs.
Pointing to data that showed that more than 20% of Halfords’ staff left the company in the first three months of their employment, Davies explained that measures such as employee turnover have historically illustrated a significant challenge for the business:
‘Recruitment, training and retention of great people has not been part of Halfords’ core focus in recent years. We consequently have a large churn of people. All the time people are leaving and joining, leaving and joining; it’s like a merry-go-round.’
That explained why Halfords had experienced declining like-for-like sales in 10 of the 13 quarters prior to Davies joining the company – and why his diagnosis of the strategic challenge that confronted Halfords focused on recruitment, on training and development, and on employee engagement.
Although prior management could not see the solution, the treatment Davies arrived at was simple. He had ‘never seen a specialist retailer where expertise is more important than Halfords’ and the new level of service to which he was aspiring would be something that Halfords’ main competitor – supermarkets – would never be able to deliver, and something which would give Halfords a clear advantage over online-only competitors that have no stores or colleagues on the ground. His message to investment analysts was clear:
‘So what we need to do is we need to engage our colleagues, as we know that highly engaged colleagues result in satisfied customers. So our programme makes recruitment development, and retention of people, a core KPI. This particular investment will be the most important investment we make in the next three years.’
In all, Halfords would invest around £50 million over the period to improve staff recruitment, training and retention processes.
Davies funded Halfords’ investment in HCM and additional investment in store refurbishment and digital strategy by cutting the company’s dividend by 35%. That got the attention of investors, who marked the company’s share price down by up to 19% on the day of the announcement.
However, based on the questions Davies received from the sell-side analysts to whom he unveiled his strategy, very few appeared to see the value in the HCM narrative that Davies related to them. In the hour or so that followed his address, Davies fielded around 22 questions from the audience – only three of which could be said to be related to the training, development and retention issues that he said were absolutely central to Halfords’ strategic differentiation and performance.
Analyst questions were more concerned with:
• How much space would Davies be dedicating to parts, accessories and clothing?
• What would be the cost saving to Halfords from its business process technology?
• How do the company’s price points compare with the competition?
• What will happen to square foot expansion?
• What would the company’s level of capital expenditure be going forward?
• What would the depreciation charge be over the course of the company’s capital expenditure programme?
• What would the change in rental on new store leases be?
Echoes of those questions have accompanied every discussion of Halfords’ results ever since, and even Davies himself stopped talking at length about his company’s HCM strategy when he addressed analysts.
Case Study
Afterword
A great deal has happened to influence the business and share price performance of Halfords since Matt Davies gave his initial address to analysts in May 2013 – including Davies being recruited as CEO of UK and Republic of Ireland Retail at Tesco.
Commenting on results at Halfords in May 2014, Davies accepted there were many contributory factors to like-for-like sales growing at a rate of 6.8% when the company reported its interim results for fiscal year 2015 (Halfords 2014a) (and in the appreciation of Halfords’ share price from a closing low of 339.3p on the day Davies announced the dividend cut to over 460.0p the day before he announced his departure to Tesco). Yet he was also convinced that the investment he made in recruitment, in training and development and in employee engagement was a major
factor in the company’s improved performance (Halfords 2014b).
For example, Davies was also able to report that staff turnover at Halfords had fallen from around 21% to just over 10% in the first year of his HCM strategy; that colleague engagement had risen from 64% to 80% over the same timeframe, and that the company’s NPS score had increased from around 55% in the previous year and was on its way to a score of above 75% (Halfords 2014b)
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard. Define what the present talent management process is and its gaps. Split into 2 groups, with one group discussing and mapping the overall process, the second group defining what they think are the issues with present people management processes.
Course Manual 9: Partner Selection
Technology partners allow you to focus on core business whilst improving your operational capability; they should be considered long-term partners and will be critical to your business’s success. This workshop examines the key considerations to ensure any engagement succeeds and moves the business forward.
So, let’s clarify what is a technology partner. A business that offers expertise, solutions and resources can be industry-specific or domain-centred, such as e-commerce, ERP, Product Lifecycle Management and Human Resources Management. Your decision to employ a partner will be down to several variables, such as faster project completion, lack of internal skills, more efficient use of resources and application of specific technology. These should address the strategic objectives of scaling the business, increasing operational efficiency, and removing technical issues with legacy systems.
We start with Aligning Visions and Values, expressed as a good cultural fit; how do we identify the organisation’s culture? Looking at potential dimensions that we might consider and can test against partners, we have the following criteria.
• Stated Mission, Vision and Values
• Communication style and frequency
• Meeting management and timekeeping
• Decision-making, how hierarchical
• Working in a team
• Attitude to diversity, equality and inclusion
• Documentation and reporting formality
• Governance
• Attitude to continuously learning.
The second element to consider will be the partner’s knowledge and expertise; before we test this, the organisation will need to specify its requirements in terms of accurately;
• Strategic Goals
• Functions and features
• Technology Fit
• Security and Compliance
When reviewing the options, this document needs to focus on the ‘must haves’ and not extend to the ‘desirable.’ This means the strategic goals may need to be trimmed to the realistic, and functions and features will be limited to 10. Having matched the partner offerings to this requirement, the next stage is to explore their knowledge and expertise. When dealing with larger Systems Vendors and Systems Integrators, their documented knowledge and expertise will be impressive, but that talent may not be available to your project. It might be provided through another employee of the organisation, so that process will need to be evaluated and recognised as a risk within the project. This is the recognition that knowledge is essential, but it is trumped by expertise; the adage that ‘having been there and done that’ will help to avoid mistakes and provide a better solution.
Remember to focus on the vendor’s achievements regarding outcomes with people, processes and productivity when exploring expertise. The vendor should have a broad awareness of the industry structure and the issues that your organisation is facing. Validate how they see their technology aligning with your business, how they see applying it, and their expertise to improve your business; validate this by requesting how they will measure the benefit through which outcomes. Always avoid flashy technology; you are not buying that; you need the vendor to provide a vision of the future enabled by the tech you and your team can buy into.
Summarising knowledge and expertise;
• The right blend of technology in their back and front end stack should be experts, not a jack of all trades.
• Guidance throughout the journey and suggestions on innovative solutions.
• Expertise in your specific needs. If the technical partner hasn’t worked on similar projects but whose specialisation matches your needs, they may be an excellent fit for your project.
• An intrinsic understanding of your business and goals.
• Are they equally interested in your project and can think out of the box?
Part of selecting the right partner will involve a degree of self-assessment of both skills and capacity; many cases of project failure can be traced back to not fully and honestly assessing the organisation’s environment. Many examples of companies asking a senior management team member to undertake the project management role while evaluating their capability to handle it.
Take time to list all the roles that need to be filled, such as data cleansing and migration, project management, change management, documenting use cases and testing the solution, managing configurations and managing user training. Then, mark the internal skills available on a simple scale and ensure that the ‘gaps’ can be filled with suitable resources from the potential partner. This might lead to one of the critical partners providing access to a source of non-technical skills such as project management, data migration and documenting use cases.
The next part of the assessment will be assessing the level of effort required; there are general rules for this, and a short engagement with an appropriate expert, consultant or technology research organisation will provide target values. Once you have defined the skill, the source and the required effort over the project timescale, decisions will need to be made on backfilling internal resources and the level of skill and capacity that any partner will need to fulfil. Be aware the skill will likely reside in your best people; therefore, to avoid a drop in operational performance or overload of the employee, good quality backfill will be required.
If the business separates the technology and implementation during the selection process, then this doubles the complexity. This will happen when choosing business systems, as software authors focus on technology development and have passed responsibility for implementation to a set of partners. Understanding the author’s culture will be vital as they manage software releases and upgrades and address the more severe software fixes.
The third consideration is communication; this is pivotal to success in all project work and requires honesty and integrity. Review the tools they use in defining communication culture, from e-mail to collaboration and online meetings. Are they inquisitive, and do they ask questions and challenge your statements? Are they prompt and fulsome in their responses to questions? Do they suggest timing and frequency of conversation and explain why they believe their suggestion works? Do they discuss risks and how, through clear communication, these can be managed? Always review their documentation and the level of formality and examine how it meets your expectations regarding document distribution, clarity of language and sign-off. A poor match of cultures will lead to conflict, spiralling costs, frustration and disappointment.
The fourth consideration is governance, which should relate to any IP developed during the project, non-disclosure agreements, Non-compete Clauses and Service Level Agreements. In this latter category, clarity is vital. Typically, a professional SLA will cover the following;
• A description of the scope of the work to be performed under the agreement
• An issue/resolution statement, or what the solution is to provide or resolve
• Level of service to be provided
• Service performance roles and responsibilities of the supplier
• Service availability, including Guaranteed uptimes, Downtime resolution and business hours
• Data security
• The process by which a customer notifies a supplier of changing needs
• Payment term responsibilities
• Contract management, I.e., Renewal processes, Pricing changes, Escalation procedures, and other changes to the SLA
• Indemnifications, I.e., Limitations of liability, Governing laws
• Cancellation terms
Ensure that these documents and agreements align with your governance structure and are managed by the requisite project and executive managers.
Your next consideration must be project management, closely integrated with communication regarding progress, risk issues and changes. Understand the underlying project planning methodology and the allocation of resources, both those dedicated to the project advisors and validate the performance measures that might be applied, including any that relate to your team’s performance. Discuss and explore how information is passed between the two parties and who takes responsibility for compiling and resolving any differences.
When examining the methodology, understand how they define milestones and apply dependencies between activities. Particularly understand this relationship when the dependency is between the organisation and the potential partner.
Transparency is essential if there is a software development cycle such as new features and configurations; seek an agile process that enables you to track the progress weekly with deliverables. This avoids the disappointment of resources unavailable or issues with the software.
Any review of project management principles should also cover data security and privacy, looking at their internal governance and procedures for protecting your data. This becomes doubly important if the final solution is based on a ‘cloud’ solution. With the rising cyber threats, data security and privacy are becoming crucial in today’s digital landscape. Before agreeing with any tech agency, continually assess their security measures, certifications, and compliance with relevant regulations and standards. Understand their data handling practices and ensure they meet your security requirements.
Our next consideration is the proposed support model for pre and post-Go-Live that the partner will put forward. The SLA will form part of this offering and change once the project is live. Essential items to check are;
• Use of cost-free service call lines
• Customer portal and the use of mail, chat, video and the level of self-service to raise tickets
• What is their continuous improvement model
• Do they support user forums
• Beyond the help, it is broken down into other available services, such as custom training, webinars, and events.
As we discussed in workshop two, going live will depend on the level of support requested from the partner and the role played by the organisation. The SLA will be different, and the organisation might have trained its trainers, built training materials that directly relate to the tech’s use in the business and upskilled employees to enable the organisation to make configuration changes to transactions and design new reports and dashboards.
Our next consideration is references and testimonials; in this part of the partner’s assessment, the organisation is the success stories from reputable clients. Reading case studies online is a start, and this should be followed when you are close to making a final decision on the need to speak to customers; this interview should explore the partner’s relationships with managers and other stakeholders, evaluating how effectively they got the job done; recognising that you will not be provided with references that do not speak highly of the partner. Look for proof of different types of projects, defining the key characteristics of your proposed project in terms of functionality, process change, or departmental structure.
Check on the partner’s attitude, both technical and interpersonal, when the project went off track. Understand their time in the business and the genesis of their formation if recent, and seek to understand the level of project knowledge, the degree of concentration of that knowledge and the level of staff churn. Also, check for the effectiveness of any requirement of front-line project members if they need to access a specialist with crucial knowledge and expertise.
As this will be a long-term relationship, a good partner will be solution-focused and can evolve their solution as you grow and change; avoid the one-trick-pony problem where the partner you select can only implement the tech one way and cannot develop other solutions as required.
Look for a technology partner interested in building a long-term relationship rather than just completing a one-off project. A reliable and committed partner can provide continuous support, contribute to your business growth, and be a trusted advisor for future technology initiatives.
The final technical consideration concerns the partner’s scalability, innovation, and adaptability.
• Consider the partner’s scalability and capacity to handle your project. Assess their team size, resources, and ability to scale up or down per your project requirements. Ensure they have the necessary infrastructure and workforce to support your current and future needs.
• Look for a partner who embraces innovation and keeps up with the latest industry trends and emerging technologies. They should adapt to changing requirements and proactively suggest improvements or alternatives that benefit your business.
Other considerations will be quality price, balanced against anticipated benefits, and some essential items to consider in this subject area.
• Does the cost justify the service and support provided?
• Do they suggest alternative and cost-effective approaches and resources?
• Are the pricing estimations clear and transparent? This should include the scope for potential iterations during the project.
• What support do they offer after going live?
The selection of a partner is a crucial decision but should take little time; it should follow a specified structure timeline and with appropriate governance to ensure a decision with no bias.
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Implementation starts at selection; if you separate technology provision and implementation, there will be two elements to the project plan. The first is defining and documenting the relationship between the technology owners and the implementation partner. The second is developing the project plan for implementation with the partner’s team.
Before this happens, select your team based on the assessment and chosen team member profile. This means populating the following roles;
• Executive Steering Committee – This team will manage the strategic direction of the project and will be the escalation point for any project team disagreements and issues; plus, it will manage any issues arising with the partner that could end up being contractual.
• Subject Matter Experts (SME) – leaders within the business with knowledge and expertise in specific aspects; staff should be recruited from all departments; the level of participation will relate to the impact of the technology being employed on the processes in that department. Try to balance the personalities within the team to avoid poor team dynamics, either positive or negative.
• Project Manager – full-time on the project, managing the day-to-day activities and reporting on progress; managing the risk matrix and reporting to the executive committee
• Programme Management Office – if you are running multiple projects, a central function providing project management support, reporting and validating progress and benefits against the project portfolio.
After settling on the team, it is advisable to re-emphasise the strategic goals and the cultural message with the internal team before assessing the partner organisation’s team for fit and cultural norms.
Part of this assessment should include defining the expectations for both parties to complete the project. This will cover all the governance aspects the organisation will have examined before any engagement, such as governance, issue resolution, reporting, performance measures and Service Level Agreements. Clear demarcation of responsibilities is critical at this stage, and the application of an R(Responsible for), A(Accountable for), C(Consulted) and I(Informed) matrix is recommended, particularly on critical project activities. By doing this, the organisation can define the rules for resolving any differences of opinion.
The outcomes of conducting this well will be
• Shared values are stated and become part of the project mantra applied across both teams.
• A sound governance process can manage any issue before it becomes a conflict and ensure that the vendor never gets control of the project.
• Clear executive sponsorship and rules for stakeholder management
• Clear management responsibility across the whole project structure, including routes for escalation if required from SME through project manager or executives
• Good communication structure which goes beyond the transmission of results to receiving and giving feedback
• Clear handover process post-Go-lIve, with new procedures for governance, Risk management, Service Level Agreements and Operating responsibilities.
• A transparent benefits model with monitoring beginning during implementation, particularly if an agile approach is being taken
• Robust budget with suitable contingency; ideally, this contingency will have split ownership, some with the project manager to make minor tactical adjustments and the remainder with the Executive Committee to apply to strategic changes as required.
Selecting and managing the correct partners will help improve and grow the business.
Case Study: Boeing
A top U.S. exporter, the company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in 150 countries. Their products and tailored services include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communication systems, and performance-based logistics and training.
The Challenge
Being world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems they were seeking to enhance an existing solution that was developed decades ago. With no way to move the project forward without a thorough understanding of the current software, and a roadmap that would take them where they needed to go.
The Plan
By mapping out the software’s current functionality, with consulting support the company was able to plot a course that would lead to success. The software was updated by using the C# application development framework, giving the company a sustainable solution that would last for decades to come.
The Results
Our comapny now has a solution that is both flexible and scalable. No longer worrying about maintaining support channels for outdated technology, they can push forward with business initiatives knowing that their software is stable and built on a reliable platform
Case Study: Esse Health
Esse Health, seeks to lead the healthcare community by putting their focus on serving others. Utilizing the latest information, tools, and technology, Esse Health increases the quality of patient outcomes through preventative care and disease management. A company who places people first, Esse Health values the power of technology to serve the vital needs of all of their patients.
The Challenge
Esse Health utilized real-time metrics to meet their patients’ needs, built by a third-party vendor entrusted with retaining its source code. When the source code was lost, Esse lost the ability to update their reporting system. They needed a fix that fit with their infrastructure and allowed for further improvements.
The Plan
If Esse Health could find a partner who could conduct a forensic assessment of their code and redevelop their system, they could continue to use all of their existing hardware and data to keep their operation running. This would put the organization on sure footing for future improvements and help to secure their code for further development.
The Results
Technology Partners created all-new source code from the ground up that integrated seamlessly with Esse Health’s existing backend systems. We maintained the interface with which the Esse team was comfortable using and provided a modifiable foundation with extra layers of security and redundancy. Esse Health now has critical access to the data and the peace of mind knowing their custom system will continue to last.
Case Study: GuideRight
With the mission of enhancing people’s lives, GuideRight uses its web-based Mental and Behavioral Health Assessment software to identify underlying issues doctors may overlook. Through digital patient screenings, automatic scoring and reporting, patient history records, and assessments ranging from CESD-R to DAST-10, GuideRight makes understanding a patient’s concerns tangible and measurable.
The Challenge
GuideRight has built their business on existing solutions, but as the company began to rapidly scale, the need for customization pushed the limits on out-of-box offerings. As a medical assessment company, their expertise in IT was limited and making the next step would require work outside their internal abilities.
The Plan
GuideRight recognized that they needed more than just a development team, but rather a strategic partner to deliver a holistic technological solution. Our team planned to conduct an assessment in order to then begin reimagining the structure of their tech stack without. Rather than conducting a rip and replace app improvement, our team would advance the preexisting system, eliminating any possible interruption to their services. This would allow GuideRight to keep their new client onboarding pace and deliver even better services to their growing list of doctor’s offices.
The Results
We were able to directly integrate GuideRight with their providers Electronic Medical Records, add visibility to the doctor’s invoicing for assessments, and enter new client markets through new portal features — enriching the relationship between company and customer.
Case Study: Stop Building Massive Requirements Checklists
We’ve all seen them: massive, multi-tabbed Excel spreadsheets with dozens of requirements, most of them labeled “must-have.” It seems analytical — almost scientific! — but actually dehumanizes what should be a very hands-on, test-base process using real people to identify the right fit against prioritized business objectives.
In this case a massive US federal agency was trying to deploy a new portal, but struggling to differentiate among vendors after issuing lengthy series of checklists. The Consultant counseled a more agile approach, which incidentally helped the agency figure out what was most important as well as practically do-able in the long run. My favorite among the three lessons:
Lesson #1: Narrative scenarios help you clarify what you want for your customers, but also help you clarify the work you need to do internally to meet them there. In other words, spend less time in a spreadsheet and more time in a word processor.
Case Study: Make Sure You’re Actually Ready to Implement
We see a lot of firms looking to acquire or replace digital technology without getting themselves ready to exploit new capabilities. There’s a natural tendency to fall under the illusion that a new platform will somehow transform the organization, align internal stakeholders, or prompt needed change.
Working with a manufacturing firm subscriber looking to create a new customer extranet, we uncovered that they would not be able to unify customer experiences without first agreeing on a common set of labels (a.k.a., taxonomy) to bring related content and services together from across the enterprise. They smartly put the tech selection on hold while they addressed their enterprise information architecture needs. The first of two lessons:
Lesson #1: New technology will not put your organizational house in order. First, make sure that you address your capacity gaps and then acquire new tools
Case Study: Dealing with Shadow IT
Sometimes selection decisions get made in a vacuum. At a time when employees can sign up for SaaS platforms with a credit card, new solutions can enter the enterprise sideways. The pejorative term for this is “shadow IT,” though the consultant counseled a major enterprise subscriber that they needed to do a better job of listening to employee needs.
Alas, it was not before they had to shut down a popular workplace application. To close out this post, I’ll share both lessons…
Lesson #1: Even if you have recourse to tools that solve near-term business needs, make sure that you involve your IT and security stakeholders in their selection. IT rules and procedures may be inconvenient but are often in place for very good reasons.
Lesson #2: Rather than blaming employees for “shadow IT,” enterprises need to ask themselves why this happens. Employees are trying to work faster, smarter, more effectively. If they’re bypassing enterprise-sanctioned systems it’s for a reason; find that reason and fix it
Exercise
Post-it Notes, Pens and Whiteboard or alternatively an electronic whiteboard
• Communication style and frequency
• Meeting management and timekeeping
• Decision-making, how hierarchical
• Working in a team
• Attitude to diversity, equality and inclusion
• Documentation and reporting formality
• Governance
• Attitude to continuously learning.
Course Manual 10: Barriers
Resistance to change is a natural human reaction, and as leaders, we expect and anticipate it, so our last manual tackles the leadership requirement in managing any barriers to technology adoption. We discussed the theory behind this issue in Workshop 1, and in this manual, we will examine in more detail the ideal leadership responses and tools that can be applied. We will discuss the management of customer objections (barriers) later in this manual, but initially, we will focus on Internal barriers.
So why do we as humans react to change, how do we as leaders detect it, and what are the key issues that cause it? For the majority of us, change is scary, and the emotions it triggers can be anger, frustration, depression, fear and anxiety. The level of comfort the status quo provides is very powerful; this is still true when the situation is painful. Change has a physiological impact on it, as any new way of working requires more power from the brain, and therefore, the natural reaction is to revert to the old way of working.
The first task of a leader is to understand the cohort of employees that are subject to change through the application of new technology. The first step will be understanding the relationship between the cohort and the existing situation. For example, they may have a high investment in the current way of working; they might have created it, including its orchestration with business rules. They may have been well rewarded with the present way of working; maybe they expect more work as a result of the change,
Leaders will need to identify the root causes of the resistance. Above, we talk about the impact on their current role; there may have been a change before, which could have worked better. They perceive a lack of leadership commitment to the change or need to be made aware of the impending change and feel excluded from any discussions on impacts and benefits.
To gain this understanding, executives must refer to the organisation’s departmental leaders and HR to profile their employees. This might be part of the standard procedure when hiring a new employee, but in this case, we need to identify not their personality profile but their attitude to technology.
Refreshing your knowledge on the Product/Technology Adoption curve, there are five categories of people relating to their attitude to technology.
Innovators -2.5%
They are very keen on technology and will accept flaws, like going against the grain and trying new things. They’re the first to upgrade their phones or experiment with a tool during beta testing. Because innovators are rarely concerned about failure, they’re very willing to try new technology. Critical characteristics of innovators are being technology enthusiasts, ready to take risks, and not thinking of loss.
Early Adopters – 13.5%
Early Adopters are trendsetters and are willing to take risks. They will only promote a technology once they have a solid opinion. They will test the technology in its early stages and help developers improve it but only recommend it when they feel it will not damage their reputation. Key traits exhibited by Early Adopters are that they are persuasive and willing to work through bugs and setbacks but are concerned about their reputation.
Early majority – 34%
Early majority adopters are keen on technology but need proof of its effectiveness. They will engage in market research and field testing but prefer user case studies to vendor marketing. Key characteristics are logical, practical and data-driven.
Late majority – 34%
Late majority adopters are also data-driven but focusing the need and the value of engaging in it, wanting to avoid risk and questioning the need for change. They do not follow trends, preferring to watch and wait to see how the technology pans out with others before acting. Their key traits include being cautious, logical and unwilling to take risks.
Laggards – 16%
Laggards are wary of new technology and will react by asking, ‘What is in it for me?’. They prefer the status quo as it is what they know and will ask questions such as;
• How does this technology benefit me personally?
• Will this improve how my team or I work?
• What’s wrong with the current tool, and what makes this new tool better?
They are sceptical, resistant to change and wary of new technology.
Having gained an appreciation of the cohort profile, the organisation may want to consider each department by department. We can identify leaders within the department, from the innovators and early adopters group, who can be developed to act as ‘change agents’. This is an excellent personal development role where specific skills can be taught and practised to aid in future line roles.
The model above is one way to describe how resistance to change can be engendered and, therefore, the areas that must be addressed to ease the resistance and make it easier for employees to embrace the change. The techniques we discuss next can all be grouped under the banner of change management, and leading exponents of this will state that it is ‘best to get this right the first time’.
As always, there are some fundamental principles to follow, starting with communications and engaging employees proactively and passionately for the change. Ensure the change is led by a senior executive who will sponsor the technology and the associated project. We discussed using internal champions or change agents who can extend the enthusiasm for the change beyond traditional leadership.
Early communications must address the ‘why’ as expressed in the first box of Maurer’s model: what is the purpose of the change? If your employees can understand it, then you can discuss the rationale. In. In workshop one, we also reviewed how poorly designed and delivered communication can disrupt decision-making.
If we examine adoption communication, we can establish that it defines a pathway for decision-making that reflects these issues.
The one-way non-collaborative communication that can be seen in many technology development and implementation cases when the information is being processed by a team on whether to adopt a particular technology, the simple route highlighted by the Diffusion Theory is complicated by
• Competency & Personality – differences in competence across a team and the potential personality conflicts provide two barriers to making a decision.
• Pressures, Priorities and Incentives – lack of time from the day job, what managers are expecting and the impact of short-term objectives that constantly conflict with long-term development and implementation
• Norms – these can be baked into decision-making processes, mainly when it is considered that a decision to adopt a specific technology went wrong.
• Support and Guidance – poor guidance documents that interfere with the decision-making process by leaving the project team open to subjective judgements
• Implementation Process – this relates to planning, training and stopping the use of old technology; picking the correct project sponsor is critical in this case. Choosing to align this role with either the technology developer or a central resource will result in a rush to complete initial implementation and failure to see through to full adoption.
In many cases, the language used can provide a barrier, particularly if it relates to the underlying technology, not its application; this is a significant issue with Its development and implementation when the vendor can quickly drop into internal jargon and the message they wanted to communicate is lost.
Remember that the official voice will be one of many heard within the organisation, and as leaders, you will need to be aware of internal and external influencers. Recognise that besides the change associated with role and process, there may be social pressure not to change, as this gives in to the organisation.
Communication, therefore, needs to be consistent and constant, using all the channels available to you as a leader;
• Intranet
• Social Media
• Group and one-to-one meetings
• Video
• Podcasts
Much of this was covered in the communication section as part of this workshop. As part of addressing the question of ‘why do the company and I need to change?’ there will need to be an exchange of data. How this is achieved, and the level of detail must be carefully considered to enable understanding without exposing the company to undue risk.
There are several Change Management models; one such model is proposed by John Kotter, which is expressed in eight stages;
• Create a sense of urgency
• Create a guiding coalition
• Create a vision for change
• Communicate the vision
• Remove obstacles
• Celebrate short-term wins
• Consolidate Improvements
• Create the changes
So communication will start by creating a sense of urgency, motivating action and encouraging the passion to convince others. We will revisit all the change management models in a later workshop. Picking up on the second stage, Kotter suggests creating a coalition; this refers to blending different actors to promote the vision.
• Executive sponsors for internal credibility and external stakeholder management
• Senior Managers representing departmental leadership
• Change Agents chosen as being early adopters and passionate about change
• Team members select group mouthpieces to challenge change on their behalf. No more vigorous advocate of the change is the vision and rationale they buy into.
The strategy for building a communication plan should
• Encourage listening first before talking
• Always communicate the rationale
• Please don’t makeup answers to questions you don’t know the response to; tell the questioner you will return them to them.
• Always express excitement and do not hesitate.
• Ensure the focus is on the employee and describes a clear vision of where they fit in.
• Be prepared to show them any supporting data.
• Delegate communication to the most appropriate person, mainly if there are trained change managers/agents
• Ban the use of negative language such as ‘should’, ‘must’ and ‘can’t’
Referring back to the Diffusion theory, there are five steps to adoption; reviewing these from a leadership perspective guides the activity that the leader needs to take;
• Knowledge – employees will only decide whether to adopt a new technology/process after knowing and understanding it. This will require the organisation to provide access to;
– Background information that is easy to assimilate
– Technical experts that have trained to ‘dumb down’ the tech
– Case studies
– Internal mentors
– Surveys to express concerns and ask questions
• Persuasion – back to communication and the ability of leaders at all levels to describe the business vision and change with passion and commitment through all channels. Resistance is not only negative. It is a challenge to any assumptions made about the benefits to both staff and the company; feedback at this and the last phase can validate the pay-off.
• Decision – at this point, the leadership input can only provide the alternatives that can be considered; these might be other roles in the organisation or leaving the organisation, which must be facilitated with empathy.
• Implementation – leadership can support the implementation phase with training and mentoring for the new role and maybe use incentives to recognise the effort taken to take up a new skill and role.
• Confirmation – Leadership should always follow up to check that the role has lived up to expectations from the employee and business perspective and document any lessons to be learned, using the experience as a case study for future reference. This is a classical use of Managing By Walking About (MBWA)
This communication includes Personal and corporate benefits, so answering the What Is In It For Me (WIFM) is crucial. Start with a vision of the business vision and, therefore, the new roles and processes that will be employed. Relate the employee’s ASIS role to their TOBE one and describe what will provided to enable them to undertake the transaction safely and securely.
Using a simple tool that recognises the different types of benefits and the likelihood of them being achieved will encourage greater management participation. For example, by categorising the benefits into three parts: displaced costs, Improved productivity and increased revenue and applying ratios in high, medium and low achievement rates, the benefit targets are multiple figures. Regarding personal benefits, we need to examine the elements of a job role that will be considered necessary to each employee, such as
• Career development
• Flexible working environment
• Higher-value work and, therefore, better pay
• Learning and qualification opportunities
• Reduced working hours
Using role profiles that pick out changes from the ASIS role, remembering that each individual is different and presenting the wrong mix of benefits can lead to more resistance to change.
As a leader, to expect resistance to change and plan to manage it, we must be able to exercise several change management tools, and the change needs to be delivered within a plan. We will discuss in a later workshop how this plan needs to be closely coupled with the technology implementation plan, as there will be dependencies on both sides. For now, what are the critical elements for an effective change plan;
• Establish a change management team;
– Executives
– Stakeholders
– SME’s
– Change Agents and Influencers
• Define a communication plan
– Channels
– Media toolkit
– Training
• Build a change management toolkit
– Problem-solving
– Meeting Management
– Objection handling
– Stakeholder Management
– Decision-Making
– Benefits Assessment
• Schedule and conduct training on Change Management
• Build a set of targets and goals
• Create a governance document
– Identifying mandates for non-managerial players
– Conflict resolution process
– Managing alternative employment both within and external to the organisation.
Case Study: General Motors and Nokia Experiences
General Motors (GM) and Nokia had similarities, both did not realize that a drastic shift is coming; they were not prepared for the change. Both were over confident and did not see the new organizations entering the market as a threat, they thought they cannot be overtaken. They were not responsive to the environmental changes and also didn’t act quickly to the changing market needs. GM and Nokia also did not pay attention to the changing consumer behaviors. Nokia’s focus was on the hardware rather than the software and GM was not focusing on fuel-efficiency or the new technologies. In both cases the top management did not bring anything new to the table and stuck to their old ways.
Following are the ways in which the change management took place at GM and Nokia:
After announcing bankruptcy and getting government bailout, GM decided to alter its strategies and objectives, which it started by changing its management. Its top management was not proactive and open to change; their lack of planning, organizing, leading and controlling was one of the reasons of its downfall.
Government enforced the change and Ed Whitacre was hired to restructure and revamp GM.
The new leadership decided to reduce production capacity and became focus-oriented; by cutting Saturn, Pontiac, Saab, and Hummer they started to focus on specific brands only, in order to create high value for its customers and recapture its market share.
As far as the employees were concerned, GM expressed that there would be no buyout or early retirement packages as it had offered earlier in the past, yet laid-off employees would get severance pay, benefit contributions and support. Centralization was reduced, innovation was encouraged, employees were given the freedom to take decisions as they are in the best position to foresee the market and make decisions accordingly.
Whitacre tried to raise employee morale by increasing employee involvement in decision making and having two-way communication with employees.
GM also managed to reduce labor expenses and cut the legacy costs; reached a historic agreement with the UAW, the wages were cut in half and the traditional retiree benefit packages were also scaled back.
GM needed rebranding; their strategies were always focused on competing with US organizations, but it realized that it needs to start investing in new products and technologies to keep up with the global competition. In order to capture customers’ attention, GM showcased its social investments, which included alternative fuels, improved gas mileage, eco-friendly vehicles, and other go-green initiatives
As Nokia was no longer focusing on the dated Symbian platforms, Elop decided to outsource the Symbian software development and support devices to Accenture. This was considered a cost saving measure too, as 2,800 Nokia employees from various offices all over the world were transferred to Accenture
Nokia announced that it would support the departing team members with severance benefits along with free Nokia handsets to employees who sign up for the resignation package.
The MeeGo team was eventually dissolved and team members departed the company to create quite a few start-up companies in Finland, with financial support received from Nokia’s Bridge program. This program provided former employees help in the form of technical training, financial aid, and in some cases, patents.
Under Elop’s leadership Nokia did manage to bring out improved products and also managed to have fewer layers of management, both top down and sideways, to accelerate the flow of information and decision-making
Case Study: Adobe- a transformation of HR functions to support strategic change
Many a times external factors lead to changes in organisational structures and culture. This truly happened at Adobe which has 11,000 employees worldwide with 4.5 billion $ yearly revenue.
Acrobat, Flash Player, and Photoshop are among the well-known products of Abode.
Due to new emerging technologies and challenges posed by small competitors Adobe had to stop selling its licensed goods in shrink-wrapped containers in 2011 and switched to offering digital services through the cloud. They gave their customers option of downloading the necessary software for free or subscribing to it every month rather than receiving a CD in a box.
The human resource (HR) function also took on a new role, which meant that employees had to adjust to new working practices. A standard administrative HR function was housed at Adobe’s offices. However, it was less suitable for the cloud-based strategy and performed well when Adobe was selling software items.
HR changed its role and became more human centric and reduced its office based functions.
The HR personnel did “walk-ins,” to see what assistance they might offer, rather than waiting for calls. With a focus on innovation, change, and personal growth, Adobe employed a sizable percentage of millennials.
Instead of having an annual reviews, staff members can now use the new “check-in” method to assess and define their own growth goals whenever they find it necessary, with quick and continuous feedback.
Managers might receive constructive criticism from HR through the workshops they conduct. The least number of employees have left since this changed approach of HR.
Why did Adobe’s HR department make this change? Since the company’s goals and culture have changed, HR discovered new ways to operate to support these changes.
Case Study: Heinz – a 3G way to make changes
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the Brazilian private equity business 3G Capital paid $29 billion in 2013 to acquire Heinz, the renowned food manufacturer with $11.6 billion in yearly sales.
The modifications were made right away by the new owners. Eleven of the top twelve executives were replaced, 600 employees were let go, corporate planes were sold, personal offices were eliminated, and executives were required to stay at Holiday Inn hotel rather than the Ritz-Carlton when traveling and substantially longer work hours were anticipated.
Each employee was given a monthly copy restriction of 200 by micromanagement, and printer usage was recorded. Only 100 business cards were permitted each year for executives.
Numerous Heinz workers spoke of “an insular management style” where only a small inner circle knows what is truly going on.
On the other side, 3G had a youthful team of executives, largely from Brazil, who moved from company to company as instructed across nations and industries. They were loyal to 3G, not Heinz, and were motivated to perform well to earn bonuses or stock options.
“The 3G way,” a theory that 3G has applied to bring about change in prior acquisitions like Burger King, was the driving reason behind these modifications.
Everything was measured, efficiency was paramount, and “nonstrategic costs” were drastically reduced.
From this vantage point, “lean and mean” prevails, and human capital was not regarded as a crucial element of business success. It was believed that rather than being driven by a feeling of purpose or mission, employees were motivated by the financial gains associated with holding company stock.
Because it had been well-received by the 3G partners, those who a deal might impact frequently saw a “how to” guide published by consultant Bob Fifer as a “must read.”
However, many food industry experts felt that while some of 3G’s prior acquisitions would have been ideal candidates for a program of cost-cutting, Heinz was not the most appropriate choice to “hack and slash.” The company had already undergone several years of improved efficiency and it was already a well-established player in the market.
In summarizing the situation, “the experiment now underway will determine whether Heinz will become a newly invigorated embodiment of efficiency—or whether 3G will take the cult of cost-cutting so far that it chokes off Heinz’s ability to innovate and make the products that have made it a market leader for almost a century and a half.”
Exercise
• Order to Cash – processing customer orders, determining fulfilment, Bill the customer and managing incoming revenues
• Procure=to-Pay – Raise requisitions, process and authorise orders, manage deliveries and manage supplier payments
• Plan to Stock – manage inventory policy, manage the warehouse, Manage incoming and outgoing logistics
• Engineer-to-Order – Manage product specification, Manage resource schedule, manage demand forecast, Manufacture products, and Manage shop floor
• Manufacture to order – Manage resource schedule, manage demand forecast, Manufacture products, and Manage the shop floor
• Service-to-Satisfaction – Process Service Orders, manage filed operatives, Manage Van Stock and Manage Maintenance Agreements
• Fear of failure based on previous project
• Lack of trust in management
• The workforce in the relevant departments invested heavily in the status quo.
• Lack of awareness or vision of the future
Project Studies
The key objective of the course is to develop a process for managing change driven by the implementation of technology. To do this, the course addresses the skills required for each process step and describes case studies of implementing that step with excellent and bad examples.
We have broken the course into four phases, each covering several workshops that provide the skills and knowledge to complete that phase.
The project study will enable you to practically apply what you have learned in each workshop and build outputs within each phase that embed the process in your organisation.
The phases are;
• Phase 1 – workshops 1 to 4. During this phase, the target is to enable you to review the technological landscape of your business and what business issue you believe needs to be tackled to satisfy customers, operations and sustainability.
• Phase 2 – workshops 5, 6 and 7. During this phase, we develop your skills in processes, including business process models, process analysis, process improvement and subsequent automation. Managing processes with appropriate measures and suitable targets. We are building the change agenda ready to support the technology and change plan creation.
• Phase 3 – workshops 8 to 10. During this phase, we are applying your new skills to define a technology project ready to be implemented. Covering key process steps such as technology selection, the business case and determining the KPIs
• Phase 4 – Workshops 11 and 12. During this phase, you will develop a project plan and demonstrate your leadership skills.
Table of phases 1-4 and outcomes
Reviewing what you need to do for project study in phase 1, we will tackle this workshop by workshop. Workshop 3 covers the technology leadership necessary to ensure that the organisation is successful when it defines what technology is required, who will be the most suitable partners and how to set up the organisation to meet the inevitable resistance to change. In the workshop, we highlighted how the growing influence of technology demands a broader management focus on ensuring enough attention is paid to all the critical areas, from data through cyber security to legacy software and the impact of AI.
The workshop examines the leadership requirements for robust strategic thinking and how to apply tools such as road maps to lay out the high-level action plan and dependencies. The workshop reviews your personal development plans and how the organisation manages its employees, focusing on developing teamwork, collaboration and skills development, plus discussing the options for talent management to meet project demands and technology support in the future.
The workshop moved on to how best to select the right partner and how good governance, examined earlier in this workshop, plays a significant part in a successful partner selection process. The workshop’s final part discusses how to tackle the resistance to change.
You must perform the following activities based on workshop 3 to do this work.
• Using the project portfolio you developed in the project studies for workshop 2, translate this project portfolio into a roadmap, aligning the projects with critical themes within the business such as sales and marketing, product service development and organisational capability. Use a physical or electronic whiteboard to share and collaborate with a broader audience to gain feedback.
• Review your time management and use any method you feel comfortable with to determine how your time is spent and the space you have for strategic thinking. This should be about 20%, which might be unlikely if you have a busy operational role, so look for ways to lose tasks through delegation and not undertake that task. Review meeting attendance and examine the governance of these and how well they are managed.
• The time management review can then be extended into your personal development plan; if there is no plan, put forward a proposal for how this might be enacted, and if the PDP is in existence, is it satisfying the need and supported with appropriate tools, courses and coaching/mentoring services.
• Alongside the personal development plan, does the organisation have a strategy for talent development, and how is this implemented? Does this strategy consider the likely future business model and the new roles needing filling? What is the process for identifying these roles to complete the competency profile and identify suitable training and development methods?
• The next task is to review the organisation’s governance document, develop a template based on the excellent practice expressed in the workshop and then assess the present document against this template. Make recommendations based on this assessment. Review if a governance document has been applied to any recent projects to help manage partner input to the project. What was the project team’s experience, and whether or not any governance was applied?
• The workshop recommends that effective partner selection starts with aligning and matching cultures. This may only sometimes be possible; review that last project involving a partner and assess the impact of any cultural mismatch. Establish what you believe might be the critical characteristics of the organisation’s culture and develop a partner selection questionnaire from this. Perform the last part of this task with your colleagues.
• Examine the partner selection process and compare it with the proposed process from the workshop; with your colleagues, define a new method if required and include this in the project governance document framework developed earlier.
• The penultimate work to define your understanding of Workshop 3 is the organisation’s ability to identify internal change agents and develop them. Examine whether departmental managers understand this concept and how these individuals can be nurtured and developed. Please discuss with your colleagues whether, as part of any HR support system, the organisation should support a profiling ex-service that helps identify these individuals early and subsequently manage their career development. Put forward recommendations, if appropriate, to support this initiative.
• The final part of the project studies is to research the organisation’s resources to support Change Management. Is there a toolkit provided with internal training materials and experts, or are there recommended suppliers to give some or all the elements? Profile staff with recognised skills in essential change management techniques and complete a toolkit with internal and external deliverers documented.
Before the next workshop, these outputs must be presented as part of the evaluation and assessment process.
Program Benefits
Management
- Strategic evaluation
- Analytical capability
- Decision toolkits
- Scenario thinking
- Change agency
- Problem-solving culture
- Empowered leadership
- Benefits realisation
- Quantifiable risks
- Sustainability focus
Information Technology
- Digital delivery
- Strategic alignment
- Task automation
- Project management
- Vendor integration
- Business ownership
- Functionality focus
- Controlled implementation
- Technology suitability
- Vendor matching
Operations
- Operational alignment
- Process improvement
- Streamlining operations
- Change capability
- Business models
- Digital attitude
- Leveraged advantage
- End-to-end processing
- KPI implementation
- Reducing costs
Client Telephone Conference (CTC)
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