Professional Documents
Culture Documents
One way to think about this challenge is in terms New competencies such as knowledge of the busi-
of three interrelated factors required for corporate re- ness as a wbole, analytical skills, and interpersonal
vitalization. Coordination or teamwork is especially skills are necessary if people are to identify and solve
important if an organization is to discover and act on problems as a team. If any of these elements are miss-
cost, quality, and product development opportuni- ing, the cbange process will break down.
ties. The production and sale of innovative, high- The problem with most companywide change pro-
quality, low-cost products (or services) depend on grams is that they address only one or, at best, two of
close coordination among marketing, product de- these factors, lust because a company issues a philos-
sign, and manufacturing departments, as well as ophy statement about teamwork doesn't mean its
between labor and management. High levels of employees necessarily know what teams to form or
commitment are essential for the effort, initiative, how to function within them to improve coordina-
and cooperation that coordinated action demands. tion. A corporate reorganization may change the
lem. By helping people develop a shared diagnosis of 2. Develop a shared vision of how to organize and
what is wrong in an organization and what can and manage for competitiveness. Once a core group of
must be improved, a general manager mobilizes the people is committed to a particular analysis of the
initial commitment that is necessary to begin the problem, the general manager can lead employees to-
change process. ward a task-aligned vision of the organization that
Consider the case of a division we call Navigation defines new roles and responsibilities. These new ar-
Devices, a business unit of about 600 people set up by rangements will coordinate the flow of information
a large corporation to commercialize a product origi- and work across interdependent functions at all lev-
els of the organization. But since they do not change
formal structures and systems like titles or compen-
The starting point of any sation, they encounter less resistance.
effective change At Navigation Devices, the 20-person task force
effort is a cleariy defined became the vehicle for this second stage. The group
came up with a model of the organization in which
business probiem. cross-functional teams would accomplish all work,
particularly new product development. A business-
nally designed for the military market. When the management team composed of the general manager
new general manager took over, the division had and his staff would set the unit's strategic direction
been in operation for several years without ever mak- and review the work of lower level teams. Business-
ing a profit. It had never been able to design and area teams would develop plans for specific markets.
produce a high-quality, cost-competitive product. Product-development teams would manage new prod-
This was due largely to an organization in which de- ucts from initial design to production. Production-
cisions were made at the top, without proper involve- process teams composed of engineers and produc-
ment of or coordination with other functions. tion workers would identify and solve quality
The first step the new general manager took was and cost problems in the plant. Finally, engineering-
to initiate a broad review of the business. Where the process teams would examine engineering methods
previous general manager had set strategy with the and equipment. The teams got to the root of the
unit's marketing director alone, the new general unit's problems-functional and hierarchical barri-
manager included his entire management team. He ers to sharing information and solving problems.
also brought in outside consultants to help him and To create a consensus around the new vision, the
his managers function more effectively as a group. general manager commissioned a still larger task
Next, he formed a 20-person task force repre- force of about 90 employees from different levels and
senting all the stakeholders in the organization- functions, including union and management, to re-
managers, engineers, production workers, and union fine the vision and obtain everyone's commitment to
officials. The group visited a number of successful it. On a retreat away from the workplace, the group
manufacturing organizations in an attempt to iden- further refined the new organizational model and
tify what Navigation Devices might do to organize drafted a values statement, which it presented later
more effectively. One high-performance manufactur- to the entire Navigation Devices work force. The vi-
ing plant in the task force's own company made a par- sion and the values statement made sense to Navi-
ticularly strong impression. Not only did it highlight gation Devices employees in a way many corporate
the problems at Navigation Devices but it also of- mission statements never do-because it grew out
fered an altemative organizational model, based on of the organization's own analysis of real business
teams, that captured the group's imagination. Seeing problems. And it was built on a model for solv-
a different way of working helped strengthen the ing those problems that key stakeholders believed
group's commitment to change. would work.
The Navigation Devices task force didn't leam 3. Foster consensus for tbe new vision, compe-
new facts from this process of joint diagnosis; every- tence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along. Sim-
one already knew the unit was losing money. But the ply letting employees help develop a new vision is
group came to see clearly the organizational roots of not enough to overcome resistance to change-or to
the unit's inability to compete and, even more impor- foster the skills needed to make the new organiza-
tant, came to share a common understanding of the tion work. Not everyone can help in the design, and
problem. The group also identified a potential orga- even those who do participate often do not fully ap-
nizational solution: to redesign the way it worked, preciate what renewal will require until the new or-
using ad hoc teams to integrate the organization ganization is actually in place. This is when strong
around the competitive task. leadership from the general manager is crucial. Com-
change throughout a company. It short-circuits the Again, Navigation Devices is a good example. The
change process. revitalization of the unit was highly successful. Em-
It's better to let each department "reinvent the ployees changed how they saw their roles and re-
wheel"-that is, to find its own way to the new orga- sponsibilities and became convinced that change
nization. At Navigation Devices, each department could actually make a difference. As a result, there
was allowed to take the general concepts of coordina- were dramatic improvements in value added per em-
tion and teamwork and apply them to its particular ployee, scrap reduction, quality, customer service,
situation. Engineering spent nearly a year agonizing gross inventory per employee, and profits. And all
over how to implement the team concept. The de- this happened with almost no formal changes in re-
partment conducted two surveys, held off-site meet- porting relationships, information systems, evalua-
ings, and proposed, rejected, then accepted a matrix tion procedures, compensation, or control systems.
management structure before it finally got on board. When the opportunity arose, the general manager
Engineering's decision to move to matrix manage- eventually did make some changes in the formal or-
ment was not surprising, but because it was its own ganization. For example, when he moved the vice
choice, people committed themselves to learning the president of operations out of the organization, he
necessary new skills and attitudes. eliminated the position altogether Engineering and
5. Institutionalize revitalization through formal manufacturing reported directly to him from that
policies, systems, and structures. There comes a point on. For the most part, however, the changes in
performance at Navigation Devices were sustained
by the general manager's expectations and the new
The temptation to force norms for behavior.
newfound insights on the rest 6. Monitor and adjust strategies in response to
of the orgonizotion is great but problems in the revitalization process. The purpose
of change is to create an asset that did not exist
it only short-circuits ohange. before-a leaming organization capable of adapting
to a changing competitive environment. The organi-
point where general managers have to consider how zation has to know how to continually monitor its
to institutionalize change so that the process contin- behavior-in effect, to leam how to Iearn.
ues even after they've moved on to other responsibil- Some might say that this is the general manager's
ities. Step five is the time: the new approach has responsibility. But monitoring the change process
become entrenched, the right people are in place, and needs to be shared, just as analyzing the organiza-
the team organization is up and running. Enacting tion's key business problem does.
changes in structures and systems any eariier tends At Navigation Devices, the general manager intro-
to backfire. Take information systems. Creating a duced several mechanisms to allow key constituents
team structure means new information require- to help monitor the revitalization. An oversight
ments. Why not have the MIS department create new team-composed of some crucial managers, a union
systems that cut across traditional functional and leader, a secretary, an engineer, and an analyst from
departmental lines early in the change process? The finance-kept continual watch over the process. Reg-
problem is that without a well-developed under- ular employee attitude siirveys monitored behavior
standing of information requirements, which can patterns. Planning teams were formed and reformed
best be obtained by placing people on task-aligned in response to new challenges. All these mechanisms
teams, managers are likely to resist new systems created a long-term capacity for continual adaptation
as an imposition by the MIS department. Newly and leaming.
formed teams can often pull together enough infor- The six-step process provides a way to elicit re-
mation to get their work done without fancy new newal without imposing it. When stakeholders be-
systems. It's better to hold off until everyone come committed to a vision, they are willing to
understands what the team's information needs are. accept a new pattern of management-here the ad
What's true for infonnation systems is even more hoc team structure-that demands changes in their
true for other formal structures and systems. Any behavior. And as the employees disct)ver that the
formal system is going to have some disadvan- new approach is more effective [which will happen
tages; none is perfect. These imperfections can only if the vision aligns with the core task), they have
be minimized, however, once people have worked to grapple with personal and organizational changes
in an ad hoc team structure and learned what inter- they might otherwise resist. Finally, as improved
dependencies are necessary. Then employees will coordination helps solve relevant problems, it will
commit to them too. reinforce team behavior and produce a desire to
that a manager does not have this capacity-can- policies and practices that corporate staff and top
not occur in the classroom. It only happens in an management have created. They also begin to see op-
organization where the teamwork, high commit- portunities for better coordination between them-
ment, and new competencies we have discussed are selves and other parts of the company over which
already the norm. they have little control. At this point, corporate or-
The only way to develop the kind of leaders a ganization must be aligned with corporate strategy,
changing organization needs is to make leadership an and coordination between related but hitherto inde-
important criterion for promotion, and then manage pendent businesses improved for the benefit of the
people's careers to develop it. At our hest-practice whole corporation.
companies, managers were moved from joh to joh and None of the companies we studied had reached
from organization to organization based on their this "moment of truth." Even when corporate leaders
leaming needs, not on their position in the hierarchy. intellectually understood the direction of change,
Successful leaders were assigned to units that had they were just beginning to struggle with how they
heen targeted for change. People who needed to would change themselves and the company as a
sharpen their leadership skills were moved into the whole for a total corporate revitalization.
company's model units where those skills would be This last step in the process of corporate renewal is
demanded and therefore leamed. In effect, top man- probably the most important. If the CEO and his or
agement used leading-edge units as hothouses to de- her management team do not ultimately apply to
velop revitalization leaders. themselves what they have heen encouraging their
But what about the top management team itself? general managers to do, then the whole process
How important is it for the CEO and his or her di- can break down. The time to tackle the tough chal-
rect reports to practice what they preach? It is not lenge of transforming companywide systems and
structures comes finally at the end of the corporate
change process.
As change spreads, top At this point, senior managers must make an effort
managers must look at what to adopt the team behavior, attitudes, and skills that
they have demanded of others in earlier phases of
they praotioe versus what change. Their struggle with hehavior change will
theypreaoh. help sustain corporate renewal in three ways. It will
promote the attitudes and behavior needed to coordi-
surprising-indeed, it's predictable-that in the early nate diverse activities in the company; it will lend
years of a corporate change effort, top managers' ac- credibility to top management's continued espousal
tions are often not consistent with their words. Such of change; and it will help the CEO identify and de-
inconsistencies don't pose a major barrier to corpo- velop a successor who is capable of learning the new
rate change in the beginning, though consistency is behaviors. Only such a manager can lead a corpora-
obviously desirable. Senior managers can create a cli- tion that can renew itself continually as competitive
mate for grass-roots change without paying much forces change.
attention to how they themselves operate and man- Companies need a particular mind-set for manag-
age. And unit managers will tolerate this inconsisten- ing change: one that emphasizes process over spe-
cy so long as they can freely make changes in their cific content, recognizes organization change as a
own units in order to compete more effectively. unit-by-unit leaming process rather than a series of
There comes a point, however, when addressing programs, and acknowledges the payoffs that result
the inconsistencies becomes crucial. As the change from persistence over a long period of time as op-
process spreads, general managers in the ever-grow- posed to quick fixes. This mind-set is difficult to
ing circle of revitalized units eventually demand maintain in an environment that presses for quar-
changes from corporate staff groups and top manage- terly earnings, but we believe it is the only approach
ment. As they discover how to manage differently in that will bring about successful renewal. ^
their own units, they bump up against constraints of Reprint 90601
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