Managing Change:

Organizational Change

Organizational Transformation

Total Systemwide Cultural Transformation of Your Organization

MegaChange – a New Capability-based Approach

MegaChange³ is a total systemwide cultural transformation of your organization. It means designing and transforming organizations based on assumptions of human capability rather than limitations using the tools of the modern resource-based management model.

Why Organizational Change Fails: 8 Common Errors

Entrepreneurial Leadership of Transformational Change

One of the most striking attributes of leaders of successful transformational change efforts is their entrepreneurial spirit and behavior. These individuals think and act like heads of their own businesses and are able to inspire and direct others to act in the same manner.  Entrepreneurial leaders are part visionary, part role model for the new values and behaviors and part crusader. They frequently emerge from lower levels of the organization, from the business, or from other organizations.

Entrepreneurial Leader: 4 Attributes

Systems Thinking

Understanding Interactions between Parts

You should master systems thinking if you wish to  succeed in your extremely challenging organizational transformation effort. Systems thinking "focuses on the whole, not the parts, of a complex system. It concentrates on the interfaces and boundaries of components, on their connections and arrangement, on the potential for holistic systems to achieve results that are greater than the sum of the parts. Mastering systems thinking means overcoming the major obstacles to building the process-managed enterprise – for every business process is a whole system."²... More

 Case in Point  GE¹

Today, GE succeeds in dozens of diverse businesses, and is continuously at the vanguard of change. Some years ago however, in locations throughout GE, local managers were operating in an insulated environment with walls separating them, both horizontally and vertically, from other departments and their workforce. Employee questions, initiatives, and feedback were discouraged.

Determined to harness the collective power of GE employees, create a free flow of ideas, and redefine relationships between boss and subordinates, Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric, created a new corporate culture. It's key elements are:

• Redesigning the role of the leader in the new economy: creating followers through communicating a vision, and establishing open, caring relations with every employee

• Creating an open, collaborative workplace where everyone's opinion is welcome

• Empowering senior executives to run far-flung businesses in entrepreneurial fashion

• Liberating the workforce; making everybody a participant through improving vertical communication and employee empowerment... More

When John Browne became head of BP Exploration he was determined to transform the company from underperforming bureaucracy to global leader. Although BP was successful, the world was changing, and the business had to become more adaptive to keep pace with new rapidly changing economy.

To enhance organizational capability, BP reduced or removed central functions, and business units were empowered to chose their own routes to implement changes. BP's organizational structure has evolved significantly towards an entrepreneurial, empowered "federation" of 100 business units. A flat organization was established. The number of management levels was reduced from 13 to 5.

The Browne's strategy for BP included:

1. Entrepreneurial design driven by consistent decentralization

2. Single common strategy

3. A knowledge network of peers across the business units.

As a start of creating more value, both internally and externally, Browne opened up the organization, decentralized it, established information sharing and knowledge management  networks and developed an action plan for competitive corporate learning. To find a natural equilibrium between creative chaos and order and free the energy in BP, Browne moved the organization to the situation that was at the edge of chaos. He created room different thinking. The company adopted new business thinking and a new relationship to its business ecosystem. New approaches to developments, new working relationships with contractors and new alliances have been adopted. Browne's strategy included also process improvement, major outsourcing, and asset sales. Most importantly, it included total changes in BP corporate culture.

As a result of corporate transformation, BP increased the value of its share price by a factor greater than 10 in a period when other companies were seeing marginal improvements in their share prices. The overall benefit of company-wide transformation was measured in billions of dollars.³

 

Smart & Fast Mini-courses

► Synergistic Organization

► Inspiring Corporate Culture

► 25 Lessons from Jack Welch