CN Tower, Toronto, ON July 2016 - CSD
Welcome back, readers! We’re to the last week of blogging for our Organizational Change class and the topic is strategies for transforming teams. The situations involving this kind of change that we may encounter as leaders may very well be some of the most daunting we could face.
As part of the lesson this week, we watched two videos. One, a TED Talk, was a lecture by General Stanley McChrystal (TED Talks, 2011). The other was a YouTube™ presentation of an interview with Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale (VitalSmarts, 2012). Both leaders faced dynamic situations in which their teams needed to make cultural and operational changes quickly in order to survive. It should also be noted that McIngvale cited the book, Influencer (Grenny, et al, 2013) as the major guide to the changes he made in his company’s culture. Some other information that will be helpful this week came from our class textbook, An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development (Brown, 2011).
Ok, back to discussing culture change. McChrystal and McIngvale faced different challenges and decided to deal with them in appropriately different ways. McIngvale faced a sudden and dramatic downturn in the economy that dropped his customer base approximately 70% in less than a year. Shortly after the downturn, his main furniture warehouse caught fire and he lost $30 million in inventory overnight. McIngvale faced two situations that put his company in dire jeopardy. He knew he had to change the way his business operated. In the book Influencer, which McIngvale read, Grenny, et al (2013) describe a plan they espouse for leaders to influence change. They teach leaders to Focus and Measure, Find Vital Behaviors, and Engage All Six Sources of Influence (2013, p. 13-14). McChrystal was charged with commanding an army from long distance via means he had never tried.
Focus and Measure means leaders need to be completely clear on what they want to accomplish and measure their progress relentlessly. Find Vital behaviors relates to identifying the behaviors that need to change to drive the most impact. Engaging the six sources of influence covers personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation, social ability, structural motivation, and structural ability (Grenny, et al, 2013, p. 14-34). Personal ability and motivation are fairly self-explanatory. Social motivation and ability relate to the encouragement that workers and managers provide each other and whether or not the behavior is then enabled. Structural motivation involves reward programs that are available to be used. Structural ability relates to the quality of the surroundings and tools available for the leaders and workers to use. Without a doubt, engaging all six sources of influence is a very complex and difficult task.
Coinciding with the techniques from Influencer (2013), are some considerations about corporate culture that Brown discussed and illustrated in his book (2011, p. 405-408). Describing the relative strength of the current culture is valuable information for a leader. Figure 15.4 (Brown, 2011, p. 406) illustrates a way to classify the culture of the organization and will provide a leader with a relative idea of the amount of force that will be needed to drive change. A strong culture may be resistant to change. Figure 15.5 (Brown, 2011, p. 407) illustrates the Strategy-Culture matrix and can be used to understand the relationship between strategy and culture in the particular organization. The various quadrants define the relation of strategy and culture and can be used to optimize the tools and techniques to affect change.
So, Mattress Mack had an economic disaster followed shortly by a gigantic fire. He knew he had to change, defined his new goals, and applied the techniques from the book. He began measuring his progress, communicated the goals religiously to the managers and workers, made changes to the social motivation and ability of the team, added training to affect the personal motivation and abilities of the team, and made changes to the structural (reward) motivation and abilities of the team. It took a couple of years, but the company is making money again and McIngvale notes multiple other benefits to the company and its employees from making the changes.
McChrystal faced a different situation with the consequences of failure being far more severe for those involved. The war in Afghanistan was conducted in a manner unlike any other before it. McChrystal had to manage a force that was spread across half the globe. His team ran the gamut of ages from teenagers to fifty-somethings. Many of his youngest employees (as it were) were skilled in technology with which he was unfamiliar. Maybe most importantly, he had to lead them through electronic media instead of face-to-face. McChrystal and his leadership team had to learn how to give and receive trust across long distances. They had to adapt to being able to see situations happening over which they had little to no direct influence. They had to succeed because failure cost more than money, it cost lives and could impact the future of human civilization. No pressure, right? McChrystal managed around the culture (Brown, 2011, p. 407 and Fig. 15.5). He reinforced the value system, which is strong in military cultures. He reshuffled power and used any available lever he could find to influence change. He learned to listen harder and to accept reverse mentoring, as he called it (Ted Talks, 2011).
As you go forward in your leadership career and continuing education, remember these two situations. They are very good examples of leadership and impacting cultural change. The Brown text provides more information that can become part of your leadership toolkit as well. A visit to your favorite brick-and-mortar or on-line library will provide you with a multitude of other examples and great information.
Thank you for following my blog through this term. I look forward to posting again for my next class and hope you will join me then!
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development (E. Svendsen Ed. 8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Joseph Grenny, K. P., David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler. (2013). Influencer. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Talks, TED. (Producer). (2011). Stanley McChrystal -- Listen, learn...then lead. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal
Video, VitalSmarts. (Producer). (2012). Influencer -- Gallery Furniture Video Case Study. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4{, #166@@hidden}
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