Engage Stakeholders, help employees breathe the vision, translate vision to reality with extended vision matrix

JWI 555 Organizational Change & Culture, week4 summary, 5/5/12

This week I attained greater clarity about the concept of stakeholders. I was able to rank them somewhat in the order of importance. This gives me a valuable framework to be a more inclusive leader. Those who ignore key stakeholder segments could risk running the firm into troubled waters. Stakeholder mapping technique allows a practical way to manage and drive change in the firm.

The discussion about Dos & Don'ts in making employees live and breathe the vision helped me see what levers to push and what pitfalls to avoid while communicating a vision.

I also learned the importance of vision statement in focusing and motivating the organization. The expanded vision matrix metrics - strategic, financial, operational, organizational - equip me with practical knobs to turn in making the vision a reality.

Takeaways below. Great training this !

Dr DP

JWI 555 Organizational Change & Culture, week4 summary, 5/5/12

I. Stakeholders:
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Customers
Founder & CEO
Local Community
Stock holders
Executives
Line Managers
Technical domain experts
Individual contributor employees
Partners
Suppliers
Government
NGOs

II. Stakeholder map
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Visualize
Identify those most receptive to change and work with them early on
Figure out resiters and reason for their resistance
Relocate "professional resisters" to other projects

III. To Make employees live and breathe the vision:
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Do;Don'ts
1. Set a clear goal & communicate a clear direction;     Confuse stakeholders with Vague talk and Jargons
2. Model the core values through daily actions starting from the CEO & his top leaders;     just stop with posters and words
3. Be consistent with stated values; Say one thing and do another
4. Attend to every employee; Just ensure top leaders get it and ignore the rest of the employees
5. Over-communicate; Say it a few times, check the box and assume everyone gets it
6. Align rewards to vision, mission and values - use Jack Welch's values vs numbers matrix to do this;
Just focus on numbers when compensating people and forget about values when it comes down to the bottomline
7. Reinforce with rewards and make vision leap off the page and come to life (Welch, 2005, p69);    
Assume people will do what you expect ("people do what you inspect, not what you expect", Gerstner, 2002)
8. Ensure the business model is based on Growth; Remain in a stagnant industry
9. Appeal to emotion and the logic - the heart and the brain (JWI 555, W4, L1);    Just focus on logic

IV. Vision statement should have the power to focus and motivate the team by:
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Clarifying the general direction for change . . . and simplifying more detailed decisions;
Motivating people to take action in the right direction; and
Coordinating the actions of different people.  (Kotter, Leading change, 2012 pp. 68-69)

V. Expanded vision matrix metrics help to translate vision into reality
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Strategic: product/service focus, customer/market focus, unique positioning, differentiation
Financial: guiding financial-performance indicators; success metrics; significant financial commitments or decisions
Operational: essential manufacturing/service/delivery capabilities; technology priorities; key performance indicators
Organizational HR recruitment, selection, retention, development priorities, leadership decisions, structural considerations