Implementing Change

 'Words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises - but only performance is reality' said Harold Geneen of ITT who was renowned for his single-minded focus on delivery of results. Studies indicate that a massive 90 per cent of managers fail to fully implement and deliver their organization?s strategies. This article looks at what it takes to get things done by:

• Effectively managing the execution process.
• Planning for implementation.
• Managing and measuring for continued success.

Lessons from Companies who Deliver

Larry Bossidy was formerly a senior manager at GE, a company which has relentlessly succeeded in producing results. He became CEO of a struggling business at AlliedSignal.  In turning the company round, he reflected that the most important management activity was massive attention to getting things done. He judged that the way to make this happen was to focus on three interlinking areas, strategy, operations and people. Homing in on what he saw as the most vital aspect - people issues- he spent 40 per cent of his time on this when he first joined the company and it paid off by reversing the company's fortunes.

If execution is not to let down any change strategy, attention must be given to how to make change a day-to-day reality.

Dell operates in a highly competitive market, yet consistently leads in profitable delivery to the customer. Amazon has shaken up the sleepy book trade by its slick, fast delivery which it is extending to other areas like music. First direct makes a priority of consistent front-line service combined with a smooth execution. Tesco knows how to make its service the envy of the industry through well-honed processes and disciplines. Fedex monitors its processes and performance rigorously, and it shows this to its customers by displaying a visible tracking system to locate the progress of their goods.

What have these companies got in common? Most importantly, execution and improvement are ingrained into the company culture. This shows itself in well-designed and well-maintained procedures that are capable of pinpointing problem areas and sorting them out quickly. They are also highly tuned to changing customer needs. Tesco does this using customer data generated from its loyalty card scheme.

Companies Faring Poorly

Supermarket group Sainsbury's so badly implemented a new supply chain strategy that in 2004 shelves were left bare of products and customers deserted. It is struggling to put this right. Nowhere is implementation more put to the test then during mergers and acquisitions. Morrisons is in the throes of digesting the much larger Safeways. It is finding putting this into practice highly problematic and Ken Morrison and his team are coming under withering comment and criticism.
When the Royal Mail fails to deliver, every home in Britain knows about it. It now making some progress in ramping up its standards of delivery through a concerted effort to improve aevery aspect of the organization.

The Major Stumbling Blocks

Our experience of organizations with poor execution shows a number of frequently occurring symptoms:

• Strategies are not clear, leading to overlapping and conflicting priorities which dissipate energy, resources and focus
• Insufficient measurement and monitoring of progress, followed by inadequate corrective action
•  Poor co-ordination and communication, leading to the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing
• 'Fuzzy' accountabilities and a lack of ownership by key people, most importantly by top management
• Resistance to change is allowed to build up and lead to poor buy-in
• Internal, not external attention dominates. This is made worse if there is a culture of cover-up and blame, diverting impetus away from quick action
• Low motivation and morale sap innovation and the willingness to persevere through inevitable setbacks

On the basis of hard-won experience, Larry Bossidy suggests a recipe for execution success rests on these key essentials - a thorough and up-to-date business knowledge, a culture where realism is the norm, firm goals and priorities with regular follow-up, reward and recogniton for performers and development where the leader is self-aware and everyone is fully skilled up. We think these make a lot of sense and tie in with our experience on how to ensure delivery.

Keeping a Grip on the business and Customer Needs

Ivory tower management will rarely deliver results - you need to be in touch with the issues in the business and with the people who deliver the service and can provide you with valuable information. Even though he has worked his way up over the years at Tesco, CEO Terry Leahy periodically spends time stacking shelves and finding out first hand the issues and the business and how to serve customer needs.

Keeping Communication Channels Open

There is no substitute for going out and talking face to face and listening to what customers and front-line staff have got to say. This is true, no matter how sophisticated the market research data. Managers can easily become too wedded to their own dreams and lose touch with reality. Asda Wal-mart insists that all of its managers regularly listen and get feedback from their teams.

The higher up the managerial tree, the more difficult it often becomes to find out the unvarnished truth. Groupthink can set in where everyone gets carried away with rosy plans, and deviations and contradictions are ignored and the deliverers of such messages are made to feel bad for speaking out.

Good communicators often employ visual aids to highlight and communicate progress and milestones. For example, a Gantt chart, bright colours and cartoons and pictures can bring figures and deadlines to life.

Clear Accountabilities, Goals and Priorities

It is easy to get lost in masses of data and a maze of who is responsible for what. Three or four key goals, well communicated with understood accountabilities, will increase the likelihood of success. Everyone needs to be clear exactly what they are aiming for and what they need to do in their jobs to get there. Also they need a strong sense of what is important.

Linked with setting clear goals and measures is follow-up to check progress and manage deviations from plan, taking early corrective action. This involves regular reviews at defined milestones.

A coherent and thorough approach to getting things done is required, such as through the Six Sigma and Lean approaches. This structured view on continuously striving for defect free product and service minimizes waste in every sense and delivers high quality output. Only a few organizations have made this root-and branch approach work in every aspect of the organization.

Measurement

It is frequently said that what gets measured gets done, since this is where management's attention is focused. Setting up the right measures ensures focus and incentive, as well as a means to measure success and failure in key areas and take corrective action. Sometimes there are too many measures, which can lead to a deluge of information or selection of areas easiest to measure, but omitting important aspects. Sometimes measures are too narrow. For example some call centres focus on 'efficiency' measures, such as number of calls answered, only to neglect all-important service related measures.
Mike Bourne of Cranfield School of Management is critical of relying only on financial measures: Financial targets are too easy to manipulate. Improving the financial position can be done in the short term by reducing service levels and competitiveness.  He cites Marks & Spencer who were making record profits in the mid 1990s but took their eye off customer satisfaction which was falling. Eventually the situation was revealed as profitability started to fall.
Tracking leading non-financial indicators is vital to long term implementation. Bourne argues for use of wide-ranging measures, believing it is necessary to build explicit links between the major non-financial activities and financial performance and manage any changes. He argues 'Linking the activities, improvement plans and the financial plan enables improvements to be tracked and budgets properly validated. Software now exists to allow this to happen and to be coordinated across a large organisation.'

Kaplan and Norton developed the Balanced Scorecard which provides the organization with a framework to set up a 'dashboard' of measures to steer the business linking financial measures, customer measures, process measures and indicators of learning and continuous improvement.  They are very useful in helping to target and track the necessarily wide range of factors leading to sound implementation. They also promote discussion on priorities. Critically, a thorough process needs to applied to ensure these measures are part of the way of managing.

                                                            Structure of Balanced Scorecard

Reward and recognition

Exhortation alone will not achieve results. Recognize and reward people who are making progress in the direction you are heading. Reward such people in a variety of ways right for your culture- promotions, bonuses, awards, public recognition, newsletters for example. Above all, give individuals and teams regular feedback the most common demotivator we hear is that the manager 'is always too busy'. Reward and recognition help to keep up morale which can dip and slow progress when the going gets tough.

Development of capability

People undergoing change are likely to need development support, preferably anticipated ahead of time. Early on, change leaders need to spot what will be needed and follow up with development reviews to identify further needs. Chris Bones, principal of Henley Management College feels much more attention should be given to developing those who implement a strategy: 'If you equate talent management only with high potential for leadership positions you are focusing on a very small proportion of people . . . ultimately not the people who make the difference to your ability to execute well.' He advocates attention to the ninety percent who are implementers, not the ten percent who are strategists.
Good implementers must be good learners. They must be open to feedback and are not likely to be fobbed off with flattery or incomplete responses. In this way such leaders can play to their strengths and address their weaknesses without being defensive, and set a good example for others.

At a company level they are prepared to carry out attitude surveys and to take on the chin honest feedback. The alternative is making costly mistakes through lack of important knowledge. A number of leading organizations are benchmarking their climate and people practices through the Great Place to Work organization.

Participation and Involvement

Over five years, the charity Guide Dogs for the Blind successfully moved from a bureaucratic institution focused solely on training and a provision of guide dogs, into a modern and efficient disability charity helping improve mobility for blind and partially sighted people across the UK.  The key to its transformation has been well-thought-through communication and development processes, encouraging staff as the charity develops new areas, including training and rehabilitation programmes. Guide Dogs started running a series of video briefings at every staff, trainer and volunteer centre, featuring the Chief Executive delivering a focused message communicating defined aims that the charity was working towards. A strong and effective system of representation showed staff that their views were vital for the charity's future. A visible programme of training and personal development was backed up by the changes in structure.

Change will not be successful without the active involvement of those involved. This can be achieved through persistent and thorough approaches which extend throughout the activities of the business:

• Continuous Improvement - process innovation
• Two- way communication
• Involvement in the business
• Teamwork

The seven golden rules of implementation

In summary, successful businesses have found that there are seven golden rules of execution:
1. Keep a grip on the business and customer needs
2. Have clear accountabilities, goals and priorities
3. Keep communication channels open
4. Set up regular measurement
5. Invest in reward and recognition
6. Develop capability
7. Encourage active participation and involvement

Steve Macaulay and Sarah Cook are consultants who specialize in the development of managers and organizations to achieve change in a customer-focused way. Steve Macaulay is at Cranfield School of Management, Sarah is from The Stairway Consultancy. They are the authors of 'Change Management Excellence', published by Kogan Page, price £16.99. They can be contacted through Sarah Cook at the Stairway Consultancy, on 01628 526535

You may publish this article in whole or in part the only requirement is that if in print the article must state - article by Sarah Cook, Stairway Consultancy Ltd, 01628 526535, www.thestairway.co.uk

You may publish this article in whole or in part. The only requirement is that if in print the article must state - article by Sarah Cook, Stairway Consultancy Ltd, www.thestairway.co.uk

If you use this article in whole or in part electronically, the requirement is that you inlcude the following code on the page:

The code should look like this:

Article by Sarah Cook of the Stairway Consultancy. Specialists in Leadership, Customer Services, Team Building and Personal Effectiveness.

If you do not do this you will infringe our copyright