change management process change management plan
I still remember sometime ago when a new MD of this Taiwanese company called all his managers for an icebreaking session. He has to replace his father's position as the Managing Director for a leading Petrochemical company in Southeast Asia. Coming from consulting background with leading Performance Turn Around firm in United States, it will be an uphill task for him to adapt to the culture set by his father
The father, who has been leading the organization for the last 30 years, believes that expected results are achievable when importance is given to operational matters. As such, managers are given full authority and liberty on how results could be delivered. Each manager competes with others to obtain attention and trust of the father. Even though the business results were tremendously positive, but outcome of frustration shown by managers who failed was unbearable by his entire department's people. There were no unified culture between departments, and a number of managers start to abuse their liberty due to loose management approach used by the previous business owner. The most outstanding manager during his father's time was the Production Manager. He was known for his aggressiveness and capability to put things under control.
Now the son is in-charge!
During the first meeting, after a little introduction about him, he was eager to know the current progress in each department, especially about the workforce. So, he decided to ask managers from 7 departments about their subordinates. All the managers gave mix reactions and answered the question by pointing out some of the common feedback type; above average, good, so-so, not bad and other similar answers.
However, he was shocked with the answer given by the manager, who is the most admired by his father.
"My people are idiots"! Majority of them perform below average and I need to be there all the time to make them work.
This answer was not a surprise for the rest in the meeting because the Production Manager is the most powerful person and respected person by the father.
However, it was a disturbing answer for the son. With the exposure and confidence that the son developed through 15 years of consulting involvement with world renowned organizations, he thanked all managers for their answer and followed up with another question addressed to the Production Manager; "how long have you been managing this department?" Replied the manager; "15 years!"
At this point, an unexpected statement came from the son and it was addressed to the Production Manager:
"If your people are classified as idiots, I can call you "An Idiot" as well.
....Because you're the captain to this group of people."
From that day onwards, the son had successfully transformed this organization in a highly competitive organization through his "well balanced" People and Results driven culture.
The 10 actions steps required by Managers to transform their organization/department into People and Results driven culture:
1.All should believe that the success of an organization is not possible with the involvement of only 1 person.
2.People in the organization should have the ownership and sense of belonging to their job and organization.
3.Managers should develop close relationship with their people by breaking the formal barrier.
4.Managers need to spend time on developing the competency and ability of their people to ensure positive performance at work.
5.Managers suppose to empower their people to take charge of their work and allow them to make appropriate decisions.
6.People should be encouraged to use their creativity to come up with initiates, and making mistake for first time is acceptable.
7.Managers must track the progress of their people's work outcomes on periodical basis.
8.Manager should spend a little time with their people (preferably once a monthly) on 1-to-1 basis to discuss on current issues, work progress, area of improvement required and action plan.
9.Managers should give opportunity and progressively are stern to their people who do not show improvement on work matters.
10. Finally, people like to be appreciation from their superior for work well done. So be generous with words!
These are the 10 tips used successfully by the new Managing Director to ensure a positive change in the quality of their workforce. At the same time, the organization productivity and results improved.
Next time, be careful when a Manager or Superior want to express their anger or frustration by addressing someone as "Idiot".
Steven Raj Kumar is the CEO and Performance Turn Around specialist with XPE Team and Cleverbridge. He can be contacted at dr.stevenraj@gmail.com. For more details about performance intervention solutions and team building, kindly visit http://www.xpeteam.com/, http://www.cleverbridge.my/