Embrace – The Initial Phase of the Business Turnaround

 

There is one simple critical element that has determined the outcome of every turnaround that I have led.  Commit it to memory… It’s all about the humans!   Business transformation requires engaged employee participation and buy in at every stage of the process.  As simple as it sounds, many executives leave people behind in the rush to get results. Big mistake!

As leaders, it is sometimes faster and easier to fall into the trap of ordering or directing people to make change.  This may work temporarily, but without a true understanding of why change is needed, you will be building a dangerous house of cards.  In fact, failing to effectively communicate and involve key groups of employees at the beginning of the process will ensure failure and make the next attempt at change even more difficult.

All of us have seen expensive and embarrassing examples of companies that jumped head first into the execution stage of Six Sigma or Lean manufacturing and failed miserably.  Most often the failure was in the lack of planning, training, leadership or communication. It all comes back to the humans! Technically competent project managers will get eaten alive by supervisors or front line employees if they don’t have the soft skills required to lead teams of people through change.

 

Critical Principals of the Embrace Phase:

1.  Deliver A Clear and Measurable Vision from the Top.

Educate the workforce on the need for change and the benefits of the change, by delivering a compelling story that creates a mental picture that supports how all the pieces of the complex change puzzle will fit together.  The need to change must be urgent, rational and well understood.  At the same time, it needs to connect directly to the vision of success at the end of the process. 

The message needs to be simple and the aspirations need to be high.  Ask directly for employee support and stress that everyone needs to believe and participate to make the effort successful.  This is your single biggest opportunity to inspire, mobilize, create ownership and sign up the troops for the tough battle ahead.  If the initial communication is clear, measurable, well understood and logical it will drive the company towards the common goal of positive change and improved results.

My rule of thumb for effective and wide sweeping communication is, try to tell a story that the frontline employee can take home and effectively tell his family at the kitchen table. If an employee can explain the plan to his family, he understands the plan.

 

2.  Build a Rock Solid, Credible Plan

The speech from the throne is not enough to sustain the energy to run the transformation marathon.  A rock solid plan requires input from every level of the organization. Recognize their contribution and spread the word that volunteers at every level participated in shaping the plan. The change buzz needs to be at the ground level before the formal communication begins.  Broad participation will build credibility into the plan, and increase the chances of success in the Execution phase of the turnaround process.

Base your plan on measurable data that exists within the current organization. If the historical measurements are not in place, be sure to record new benchmarks as a guide to your success. Every employee must be able to relate to aggressive but attainable goals that will improve the performance in their own department.  Touch and engage every employee.

 

3.  Ensure that Senior Leaders Live and Breathe the Process 

I have seen too many local managers parrot their bosses’ wishes around the boardroom table without understanding or embracing the meaning or the urgency to change.   To be effective every senior leader needs to understand the importance of the message, feel it, be passionate about it and transfer the message as if they owned it. Once the message is transferred the managers need to roll up their sleeves and live it every day. 

These days, employees are “battle fatigued” and have the scars to prove it.  Most of them have gone through some form of Total Quality Management (TQM), Kaizen, 5S, Six Sigma, Lean, Process Mapping, Cost Cutting, Rationalization or Restructuring.  What you are asking them to do next will  be considered the ‘flavour of the month’ unless the leadership team and the front line managers are prepared to get deeply involved, set examples and be part of the team.

 In the next blog post I will cover the second phase or the Execution phase of the process. During Execution the ‘rubber hits the road’ – you will learn where to make quick but important decisions on the fly and it will become clear who and what is blocking the process on the pathway to positive change.

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