Organizational Development INTERVENTIONS

Presented By: Sneha Mittal

The organizational problem. The strategy implementation intervention the C

EO wanted. The thinking behind the design of the strategy i

mplementation workshop. The constraints CEO needed to work within. The tools CEO decided to use in the two-day wo

rkshop. The workshop design. How CEO used The Change Puzzle Kit: Day 1. How CEO used The Winning the Game of Chang

e Kit: Day 2. The end result.

The CEO felt quite alone in driving the corporate strategy. He wished that his team would:

Realize that they needed to work together as a united team, rather than in separate silos - often working at cross purposes to one another.

Take responsibility for playing a leadership role in driving the implementation of the strategy. Many of them thought that it was enough that he, the CEO had communicated the strategy and created projects. They then left it up to their people to flesh out what needed to be done to implement the strategy - without providing direction to their own teams.

The CEO was disappointed. He'd spent months with his executive team developing a new organizational strategy. He'd then spent weeks flying around the country on a road show to communicate the new strategy. He set up a number of projects to implement the strategy. Strategic objectives were put into each of his executives KPAs.

"I am tired of being the only one driving the strategy!” But now 6 months later, he felt quite frustrated. When he spoke to

people who were not his direct reports, they were saying that they needed direction!

They were confused by the many projects that were being implemented. As they focused on one project, they forgot about the strategy, the company values and other projects.

Work was being duplicated. His people were confused. Different projects were working at cross purposes to one another. His people simply could not see how everything fitted together.

They would do a right brained exercise to look at what the organization would be like, if it were achieving all the benefits from having implemented its strategy successfully.

They would look at the elements that would need to be in place for that vision to work. To do this we would use 'The Ideal Organization Of The Future charts and cards.

They would then compare what came out of our two charts. From this, they would choose a few core changes. Changes that move us towards the future vision they wanted.

they would then use the Winning the Game of Change Kits to develop a detailed implementation plan. This included: Who would need to play what role. A detailed implementation plan. What would be done. How. When. A training plan. A way to check progress. A way to identify and remove barriers. A way to reinforce the behaviours we needed to implement our

strategy successfully.

THE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION INTERVENTION THE CEO WANTED The CEO wanted to hold a 2 day strategy implementation

workshop for his executive team and their direct reports. He wanted the workshop objective to be:

To help his team to develop a coordinated strategy implementation plan.

He was quite sure that he didn't want another theoretical talk shop.

He wanted his team to develop a practical and detailed plan for implementing the strategy.

One that was simple and clear. One they would take ownership of - as a team. One that would excite them. One they could use to provide direction throughout the

organization. One that he could use to measure their progress.

THE THINKING BEHIND THE DESIGN OF THE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION WORKSHOP

CEO needed an intervention that would help his executive and management team to:

Understand why most companies strategies don't get implemented, and recognize what they needed to do as leaders, to ensure their strategies worked.

Help them to see their projects, their company strategy, their values, and the work each division did, in a holistic way. This would require a tool that used a combination of systems thinking and visual thinking.

Help them to understand the few areas they would need to focus on, in an integrated way, as a leadership team.

CONT.. Help them to develop a detailed, comprehensive

implementation strategy - which detailedWhat specific interventions they would need

to lead.Who would need to play what role.What barriers they may need to overcome.How they would measure progress.How their would people would keep going

until they achieved success.

THE CONSTRAINTS CEO NEEDED TO WORK WITHIN.. The CEO wanted to achieve all of this in a 2 day

workshop. There would be 23 people attending the workshop.

THE TOOLS CEO DECIDED TO USE IN THE TWO-DAY WORKSHOP 1. The first tool CEO used was The Change Puzzle Kit This helped the group use systems thinking to see how their projects,

strategy, values, divisional objectives, KPAs, and other leadership elements, fitted together into one integrated picture of the organization. They could then determine what they needed to work on, to implement their strategy.

CEO had one kit for each group of 8 delegates. Each kit consists of: Two laminated charts. (A1 size). The first chart is called The Organization

Of Today. The second chart is called The Ideal Organization Of The Future. A set of water soluble pens which allows the delegates to write directly

onto the laminated charts. The charts can be wiped clean and used again. A box of clue cards to help the groups analyse 20 organizational elements

from a systems thinking perspective, as they complete their charts.

CONT..2. The second tool he used was an implementation

planning tool called "Winning the Game of Change."

The tool CEO used to develop a strategy implementation plan was "Winning the Game of Change."

This kit, in the form of a game, helped the group to develop a detailed strategy implementation plan for the entire organization. It contains:

1 laminated chart - with 8 tasks that leaders need to complete in order to develop an implementation plan.

A set of clue cards containing examples of best practices for completing each leadership task.

THE WORKSHOP DESIGN This is the process CEO followed: To get people thinking outside of their normal divisions, He

divided the larger group into 3 groups of 8 delegates per group. These groups were mixed so that people of different functions worked together in each group.

Each group had their own Change Puzzle Kit and Winning the Game of Change Kit to work with.

He used this diagram to explain the process we would be following which was: We would take a 'systems thinking' photograph of organization as it is

today - To do this we would use The Organization of Today charts and cards.

HOW CEO USED THE CHANGE PUZZLE KIT: DAY 1 Step 1. Provide an overview of the change puzzle CEO provided a quick overview of the change puzzle. 

Step 2. Analyse the organization of today 2.1 Instructions: was given the chart "The Organization Of Today" plus the 20 clue

cards about the current organization. They were also given a set of water soluble pens. They were asked to write on their chart how they saw the organization as it existed today. They could use the clue cards to help them. The groups were told that they didn't need to achieve a consensus.

2.2 Activity: Each group spent about an hour recording their answers. Then each

group simply read what the other groups had written on their charts. 2.3 What came out: The three groups were surprised that their charts looked similar. What

came out clearly was a lack of alignment in the organization. The different divisions and projects were seen to be pulling in different directions.

Step 3. Groups develop a vision of the future.

CEO needed the groups to develop a clear vision of what their organization would look like, if they had successfully implemented their strategy, and were achieving the benefits they wanted.

As they developed their right brain picture of their organization, the groups became energized. They started feeling proud about what they could achieve together. They were amazed that they all had a similar view of the future.

What was really happening is that the hard work the CEO and his team had done in developing and communicating the strategy, was now being recognized and appreciated. The CEO was delighted.

Step 4. Groups complete The Ideal Organization of the Future charts.

 

4.1 Instructions and activity: CEO then asked the groups to complete the Ideal Organization of the

Future charts. In doing so, He asked them to think about what would need to be in place for them to achieve the benefits they wanted to get out of their strategy. he encouraged them to check that each organizational element supported every other organizational element.

4.2. What came out: One executive said. 'I finally understand this systems thinking and

alignment stuff. Everything must support everything else.' At first the groups were very creative about what their organization would

look like, if they achieved the benefits of having implemented their strategy successfully. Then, as they started checking that every element supported every other element, they started refining their work. What came out this time, was a much more focused view of what needed to be in place for their strategy to be implemented successfully.

Step 5. The groups choose core changes. They now needed to identify a few core changes, to provide a better focus

for our implementation plan. Once again he remixed the groups. he asked them to choose 3 changes

that would: Help them move towards their "The Ideal Organization Of The Future"

charts. He asked them to record these changes in a 'From' and 'To' table. The 'From' would be drawn from "The Organization Of Today" charts. The 'To' would come from "The Ideal Organization Of The Future"charts." The three groups were surprised that they all came out with the same core

changes. This happened because of the systems thinking provided by The Change Puzzle Kits - and because we kept mixing the groups.

They ended the first day of the workshop by asking the group what they'd achieved. What came out was that they were excited by their common focus, and by the clarity of what they needed to accomplish to successfully implement their strategy.

HOW CEO USED THE WINNING THE GAME OF CHANGE KIT: DAY 2 The groups were now used to working with one another and doing

systems thinking. He remixed the groups and handed each group a Winning the Game of Change Kit. he explained how the kit worked, and allowed each group most of the day, to complete the game.

The groups got engaged in the game quite quickly. As they played the game, they wrote their implementation strategies onto their charts.

About 2 hours before the session was due to end, he asked for a representative of each group to work with him, so that we could integrate all 3 charts into one integrated implementation plan for the whole organization. While we did this, the rest of the group had a break. We took about 45 minutes, as most of the groups came up with similar ideas. This was because of the systems thinking they had done the previous day, and because they had mixed the groups.

All CEO had to do then, was read the integrated plan back to the group.

THE END RESULT The executives and managers were

amazed at what they had produced together. They were delighted at how practical and exciting their plan was. They had enjoyed working together. They asked to have more sessions like this in the future.

One of them thanked the CEO for the work he'd done on developing the strategy.

He was quite touched by this appreciation.

The leaders left the session excited and motivated - and ready to implement their plan.