Accelerating Alignment
Slow Down to Speed Up
Last week I posted about how important it is for change leaders to build a sense of urgency and act with speed, while at the same time avoiding the dangers of overdrive. The delicate balance between urgency and overdrive has given rise to a phrase that I often use when teaching leaders how to lead and communicate change, “You’ve got to slow down in order to speed up.” (Watch a video clip of me talking about this here.)
Interestingly, there are several new books and articles on this topic that are hitting the market right now. In May 2010 Forum corporation released their new book, Strategic Speed. The book addresses these critical concerns for leaders:
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What role does speed, or lack thereof, play in the high failure rate of strategic initiatives?
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What are the barriers, or traps, to execution?
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Do faster companies financially out-perform slower companies?
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How can I engage people in accelerating our strategy?
Balancing Urgency and Overdrive
It is finally spring here in the Rocky Mountains. Back in the east, spring unfolds slowly. The forsythia blooms in February. You start to see crocus and daffodils in March. By April the fruit trees are flowering and by Mother’s Day, the dogwoods and azaleas are in full bloom.
Spring is very different at an altitude of 8700 feet in Colorado. Two weeks ago our aspens and lilacs barely had buds. Today everything is gloriously green and the lilacs are literally unfolding their flowers right before our eyes.
The difference in the two springs has me thinking about speed and urgency. The trees and flowers here know that they only have a few weeks to execute so they make the most of every minute.
Want Change? Get Specific!
While the number of books and articles about change can be overwhelming, there are some universal truths that tend to appear in most. The one I have been thinking about a lot lately is how important it is to be specific when we are attempting to change ourselves or influence others to change.
In his books, Mojo and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith uses the term “criteria” to get at the concept of being specific. For example, when coaching an executive who wanted to spend more time with his kids – Goldsmith pushed the executive to be specific. Exactly how much time with which kid? When? Committing to spending 4 one-on-one hours with each child allowed this executive to track his progress and truly change.
The authors of Influencer present a similar idea in their book – claiming that for change to succeed, we need to get specific about who needs to change which exact behaviors. They use the term “vital behaviors” to describe the concept and share scores of examples where change succeeded because the leader got specific.
Is Your Team Psyched Up and In Sync?
You need an adaptable team. One that is clear on its goals and direction, yet able top flex quickly to the market. A team that doesn’t need to wait for direction, but rather initiates and implements great ideas on their own.
I use the term Energized Alignment TM to describe the state of being both “psyched up and in sync.” The model below shows a simple matrix that can help you visualize the concept.
Think about your own team, department, or entire workforce. A team with high alignment is united by a common goal and agrees on what success will look like. In the two decades that I have partnered with leaders on change initiatives, I’ve discovered that many leaders focused only on getting people “on board” with change. In other words, they tried to use the old command and control mentality to get people aligned.
But alignment isn’t enough. Taken to extreme, clear goals and expectations alone may equate to working on an assembly line. Sure, I know what is expected of me, but do I really care? Do I come up with innovative suggestions? Am I able to react to a sudden change that throws the whole plan off course?
Your Yearly Offsite – to Hold or Not to Hold?
Companies are doing everything they can to cut costs this year. Meetings and events are being slashed. Conferences are going virtual.
Given this focus on savings are you wondering about your yearly management team offsite? Should you hold it or skip it?
For help weighing the pros and cons, check out this HBR blog post from CEO coach, Melissa Raffoni:
This Year’s Management Off Site: Necessary or Negligent?
In addition to the posting, I recommend that you skim the reader comments. Main themes seem to be that the management team needs to be more aligned that ever and that offsites can help to accomplish that. At the same time, executives should remember to take the time to communicate why they are having the offsite and what the results/outcomes are.
I believe that employees are craving more direction from their senior leaders. They want to know where your company is headed, what the plans are for getting there, and how they can help. Before you can communicate these answers to your frontline, you’ll need shared understanding, purpose, and alignment across your management team.
Reframing Resistance: Part 2
Any time I see or hear something three times in quick succession, I sit up and realize that the universe is trying to tell me something. Lately the universe has been talking to me about the fact that welcoming disagreement is an imperative ingredient of effective leadership.
Sign #1: From Richard Hackman
In the May issue of Harvard Business Review, Diane Coutu interviewed Richard Hackman, Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. While the article is titled, “Why Teams Don’t Work,” Hackman does offer insight into why and when teams do work. One surprising finding of Hackman’s research is that every team needs a deviant. According to Hackman,
“Deviants are the ones who stand back and say, ‘Well wait a minute, why are we even doing this at all?”Hackman argues that deviants open up more ideas and are a great source of innovation. Of course, the problem is that these very people are often seen as resistant and as troublemakers.
Changing a Family-Run Business
Congratulations! You work for a family-run business, the owners are retiring, and they’ve picked you to lead the business. While you are eager to take on your new job, you face a major dilemma. How can you step into the founder’s shoes without stepping on his/her toes? Especially when you need to make major change?
Jack and Suzy Welch addressed this challenge in this week’s The Welchway column in Business Week. In a nustshell, their advice is to focus your change efforts on the founder first, before attempting to change the rest of the organization. Why? Because at least for a while, your employees’ loyalties are likely to lie with the founder and everyone in the company will be looking to see his/her reactions to the changes you are trying to put into place.
To read the Welch’s article, click here: Transforming the Family Business.
More Tips for Executive Team Alignment
One of my personal interests is executive team alignment. As a change communication consultant, I have seen far too many organizations attempt to roll out initiatives before the senior leadership team is on the same page themselves. As you can imagine, this creates confusion across the board, increases cynicism in the ranks, and slows the change process.
Executive coach, Meredith Kimbell recently shared a technique for assessing the alignment of your own leadership team. She suggests asking yourself and your staff three questions:
- How will we know we’ve arrived?
- What results must I and my team contribute?
- How are we doing and what’s next?
To read Meredith’s article, Leading Your Leadership Team, click here. For more on the topic, check out:
- Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
- My blog posts on Executive Team Alignment
- The HBR article, The New Deal at the Top
Assessing Alignment
One of my favorite metaphors for an organization is that of a crowd of people in a large rowboat. When you are leading an organization, a unit, or a team – how can you be sure that everyone is aiming for the same destination and rowing together to get there? In other words, how can you tell if your organization is aligned?
There are many aspects of alignment. Today, I’d like to focus on alignment at the level of the senior leadership team.
Organization development expert, Tom Wilkes, has worked with many executive teams to improve team performance and organizational outcomes. As Tom describes it, success hinges on alignment. He recently shared this simple, but powerful exercise for assessing whether or not your team is on the same page when it comes to priorities:
- Give each member of the leadership team 3 index cards.
- Instruct the team to write down the 3 most pressing priorities for the organization (using a separate card for each).
Parallel Play in the Boardroom
Last week I had the pleasure of working with the nine executive team members of a fast-growing marketing company. As the group grappled with the challenge of identifying and naming the principles that drive their business, I made two observations. First, every single person at the table was actively involved in attempting to solve the problem. Second, the nine executives were each using different and seperate methods to attempt to get to a solution. One person was drawing on a flipchart, one was working away in his notebook, a third was attempting to go around the room to ask others’ opinions, yet another was verbalizing a proposed solution. Each of these behaviors were positive, yet none were particularly helpful because all of these actions were occcuring simultaneously! These executives were engaged in Parallel Play.
According to the Child Development Reference (Volume 6), Parallel Play is a term that was introduced by Mildred Parten in 1932 to refer to a developmental stage of social activity in which children play beside rather than with one another. Children in this stage may comment on what they are doing or imitate what another child does, but they rarely cooperate in a task.
