Press
Just as the search for the Holy Grail was a never-ending quest for knights, the pursuit and maintenance of Competitive Advantage is a constant task for companies. In a constantly evolving business world, what is an advantage today may not be so tomorrow, driving companies to continually innovate and adapt.
Leadership support means backing the initiative, funding it, and talking about it. Leadership presence means changing your schedule, your location, and your daily habits to demonstrate that this matters more than anything else vying for your attention.
Colleagues from the executive level to front lines instinctively are cautious of lending their endorsement and support to something new and unexplored. A rational survival instinct of "how does this affect me?" comes into play, often unconsciously, in all of us.
After analysing more than 150 operational transformations, We've discovered an uncomfortable truth: the easiest metrics to monitor are often the least useful for driving change. There's an even deeper problem: too often, metrics are chosen for control, when the answer lies in metrics that empower.
In any organisational cultural transformation, there are inevitable challenges that must be identified and addressed from the outset. Those willing to embark on this journey need not only to recognize these challenges but also to have an effective plan to mitigate them in a timely manner. Otherwise, progress may be jeopardized.
See if you can have your next team meeting without giving a single answer, just asking questions. Try to get the team to gain new perspectives and chart a new course without you having to tell them what to do.
Companies with the most outstanding employees are often the ones that suffer the most inconsistencies in their performance. Why?
Because these "heroes" eliminate the need to build systems and, instead, create an organizational dependence on individual employees. Over time, even heroes falter, and that's when chaos ensues if these heroes haven't been complemented by systems that capture their expertise and effectively replicate it.
Most change initiatives fail because they try to add a new culture to an old one. It's like painting over rust.
After analysing more than 150 organisational transformations using Mission-Directed Workteams, we've identified the main predictor of sustainable change: whether leaders try to incorporate or develop culture.
