Lead Where You Are - Getting Out in Front of Change
In this excerpt from our new ebook, Lead Where You Are, due to be released January 2020, we highlight a model for leading change.
We wont spend time talking about the amount or pace of change, everyone knows change is constant and the pace is only accelerating. So rather than resisting change or trying to manage it, what’s the best strategy?
Constantly get out in front of it. Become an agent of change and lead it. Don’t wait for it to happen to you, make change happen for you. In this excerpt from our new ebook, Lead Where You Are, due to be released January 2020, we highlight a model for leading change.
See the Possibilities in Everything
All around us are possibilities for change. We often miss these opportunities because we are too busy trying to navigate the change happening to us, which ends up draining our energy and enthusiasm, while creating a negative impact on our results. Just sit and think for a moment of all the possibilities for change around you right now in both your personal and work life. These changes don’t need to be anything monumental, sometimes small changes can make the biggest differences. When we are leading change, we are not sitting around waiting for things to happen to us, we are always thinking and imagining how we can challenge current and past thinking, actions and behaviors.
NARRATIVE CASE STUDY
Remember the Blockbuster example before? They failed to adapt and see possibilities in their own industry. So why does a company named Family Video still have hundreds of locations with thousands of employees? As the sole-surviving video rental chain, how have they been able to keep their doors open? By seeing possibilities. For starters, they own their own real estate instead of renting, which has helped avoid poor lease negotiations. That is certainly a wise business decision, but that doesn’t explain why people still keep coming into the stores to rent videos. People keep coming in and keep renting videos because they have created a different atmosphere for the customer. The focus is on creating an experience for the customer when they walk in. People enjoy walking into the store. Family Video has also partnered with a pizza chain to open up locations right next door. You can call to order a pizza and a movie and have the delivery person deliver both right to your door. They also decided to purchase all their movies instead of participating in the standard revenue-sharing model, which allows them to keep all profits. In an industry where almost all of the competition has shut down, Family Video chose to see different possibilities.
THINK INCREMENTAL, NOT MONUMENTAL
As we said earlier, change does not have to be monumental. Incremental changes can be just as effective, and sometimes even more so. We have to remember that our focus should be on the things we can control, things like our attitude and behaviors, enhancing our relationships (more on this later), and looking for service and product enhancements for both our internal and external customers. There truly is possibility in nearly every aspect of our lives and businesses. The key is just to practice and cultivate your ability to recognize the change as an opportunity and not as a barrier or obstacle to our success.
“You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.”
– Ralph Marston
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Lessons From The Best: Leading Change - W.L. Gore
Assembling a self-motivated and self-directed team gives ownership to people who want to contribute. A project won’t go anywhere if people aren’t motivated to take it on. The story of W.L. Gore and Associates.
As we prepare for the release of our new eBook Lead Where You Are which will be coming out right after the first of the year, we will be exploring how organizations rated as a Best Place to Work create dynamic, highly engaged workforces delivering sustained results by leveraging many of the concepts we highlight in the book.
Week 1 (Oct. 10) - Leading with Purpose
Week 2 (Oct. 17) - Leading Change
Week 3 (Oct. 24) - Leading Accountability
Week 4 (Oct. 30) - Leading Performance
Leading Change - W.L. Gore
W.L. Gore was founded in 1958 by Wilbert (“Bill”) Gore, a former chemical engineer at Dupont. Bill Gore challenged all traditional management practices and created a company that would enable human imagination and employee freedom and engagement. W.L. Gore has been on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list consecutively over the last 20 years.
In 1969, Bob Gore discovered that rapidly stretching PTFE (Teflon) did not break the material but made it strong, highly porous and extremely versatile. This new polymer was the first step towards Gore-Tex, the waterproof and breathable fabric that made the company famous. W.L. Gore now holds more than 2000 patents worldwide ranging from fabrics, electronics, medical devices, consumer products, pharmaceutical and polymer processing.
Obviously, Gore is very successful both commercially and culturally. One lesson we all can learn from Gore is their passion and commitment to leading with and cultivating innovation and change in everyone.
Anyone Can Be an Innovator
All associates throughout Gore are encouraged to spent 10% of their work pursuing change and innovation, it is called “dabble” time. Associates compete for discretionary time with other talented individuals who are passionate about working on something new and exciting and want to be part of a promising project. Assembling a self-motivated / self-directed team gives ownership to people who want to contribute. A project won’t go anywhere if people aren’t motivated to take it on. At any given time, Gore has hundreds of projects at various stages of development. All are focused projects that are employee-led, purpose driven and rooted in Gore’s knowledge and competitive leadership in ePTFE. Ideas die if associates don’t sign up to be part of the project. Product champions give the gift of opportunity, and in return, other associates donate their talent, experience and commitment. You can see why the organization is so successful and continually on the leading edge of change and innovation.
Of course, not all of our organizations will commit to this level of innovation and change. And if this is indeed the case in your organization, a lesson learned that we all can take away is for us to be a leader of change no matter what the environment is around us. All we have to do is step up and lead change, seeing possibilities for change where others around you see obstacles and barriers. Think differently and disruptively, this type of thinking at Gore has led to commercial product successes like Glide dental floss and developing the leading selling brand of acoustic guitar strings (Elixir) in the United States. Once we think differently, we create options and recommendations and then act with urgency, don’t let the status quo rule the day any longer. And lastly, don’t stop, be the catalyst for leading change in your organization. You never know, you might be the start of something really special. Look at what that type of thinking has done for W.L. Gore, a Fortune Best 100 Company to Work For, now for over two decades running.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Reimagining the Performance Model - Employee Engaged
Employee-Engaged performance is the key to shifting performance results from management driven to employee owned, supported by formal leaders and enabled by the organization.
Related Fun Fact of the Week:
The Subaru Legacy was first built in 1989, and over 4 million have been built to date and is Subaru’s flagship car.
And while this car has remained stedfast in the market, it has had many changes done to it. Just like how our performance management legacy should be viewed as well, a great legacy but changes are always needed.
In traditional performance management models, much of the role and responsibility for ensuring performance results, conducting performance feedback, developing accountability and providing effective change management resides with formal people leaders in the organization. In addition, training focused on developing core leadership skills, activities and behaviors is generally reserved for these formal leaders.
This legacy performance model unfortunately limits true performance ownership, and by reserving leadership skill development for a select few, we limit the immense potential and impact of having everyone no matter what their title or position lead from where they are.
Employee-Engaged performance is the key to shifting performance results from management driven to employee owned, supported by formal leaders and enabled by the organization. As a foundation, it is important for an organization to create a baseline of expected leadership skills, activities and behaviors that everyone from senior leadership to entry level individual contributors understand, value, exhibit and are held accountable to. This creates a foundation of common leadership expectations and a “language” of leadership that defines your organization.
Of course, roles and responsibilities are different, and the level of leadership impact will change as you move up the organization, but developing a core set of leadership competencies in everyone is critical to tapping into, and leveraging the value of every employee leading where they are.
Where to Start –
Create awareness and set an expectation that everyone is a leader
Provide baseline leadership development, starting with 4-5 core leadership competencies that provide a competitive differentiation for your organization
Support developing the leader in everyone with coaching and training
Reward and recognize employee-led success
Continue to add to and build upon the core leadership competencies.
Expect everyone to lead, give them the tools and training to lead, support them like leaders, and they will lead!
Next week – Leader Support – Evolving the leadership model to meet the leadership challenges of the future.
A Lead Where You Are Mindset: "How can I help?"
Change and disruption are the new normal and we must move from embracing change to leading it, and from letting things happen to making things happen.
Related Fun Fact of the Week:
According to a 2011 discovery by Chip Coakley, a Cambridge University manuscript expert, Syriac was the first language to use a punctuation mark to indicate an interrogative sentence. The Syriac question mark, known as the "zagwa elaya" or "upper pair", has the form of a vertical double dot over a word.
Change and disruption are the new normal and we must move from embracing change to leading it, and from letting things happen to making things happen.
When faced with barriers and obstacles, see possibilities for change.
When confronted with a negative person, see possibilities for change.
When there is blame and justification going on around you, see possibilities for change.
In every one of these situations, if you lead where you are by asking this very simple but powerful change question, “How can I help?”, you lead change right where you are, right in that moment.
“How can I help remove these obstacles and barriers?”
“How can I help shift the negative perspective to encourage making a positive impact?”
”How can I help move us from placing blame to defining success and accepting responsibility, to making things happen?”
Four simple words to lead change with: How can I help? Just try it this next week and see the impact you make.
Want to learn more about personal accountability enhancement within organizations? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Relics of Bygone Eras - Change Management
Over the last 25-30 years change management has emerged and grown from concepts and studies about the impact of change, to thousands of books, articles and seminars created to help people and organizations manage change. But change is, well, changing, and people and organizations must evolve from managing change to leading change.
Related Fun Fact of the Week: The most costume change illusions in one minute is 24, and was achieved by Avery Chin and Sylvia Lim aka Avery & Sylvia (both Malaysia) in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, on 2 September 2017.
If that’s not being agile with change, then I don’t know what is!
Over the last 25-30 years change management has emerged and grown from concepts and studies about the impact of change, to thousands of books, articles and seminars created to help people and organizations manage change. But change is, well, changing, and people and organizations must evolve from managing change to leading change.
In fact, a study by McKinsey found that 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals largely due to employee resistance and lack of leader support. The study also concluded that when people are truly invested in change it is 30% more likely to stick. So with all the focus on change management over the last quarter century, why are we not managing change more effectively?
Traditional change models view change as originating from the top of the organization with top leaders fully invested in the initiative, creating a burning platform to instill a sense of urgency, then mobilizing mid-management around that burning platform to drive the change through the organization. The goal? To ensure all employees grasp their role in implementing the change and are on board in hopes of minimizing the resistance to the change.
If 70% of changes initiatives fail, something needs to change! Change should not be managed, it should be led, and led by everyone, not just senior leaders or designated change agents. Possibilities for change can and should be identified and initiated at every level of the organization. Waiting for change to happen misses the opportunity to enable and engage the entire workforce to see possibilities for change everywhere and become nimble and agile in a dynamic performance environment. If every employee becomes a change agent the need to gain buy-in and the resistance to change dramatically decreases.
Many organizations are simply not set up for agile change, they are built for stability and try to limit and manage the impact of change. Remember, 70% of change fails because of trying to manage it. Unleash the change potential in your organization and enable every employee to lead change!
Want to know more on the future of organizations? Contact us or take a look at our Organization Performance Reimagined whitepaper.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Relics of Bygone Eras - The 3-5-10 Year Business Plans
There was a day and age when business cycles were predictable. You could plan for a certain annualized growth, keep expenses in line, and while competition existed, you could plan for it and global disruption was never a factor. Now business cycles and windows of opportunity are often hours and weeks, not years.
Related Fun Fact of the Week: Did you know that approximately 250,000 people participated in the 1963 civil rights march in DC, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream" speech?
There was a day and age when business cycles were predictable. You could plan for a certain annualized growth, keep expenses in line, and while competition existed, you could plan for it and global disruption was never a factor. Now business cycles and windows of opportunity are often hours and weeks, not years.
Now don’t get us wrong, planning is important or chaos can ensue….but rigid financial, operational and sales plans that don’t allow for ever-changing dynamics in our business world today can be the death of an organization. The corporate landscape is littered with organizations unwilling or too slow to change direction and their long range business plans. Blockbuster, Sony Betamax, Blackberry, Compaq Computer, and the list goes on. All had very solid 3-5 year business plans…at least until the world changed around them.
Dr. Martin Luther King was one of the greatest leaders of our time. But did he deliver a “I Have a Plan” speech? No, he delivered a “I Have a Dream” speech. While plans were created along the way, people were motivated and mobilized by Dr. King’s dream and clear vision for something better in the future, not by a financial or logistics plan.
So, as you look to your organization or departments future, rather than spending massive amounts of very valuable resources in developing 30-40 page strategic business planning documents that get circulated to a few, create a compelling and mobilizing vision where people will gladly step up and plan with you on how to achieve that vision and will be committed and engaged to creating and sustaining a long range purpose, versus a long range plan.
Does your organization have a dream for the future that everyone can connect to and rally around? Or does it have 3-5-10 year business plan documents and PowerPoint’s that sit on desktops or in binders on shelves? Create the dream and the plans will follow suit.
Want to know more on the future of organizations? Contact us or take a look at our Organization Performance Reimagined whitepaper.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.