Agents2Change - Smart Business Thinking

Myers Briggs – which type are you?

In our previous blog we explored the four temperaments, perhaps one of the oldest personality type models on the planet.  But to this, we now add a good all-rounder that has proved a helpful framework in which to consider why you work the way you do. 

No psychometric model predicts behaviour, but they can go a long way to explaining the motives behind our actions.  The Myers Briggs model is particularly robust, since it has been developed through over 60 years of research and has shown a high degree of reliability.

Where does the model come from?

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers Briggs, building on the work of Carl Jung.  It was Jung that first coined the Psychological Types in 1921, and his work was taken up by Katherine Brigg and her daughter post World War II to develop into a model of psychological preferences. 

Jung based his original theory on observations of many hundreds of patients and colleagues, whom he found displayed distinct differences in how they responded to the demands of everyday life and arrived at decisions.

 

What are the Types?

The MBTI is based on four opposing pairs, or dichotomies, that are related to how we interact with the world around us and arrive at our own decisions.

A questionnaire helps to define the preferences for each individual, which are always at the heart of our psychological make-up, but may not be immediately obvious to us, as we have learnt to adapt and change our responses based on work and life experiences. 

 

The MBTI model helps to explain why some people :

• may need to talk through their decisions in detail; whilst others need time to reflect and then present their decision.
• are very good at organising and planning their work and others appear to work in chaos.
• are good at remembering fine detail from a situation and others refer to general themes and patterns.
• make decisions based on facts; whilst other will refer to the emotional impact on others.

 

How can you use MBTI?

The framework like all self-assessment tools helps to raise your awareness of how you work and think and how this may impact on your work with others.  The Type indicators can also be informative when thinking of your career and life choices, by helping you to better understand the work roles and organisational settings that will suit you. 

For teams and organisations, it provides a common framework and language from which to explore the many differences in how team members, managers and leaders operate and can lead to a better understanding of the benefits of a diverse workforce.

 

About us

Agents2change works with some of the world's largest companies on change and implementation issues.  We regularly use MBTI as a developmental framework for leadership, team and organisational development.  If you’d like to know more contact us at:  feedback@agents2change.com

 

Trouble at the Bleeding Edge – Or how the Mighty Fall

Earlier this week we talked about challenges at the Leading edge of change.  But what about at the other end of the spectrum?  It’s a salutary reminder of the unrelenting pace of change, when you hear that Eastman Kodak have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  It is a mighty fall from grace, given the near monopoly status that Kodak held in the world of photography for over 125 years.  Yet it is also a stark reminder of the dramatic changes that our digital based economy has wrought. 

Kodak was once viewed amongst the world’s most innovative companies, providing innovation not only in the camera but also in the development and print field of photography.  Yet in the last 30 years it has gradually slipped further and further from the mainstream, as smaller more agile competitors, better able to respond to the rising tide of digital technology started to take its place, alongside that of the multi-media smartphone. 

Management arrogance is one of the accusations for its demise.   Yet perhaps its biggest failing was not realizing that the moment to change had arrived and passed it by; quietly and swiflty.   It is one of life’s truisms that the moment to change, is just when everything seems to be going swimmingly.  It is at the point of our greatest successes when we have to consider its demise and therefore the need to innovate and change. 

The Danger of resting on one’s laurels

Whilst Kodak fades to black, we can see a similar struggle occurring with Research in Motion's (RIMs) Blackberry.  Once the smartphone of choice for Executives around the world, it has become more and more obscured by the rise of Apple products and the demand for tablet-based technologies. 

Blackberry like Kodak is accused of failing to read the market conditions and consumer choices.  Being unclear where its core market base lies – ‘are we the smartphone for executives, or the consumer product for young people?’.  This fuzzy marketing focus has led to inconsistent R&D (such as the disastrous launch of the Storm and Playbook and the lack of a single OS platform for software development).

Fuzzy leadership  and poor engagement are also cited for Blackberry's demise.  As we fully embed ourselves in the digital age, companies that fail to provide a figurehead to tell their story, or those that don't engage their customers through the infinite options of social media are at risk of being ignored, overlooked and eventually shunned completely by their once loyal customers.

Engagement & responsive-ness, the new watchwords

How can you ensure that you are listening to and engaging your customers as you develop your products and services?

• The world’s most innovative companies all have a strong and clear strategy, communicated by a strong and clear leader
• Using social media – twitter, facebook, youtube etc., as well as the traditional media channels ensures the widest possible circulation
• Creating closed loop marketing opportunities e.g. Once an Apple product owner, one naturally migrates to the next Apple product.
• Anticipating rather than responding to trends – this one of course is the silver bullet, but the world’s most innovate see this as their raison d’étre.  What are you doing to anticipate?

About us

Agents2change works with some of the world's largest companies on change and implementation issues.  We'd love to hear your thoughts on this blog, innovation or change in general.  Share your comments here or email us on feedback@agents2change.com

Examining Culture #7 - And finally! Building a Cultural Map

In this mini-series, we have looked at the challenges of managing across a diverse range of geographic and cultural boundaries. We have taken a look at the theories on national culture and organisational culture.  In this, our final instalment, we explain our approach to developing a cultural map in organisations.

The major growth strategy for multi-nationals has been heavily reliant on Mergers & Acquisitions  in recent years.  These have often been in key markets and geographic locations; for example there has been significant increase in Eastern Europe and South and Central America.  This brings access to new and growing markets for companies who have plateaued in their home countries, but it also brings cultural challenges in how best to integrate and align these target companies into the established corporate culture. 

The reason that integration and value creation is so difficult in the post-merger organisation is multi-fold.  Many reports and research papers conclude that the reasons for poor results are often down to poorly targeted acquisitions, unclear goals, unrealistic valuation of the target company and more often than not, an incompatible company culture. 

However culture is not an indefinable or unchangeable concept.  On the contrary, it can be defined, measured and with concerted effort, changed.  To do that, requires accurate diagnosis and practical ideas on how to address cultural needs.

Our View of Culture

Over the years, the Agents2change team have been brought in to address many issues around performance, improvement and integration in some of the world’s biggest companies.  Our combined expertise spans over 90 years of organisational change and understanding the key levers towards integration.  Indeed our founder, Mary McGuire has undertaken extensive research in the area of multi-cultural management at Masters level and is linked with a number of business schools. 

We apply our knowledge and understanding of the most  influential models and theorists on culture (from Hofstede to Schein) and have developed our own unique Cultural mapping model.  We take the view that there are certain cultural ‘flags’ that allow us to interpret, measure and intervene in culture to achieve integration. 

A central premise of our model, is the view that integration must come from a shared understanding of the direction and goals of the organisation.  This is impacted by a number of areas, including how motivated people feel, how equipped they are to do their job (knowledge) and whether they believe this is a company that they want to be associated with (commitment).

Building A Cultural Map

We have developed an exclusive internet survey that allows for the collation of data from small or large populations.  The survey takes only 15 minutes to complete and has the advantage of being customisable for an organisation’s own requirements.  Using sophisticated survey design, which allows for a mixture of response types, the questionnaire is intuitive to use and eminently user-friendly, as reflected in the very good completion rates we typically achieve.

What we deliver is understandable management reports, split by function or country and giving a thorough analysis and explanation of what the data is saying.  We also supply recommendations, based on our experience of what makes change stick and how to make it happen in geographically spread organisations. 

Cultural mapping can be done for any size of organisation to suit any budget.  We can do a small review for a team of 20 staff, or provide a global review covering several thousand staff in multiple languages.  Our approach is completely flexible and designed around your needs.  If you feel you could benefit from this service, contact Mary McGuire: mary@agents2change.com, for a confidential, no obligation discussion.

What experiences have you had with cross cultural conflicts?  Does this model help explain the reasons for those conflicts?  Please share your thoughts or experiences on cross cultural management here, or email us if you would like to find out more about our work in this area at feedback@agents2change.com

Examining Culture #6 - 'That's just the tip of the Iceberg!'

In this mini-series, we are looking at the challenges of managing across a diverse range of geographic and cultural boundaries.   We have already looked at the key writers on National Culture.  Today we turn to organisational culture theory. 

Probably one of the most extensive writers of recent years is Edgar Schein of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MiT) who has over the years provided much insight into the complexities of understanding and managing cultures within organisations.  He introduced the concept of Culture as an iceberg, in that those things that are observable on the surface are but a small percentage of the issues that are occurring underneath the surface.  

Schein describes culture as multi-layered.  At the visible layer we see artifacts and symbols that represent culture, which in turn come from beliefs and attitudes.  These all stem from basic assumptions that are  deep-rooted and often held at the sub-conscious level.   We don’t often think about how culture is expressed in organisations, and yet its influence is everywhere.  From the organisational structures, to the brand identity to the communications and visual art observable within the office.  It all speaks to the values and underlying assumptions of what this culture represents.  Apple and Google are probably the best proponents of culture as a tangible asset to be encouraged and encompassed by all employees.  Other headquarters such as banking and insurance, exude power and status messages to maintain status quo.  One sector is about game-changing and the other is about the old order. Both are valid, just different.

Schein went on to describe Three Cultures that arise in distinct occupational communities.  The Executive culture is about hierarchy and control.  The Engineering culture is concerned with design and process.  The Operators culture is concerned with the hands-on day-job, whether that be manufacturing or service based.   

When we look at how global companies today are often a made up of many legacy companies that have come together through acquisitions, each with their own distinct history and culture, this therefore poses some challenges for the post-merger integration efforts. 

What we at Agents2Change have found useful is some a cultural mapping exercise to help explain the key differences that occur across organisations.  We will look at this in more detail in our next and final instalment in this Culture series.

What experiences have you had with cross cultural conflicts?  Does this model help explain the reasons for those conflicts?  Please share your thoughts or experiences on cross cultural management here, or email us if you would like to find out more about our work in this area at feedback@agents2change.com

 

 

Corporate & Functions # 4 – Achieving Operational Excellence

In this mini-series we are looking at the role and value that Functions can play in supporting large global corporations.  In this instalment we explore the importance of achieving operational excellence. 

Like so many things in life Operational Excellence has an intuitive aspect to it, in that it is often easier to spot what it is not, than to clearly describe what it is.  In organisations where Functions are not performing well the noise from the business segments is consierable.  However gaining agreement on what would constitute exceptional performance becomes harder to fully describe and achieve.

The modern phenomenon of shared services, outsourcing and offshoring makes this ever more difficult as the distance between service delivery and end customer increases.  The perceived loss of control for outsourced services tends to be one of the biggest issues that emerges.  One will often hear the cry “our IT support services were dreadful in-house, but at least you knew who you were talking to.  Now it is just a faceless name, in some remote office that is ignoring a request for help.”

Whether Corporate Functions are in-house or outsourced, one essential component of excellence must be a set of service standards and performance criteria that are transparent and hold consequences for non-delivery.  A Performance Dashboard similar to the example above can be developed, openly shared and visible across the organisation. Defining specifc and relevant measures can be done through a mixture of external benchmarking and internal dialogue.  Upholding those standards can be done through a mixture of leadership accountability and performance incentives. 

This requires a different kind of conversation to be held between functional leaders and business leaders within the organisation.  In order to move the Function from transactional provider to strategic partner (the ultimate goal of world-class Functions) organisations need to be well-above fire-fighting mode and demonstrate flawless service delivery.  It is only then that business leaders will trust Functional leaders to address longer-term problems. 

In our next instalment we will look at Harnessing Creativity.  If you have experiences you wish to share, please comment here or contact us at feedback@agents2change.com

 

Facing the cuts & Surviving

One cannot get away from headline after headline of panic about the impending public sector cuts and how (if you believe the papers) the world as we know it is coming to an end. 

Optimism is probably the most important mental attitude to survive tough times; that, and a bit of foresight.  A beacon of hope, on how to survive the tough times comes from Sunderalnd City Council.  Recently profiled in People Magazine, it has an exemplary performance record and has the lowest council tax in its region.  

Some of the things that stand out as unusual and inspired choices include:

• Avoiding a redundancy program – “because they increase costs and deliver short term gains”.  This avoided a rush of volunteers to leave, some of whom would be critical roles and gave out clear messages of commitment to long term success.

• Making the most of Redeployment – as the council has a multitude of different roles and departments it provides a vibrant and diverse internal job market.  They also parted with traditional thinking that experience and knowledge were the key criteria, instead using profiling that matched aptitude and ability.

• Making the most of surplus talent – Many staff found themselves in transition during the changes and cost drive and rather than having them sitting on a bench waiting for something to happen, teams were developed that provided resources and support for other areas of the council including project teams to bring about efficiencies and improve processes.

• Providing Flexible Win-Win Opt-Out Options – reducing the payroll bill, especially in a unionized environment can be tough and often adversarial, but not if you work with your people on options.  Encouraging staff to buy more annual leave (up to 2 weeks) or go part time,  or helping staff to realise ambitions as entrepreneurs by providing support and income security of part-time work to get started. 

Conclusions

Often organisation's response to a down-turn and cost savings is reactive and lacks any imagination or long-term thinking about preserving the inherent talent in the workforce.  What stands out in this example is the inspired and original thinking, so often lacking.  It shows the power of optimism, insight and commitment to facing challenges without losing sight of the value of your people.

 

What did Starbucks ever do for Business Performance? – Book Revew: Onward by Howard Schultz

Howard Schultz, whilst not technically the founder of Starbucks, is the father of the global brand that we all know today.  After overseeing phenomenal growth and expansion, Shcultz believed he had done all he could he handed over the CEO role in 2000 to take a more ‘hands-off’ role of Chairman.  After a steady few years under new leadership, the magic of Starbucks seemed to lose its shine and profits halved in 2008.  Schultz looked on with some dismay on what was a slow decline in performance and direction.  After some soul searching he decided to step back into the CEO role.  He commits his journey to a book – Onward which charts the highs and lows of his return to CEO and Starbucks painful return to a premium coffee seller. 

Starbucks experienced astronomical expansion during the go-go '90s, going public in 1992 and growing at a rate of 25 percent to 30 percent a year. The company has some 17,000 stores in 50 countries.   

Signs of expansion over quality started to show in 2007 when for the first time a decline in profits was registered.  Philosophically Schultz reflects:  “No single bad decision or tactic or person was to blame.  The damage was slow, quiet and incremental..”

Two and a half years after returning as CEO, the company was making record profits, had launched the fastest-growing consumer product in US with its instant coffee brand Via and stock price had increased by 400%.  The recovery was hailed by analysts as ‘nothing short of remarkable’.

Asked the secret of his success, Schultz recounts four principles: "Don't be threatened by people smarter than you. Compromise anything but your core values. Seek to renew yourself even when you are hitting home runs. And everything matters."

He focuses on many areas that in classic turnarounds are often overlooked.  He chooses to slow-down the growth, re-kindle the artisian experience in store and re-invest heavily in his people.  Often the focus is on stripping out costs and driving up efficiency.  But for Schultz, it was about being true to a brand experience that was about the mystery and theatre of coffee, even if that would initially cost money.  He also refused to yield to pressure to cut health-care benefits for US employees (partners), despite it being one of the biggest and growing costs areas for the business.  Given that these decisions were being made at the height of the global downturn is nothing less than courageous.  And yet, 3 years since taking up this challenge, Schultz has returned Starbucks to its position as the world’s largest & most profitable premium coffee company. 

 

Some take aways from his book Onward include:

• Passion is essential to a healthy business – he talks about this, well, passionately.  It comes across very strongly that you have to love what you do.  But it is not just his personal passion that matters, but igniting that passion in everyone involved in Starbucks.  It was the germ of the idea that he got from Italy, where he could see real passion for coffee.  It was not just about serving a hot beverage, but a work of art.  A perfect espresso every time for every customer.  It does not matter what your business is, if you have passion for what you do, it will come through to your customers. 
• Ethical Sourcing – Being values-led is clearly important to Shcultz.  For him it was about ensuring that coffee, some of it sourced from the most impoverished and ravished communities of the world, should be done ethically and with consideration for the farmers needs, not just the consumer.  Price could not be the only consideration.  Caring for the environment, the producers and the community that coffee is grown in, was equally so.  It is another sign of courageous leadership during tough times, when pressure mounts to simply cut costs, regardless of consequences further down the line.
• Innovation & Creativity – Knowing that the answers do not lie with the chosen few senior leaders, but with every partner in every store, Shcultz encouraged innovation everywhere, including the development of two concept stores in Seattle as test beds.  Partners were quick to pick up on the opportunities and many new sales techniques, store formats and special events were created as a result of this encouragement, leading to a much more engaging experience for customers.
• Drive efficiency – Costs were not ignored as part of the turnaround and indeed the $400million of annual savings that were promised to investors were delivered, together with a further $180million.  It was done by creating Lean teams, stripping out inefficiencies in the supply chain and addressing quality issues.  The savings are permanent and helped to contribute to the outstanding performance.  But not at the cost of quality, customer experience or employee investment. 

So whether you are a fan of Starbucks or you find its ubiquitiousness less endearing, we all can learn something from the success of this turnaround and from the leadership qualities that Schultz brings.

How to Achieve Sustainable Change

To bring about radical improvements in how teams operate, it is important to focus equally on what they are doing and how they are doing it.  Focusing purely on behaviour, without linking it to business process and performance leads to poorly focused development.  Focusing on processes and systems without considering behaviours leads to unsustainable or poorly realized improvements.    It requires a number of things to occur:

Engaging Leadership

Coaching and engagement is essential to sustainable change.  Coaching allows for a frank and timely exchange of views about their leadership style and the interventions in a safe and confidential environment.  It is only by having the space and opportunity to do this, that leaders can learn how to set the right tone and follow that through in their own behaviour, to maximize impact with their team.

Developing a team identity and goal

Bringing the team together to explore how they work together and how that can be improved is a powerful exercise in galvanizing efforts and overcoming resistance.  A key output is a ‘team charter’ that articulates the goals (performance results), in-year milestones, dependencies and how individual roles will contribute to the achievement of those goals. 

Defining Individual Roles

After defining the team charter, individuals then develop their own team role.  It is defined in terms of contribution to team results, but also behaviours and team expectations of each other. 

Defining Processes & creating service standards

Part of the challenge for teams is how to get a shared picture of the end-to-end process, the hand-offs and where performance might be compromised.  By involving all team members in the process mapping and identification they buy-in to the improvements that are identified.

Creating a performance management framework

One of the big reinforcing tools to embed and then maintain new behaviours is a visual performance management framework. The team need to be engaged; not only in the data gathering, but also in understanding and responding to the data as it is reported.  Performance dashboards can lead to lively team discussions, because everyone understands what is required and their role in achieving it. 

Maintaining momentum

It is important, once the changes have been made, to maintain them.  Leaders play an important role here in ensuring that weekly and monthly team meetings are given the priority that they deserve and that data is regularly reviewed.  Praising good performance is just as important as highlighting and questioning poor performance. 

Who we are

Agents2Change has an unblemished track record in delivering significant improvements in key business results: profit; production; reliability; safety; to large scale process industries.    Our team of highly experienced consultants have the knowledge and skills to help you tackle the most daunting of behavioural change agendas informatively and effectively.  For more information, comment here, or email us at:  feedback@agents2change.com.

The Curse of Unsustainable Growth

One does not have to look far to see the impact of the collapse of some Euro-Zone economies.  The shock is quite palpable and is being felt at every level of society in Portugal, Greece & Ireland.  But you also do not need to look far to see the blind faith that was placed in the economic growth continuing for some time to come.

The time before the bubble burst was the most active and optimistic in business and construction industries across Europe.  Nobody  (apart from a few Economists and analysts) wanted to believe that the party was going to come to an end, and therefore continued unabated, in their belief that it would continue on – or at least until the next big deal is done.  Now we see the impact of that denial through the high unemployment, bankruptcy increases and half-finished construction sites up and down their lands. 

But none of us are unaffected by these economic collapses.  It affects the daily lives of every government around the world, in our now globalized and inter-connected economies.  We can all take lessons from this crash and learn how we might read the signs better next time around, because one thing we can predict is that there will be a next time.

In business we are also often tempted by two paths to growth.  One that will be rapid, bring quick returns and seem to be easy to achieve as it is riding on the wave of a wider growth pattern.  The other one, which can be a hard sell for shareholders, will be slow, sometimes painful, based on internal strength and a much shallower growth curve (albeit one that sustains over a much longer time line).  Real sustainable growth however is based on the latter.  It is based on sound business sense, a tangible product or service and a robust internal business model. 

Like all economic bubbles, it is easy to get carried away with the excitement of the possibilities at the time, but those firms that kept their feet on the ground and looked to a steady path for growth are now riding the wave of endurance far better than some of their larger counterparts. 

Sustainable business growth is by its nature fairly conservative.  It does not look for double-digit growth or rapid expansion to new markets.  It is about working from a position of strength and superiority in one area and gradually expanding from that, based on a realistic assessment or resources and competence capacity.    If we take a leaf out of their book, we are likely to be better equipped to face the uncertain future ahead.

Insight led HR

From a recent review that we completed for a global insurance group, there emerged an interesting discussion about how HR could better support the major change program that was occuring.

It was not that there were not good capable people in HR - quite the opposite in fact.  It was more about which HR skills had been developed and which had not.  We saw that there had been an almost exclusive focus on Operational HR issues for most of the last 8 years, to the exclusion of Strategic HR, capability building and change management.  It is not an ususual situation and reflects the demands that the Senior leadership team had placed on their HR leaders to be process efficient, with little opportunity to get into bigger picture thinking. 

The question for them now is how to break out of this cycle and become better placed to lead rather than observe the major changes that are occuring.  It does require development and coaching of the HR incumbents, to learn how to have a different dialogue with their leaders.  It also requires some intervention with the business leaders, in order to use their HR resource more effectively.

A recent article in People Management framed the issues and demands very well.  The article, based on extensive research, talks about the need for insight driven HR - defined by the three savvys - Organisational, Contextual & Business. 

Whilst we cannot expect the new breed of HR leaders to be super-human; business and indeed the petulant ecomonic times that we find ourselves in, do demand a different, more diverse and more far-reaching response from HR. 

Organisations and indeed HR leaders need to be good at recognising how different times will call on different skills and know where to go to get the help and support to develop these.