Joined New Organization? Some Dos and Don’ts

The dynamic corporate world reduced the average staying period of an employee in any organization. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median number of years that an employee had been with their current employer was 4.7 years in 2014. People need to switch companies, industries, profiles due to a number of reasons. Dissatisfaction in current role (due to “NOT GOOD” manager or politics in the team etc.), lesser growth opportunities in present organization, better available profiles and compensation are most common professional reasons.

For a period of a month or two, the time is very crucial for every new joiner in the organization. It can be very stressful if not properly managed. You saw all ‘the greens’ in this organization while accepting the offer letter but now you may see it’s not that green. You can learn to adapt to an unfamiliar work culture. Every action or move you make has a consequence, especially when you are new. You can follow some dos and don’ts to make a smooth transitioning.

Do: Create support system

Initial few days are very important to lay the foundation of getting the things done you need. You need to understand how to get help from HR, IT, Operation, transport and see how it works. How much time they usually take to resolve any issue. May be, your previous company’s HR or IT are more responsive than the current one. You need to observe and understand rather than to frustrate and making a lot of escalation. If you don’t understand the support system of the company, it will take a lot of energy to struggle with them all.

Do: Accept change and try to understand the culture

You expect a lot of good things in the new organization, in fact all the good things, but you may get many surprises. People are usually averse to change. Some don’t even want to change their desk. Each company has its own culture; some are conservative while others may be open. You can approach senior leaders directly in some organizations whereas other may follow strict hierarchical structure to approach leaders. You need to modulate your current working style as per the new requirements. Accept change and understand the values and culture by ‘Observation’ and avoiding reactions.

Don’t: Haste in understanding the business

Never haste in understanding the business, especially with the big organization. Take time to understand the flow of business. Concentrate on your specific deliverables first, later relate it with the business. People join, try to swallow everything all of a sudden, fail and quit, and finally satisfied with their due tasks. It’s most important to understand thoroughly the business, the model of operations, your department connection with overall model and how your process connects with the departmental goals. More importantly, how products, services, projects and programs are translated into data. And this does take time.  Due to the complexities of the processes, everything is not documented in most of the organization. You should not surprise when you find things are much unorganized as this is the nature of the dynamic business. One high level movement can change the whole strategy. I do remember when it happened in one of my organizations. Consequently, everything has to change. Keeping the track and documentation of everything is the greatest challenge of every manager. Old SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) documents hardly serve the purpose for the new comer. So, BE PATIENT AND CONSISTENT in the process of understanding working model.

Do: Networking

Create rich and wide network within and outside your department. Go and meet the people, don’t wait for the people to come and greet you. Have casual conversations with them. In time, you’ll see who’s trustworthy enough for you to share more about yourself, your strategies and your future plans. Be friendly and polite to everyone. People inside the company can tell you a lot about the company that you will not find on your intranet portals. People are living SOP’s, they know better than you do, they can guide you how things work here, how to approach leaders if require. Join at least one company’s social group that will help you in embracing the culture.

Don’t: Go with the perception of the people

Though networking is very important, you have to be very cautious while listening to the people about the company. On the second day of my joining in one of the big multinational, a highly dissatisfied person asked me why I joined this company. He saw no growth but poor working environment around, which was incorrect. Refrain from joining the rumour-monger crew before you become a victim yourself. They try to teach you what they believe about the leaders, departments, culture and growth opportunities. You have no option but to listen everything during your initial days, though you can filter out the good advises later on.

Don’t: Brag about your old company.

One of my old colleague used to say “… you know, this never happened in my 5.4 years of experience in last company”. Grass is always greener on other side.  Avoid unfair comparisons. That may be a big obstruction while networking with the people.

You can manage if you plan. Keep an open mind and avoid being judgmental. When you are new to the job, people have the tendency to judge you based on the kind of behaviors you show at the initial stage. Reflect what you are, what you like and what you dislike. Few initial proactive steps can ensure the smooth ride where you can avoid a lot of energy-loss that is most important to bring the innovation and creativity into the work.

Micro-Management Kills

Micro-Management is the signal saying 'you are incapable of holding the responsibilities so we kept you held accountable for what you do'. It kills innovation. Innovation, which is the key to creep-out from competition. Control-obsessed managers ruin their colleagues' confidence, hurt their performance, and frustrate them to the point where they quit. Respecting individual’s thoughts are pre-requisite of inclusion and independence.

When companies proudly says their professional are extremely talented, it’s better to believe in their talent. Professionals need to know what to do, NOT how to do. Under micro management, often professional become diffident, mechanical, unmotivated and possibly ever paralysed. Let the people do what they are hired for. Effective managers don’t hire people who are cloned to themselves. They hire people who are supplement to their skills to enhance the quality of deliverables.

Varied numbers of situations where micro management is preferred ranges from managers’ controlling mindset to employer’s inefficiency. The gap need to be filled between the managers of high experience and resources with relatively low experience. Trust your employees and provide them resources required to do their jobs quickly and efficiently.

A new manager received a challenging task from the top management where deliverables needed to be sent to leadership. This task was once failed from one of the professional who worked independently on this project. So providing freedom to another professional was a matter of great risk. This manager analysed the causes of failure. Though, the professional was skilful and motivated there were lack of clear goals, improper communication with management and ineffective interaction with the other stakeholders of the deliverable. Had it been micro managed the project would be successful? No! If it had been controlled by the delivery manager, who is incapable of understanding the technicalities of the project, the professional won’t be able to stretch his skills. So controlled environment was not the answer however focus was required.

With a handful of key notes and few results, the manager decided run the project through a professional who is capable of delivering the project with required quality. The goals were set clearly with the feasible timelines after open discussion with the professional. The project was started and it was the time to encourage the employee. How this can be done? Open talk? Visiting his/her desk often? NO. Listen and encourage opinions. Opinions may not be correct but direct rejection may obstruct the flow of creativity of the employee. Employees are closest to a lot of the work being done, so carefully consider their suggestions about how to run things. Ask question positively. This will ensure the feeling of trust which is the best way to build healthier relationship.

Second step the manager applied was to provide the necessary Resources required for the completion of the project. Third and last tool was Transparency and Inclusion, NOT just communication. Transparency is required to understand the big picture of the department or organization at large. Help the employee to understand this big picture. The idea is, there should not be more than one versions of requirements from the stakeholders and what is shared with employee. It’s only inspire inclusion but also it will induce the sense of responsibility in the employees. Pushing employees to the activities in which they are not good at, is not a good strategy of inclusion. But empower them in something they are good at, is true inclusion.

Motivated employee and visionary manager can deliver any project on time with superior quality, so did the above duo. When micro-management is the answer to any question better rephrase the question.

Book Review: PROFILE OF THE PERFECT PERSON: Based on The Bhagavad Gita Chapter II

Author: JAYA ROW

Publisher: JAICO

In an attempt to achieve excellence in all spheres of life we rely on religious or spiritual scriptures which are based on undeniable natural truths. The Bhagavad Gita is more about the proven guidelines to live successfully and happily in modern world than a religious text. “PROFILE OF THE PERFECT PERSON” explores verses 56 to verses 72 of Chapter II which outlines the basis of a perfect person.  Smt. Jaya Row, a commentator of Vedic philosophy, demystifies the versus in common language with perfect analogy and examples.

The Author asks why we are so bored with everything around us. It is because the essential ingredient is missing from our life. Bhagavad Gita is the most important ingredient of life, SALT OF LIFE. Trying to live without Gita teachings is like eating food without salt. The world today is like an enormous ocean with daunting waves. If we wait for the waves to subside we will be waiting forever. Instead we learn to surf them, the experience become enjoyable. In fact the more formidable the waves, the greater the thrill! We need to master the technique of riding the challenges, the world throws at us instead of buckling under pressure. And the first step is knowing ourselves.

Our personality is composed of four entities. The body is our outer layer which receives stimuli from the world and responds to them by way of actions. The mind is the home of emotions and feelings it generates love and hate, creates whims and fancies and function on impulses. Third parts is intellect, which differentiates between pairs of opposites (good or bad, correct or incorrect), it is the abode of rationality, analysis and judgement. Spirit is the fourth entity, referred to as Atman – is your true self. It breathes life into lifeless body, mind and intellect.

The mind is just a flow of thoughts that grabs at instant joy. It is incapable of discerning what is in our long-term interest and what is not. It is the intellect that can set aside the lure of immediate joys and guide us to deferred gratification.

Bhagavad Gita is about tapping the full potential of human being and the source of unlimited happiness. This book elaborates the happiness at 4 levels. Physical level or body level happiness can be achieved by sense-gratification. Our senses (eye, ear, tongue, nose and touch) are attached with their desires and we spend our whole life in satisfying our senses. Are we happy by the satisfying our senses? It is momentary, it is a trap and lowest level of existence. Second level of happiness, which is above the physical level, is emotional level. We have no worth of physical pleasure when we pursue emotional happiness. Strong emotional reasons overpowers the physical conditions. Many sportsmen have proven this in different arenas where emotions played a vital role. Intellectual level drive is the one level above emotional level. If you are driven by an intellectual idea you have access to far greater reserve of energy and vitality than you ever imagined.

The last and highest level of satisfaction is spirit level, the state of realization. When you can touch or access the innermost source then there is no desire left, everything is infinite at this stage.  This is the highest goal of every human being. Moving above the level is the gradual and systematic process which is governed by Yoga.

Chapter II of Bhagavad Gita explains the highest level of perfection in human being. The perfect person is said to be ‘sthitaprajana’ means ‘one established in wisdom’. In Verses 56-59, Lord Krishna expounds on the definition with greater descriptive clarity. Verse 60 is about how the powerful senses attack the mind and lead it astray. In verses 61 to 66 Krishna gives the pivotal role of the intellect. In 67 it says that the mind which has been misled by the senses drags the intellect away. Verse 68 says only the person who has controlled the senses qualifies be a ‘sthitaprajana’.

Second part of the book enlightens the path to be sthitaprajana. A person of steady wisdom is one who totally abandons all desires from the mind which sounds frightening to us. Desire is the function of mind. One can achieve the state of no desire when one has access to his own infinite status, everything else pales into insignificance. When you are captivated by a higher interest your previous desires fade away. Spiritual evolution must be gradual. When you are full of desires you cannot suddenly drop them. In fact you cannot drop desires at all. What you can do is learn to appreciate something of greater values. Something more fulfilling then you are engaged right now. Fear and anger are aberrations of desire. When you are free from desire you are automatically free from fear and anger. The Gita gives us the formula of happiness.

Happiness = Number of Desires Actualized/Number of Desires Harboured

The happiness quotient can be increased either by increasing the number of achievements or decrease in the number of unfulfilled desires.

The language is very simple, precise and honest. It is meant to be thought-provoking and inspiring. The whole book is sprinkled with particle ideas and is exhaustive on the subject.

Book Review: Power Of The Best

Authors: Peter Brown and John Hughes

Publisher: Portfolio Penguin

“Canada’s ‘Best Managed Companies’ program began in early 1990’s, when plants closing and job losses were the order of the day” writes John Hughes and Peter Brown, authors of this book. Peter Brown National Co-Leader, Best Managed at Deloitte and John Hughes was leader in Greater Toronto Growth Enterprise practice for Deloitte.

Tough times crushes the majority but paves the path for the ‘real toughs’ to show their character and stand still and move forward. Best Managed Companies program is sponsored by Deloitte, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), the National Post and Queen’s school of Business. The program aims to build the network of exceptional Canadian businesses so they could help one another succeed. Candidates are evaluated each year on how they address key challenges which comes under: Strategy, Capability & Commitment.

Peter Brown & John Hughes’s first book ‘Building the Best’ was focused on growth, strategy, capability and commitment. Power Of The Best deals with twelve themes, explained in twelve chapters, the authors have seen over the past twenty years.

Strategies are not aliens to the organization but some successful companies designs them not just the better way but creates the ‘Blue Ocean’ (Blue Ocean states above the competition) out of it, as shown by Great Western Breweries in chapter one titled ‘Strategy: Brewing Up A Winning Formula For Marketplace Success. The strategic plans do not always work out as planned. Companies that embark on them need to be alert and nimble enough to recognize when market conditions have changed. It’s the responsibility of the leadership to convey the need for the commitment and to provide the tools and structures necessary to achieve it.

The second chapter deals with the innovative concept of leadership. Leadership in business is seen as a purview of individuals, charismatic personalities leading thousands of people. Leadership in Canada’s Best Managed companies is dedicated to minimizing hierarchy even to the inverting pyramid (often called Collective Leadership) so that employees understood they have the power to lead without waiting senior management to show the way. The author explains, economic uncertainties, new technology, greater regulatory scrutiny and global competition are demanding more responsive operations. It’s more gratifying and more profitable to lead a group of collaborators rather than the group of followers. The companies in this chapter vary enormously in size, but trier essential leadership philosophy is the same. Leaders do more than issue orders. They need to be supported by talent in decision and that’s where ‘Collective Leadership’ lies.

You can’t step into reading the third chapter without getting impressed with the title of the chapter, Branding and Marketing: Making the product an experience, not a thing. A brand is more than a logo, a trademark, or a bottle of pop on a supermarket shelf, speaks author. A brand is not something that can be papered over by an organization with clever slogans or advertising. It reflects the authentic value of the enterprise to the clients. The clients perception of brand must align with the company’s self-perception if the brand is to have true value.  This chapter explores the brand strategy of three B2C (business to customer) companies and one B2B (Business to Business) company. Fountain Tire, Goodlife Fitness and Harley Davidson are associated directly with their customers so they can  check the quality of experience of their customer at different levels. “We draw a direct line between customer experience & profitability”, Harley Davidson says. While operating B2C or B2B many of its strategies for marketing are different but essential theories of building, maintaining & marketing a strong brand is no different.

The chapters like funding growth gives an insight into the innovative solution to feed fund requirements of the company’s unique business model of OMERS private equity bridged the gap between pension fund safe investment requirements and fund-deficit organizations.

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As) are required to increase capabilities, capacities and to expand in the new areas of businesses. Niagara Group, providing mechanical contracting services focused on plumbing and piping, acquires Golan Mechanical to provide total mechanical package. Acquisitions are not the matters of spreadsheets but a lot about integrating the cultures. Good culture match is important. Edmonton-based Supreme Group shared ‘2011 Engineering Award’ from Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) of ‘The Bow’, 58-storey tower. Supreme Group has not only relied on acquisitions to increase its competitiveness, it undertook many projects through Joint-Ventures.

When somebody speaks of innovation in business we invariable think about technology, hardware, patents and new product breakthrough. Seventh chapter not only talks about the companies that have excelled through the introduction of innovative products but also bring new ideas to market that require as much innovation as innovation themselves.

Burnbrae Farms Ltd. is a remarkable story of innovation which once was family business but today it presides over largest integrated supplies in Canada, selling over 35% of the shell eggs and over 80% of retail liquid egg products. More than 300 egg producers reach the market through Burnbrae’s grading station. Cactus Club has changed the casual dining experience and it has nothing to do with engineering breakthrough. Technology can be an important aspect of innovation but it remains a subject on its own, believes author.

To be the best is to do the best and that’s where sustainability comes. Sustainability too often is seen as a corporate luxury, a feel-good option located well beyond the business plan. But the president of  DIRTT (Do It Right This Time) says ‘If being green or sustainable costs more money, then that solution is not sustainable itself’. DIRTT founder, Mogens Smed, earned 2010 Product Prize from American Society of Interior Design for his contribution to the advancement of desing. Such out-of-the-box approach towards sustainability made DIRTT to be listed in Best Managed list. Steam Whistle with Bullfrog Power powered its Roundhouse brewery in Toronto with zero carbon emission, drawing electricity only from wind farms and low impact hydro generation. For many companies that are embracing sustainability, a “green” ethos is good business because customers respond positively to it.

All local and global brands are switching gears to attract and retain talent, suggests chapter ten, which depicts the story of four of Best Managed companies that faced unique challenges in attracting and retaining workforce talent and have applied their own solution to great effect. Great Little Box company’s talent retaining strategy comes down to not how to attract but who to attract. And then throwing plenty of social events as employees spent their maximum awaking time with their colleagues. A broad basket of compensation, fresh fruit every day, BMI (Body-Mass-Index) contest, getting paid to quit smoking, 24X7 fitness centre where you can bring a friend on weekends, own vegetable garden, take part in golf tournament and so on won’t make anybody to think about changing the company. Another interesting example is form Brock Solution from Ontario. The company embraces ‘Lattice Model’ in which hierarchy into different assignments and challenges, developing new skill sets along the way. Instead of strict vertical model of increasing seniority, a lattice environment seeks to deliver growth for an employee with multi-directional movement. One project, an employee might be a technical lead and on another that person might be a project manager.

The companies profiling inspire all entrepreneurs who resolve to turn challenges into opportunities. The book talks about the success stories of the scores of companies and many Canadian Business Leaders that make it an indispensable book-must-read for all entrepreneurs, business leaders and those you aspires to become business leaders.  

Who is at Fault?

Fiction:

I could only see a textbox on my computer screen in which I was typing my roll number. I was preparing for this day for last one year. I was holding a storm of anxiety inside me; butterflies were flying in my stomach. If I could not get through then my current life-at-halt would start drifting backward. My life was at halt after I completed my engineering. My college was among one of the colleges in the country that gives you the degree and prepared you to stand in the never-ending queue of frustrated unemployed youths. These colleges push students in some ‘Big-City’ of rat-race where they learn, how difficult is to exist in this world.

A year back I decided to achieve success on my terms and choose to prepare for Master’s degree entrance test rather than to search job in those ‘Big-Cities’. But it was not sufficient, I had to compete 20 million engineers of the country and the probability to succeed was less than 1%. If I study day and night then I could increase tsome probability but no surety. It was a great risk, I did not have any alternate  but to choose that, as million do the same each year.

I typed 3245263, which was my roll number, in the textbox and pressed enter to see the result. I could hear my heart beat as I was sitting on the mountain of expectations. I did not know what would I do if I do not get selected. My two friends, Amar and Vaibhav, also decided to take the same  risk as I did.

We shared room in the college hostel and a common interest that is, Love for Science. Amar’s father was a doctor in a government hospital but he never asked Amar to follow the tradition and become the doctor. Vaibhav had a family retail business and his family wanted Vaibhav to be a great engineer. Vaibhav and Amar were also from a small town like me where ‘First-Class-First’ was never less than to be like great engineers like Abdul Kalam. Amar was always excited to do anything and his excitement was his greatest strength and enemy as well. He was called as the calculator of the class as he played with numbers like toys. Vaibhav was calm and composed, he had his own world. He could design the most complex circuits in our Labs.

None of us could get the campus-placement. In fact, only five students got placed out of a batch of one hundred and twenty. Some self-acclaimed ‘Experts’ says that these students got other skills with technical skills but I would say that only one student can be selected out of every twenty four students or four students in hundred students. Other have to join the rat-race in some form or other. We heard that IIT’s have 100% placements so we thought to prepare for IIT’s. Later we came to know that the probability of getting into the IIT’s is less than 1%. Filled with motivation or perhaps we did not have any choice, we resolve to crack the GATE exam.

Today, we are going to get the result of our decision that we took a year back. The display was delayed on the computer screed due to the heavy traffic at that time. With every second I could visualize all the hard-work I put last year. All work could go in vain. I was not powerful even after being an engineer, I was feeling helpless. I failed to understand ‘Whose Fault Is was?’

Whether I am a good engineer or bad engineer does not depends on if I am a good engineer or not, but all depends on the performance of other candidates. I was told to do competition with yourself but life is showing everything is relative. If you are getting 90% marks in the class, which you have never got in past, and the average marks of class is 92% then you are not good. Hell with the creativity and all forms of education that does not guarantee more marks. My main objective was not to get good marks but more marks than other students. And I got the best strategy for that; suck more and more days and nights and vomit on the answer sheet as much as you can. Try to use the slip to vomit more that I prepared last night. In a nutshell, I had to get more marks than others. My question remains same ‘Who Is At Fault?’

The screen refreshed this time and could read two numbers, 253 and 74. First numbers was my all India rank and other was my score. There were all darkness of happiness in front of my eyes and I could not understand that how could I express my happiness. I picked-up my phone and called my brother, his works were encouraging, as always. I informed mom, dad and my sister about this great success. But nothing was greater than ‘First-Class-First’ for my mom. She only said her favorite line ‘The one who works hard never get defeated’. There were two more persons who did the hard work; my two friends. After an hour of celebrations, I phoned Vaibhv. The phone ranged five to six times and I disconnected it as I was impatient to know their results quickly. I called Amar, he picked up the phone, in the dull voice he said “My rank is 2500, buddy”. It meant that admission in IIT’s was extremely difficult, if not impossible. As a newly-turned-expert I said “ Don’t worry brother, many students don’t take admissions as they choose to go for PSU’s, you will get the admission, I am sure”. Inside I knew that it was impossible. I was just lucky if I compare myself with my both friends.

“What about Vaibhav?” I asked. “I’ll let you know when I reach the flat” he said. “He must be sleeping, as he watched movies last night”.

I got three messaged in a row from Ankita, Anubhav and Priya, all were my classmates. Same message in different words “Congratulations”. I was so excited that I wanted to take the admission at this moment only. I will be getting IIT Kanpur at this rank as per the last year’s records.

My phone beeped again. “Some congrats message”, I thought. But this time the message was from Amar. I read the three-words message and I felt like somebody pushed me back very hard. I fell down on the nearby sofa. Those three words were “He hanged himself”. I struggled to find out his roll number which I wrote in some of my notebook. It was written with pencil at the end and I got it.

I inserted the number in my computer and saw Vaibhav’s rank was 22,000 and score was 32. “It is impossible”, I said to myself. But the truth is in front of me. And again the question came “Who is at Fault?.

Book Review: Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

Author: Geoff Colvin

Publisher: The Penguin Group

MyRating: 5/5

‘Talent Is Overrated’ is not another book in the volumes of ‘Performance Improvement Tips’ that fills you with motivation while reading and then pushes you into the black-hole of repentance when facing real life situations.

It would not be exaggeration if I call this book as ‘research paper’ aiming to present the available facts in easiest words possible. This book is an inside story of all the great achievers of the world; be it an organization or an individual.

The world often mesmerizes with the great shots of Tiger Woods in golf arena. They praises it as god’s gift or hard work without realizing that fact that his father made him to sit and watch him hitting shots hours after hours when he was only seven months old. The author claims that there is nothing like ‘natural talent’ or ‘hard work’ that makes any performer as best performer but it is the ‘Deliberate Practice’.

The author, Geoff Colvin, is the senior editor at Fortune. He is the lead moderator for the Fortune Global Forum and he co-anchored ‘Wall Street Week’ on PBS for three years. According to the author, both the hard work and natural talent camps are wrong. What really makes all the difference is a highly specific kind of effort that few of us pursue when we are practicing golf, pianos or stockpiling. This book shares the secret of extraordinary performances and how to apply these principles to our lives and work.

The book is divided into eleven chapters breaking the all-prevailing myths. And explain the steps to deliberate practice. I fail to find any assertion in the book that is not supported by any research and example. Colvin explains deliberate practice is a large concept. It’s about: what exactly need to be presented? Precisely how? Which specific skills or other assets must be acquired?

Deliberate practice is very hard and in most cases it is ‘not inherently enjoyable’, then why do some people put themselves through it day after day for decades, while most do not? Where does the necessary passion come from? The question has been answered in the last chapter ‘Where Does the Passion Come From?’

The passion to put oneself into the deliberate practice comes from intrinsic motivation. The intrinsically motivated state is conducive to creativity, whereas extrinsically motivated state is detrimental. To explain this author has used may illustrations, one of them is: ‘For most of the mathematicians, the joy of discovering a new way of solving problem was more important than a high test score or receiving good grade’.

But not all the time extrinsic motivations that do not work. It has been observed in many cases that extrinsic motivation stimulated intrinsic motivation. Like, “if you don’t do your piano practice we’ll sell the piano” or “If you do not go to swimming practice we’ll take you off the team”. If the child truly didn't care about the piano or swimming these threat wouldn't work but if he cares about them these threat will work for him.

Chapter five and six explains about what deliberate practice is and isn't and how deliberate practice works. How can we apply it in our lives and in organizations is addressed by section seven and eight in the book. There are three models of practice; the music model, the chess model and the sports model which can be applied in different arenas of practice.

No question is left unanswered by the end of this book. It is not that book that is entirely read in one deep breath. It is serious intervention in the personal and organizational performance set-up. The book is written in easy and racy (exciting and interesting) style. I recommend this book to everyone who struggled to perform well and to those who are in the field of training and development. 

Book Review: The Heart of Change

Author: John P. Kotter

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

MyRating: 4.8/5

Significantly changing the behavior of a single person can be exceptionally difficult task. Changing 101, or 10,001 people can be a herculean task. Yet organizations that are leaping into the future succeed at doing just that.

Turbulence will never cease but winning organizations will continue to deal with this fact by following certain steps of transformation. The transformation means the adoption of new technologies, major strategic shifts, process engineering, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring into different sorts of business units, attempts to significantly improve innovation and cultural change. To understand why some organizations are leaping into the future more successfully than others, one need to see the flow if effective large-scale change efforts. And this flow is often a set of eight steps that few people handle well.

The story of ‘The Heart of Change’ starts with the Author’s first book ‘Leading Change’. Leading Change describes the eight steps people follow to handle large-scale change for any transformation in the organization. According to the author, a few questions were unanswered, especially about how more specifically achieved what was described in that book. John Kotter, author of this book, got the invitation from Deloitte Consulting to work on a follow-up project by massive interviewing and to collect stories that could help people me deeply understanding the eight-step formula. The Heart of Change digs out the core problem people face in all of those steps and to successfully deal with that problem.

John Kotter is internationally regarded as the foremost authority on the topic of leadership and change. Kotter is the Konosuke Matsushita professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School and a graduate of MIT and Harvard. Most recently Kotter was involved in the creation and co-founding of Kotter International. He has authored eighteen books, twelve of them are bestsellers.

This book is extending the scope of eight-step process by explaining how they can be implemented using various case-studies from different industries. Kotter’s main finding is that the core of matter is always about changing the behavior of people and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people’s feelings. So, See-Feel-Change mechanism is more powerful than Analyse-Think-Change, asserts Kotter. The pattern of Seeing-Feeling-Changing is applied in all steps to steer the emotions of the people.  

The book is divided into eight chapters, each explaining the proceeding steps of change, supported by convincing conclusion. The book has been written in easy and racy style, full of zest and strong quality that would make even a lay reader to sit-up and think.

The first step contributes to the idea of creating urgency among relevant people. Too much complacency, fear, anger, or all three can undermine change. A sense of urgency gets people off the couch and ready to move which is succinctly explained though ‘The Videotape of the Angry Customer’, a case. When employees watch the video of angry customer, most employee were surprised, some became fearful, many find false pride dropping a notch and a sense of urgency growing within them and they start listening to the customer and management. Now they talked about the need of change. When urgency turned up, in step two, the most successful change agents pull together a guiding team with the credibility, skills, connections, reputations, and formal authority required to provide change leadership. This group learns to operate with trust and emotional commitment. In the best cases, the guiding team creates sensible, clear, simple uplifting visions and set of strategies, this comes under step three. Detailed plans and budgets, although necessary, are insufficient in large-scale change. A vision shows an end state where all the plans and strategies will eventually take you.

Step four narrates the importance Communication of the vision and strategy, which is simple, heartfelt messages sent through many unclogged channels. The goal is to induce understanding, develop a gut-level commitment, and liberate more energy from a critical mass of people. Step five is all about removing the key obstacles that stop people from acting on the vision. People are Empowered with information and self-confidence to work for the vision. In less successful situations, people are often left to fend for themselves despite impediments all around. So frustration grows, and change is undermined. Obstacles in the form of system barrier, barriers of the mind and information barrier disempower people. The author cautions trying to remove all the barriers at once.

The most interesting and important step is short-term wins, which is step # six. The wins are critical. They provide credibility, resources, and momentum to the overall effort. Without sufficient wins that are visible, timely, unambiguous, and meaningful to others, change efforts inevitably run into serious problems. Initial wins consolidate early changes and that should not declare victory prematurely, warns author in chapter seven. The most common problem at this stage is change efforts is sagging urgency. Success becomes an albatross. “We’ve won”, people say and you have problems reminiscent of those in step one. Finally, step eight concludes the change process my making the change stick. Change leader make change stick by nurturing a new culture. A new change - develops through consistency of successful action over a sufficient period of time. Appropriate promotions, skillful new employee orientation, and events that engage the emotions can make a big difference.

Because the world is complex, some cases do not rigidly follow the eight step flow, but the eight steps are basic pattern associated with significant useful change. This book is not a textbook of management school but a handbook for professional manager. It is the outcome of industrious research and insightful results to make any large-scale-change a real and long term success.