Changes in organization is complex and rarely work out the way it is planned. Just as Layla had eluded to in her post, organizational change is more about people than plans, strategies, or policies (Hughes, Beatty & Dinwoodie, 2014). People are complex and different people have different agendas and goals when working for an organization. While some people strive to climb the corporate ladder and wanting the promotions, others are comfortable to continue what they are doing and not to be bothered. With this point in mind, I have to agree with Palak in her original post (https://create.twu.ca/psonvane/2018/11/20/competencies-at-work/), where she suggests that it is “impractical to determine what stage of the change process the employee is in and what amount of motivation does he [or she] needs”.
Between 2013-2015 , my department has undergone a major change management initiative, a systems transformation project where the information systems for Health Protection will be upgraded to a more modern and user-friendly inspection program. The scope of this project included the complete redesign of business workflows and new methods of inputting data to the system. Prior to implementation, our project team was responsible for delivering training to approximately 150 Health Protection staff members that spanned over 25 days of in-class training sessions. The outcome of the project implementation was a success, but not without its challenges along the way. This project required significant change management strategy and just Palak has mentioned, the evaluation of five levels of change-readiness as suggested by Lepsinger (2010) is just not a feasible option because there are not enough resources to create specific actions plans for each individual just like if we are treating addicts. However, I do feel it is important to evaluate the change-readiness of the staff, but instead of on a individual basis, I would suggest to evaluate as a whole to determine the percentage of staff who falls in each of the five stages. I believe having these larger numbers will facilitate the strategic planning of what the most beneficial next steps would be. In the example of my project, there are some staff who falls in what Lepsinger (2010) describes as Level 1, with zero intention to change, where these individuals have decided that they new system is not for them and so they took an early retirement!
While we can draw some inspiration on what addicts can teach us about change management, we have to caution in attempting to over simplify a highly complex initiative with many variables and possible outcomes.
References:
Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Thank you, Kunal, for your post and sharing your insights into Strategic Leadership Competencies. Kunal has highlighted some very important leadership principles that I would also employ at my own personal workplace such as Active Leadership and Clarifying Assumptions and Priorities. However, there is one paragraph that I found interesting where I want to challenge Kumal to reconsider. Kumal states in the post:
“Personal competency might not work as it involves self-management (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016). I believe self-management would not work in our organization. As it involves prioritizing time in thinking about managing oneself and it doesn’t involve practicing such competencies as taking a team in the account and thinking about others while working as a team would be much better for the growth of the organization.”
When I read this statement, I see Kunal has concluded building personal competency will not work because it involves self-management and that is not compatible with the organization. While I understand the challenges that it comes with self-management, I would like to share why it is important for staff to build the capacity for self-management and how a strategic leader can assist with staff on achieving personal competence through self-management.
Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016) suggests Personal Management is essentially the same as self-management and self-regulation, where the individual is responsible for his or her own livelihood, daily tasks, deciding what to do, how to do it, and when and where (pg. 366). When putting this in a business or organizational context, this can be interpreted as self-development, where an individual is seeking and using feedback, setting development goals, engaging in developmental activities, and tracking progress on one’s own. (London, M., & Smither, J. W., 1999). With the nature of work constantly changing and organization structure becoming more complex, individuals must continuously adapt to new technology and performance standards. This can only be done if the individual practices self-management and self-development.
In reality, this is very difficult to do by an individual. The truth is if everyone can self-manage themselves well, then everything will be completed and execute perfectly. When I worked as an Environmental Health Officer (EHO), I know first-hand of the challenges of self-management. EHO’s is typically assigned a work area within a community where it may have upwards of three-hundred facilities that require regular inspections and audits. While there are certain guidelines and direction as to how the workload is to be handled, all EHO’s are responsible for setting their own schedules and determine which places require inspections and at which frequency. In addition to regular inspections, EHO’s are also responsible for following up on complaints from the public and other emergency response situations such as a fire in a restaurant. The freedom of the ability to create your own work schedule is considered a great work environment by many EHO’s. However, the caveat this freedom is some EHO’s would lack the motivation to do the work. This example illustrates the challenges of self-management. While we can say self-management just does not work for EHO’s, there are strategies where the leader can implement to motivate individuals to be effective in self-management: using intrinsic motivation and having accountability.
When people are asked about the reason for doing their job, many will answer “money” and this is true for many people. The fact is we need money to live and for our enjoyment. Money or financial rewards are extrinsic motivators and while it is a necessity for employees to work, it is rarely the motivation for employees to strive for achievement. On the other hand, Intrinsic motivation is derived from the sheer joy of performing an act. Intrinsic motivation energizes an individual, and these energies can be directed towards the improvement and innovation of a system (Ungerer et al., 2016, pg. 382). Employees who are intrinsically motivated naturally enjoys their work and strive to do well, which will greatly benefit the organization. An effective leader of the organization can motivate employees intrinsically with the following strategies:
Create Empowering Work Environments. This includes fostering an environment in which everyone is individually self-managing and can interact directly with everyone else in the system. Empowerment is also allowing the sharing of information and knowledge so employees can contribute to organizational performance, rewarding them based on organizational performance, and giving them the authority to make decisions that affect important outcomes (London & Smither, 1999).
Allow Continuous Learning. Organizations that establish continuous learning cultures provide training, and they reward the use of new skills and knowledge on the job. This will enhance employees’ awareness of the need for, and value of, acquiring knowledge, skills, and abilities (London & Smither, 1999).
Effective Feedback. Effective feedback focuses the employee’s attention on the task and highlighting specific behaviours that needed to be done differently. General feedback, even when it was meant to be motivational (e.g., “You’re doing great, keep up the good work”), tended not to be effective (London & Smither, 1999).
After creating an environment which allows employees to be intrinsically motivated, the strategic leader must hold them accountable as well. People who have a high level of accountability will take initiative to ensure the success of a project, provide early warning of potential problems, and take action to resolve a problem even when it is not their fault (Lepsinger, 2010). I would suggest using the following methods to increase accountability: Clarifying actions and expectation, Agreeing on due dates for deliverables, and Establishing checkpoints. For example, the leadership from my organization have various accountability systems to ensure EHO’s are on the right track. EHO’s have quarterly meetings with their direct supervisors to address any issues or concerns and inspection targets are set at the beginning of the year to assist with workload balance and allow monitoring of performance.
References:
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
London, M., & Smither, J. W. (1999). Empowered self-development and continuous learning. Human Resource Management, 38(1), 3. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/loginurl=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=13641396&site=eds-live
Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigating strategic possibilities: strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.
Thank you, Sea Breeze, for a great post to conclude our Strategic Leadership course. It has been very insightful to be able to participate with everyone’s journey in Leadership. Sea Breeze mentioned three strategic competencies to be implemented at work: Strategic Planning, Vision, and Strong Moral Base. My post will be responding to Sea Breeze’s description of Vision and expand on the idea of Visualization.
Sometimes the term Vision and Visualization is used interchangeably and I believe it is incorrect. Hughes et al. (2014) suggest a vision represents a view of what the organization (or a department, group, or other unit) can and should become (pg. 74). The vision of an organization is usually an expression of aspiration and is related to the organization’s purpose and core values. The act of developing a vision is termed visioning. According to Hughes et al. (2014, pg. 77), effective visioning requires strategic thinking to:
Express ideals and values (not just short-term goals or mere tactics)
Affirm the human dimension (not just financials)
Put the organization’s story in a meaningful context that connects members to its core identify
Clarify expectations about the kind and amount of desired growth
Describe key drivers of change
Visioning can be described as an inside-out process where an organization or individual is considering the potential future, where it is uncertain and undefined (Payne, T., 2015).
Visualization is a process starting with the goal of what an individual or an organization is trying to achieve and it is the mental practice of going through the imaginary steps required to achieve this goal in a vivid mental state. The process of visualization is described as an outside-inprocess, where the goal is already defined but to rehearse how to get there (Payne, T., 2015).
The most decorated Olympic Champion of all time is an American swimmer, Michael Phelps. Phelps has won, to date, a total of 28 medals in both individual and team events, of which 23 of them are Gold medals from 2004 – 2016 (Sousa, G., 2017). To put things to perspective, the next athlete with the most medals won in Olympics is Larisa Latynina from the Soviet Union, competing in Gymnastics, with 18 medals won. Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, has been an advocate of the concept of visualization and how it helped Phelps in his races. Here is how Bowman describes it in the article by Gallo, C. (2016):
“For months before a race Michael gets into a relaxed state. He mentally rehearses for two hours a day in the pool. He sees himself winning. He smells the air, tastes the water, hears the sounds, sees the clock.” Phelps take visualization one step further. He sees himself from the outside, as a spectator in the stands. He sees himself overcoming obstacles, too. For example, what would he do if he fell further behind in a race than he intended? Phelps practices all potential scenarios.”
Bowman further describes Phelp’s process and how Vision and Visualization work together. Bowman suggests Vision and Visualization are “two sides of the same coin” and it is important for any leader and individual who wants to achieve peak performance (Gallo, C., 2016). I want to echo on Sea Breeze’s point on the importance of vision and how that can be implemented in her teaching and leading. I also want to point out the importance of visualization, especially when Sea Breeze mentioned about being a coach for swimming. When both techniques can be used effectively, it will greatly influence the desired outcome.
References:
Gallo, C., (2016, May 24). 3 Daily Habits Of Peak Performers, According To Michael Phelps’ Coach. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2016/05/24/3-daily-habits-of-peak-performers-according-to-michael-phelps-coach/
Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Paybe, T., (2015, April 26). Visualization vs. Visioning: The Difference. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/tova-payne/visualization-vs-visionin_b_7145140.html
Sousa, G., (2017, April 25). Greatest Athletes In Olympic History – Who Has Won The Most Gold Medals? World Atlas. Retrieved from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-top-athletes-of-the-olympics-who-won-the-most-gold-medals.html
What Sea Breeze has mentioned in her blog post is one of my pet peeves in terms of how organizational leaders do not value an employee’s time. Sea Breeze in her post mentioned:
“In public education, all of our meetings happen outside of our work day on our free time after school is out. This is one grey area that I do not feel is right. Teachers should get paid to attend meetings that go outside of our scheduled work hours” (Sea Breeze, 2018).
I realize the idea behind a manager’s or leader’s decision to arrange for work meetings could be born out of practicality and necessity rather than being mean-spirited. There are only limited hours in a workday and it is already occupied by regular tasks and responsibility. So the logical choice for the manager is to arrange meetings that are outside of those hours. In a similar example, my wife works at a medical imaging organization and they often arrange staff meetings and medical rounds during lunch hour. Staff who attend these meetings will be paid for their time as well as permitted to have their lunch during the meeting. However, then the staff members will lose their required meal-break, a time that is personal and potentially required for someone to work at a high capacity.
What managers and leaders fail to realize is these type of arrangements is a way of disvaluing staff member’s personal time. It is the organization saying, “my time is more important than yours” and so the employees must make the sacrifice in their own schedule, rather than adjusting the work schedule to accommodate work-related meetings. This will essentially negatively affect staff morale and to lead to resentment from staff and more disengagement.
On the flip side, when managers and leaders are scheduling mandatory meetings within paid work hours, it will increase staff engagement and attendance of these meetings and also reinforce the importance of participation and how the organization is making this a priority rather than normally scheduled work. In some ways, this will also be an incentive for staff members, acting as a reward system (Galbraith, 2014). What I tell my wife with regards to the practices of her organization is:
“Imagine if your company decides to close the clinic early by booking down a few patients and have your paid staff meeting during the last hour of the day. Does that not make you feel valued as an employee? Does it not say to you the company rather puts employee’s time first rather than making money?”
I believe organizations who strive to be effective companies should consider the value of time and how that could potentially affect the organization’s morale and health in the workplace. The transformational servant leader would prioritize staff member’s needs and determine how that can be aligned with organizational priorities.
References:
Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Layla in her blog post shared some very insightful experiences working at State Grid, a national electric utility monopoly of China. In particular, Layla mentioned within the context of a Communism, the impact of conflict in the company and how the company deals with conflict is quite fascinating. While this type of leadership can be more efficient in terms of eliminating conflict, the nature of the communistic style of leadership is being authoritative and coercive. As Layla was eluding to, on the surface of the organization seems to be working as a highly cooperative team; however, underneath is a conflict-ridden environment where staff members seldom listened to or ideas being ignored. In the short term, conflict avoidance may be helpful in avoiding and postponing confrontation and may be able to maintain a relationship, otherwise could be hurt after the confrontation. However, in a long-term may intensify the conflict itself (Lepsinger, 2010).
As an individual of a Chinese descent, I can identify some of the cultural practices and beliefs that shape the structure of Layla’s organization. But being born as a Canadian and have lived in a western culture all my life, it’s very difficult to fathom the challenges that Layla may need to go through. My first thought from reading Layla’s original post is with the current challenges of how senior leaders deal with conflict in the organization, what are some strategies that can be implemented to potentially increase opportunity for staff members to be heard? Are there any organizational or financial benefits that could entice senior leaders to take a more collaborative approach?
Another point that Layla mentioned in her post is the very last one, where there is gender bias in the company and how some of the staff have accepted this as the “invisible policy”. Northouse (2013) describes these gender barriers as “leadership labyrinth” for women and has three factors:
Human Capital (i.e. education disparity, work-home conflict)
Gender Differences (i.e. style, self-promotion, “women take care, men take charge”)
Many of these factors, in fact, are simply not the case. Women are obtaining undergrad degrees, professional, and doctorate degrees at an equal, if not higher rate. Another explanation of the disparity indicating the fact women and men are different in leadership styles. However, meta-analysis of research examining leadership styles did not find women would lead in a more interpersonally oriented and less task-oriented manner compared to men (Northouse, 2013). One robust difference found was that women led in a more democratic or participative manner, which should be more effective in contemporary society. My second thought on Layla’s post is what can someone working in the organization do to help remove such barriers in order help ensure equal opportunity, access to the greatest talent pool, and increase diversity? And my last thought on the post is also Layla’s last thought on her original post. I am curious to hear what Layla think is the reason on even though her organization has been ignoring conflicts for many years but resulted in “nothing bad”? Does it mean the organizational structure is working?
Overall, I really appreciated Layla’s honest insight into her organization and I look forward to hearing more from her.
References:
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. John Wiley & Sons.
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Jessica mentioned in her blog post on some of her personal experience working for her organization, Fraser Health, and how staff members experienced resistance and opposition to the corporate mission, vision, and values. While Fraser Health’s vision is an inspiring one, “better health best in care” (Fraser Health, 2018), I propose there are three reasons on why the mission statement is not resonating with the staff: 1) corporate vision was from the top-down so there is no buy-in; 2) corporate vision is missing key components; and 3) corporate vision is not meaningful to staff members.
The need for a vision statement will always be a “top-down” directive, but its development needs to come from the “bottom-up” (Chaneski, W. S., 2011). When the vision is created and handed down by top executives and management, it is often difficult for frontline staff to appreciate the reasons and explanations behind the corporate vision. When there is no understanding and no ownership to the process of developing the vision collectively, it leads to very little buy-in. I have also mentioned this in one of my previous blog posts as well (https://create.twu.ca/chiefanalyzerofthings/2018/10/24/strategic-renewal-in-health/):
Corporate vision is just as mentioned, belongs to corporate. There is no buy-in from staff members to the corporately developed vision. As a strategic leader, we must be visioning collectively to allow staff members from all levels to participate in the vision-setting process. This provides the opportunity for people to share personal versions of aspirations for the organization to create ownership of the organization’s vision (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 76). The vision must also be meaningful to the entire organization and not just for the leadership team in order to reinforce the greater purpose of the organization.
The second reason that could explain the lack of acceptance by staff to the corporate vision is key components are missing from the corporate vision. As mentioned in Hughes et al. (2014), there are a few guidelines when crafting an organizational vision (pg. 77):
Express ideals and values
Affirm the human dimension
Put the organization’s story in a meaningful context that connects members to its core identity
Clarify expectations about the kind and amount of desired growth
Describe key drivers of change
While I can see how Fraser Health’s corporate vision included some of the components as indicated by Hughes et at. (2014), it has failed to clarify expectations about desired growth as well as describing key drivers of change. When components are missing, employees of the organization are confused as to what they can do to achieve the corporate vision or what success looks like. When there are confusion and misunderstanding, staff members will immediately be disinterested and disengaged, resulting again to no buy-in to the corporate vision.
Finally, the third reason that could explain the lack of acceptance is that the vision is not meaningful to employees. Chaneski (2011) states “the visionstatement must be something to which everyone can relate [to]”. When reviewing Fraser Health’s vision statement, the goal of “better health best in health care” is inspirational and even motivational. However, for employees who work for Fraser Health, I believe it may be difficult for some to find meaning to the vision statement because the scope is too broad and for some department staff, it may not be relatable. How well does the janitorial staff employed by Fraser Health relate to this vision? An example of a clearer vision statement is found at the Cleveland Clinic: “Striving to be the world’s leader in patient experience, clinical outcomes, research and education” (Cleveland Clinic, 2018).
“Without a genuine buy-in from the workforce, the visionstatement is nothing more than words on a page” (Chaneski, 2011).
References:
Chaneski, W. S. (2011). Creating a Meaningful Vision Statement. Modern Machine Shop, 83(11), 34–36.
Hughes, R. L., Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Mission, Vision, Values. Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved November 15, 2018 from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/about/overview/who-we-are/mission-vision-values
Our Vision (November 15, 2018). About Fraser Health. Retrieved November 15, 2018 from https://www.fraserhealth.ca/about-us/about-fraser-health#.W-5bFRNKhV8
Health Angels – HC2’s team blog post in favour of how top-performing companies manage change, by making staff engagement a priority.
Change is inevitable. In today’s fast-paced world change takes place on an ongoing basis. In order to handle challenges and competitions with opposing companies, one must understand the importance of change. It is easy for leaders or managers to implement change, come up with new ideas but the success depends on how well the change is carried through within the company. Change is well managed when there is open communication, guidance, and support provided by the management team. “When you look at what the best companies do to prepare for and manage change, you can clearly see that success hinges more on common sense and leader behaviour than on a change management structure or processes”(Lepsinger, 2010). How the management team facilitate and coach employees throughout the change process is crucial. If employees are not supported throughout the change process, they may start to resent the employer. “Make sure you are keeping your employees involved. This will strengthen the relationship, build buy-in, encourage reactions and identify barriers” (Newell, 2018).
Before the change process begins, it is important to understand the emotions and fears of employees. Some employees may be resistant to change. Companies must keep up with the growing technologies but sometimes there are employees who may not accept technological changes because they may not have the background knowledge. When Fraser Health initiated Paris (paperless documentation and assessments) many employees opposed to it because they did not want to use the computers and rather had continued to use paper. It may be worth a while for the management team to share the video “Who moved my cheese”. This will help employees understand the importance of change. As Lepsinger 2010 addresses employees may be inflexible because they want to maintain the status quo. Top companies maintain an open and honest communication with employees to ease the process of change.
As mentioned in Lepsinger (2010), “you change an organization one person at a time”. A well-managed change initiative not only involves structure and plan to be in place, but also to make staff engagement a priority. Lepsinger (2010) provides three additional insights into how top-performing companies manage change which the Health Angels HC2 team is in favour of. These three points are outlined in the following.
“Stay focused during the first 3 months…success depends on it”
First three months after implementing any change are equally crucial for the employees as are for the employer. Change can be implemented successfully only when a company can survive the change for the first three months (Lepsinger, 2010). At the initial stages, many people in the organization are still resistant to change. They lack trust which inhibits change (p.116). As a leader, one must stay empathetic and consistent to pull everyone together. In this process, the involvement of middle-level managers is crucial as success depends on their contribution (p. 102). Moreover, adopting a democratic style of leadership (Remple, 2010) will allow every employee to participate and make them feel involved, they must realize that they are a part of something significant and that is where their performances and contribution will improve (Maslow, Stephens, Heil, & Bennis, 1998). However, constant motivation and encouragement will keep the employees on track. This can be done through daily reminders in the form of mail or a short text message.
“Don’t just focus on senior leaders….involved middle managers and keep them engaged”
When an organization is planning to implement a new initiative or project, the senior leadership would go through countless hours of planning and strategize in order to make the necessary preparations for the change. Yet, during the stages of such planning and executing the plan, the senior leadership often neglect to engage other staff members for their input. As suggested by Hughes et al. (2014), strategic thinking ss a collective process and organizations need to engage diverse perspectives and viewpoints (pg. 54). In addition, we also know certain individuals have greater opportunities and responsibility to affect their organization than others (Hughes et al., 2014, pg. 3). Some of these individuals include middle managers and leaders within the organization. As mentioned by Lepsinger (2010), “it’s usually the middle managers who do the heavy lifting and drive day-to-day execution”. Without the engagement of the middle managers and leaders, the change initiative is doomed to fail.
As an example, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is currently in the process of a change initiative in the effort to increase staff engagement. The CEO of VCH, as well as many of the senior executives, have been front and centre in terms of supporting and driving this new initiative and many communications sent out to staff with regards to this change. While the goal of this change initiative is much needed as voiced by many people, there seems to be a disconnect and confusion in messaging. Many department managers and leaders have not mentioned or engaged frontline staff regarding the initiative even though the messaging from senior leadership is continually being sent out. It appears the senior leadership is neglecting to engage middle managers and leaders and the result of this is confusion in communications and staff being uncertain as to how what to believe. Direct managers and supervisors have an effect on staff that is different compared to senior leadership. Employees tend to be more engaged in their work when their supervisors are supportive and concerned about their welfare and interests (Chughtai, A. A., & Buckley, F., 2008). The result of a direct supervisor or manager engagement could promote staff learning, growth and development. The consequence of such an encouraging and productive work environment can play a pivotal role in breeding work engagement (Chughtai & Buckley, 2008). When middle managers, or in this scenario department managers, are on board and part of the process, they can help drive change and increase the likelihood of success. Alternatively, when these leaders are not engaged, they can be change-delaying bottlenecks (Lepsinger, 2010).
“Take aggressive action to avoid the commitment dip”
Even if the team leader manages to get everybody on board with the idea of change, it is difficult to keep the momentum going. A leader must be dynamical and constantly make efforts to maintain the spirits of the employees which is usually high in the beginning. Therefore, an aggressive action needs to be taken to avoid the commitment dip (Lepsinger, 2010, p.103). It reminds me of a funny quote by American author Zig Zigler- “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing- that’s why we recommend it daily.” As these situations are rapidly changing, in no time the team members can lose their interest in the freshly developed ideas and would want to go back to routine, it is, therefore, important for the leader to take instant actions to prevent this plunge. The leader should be swift and strategic in responding to the rapidly changing situations (Hughes, 2014, p. 237). There are no shortcuts to transformation; it requires consistent efforts to bring the change. The Cultural Change Principal states that it is important to be proficient in managing the process of change (Fullan, 2002, p.3). The process of change does require holding the members accountable and help them sustain their enthusiasm. Constantly reminding the members of the change that the organization wants and their role in achieving the same helps them stay connected to the transformation and prevent the commitment dip.
Fullan, M., (2002). The Change. Retrieved November 6, 2018 from http://www.ghaea.org/files/IowaCoreCurriculum/Module1/Mod1-FullanChangeLeaderArticle.pdf
Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Maslow, A. H., Stephens, D. C., Heil, G., & Bennis, W. (1998). Maslow on management. New York: John Wiley. Retrieved fromhttp://altfeldinc.com/pdfs/maslow.pdf
Marcelo’s honest and heartfelt sharing of his education ministry is very humbling to me. As the principal of his school, I really do sense the challenges that he faces, yet I can sense his undying perseverance and hope that he has for the school and the staff. In Marcelo’s post, he described the many challenges the school is facing and one of them is the fact the institution is still in its infancy and just celebrated their fifth year anniversary. Marcelo continues by stating a young institution can be fragile and unbalanced and it is essential to find the right path that will lead to healthy growth and bring the institution into full maturity.
Reading the above description reminds me of many new emerging businesses that are trying to succeed in the market. When I was in high school, I worked for one such retail store in Vancouver. This business specialized in importing and retail small car accessories such as air fresheners, light bulbs, decals, and other decorations that one would put in their cars. For the first few years, the business was booming and the owner decided to quickly expand from one retail location to three high profile locations. However, nothing is for certain in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world (Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J., 2016, pg. 3). After working for this business for a few years as a part-time job, I have left to pursue other opportunities and continued with my undergraduate studies. A few years after I left, I noticed the business started to deteriorate, closing one location after another until eventually, all retail locations are permanently closed.
While I have no concrete answer to prevent from such an event from happening. I do believe fostering a culture of agility is one way of strategic acting in the face of uncertainty and turbulence (Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D., 2014, pg. 127). From Marcelo’s description of the recent events with staff turnover and other uncertainties, the ability to make a fast and effective action in these types of events. Hughes et al. (2014) state “agility involves more than an organization’s time to act” (pg. 127) and may include acting outside of the organization’s and cultural norms in order to create an effective strategy. I remember reading Marcelo’s previous post and he indicated how the culture has greatly influenced how the institution and staff operate, I wonder if there is an opportunity to be creative and able to find solutions that could be effective in managing these challenges? Hughes et al. (2014) further suggest “even if you can’t change the culture of the whole organization, you can take steps to change the culture and the behaviour of the people in your part of it” (pg. 128).
Thank you Marcelo in sharing your journey with us. God knows your heart and love for the people and the students and I will continue to pray for His work to be done at your school.
References:
Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader : your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ungerer, M., Ungerer, G., & Herholdt, J. (2016). Navigate strategic possibilities: strategy formulation and execution practices to flourish. Randburg: KR Publishing.
As I am reading Stella’s blog post, I can immediately sense the frustrations that she encounters in her workplace, but also the desire for an improvement. I really appreciate Stella’s honesty in sharing her thoughts and situation. As a father of two young children and one of them just entered Kindergarten, I really appreciate our educators here in British Columbia. For the past two years, my wife and I were struggling to make a decision in terms of whether to place our son in a public school or private school system. On one hand, we have the public school system where it’s is accessible and it is completely funded by the government. The resources that we would save would mean we can invest it in other types of learning such as after-school sports or music program. On the other hand, we very much value the Christian school setting, where our beliefs and values can be further reinforced by the school community. With the recent media attention of the SOGI123 resource implementation in various school districts, as a parent, I feel the public school system no longer provide parents with the opportunity to provide input to their own child’s education. Ultimately, we have decided to place our son in the Christian private school that is in our neighbourhood for the above reasons, in addition, to show support in the private Christian school system. My son’s school is now expanding in capacity and looking towards building a new campus. This is a good sign that we have many people in our community that values Christian teaching at our schools. As a response to Stella’s comments on exposure, I would like to provide a bit of an encouragement that while public school systems do seem to engulf by the public sector, there are many families that appreciate the Christian schools and teachers in the community. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I would also like to touch on Stella’s point regarding morale and Stella’s thoughts on being surprised by the number of people that are working below-standard. This is also something I notice at my workplace as well and unfortunately, this happens more often then we might think. One strategy to overcome this is to hold people accountable. As suggested by Lepsinger, R. (2010), “high level of accountability will take initiative to ensure the success of a project, provide early warning of potential problems, and take action to resolve a problem”. The lack of accountability often allows people to “slide” without notice. I would encourage Stella to consider some strategy and system of accountability in the workplace to see if that would help in staff morale.
Reference:
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Working under a Health Authority, such as Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), presents specific challenges in terms of staff engagement and retention. In its rigid corporate environment, there are many restrictions and limitations in terms of what the organization can do to engage and motivate health care workers. One way to motivate staff is a reward system. The rewards system is designed to align the goals of individuals with the goals of the organization (Galbraith, J. R., 2014). With any government-funded organization, the spending by any department can be heavily scrutinized and held accountable to tax-payers. This means spending on items outside of regularly mandated activities is highly discouraged. In contrast, my wife is a supervisor at a private medical imaging clinic. They often provide gift cards in small increments as a token of recognition for staff who did a good job. Throughout the year, the company also host and paid for various events such as Christmas celebration and family activity day to increase team morale and create a tighter community. These incentives appear small but can create a big impact in terms of engaging staff members and create a sense of ownership within the organization. When our such spending is out of the question, the health authority will need to utilize strategic thinking to find creative ways to achieve the same outcome. In one of my previous blog post, I mentioned one of the strategic ways to engage staff by making common sense with transparent communications, visioning collectively, and creating a culture of learning. I would like to provide more concrete examples on how it can be applied specifically in my workplace.
There is a lot of distrust in union workers. Like many government agencies, health care workers are unionized. While there are many benefits for staff such as job security and fair employment process, the union can also create a lot of unnecessary tension and distrust when there is a conflict between the leadership team and staff members. Union organizations tend to be skeptical of many directives from the leadership group and advise union members to always consider “what’s in it for me”. This type of perspective foster a culture of selfishness and apathy when comes to organizational interests. In terms of dealing with human resources in the health care setting, we must first establish trust by making common sense with transparent communications. Our leadership team is faced with many challenges such as new directives from higher level agencies. Often, these directives will translate to some less desirable changes to the frontline staff. As strategic leaders, we must help others in the organization make common sense of the world around them, the challenges they collectively face, and how they will face them together (Hughes, Beatty, & Dinwoodie, 2014, p. 84). Even when details of the directive is not relevant to the frontline staff, providing the information will help staff members understand why certain decisions are made. As suggested by Hughes et al. (2014), “unarticulated knowledge can cause people to feel unclear or confused about the apparent disconnectedness between the priorities, policies, and processes of different teams, departments, or divisions in their organization” (pg. 85).
Corporate vision is just as mentioned, belongs to corporate. There is no buy-in from staff members to the corporately developed vision. As a strategic leader, we must be visioning collectively to allow staff members from all levels to participate in the vision-setting process. This provides the opportunity for people to share personal versions of aspirations for the organization to create ownership of the organization’s vision (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 76). The vision must also be meaningful to the entire organization and not just for the leadership team in order to reinforce the greater purpose of the organization.
The culture of learning is key to engage staff. Achieving the enduring performance potential of the organization requires the hearts, minds, and hands of all to be engaged (Hughes et al., 2014, p. 41). To do this, the strategic leaders must be willing to learn from others in all levels of the organization, including frontline staff. The result of engaging staff members in different levels and departments is the creation of new connections and relationships that would foster higher levels of motivation and morality (Imbenzi, Williaume, & Page, 2013, para. 14).
Well, that didn’t work…but this might
Two years ago VCH conducted an employee engagement survey to assess the health of the workforce. The results of the survey were abysmal, with over 47% of health care workers stating dissatisfaction and disengagement with the organization. The CEO of the organization has made it her priority in VCH to address these concerns. Since then, many different initiatives have rolled out such as abolishing the employee absence program and promoting a learning series on change. Yet, even though the idea of this initiative is good, not many changes have happened within the organization. In fact, many staff members that I know are confused and not sure what is happening within the organization. I believe this is because the initiative is missing a few key items:
Set clear strategic priorities. Even though the CEO has started the initiative in the attempt to engage staff, there are really no priority changes to the existing work demands to allow this to happen. VCH is currently rolling out a series of workshops to help staff develop new skills in managing change and establishing a culture of curiosity. However, without prioritization of existing workload and other projects, after staff have taken the workshop, there is no opportunity to implement or practice such learning. Once staff returns back to their care site, the urgent matters quickly come rushing back to their attention and the newly acquired skills are soon to be forgotten. If staff engagement is the main focus and priority for VCH, then every project and tasks must be properly aligned by setting clear strategic priorities, which is one of the key strategic acting competencies (Hughes et al., 2014, pg. 120).
Keeping leaders accountable. Our top executive leader, the CEO, has been very visual with this new initiative and priority for VCH and it has been very refreshing for the frontline staff to see her level of commitment. However, this cannot be said the same for the local department leadership. It appears there is a disconnect the CEO and other leadership groups. When our direct leadership group is nonchalant about a project initiative or decides that is it not important for the department, it is very difficult for staff members to engage. For example, in my own department, this initiative to engage staff was never brought up in our staff meetings or senior strategic meetings. Because of my current position, it is difficult for me to determine why the disconnect exist. I do believe one way to increase the effectiveness of this initiative is to hold people accountable. As suggested by Lepsinger, R. (2010), “high level of accountability will take initiative to ensure the success of a project, provide early warning of potential problems, and take action to resolve a problem”. Our immediate leaders and supervisors must be seen to have buy-in and continue to promote this initiative in order for it to succeed. Otherwise, it is destined to fail and things will go back to the way it was.
Implement initiatives at the right time. When this initiative first rolled out, the project team was very enthusiastic and together with a third-party strategic management company has begun to introduce a two-day workshop on change management and to encourage staff to embrace change. My leadership team has identified me as one of the emerging leaders of the department and I was invited to participate in the pilot workshops. Together with approximately 30 people, we represented the emerging middle and frontline leaders that are motivated and passionate about what we do. However, the outcome of the pilot was confusion and disengagement. The overall sense of the workshop was it lacked the purpose and vision of the initiative. After attending the two-day pilot, many people in the group felt the workshop was delivered in an inappropriate time and many people did not understand how this workshop relate back to the original purpose of the initiative. These workshops well thought-out and useful for staff members, but it must be implemented at the right time before it can be effective. When most of the organization were still uncertain as to the direction of this new initiative, rolling out additional projects and training only adds to stress and create even more confusion.
The three things I can do…
…to promote the positive renewal, execution, and organization design principles:
Engage my staff to create shared direction, alignment, and commitment (Hughes et al., 2014, pg. 41). The organization is currently attempting to establish a collective vision for VCH. It is important for me as a leader to work with my staff members and determine how we can align ourselves to achieve the organizational purpose in a way that is meaningful to my team.
Foster agility by making strategy a learning process (Hughes et al., 2014, pg. 129). In the next three years, we anticipate major organizational changes to our leadership team. It is important for me, as a strategic leader, to continue to be agile in being ready for the uncertainty of what is to come. These challenges can only be overcome by collective problem-solving processes which require strategic learning (Hughes et al., 2014, pg. 129).
Creating systems of accountability (Lepsinger, 2010). People who have a high level of accountability will take initiative to ensure the success of a project, provide early warning of potential problems, and take action to resolve a problem even when it is not their fault (Lepsinger, 2010). I will use the three techniques as suggested in Lepsinger (2010)
Clarifying actions and expectations
Agreeing on due dates for deliverables
Establishing checkpoints
…to promote the negative practice of these principles:
I will not do it alone. Leadership is often demonstrated by collectively as a group. In the upcoming challenging times, success is dependent on the intelligence of the entire team. As suggested by Hughes et al. (2014), “the must crucial work of a strategic leader is to engender strategic leadership in others by igniting the power and potential of the entire organization in service of its performance potential (pg. 42).
I will not make excuses when things do not go the way I have planned. In addition to creating a system of accountability for my staff, I also need to hold myself accountable and take ownership of mistakes being made. Making mistakes is a part of learning and I cannot shy away from making them.
I will not expect things will work right away. From the point prior to this one, it is naive to believe things will work correctly right away. We must extend grace to others as the team is adapting collectively to new changes. In the same way, I must also extend grace to myself. But more important, I must not give up on if things go awry.
…to correct behaviours not conducive to your career health and the principles required to promote health strategic practice:
Be intentional in listening to people that are different. It is easy to get along with people who are similar to me. But a strategic leader will consider people from all parts of the organization in order to create a shared direction, alignment, and commitment. To do so, I must not only listen to the people around me but to also go to the people are distant from me but still part of the organization.
Demonstrate more empathy as a servant leader. Because of my nature of thinking in terms of processes and being more analytical, I often neglect to consider how other’s feelings could come into the matter. Empathy is one of the ten characteristics of servant leadership as suggested in Northhouse (2016).
Focus on the growth of others. A transformational servant leader can effectively engage followers to achieve the organizational purposes by attending to the needs to the followers (Imbenzi et al., 2013, para. 34). I want to prioritize my focus on helping others fulfil their potential instead of focusing on my own. By doing so, we can collectively lift each other up to fulfill an even higher calling.
References
Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business unit and enterprise levels.
Hughes, R. L., Beatty, Collarelli-Beatty, K., & Dinwoodie, D. L. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: Your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Imbenzi, G., Williaume, D. & Page, D. (2013). Transformational servant leadership. Unpublished manuscript, Master of Arts in Leadership. Trinity Western University: Langley, Canada.
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles, Calif: SAGE.