Case Study of Leadership and Transformative Change
Background:
A high tech organization had an ambitious goal to double its revenues over three years, tackle new and formidable competition and maintain a culture of the “Best Place to Work?”
Problem:
- Changing market dynamics and major competitive threats
- Aging services portfolio; organization was frequently late to market on new services and had begun to lose touch with customer needs and market shifts.
- Organization’s structure, work processes and technology did not support a culture of continuous innovation
Intervention/Action: A marketing transformation effort to rebuild not only the service portfolio, but also the underlying processes for real time innovation, partner support and faster time to market.
Challenge:
The transformation required major changes to behaviors, attitudes and work practices. The Executive Leader recognized that the long-term success of the transformation required the entire workforce to embrace and contribute to the change effort.
Solution:
- Executive Leader engaged in a change team to work in tandem with the teams guiding the process and workforce changes.
- Change Lead engaged senior leaders in articulating the business imperative, building the future state vision and accelerating the implementation process.
Project Mantra:
A familiar quote from Charles Darwin: “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
Performance Improvement for Performance Improvers
Background:
HP had just executed at the time, the largest merger in technology history that required integrating two different corporate cultures and ensuring that the workforce could meet the competitive demands of the market.
Problem:
The Workforce Development function (WD) was simultaneously in the midst of its own reinvention—not just as a new organization, but as one undergoing a shift from being a training provider to embracing human performance technology to provide its business partners with consultative, performance-oriented solutions.
Intervention/Action:
Use a Human Performance Technology methodology to improve the capabilities of the WD workforce.
Challenge:
Senior WD leaders had strong relationships with their business partners. At the middle and lower levels of the organization, WD practitioners had worked in the business and had solid relationships with their business counterparts. Those who had grown up in L&D struggled to build those key relationships.
Solution:
Take a performance improvement approach to WD through four key actions:
- Realistically assess its capability
- Identify performance gaps
- Develop a capability roadmap for key L&D roles
- Demonstrate a proof of concept
Quote:
“The process of change is a constant assessment that involves looking out at the world and assessing what is worth aspiring for, looking in the mirror, and looking at ourselves honestly—seeing the truth and acting on the truth.” —Carly Fiorina
Growing Up: Building Learning Performance Measurement Maturity
Background:
In 2002, the organization was in the midst of completing its merger with Compaq.
Problem:
The CLO wanted to increase the maturity of the L&D organization including its maturity with measurement and evaluation.
Intervention/Action:
Build measurement and evaluation capability in M&E through:
- A focused strategy
- A governance process to establish goals and objectives
- New roles and accountabilities
Challenge:
Measurement and evaluation practices were basic. Solution owners did not use evaluation data consistently for decision-making. Equally important, instructional designers viewed evaluation as the last step in the learning lifecycle.
Solution:
Drive measurement from the top and build organizational competencies in measurement and evaluation. Implement a single measurement system to drive consistent practices, instruments and reporting.
Big Learning Data: It’s Bigger than Big Data—Metrics and Measurement Without a Strategy is Just Data
Background:
With the drive greater accountability, leading edge L&D functions have concluded that decisions must be evidence-based, leveraging the gold mine of data that resides within its network of systems.
Problem:
Grant Thornton was gathering data on 750,000 evaluation questions per year but lacked the ability to turn the mass of data into strategic insights.
Intervention/Action:
Engage senior L&D leaders in a collaborative process to articulate the role of measurement, new processes, people practices and structure to build measurement maturity.
Challenge:
The organization wanted to invest in learning with demonstrative value. However, the organization lacked a balance set of measures, a definition of value and processes to proactively identify value and measure it after the fact.
Solution:
The team worked with Metrics that Matter to develop a three-year holistic measurement strategy and commit resources to execute the strategy.