Organizational Transformation Checklist
In this post I am sharing workshop results on how to understand the readiness of the leadership to undertake organizational transformation such as the intentional upgrade of the cultural operating system. It is partly a checklist and partly a diagnostic tool to understand current perceptions.
In his seminal work, John Kotter identifies a Sense of Urgency as the key first step to any major change initiative. Success requires that “75% of a company’s management is honestly convinced that business as usual is totally unacceptable.”
In this post, additional considerations are considered.
Transformation is #1 Organizational Priority
In addition to Kotter’s remarks we add the following litmus test for undertaking transformation.
A common symptom of failure is that transformation or improving culture is listed as the fourth bullet point in the yearly objectives.
Leadership Team Readiness Checklist
What follows is one readiness checklist to assess whether the leadership in an organization is really ready. The text in blue indicates activities that can support a leadership team in understanding where it stands on each item.
Red Flags is a term from Good to Great where great companies have hope and faith to see the red flags or difficult truths.
Red Pill is a term from the movie the Matrix that denotes the willingness to explore disconnects in our belief system to understand the true and perhaps discomforting reality.
Dear leaders, how are you doing?
The following diagram shows a set of diagnostics that can start a real discussion around the perception of the current state of the organization. It is intended to be used for one or more people to put an “x” on the line indicating where they see that aspect. The scale increases from left to right with either a rating of 1 to 10 or from ☹ to ☺
The astute reader will notice the last question is not a scale, but an open-ended exploration called My Worst Nightmare.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the participants in this session including Don Gray and Claudia Melo. I would also like to acknowledge the financial contribution of the Agile Alliance for sponsoring this workshop through the Supporting Agile Adoption Program.
How to Build a Culture Bubble
This post is about how one can create a bubble of a new culture inside of an existing organization. For example, this may be used by a group interested in developing an innovation and learning culture inside a typical bureaucratic organization. This post is a continuation of my earlier post on how to Build Culture Adapters to Avoid Agile Failure.
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Connecting the Dots on Agile, Org Culture, Personal Growth & Temenos
A friend of mine asked me what is going on with all this touchy-feely people and personal growth stuff – “What’s it got to do with Agile?” My answer: everything! So this post ties together: Agile, High-Performance Culture with People skills and Temenos Workshop among others.
Temenos – A Workshop for Healing, Connection and Relational Flow
(Joint post with Olaf Lewitz)
What is Temenos?
Temenos is also the name of a special kind of experiential laboratory (usually delivered as a weekend lab) that Siraj Sirajuddin has created over many years integrating diverse influences. He’s been using these labs to support lean and agile transformations in his practice as an Organisational Transformation Mentor. Read More
Create Authentic Connections with Influence Maps
(Joint post with Olaf Lewitz – Temenos Series)
In the course of our lives, we all encounter events that shape us, allow us to change and grow, that have made us who we are. We don’t tend to acknowledge or appreciate these events, and we rarely share them. Understanding our own path, reflecting how we became who we are, which influences determined what we value and what we want, is a powerful source of personal growth. We better understand our own unique identity, our relationships with others and the related emotional baggage to the load we carry around in our lives.
Diverse Paths to High-Performance Organizational Culture
There is no single path or prescription for high-performance organizational culture. Increasingly companies are abandoning the traditional “modern management” practices developed for manufacturing and are moving to post-modern approaches that reflect the changing face of work and the needs of knowledge workers.
Workshop on Characteristics of High-Performance Organizations
At Agile Tour Toronto last November, I conducted a workshop to get crowd-sourced research into high-performance organizational cultures. The purpose of this workshop was two-fold. First, to understand similarities and differences between organizational cultures. Second, to see if case-studies of high-performance cultures would resonate with Agile-oriented people.
Anatomy of Peace – A Model for Communication
The Anatomy of Peace is an insightful book about how our default thinking processes lead us to conflict. It reveals a path towards peace.
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Lululemon – A Stellar Example of Break-Through Organizational Culture
Christine Day, the CEO of Lululemon, gave a compelling account at the Toronto Board of Trade of how Lululemon uses culture as a core competitive advantage. It is woven into the fabric of every interaction and decision, not a bunch of meaningless posters on the wall. Sadly, there is no book yet. But when there is, I believe it will have greater impact than Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness – a landmark book on organizational culture.
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Relatedness trumps Responsibility, Accountability
Relatedness is the heart of high-performing teams and organizations. As stated in the Agile Manifesto, focus on “Individuals and Interactions” is essential. How we relate to ourselves and others is central to creating and maintaining effective and valuable systems. Read More
Empathy Workshop – Results and Instructions
This past Fall I delivered a training module on Empathy as part of a day long communication and teamwork training. In this post, I will give you step by step instructions on running an empathy workshop as well as share some interesting results from my session. Please see How to Express Empathy – Avoid the Traps! for my understanding empathy.
