The 9-Step Change Cycle
Without a fully developed vision for change, your organisation is like a ship lost at sea. Where are you trying to go and how is it you plan to get there? What is the objective of your journey? This essential step will help your team stay focused on the goal as well as the course of change.
Read on as we share some lessons from the world of Change, including some key Do’s and Don’ts plus a couple of real-life case studies which emphasise the vital impact of a well-defined Vision (e.g. Nasa’s Apollo 11) — and the consequences of not having one (e.g. GE Digital).
Change is an inevitable part of life and organisations are no exception. Developing a full vision of your “To-Be” state, and communicating this as you navigate through Change is crucial. Clarity, direction and purpose behind your change initiative will help your organisation arrive at its desired state.
This article is fourth in our series, The 9-Step Change Cycle. Utilising our 30 years of change management experience, we have merged Kotter’s Change Principles with Lean Six Sigma methodology for evolved business improvement and transformation. We hope this collection of articles and stories will offer you guidance and inspiration for making change happen — and stick!
The previous articles, Step 1 — How Netflix beat Blockbuster and Step 2 — Preventing Deaths in New Zealand and the UK, delve deeper into the Urgent Case for Change and the importance of effective leadership in making change happen — what we like to call ‘Lead from the Top’.
Step 3 | Develop Full Vision
In this article, alongside giving you some top tips, we take a detailed look into the importance of developing a vision whilst change is ongoing. This is stage three of our 9-Step Change Cycle.
Reasons for Developing a Vision
It’s often too easy to dive straight into action, but not only is it worth taking time to develop and share a full vision, it is absolutely essential for successful change. Here are just a few reasons:
- Staying Motivated
Change can throw up unseen or simply, more challenges for which a team may feel unprepared, having a sense of direction empowers individuals and teams to stay motivated and committed to their goals when they understand how each goal contributes to the end vision.
2. Enforces perseverance during change
Having a strong vision in place ensures all team members are on the same page and empowers each individual to find a solution over any obstacles they may face rather than giving up in the early days.
3. Providing meaning and purpose for change
Those involved in change will more easily understand the important impact of their efforts.
Developing Your Vision
OK, so we’re all on board with the importance of a fully developed Vision
…but how do we create an effective Vision?
To be effective, your Vision must act as a guiding light. The Vision is a clearly communicated “To-Be” state. It serves to unite the individual team members and create bridges of understanding between teams of the same organisation, so that each party can make decisions and take actions that contribute to the intended course of the whole. Think of the Vision as a North Star for steering a ship in the night.
As a starting point, here are some questions to brainstorm:
- Where is our organisational North Star? Have we seen others achieve the state we want to get to? If not, can we draw a detailed and realistic picture?
- What will things look like when we arrive at our North Star? What do our organisational processes look like? Our key roles? Our ideal customers? Our products and/or services? Get detailed.
- How will we get there? What people, tools and materials do we need? What are our timelines, milestones and goals?
Key activities to identify your North Star
- Firstly, define the ‘To-Be’ state — where is your North Star? Make sure people know where they are going and what they are working towards.
- Pinpoint the advantages. This helps to highlight the benefits of change and allows individuals to understand what’s in it for them — what does the view look like from the top?
- Hold goal-setting workshops with those who will enact the change. This ensures the Vision is challenging enough to allow room for progress while being agreed as reasonable amongst the team.
- Create roadmaps to give overall indications of timing, activities and responsibilities. These make it easier to communicate the Vision and identify areas that need to be reviewed throughout the business.
- Identify Key Performance Indicators. KPIs can be one of the best ways to track progress. When agreed from the outset, then the team can celebrate wins along the way, even the little ones!
A well-defined Vision should provide a clear picture of the desired future state — what we refer to as ‘To-Be’, the purpose of the transformation, and the benefits it will bring.
Remember to communicate. Simply put, allowing individuals to have a clear understanding of what’s going on, where they are heading and the benefits they will see will serve to initiate, sustain and propel the process of change — the more onboard the Change ship, the merrier!
Do’s and Don’ts
- Do be transparent | Don’t keep things on the down low.
Clarity guides decision-making and actions. Provide as much information as possible to those impacted by Change.
2. Do make the Vision inspiring and clear | Don’t overcomplicate the vision
A compelling vision inspires and motivates individuals and teams. It provides a sense of purpose and a reason to engage wholeheartedly in the Change process. Paint a clear picture, literally, if that’s what it takes!
3. Do ensure alignment | Don’t lack consistency
The change vision should support the organisation’s long-term mission and direction. Ensuring alignment with strategy helps prevent conflicting priorities, maintains focus on core goals, and increases the likelihood of sustainable change, i.e. ‘making Change stick’!
Some Case Studies
To put things into perspective, let’s compare a failed attempt at developing a Vision to that of a successful, very famous, one.
Poor Example | General Electric Digital Transformation Failure
General Electric aspired to own the industrial internet and so in 2015 the company decided to spread its wings and form GE Digital as a separate business unit.
The aim of GE Digital was to centralise all IT Operations of the company. Their vision was to become one of the top ten software companies by 2020 and so GE Digital spent billions on its digital initiatives.
GE Digital was formed to enhance the company’s data analytics capabilities, allowing GE to position itself as a more technology focused enterprise. Despite this, the unit’s objectives differed greatly from that of the company’s expertise.
The quarterly P&L requirements prevented GE Digital from investing in long-term strategies, limiting it to short-term goals that did not add significant value to the overall business. The transition from huge machinery to cloud-based software solutions was hurried and in turn backfired on the company. As a result GE found itself in a dark economic pothole.
There was no clarity on how they were arriving at their desired destination. Doing everything at once meant their vision became blurred. Resources had been spread far too thin, a lack of preparation for change and non-alignment in the business’ processes and structures led to an impeded change initiative. GE’s ambitious digital transformation initiative ultimately met significant challenges and setbacks, resulting in what can be labelled a GE Digital Transformation Failure.
Good Example| NASA, Apollo 11
On May 25th, 1961, John F. Kennedy — who is now understood to be the second most popular US president in history — publicly announced the primary objective of Apollo 11: to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to earth.
The events that followed are a testament to the clarity of that Vision:
July 16, 1969: Saturn V rocket was launched into space.
July 21, 1969: astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.
July 26, 1969: Saturn V rocket landed back on earth.
When John F. Kennedy first visited the Nasa Headquarters in 1961, he bumped into a man that was mopping the floor. Kennedy asked him what his role was at Nasa, his response; “I’m helping put a man on the moon!”
The Janitor understood the Vision, his purpose and his part in achieving the goal.
What went wrong for GE Digital? The right intention was there, however they got lost in the process of doing everything at once, without clarity on how they were getting from A to B. Without a clear vision, driving the digital transformation at the scale of GE-level enterprise was a doomed mission.
Why was NASA successful? Apollo 11 set out a clear Vision, communicated in an inspiring manner and by a respected leader, across all levels of hierarchy within the organisation. Team members being well-briefed meant that all parties were consciously and willingly involved in making the change happen. The objective that was set 7 years prior was met, and all those involved were part of the success story, including the janitor!
If done well, developing a full Vision serves as the guiding light that keeps an organisation focused and motivated during the challenging process of change.
Next Steps
Change isn’t an easy process, otherwise there would be no need for the The 9-Step Change Cycle series. We hope this article was somewhat beneficial, and your overall understanding of Developing a Vision is stronger.
The next stage in this series is ‘Communicate, Communicate, Communicate’. Step 4 will take a hands-on approach to the importance of speaking up, speaking loud (and clear), and speaking to everyone (relevant to your organisational change, that is).
If you need help making change happen in your organisation and wouldn’t mind the support of the experienced, feel free to book a free 30 minute chat with us, send us a message or visit our website for downloadable resources!