There has been an increase of Companies and Managers wanting stronger connections of the ideas to the work.

This is a great thing.

We still need to understand the theory behind our actions, and the actions will reinforce the theory.

The challenge consistently arises when there is an expectation that what has to happen is major Organizational Change.

It is efficacious to

1. Determine the Goal – within the persons time-span of handling work.

2. Determine where they are right now, in reference to the goal.

3. Determine what they have already accomplished and how they got that done.

4. Ask, What is your next step? When can we go-and-see?

• What is your next step?
• If you were one step closer to the goal, how would you know?
• In the past with the success you have already had, what could you go-and-see that showed that you are progressing?

Try it and let me know your next steps.

michael cardus is create-learning

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All of us and our companies are in constant change, and we know this. Different people need different levels of information and motivation for the change to happen. As a manager YOU NEED the wisdom and ability to manage the process and add value to peoples decisions and work.

Contact Mike to make your Organization, Team and Leaders – plan for change better.

Planning a Change

When planning for a change you need reflective and purposeful steps. This change may be personal and or professional.

By setting a model for you to place objective thoughts into. As a leader you will be better equipped to determine areas of success and which areas to proceed into next with planning and decisions.

• I don’t know the original source of this model.

Below are questions (by no means comprehensive) that will serve you in thinking through, planning, and making successful action steps for a change.

Planning a Change Question Sheet

Vision

• What is the purpose?
• Who will it affect? How?
• Why is it important to your team? The organization/business/community?
• What made you decide that this is important?
• Did you ask your team for input? If so how and what was their input? If not, why not?
• How will this change affect the staff? Those you serve (clients, customers, vendors, suppliers, supervisor(s), etc…)? You as a leader?
• Describe the ideal state…Describe the current state…How will you achieve the ideal state?

Skills

• In what ways might the staff and your existing skill set be useful for the change?
• What new skills will be needed?
• How will you accomplish training these new skills?
• Explain, in detail the necessary skill set for completion of change (if multiple people have/need multiple skills, list the key responsibilities of the change and the necessary skill sets for success)
• What skills will you as leader(s) need for implementation of the vision?
• How can the Leadership team partner with you to enable completion?

Incentives

 Explain your plan to move your team and yourself towards completion of this change

• Why should we work towards this change?
• How is this change relevant? Now? In the future?
• Identify the resistors to the change.
• Identify the champions of the change. 
• What will keep you, as the leader motivated?
• How will you continue to keep the team focused?
• How will you measure success and failure?
• What steps will you take to reward success and re-direct unmotivated team members?

Resources

Explain what you have and what you need

• What kind of budget will be available?
• How much time is needed?
• Explain how this change will be delegated to staff members.
• What will be the steps for follow-up and accountability?
• What resource do you currently have available (list everything from paperwork to people to machines to policies – the more explicit you are in what you have the better your completion will be)
• What resources will you need (list everything from paperwork to people to machines to policies – the more explicit you are in what you need the better your completion will be)
• In what ways may you secure these needs?

Action Plan

Explain in detail what you are going to do and how it will get done

• Re-visit your Vision – and break the change into steps.
• What are the steps for completion?
• Goal (Quality, Quantity, Time Frame, Resources) – What is the 1^st step for completion?
• Strategy – In what ways might you implement a strategy for completion of the 1^st step?
• Objective – How will you know that you have completed the 1^st step?
• Responsibility – Who’s going to accomplish the objective?
• Timeline – When is the implementer going to accomplish that objective?
• Feedback and Evaluation – Who and how is the implementer going to know if they accomplished good or bad work on their objective?

Final Thoughts:

• How do you plan for a change?
• What existing processes do you / team / organization have in place for reflective thought?
• Would this system work for plans outside of change? what would be different?
• Describe how this applies to your current practice / life?

Having the Model is Easy, Making Change Happen is NOT…

I have successfully led change and solution focused efforts for organizations, teams and managers of all sizes and structures. To make change happen CLICK THE BOX below, and be the reason that change is successful and people love the work they do.

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Sitting in the office of the Dean of Students for a High School, talking about a Scholastic-Leadership program I am leading with the Administration, Faculty and students, he said “Mike we need to return, for lack of a better word, back to basics.” He said this almost apologetically.

That made me wonder –

What is so wrong with going back to basics?

People fear the that as they become managerial-leaders the idea of ‘The-Basics’ is something they should have already established.

But you see time and time again…that these basics are horribly described and defined within the organizational structure.

For example Goal-Setting, you cannot get more basic than that. Companies and individuals collectively spend millions of dollars a year on Goal-Setting tools, training, coaching, development, etc… Plus which basic Goal-Setting is the ‘basics’ of that organization? Perhaps your manager uses SMART while my manager uses QQT/R while the CEO was trained in some other method.  Just google goal setting method and you get over 13million results.

Like Elliot Jaques wrote in Requisite Organization

In this conceptual Babel, our field is like alchemy in the 15th and 16th centuries. Our gimmicks are like the search for the philosopher’s stone which would change dross to gold.

 What’s the point?

My point is that we need to focus on defining what the basics are. When we identify what they are, create a shared organizational knowledge base of training, coaching, and access to these basics. Then actually use these basics as they are intended to be used.

My argument is that instead of going ‘Back-to-Basics’ we need to ‘Define what the basics are’ then we can get back to them.

Most organizations, managers and employees don’t even know the basics you are talking about, so they have no idea how to get there.

What do you think?

How do you define ‘Basics’ of your organization, teams and management? When some-one says “We have to get back to basics here.” Do you know what that means? Really? How might you create solutions to the problem outlined above?

michael cardus is create-learning

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As managers we find it too easy to have people come to us with problems, we tell them quick solutions, then they leave and we feel like our work is done.

Only that is not true, because in 1 week, month, year, inevitably the same problems return again, and we sit in our office tell someone else (or the same person) what to do. Then repeat…

That is Managements Job Isn’t it?

My answer is NO.

Management doesn’t need to bring solutions to problems. What management should bring into the organization is a system/process/habit/behavior/practice for how people should act when faced with a situation.

A need to ‘go-and-see’ the problem with the person. For a solution to be found, we must actually see what is happening as it happens. Metrics, charts and other abstract methods are useful. BUT we must Go-And-See what is happening. Then make one small improvement (solution-step) that we can go-and-see what’s happening.

The Inquiry

• What is the situation?
• When can we go-and-see?
• How should things be? what should be happening, how is the machine supposed to work, how is the person supposed to handle that, etc…
• What might be preventing that from happening?
• When can we go-and-see?
• What is the situation we currently see?
• How should things be?
• What might be preventing that from happening?
• How will we know when it is happening?
• When can we go-and-see?
• What would be one solution, knowing what you know, to try?
• Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
• Try that.
• When can we go-and-see?
• Repeat steps 1 – 14

It sounds arduous, this can happen in one shift or less.

The solution can be found and the process improved so that the employee can now solve problems and work through a process, knowing what to improve and not implementing quick fixes that will return.

Imagine every person in your organization, consistently examining where they are vs. where they should be and taking small steps to improve their work. Within a managerial-leadership process that encourages small steps and Go-And-See solutions.

michael cardus is create-learning

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Handling complexity is at the heart of competence to find solutions. How managers solve problems is in turn at the heart of how they are regarded by their staff, and also the strength of their managerial-leadership. To have managers that understand complexity is crucial for an organization to survive and thrive.

This is the solution to increasing your ability to work with complexity and change.

Outcomes

• Gain competence in Information Complexity that will lead to improved decision-making and problem solving for the organization;
• Gain competence in Problem Complexity that will lead to greater success in achievement of long-term organizational goals and organizational innovations in services, processes and procedures;
• Assess for subordinates and self, the Current-Actual-Level of Information and Problem Complexity;
• Assess the Organization’s Current-Actual-Level of Information and Problem Complexity;
• Increase quality completion of goals and task assignment, due to proper delegation in the proper way with the proper level of complexity and change;
• Use Tools and Methods to coach and mentor subordinates to flourish into their potential and increase their own ability to handle complexity and change. This leads to a stronger succession plan for the future of the organization.

Situation

Managerial-Leaders are challenged by the need to deal with some of the most complex issues in the organization requiring decision making and problem solving, even at times when the future is unclear or uncertain.

Innovation and critical thinking are essential skills. The ability to handle organizational complexity goes beyond strategic planning as managerial-leaders need to take action and increase their ability to deal with ambiguity and complexity.

The best strategic plans cannot be implemented without the skills to engage in critical thinking, manage organizational complexity, make decisions, innovate and solve problems. Decisions have to be made to address current issues as well as those what will arise in 2-5 years. Many aspects have to be considered such as Federal/State/Local politics, changing regulations, increasing or changing staff and customer needs, vendor issues, overlapping systems with differing needs and priorities, as well as staff competencies and training needs.

This training program supplies senior leaders with evidence-based tools and strategies to navigate change and the increasing complexity that exists within organizations. Role competence requires that senior staff lead the organization through times of complexity, high levels of ambiguity, and change.

As a person is promoted within the organization, the concrete, day-to-day operations become less important and the conceptual, year-to-year operations become more important. Very few leaders are trained and able to handle this change from day-to-day operation to month-to-month to year-to-year. In order for the organization to thrive and last, long term plans must be made to address an often ambiguous future.

Content will supply Managerial-Leaders with the knowledge and tools to make the best decisions they can through times of complexity and change. All people in organizations work with complexity and change. Senior staff must be capable of understanding the more complex systems, translating the plan and goals to their subordinates, then ensuring that the subordinates have the necessary ability and resources to complete their work and handle their own complexity and change.

Time Frames

The ideal process time is approximately 18 hours of classroom training with 12 hours of consulting, and application coaching. The training, consulting and coaching are best used over a 6 to 8 month period of time. This way Managerial-Leaders have the opportunity to test, apply, and learn from success and failure in the field. Contact Mike (1-716-629-3678) to discuss options and your organizational needs.

This is meant to be real-work on real-complex organizational problems.

If you are looking for something shorter below is the break down of the workshops. Plan on each taking approximately 6 hours of training with 4 hours of consulting and coaching. Contact Mike to discuss options and your organizational needs.

Content

What is Organizational Complexity and Change?

Overview: Complexity is determined by the number of factors, the rate of change of those factors, and the ease of identification of the factors in the situation. Complexity is separated into two categories

1. Information Complexity: Human work is concerned with the use of judgment and decision making. The complexity of the work will be expressed in the complexity of the information which a person uses in problem-solving.

2. Problem Complexity: The complexity of a problem does not lie in the complexity of the goal, but in the complexity of the pathway that has to be constructed and then traversed in order to get to the goal.

Content will focus on gaining understanding of Information and Problem Complexity, its direct application to senior staff, and illustrate a systemic process of moving the organization toward achievement of long-term goals.

Determining the Current-Actual-Level of Information and Problem Complexity

Overview: Leading through complexity and change within an organization requires a thorough knowledge of the organization as a whole and peoples’ Current-Actual-Level and comfort in dealing with complexity and change. Once this is known then the proper plans and skills for making change happen and managing can be matched to the right team, person and process.

Content will cover the 5 step formula for determining Current-Actual-Level of information and problem complexity. Steps to properly match organizational goals and objective within a time-frame that makes the work achievable. Additional focus will be spent on managing change and creating solution focused steps to build upon organizational and people’s existing strengths, developing a culture that continually improves through complexity and change.

Leading through Complexity & Change in Action

Overview: Once the foundational knowledge and organizational understanding of Information and Problem Complexity is understood, there are a series of tools that can be used to implement the process. Managerial-Leaders will use these tools to solve and handle complexity and change that they are currently dealing with. This session will provide a feedback system to enhance the decision making and problem solving of the participants.

Content will cover the use of Plan:Do:Check:Act models for setting short term measurements of success and failure. Examining various complexity and change tools to assist the leader in understanding, planning and ensuring the proper level of focus to achieve organizational goals. Additionally participants will use a Coaching for Performance Model to develop subordinates to better work with Complexity and change, creating a stronger succession plan within the organization.

How your organization, management and you manage complexity & change will move you into your potential.

Click the box below to be the reason success happens.

michael cardus is create-learning

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In Standardization is the first step to innovation, Alan Kay Wrote, “…every team is different. I think you have to take the principles and practices you mention, align them with the goals of the organization and decide where to place the emphasis. The application would vary greatly if you were running a highly regulated business, e.g., healthcare vs. an innovative internet retailing business.”

I agree that the emphasis may be different for different teams and industries. And every organization and person, in order to do their best work at their maximum effectiveness seeks personal mastery. 

For innovation to take place the person traverses through 3 phases of learning. Rote Copying, Surface Understanding, Personal Mastery. 

Using the examples Alan supplied lets see how innovation of process and the need for standardization applies.

HealthCare: Is regulated yes, and being that I have had my blood drawn and seen blood drawing at 5 different facilities in the past year that will my example. Each facility and individual when drawing blood has their own way of completing this task. They use different techniques, tell different stories. I have even seen a variety of needles, tubes, containment systems…The way they arrange the needles, the steps they take, etc…

All of this is their judgment and decision in solving the problems that arise during their tasks. This ‘personalized’ technique and for some great skills set (some phlebotomists are amazing and you cannot even feel the needle, some are really horrible they dig and poke and leave bruises) came from;

• Rote Copying in Medical and / or Nursing school, plus some residency or apprenticeship. Where they were watched and told to just follow the steps.
• Surface Understanding As the comfort level increased and the professor, managers, peers coached and showed they tricks they began to “get a feel” for how drawing blood works.
• Personal Mastery after several years the gains in process innovation in blood drawing are great, and they now have their own process that is still within the regulations.

This one feels obvious, because what the Nurse does is routine day in and day out from what we see. But with every step in the process he has to use his judgment about the environment, patient, time, and several other factors.

Innovative Internet Retailing Business: Perhaps not as regulated as healthcare and still there are Goals, Roles, Procedures that exist either explicitly they are part of a training manual, shared understood, known to the employee. Or implicitly Not documented although exist as part of the unspoken rules and norms of the organization.

The people who make up this business all must operate within the assigned Goals, Roles and Procedures of the company-otherwise the company would not exist. While we may think that Rote Copying, Surface Understanding, and Personal Mastery doesn’t apply to what is called innovative business, it  still does.

A Customer Representative from this company is the example. All customer reps in this company like the phlebotomist above have their own way of solving problem and making decisions, within the boundaries of their work. These boundaries are often called Policies & Procedures, Local Operating Standards (LOP) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) etc… Their own person mastery of how they answer the customer request, interact, calm irate people, solve problems etc…

All of this is their judgment and decision in solving the problems that arise during their tasks. This ‘personalized’ technique and for some great skills set (some customer service reps are amazing, some are really horrible) came from;

• Rote Copying they had to learn how to answer the phone, use the computer system, communicate with other sales reps and departments within the company, speak to a customer, etc… This all happened in a combination of on the job and possibly from other workplaces. They just copy what they see and are coached evaluated by more senior members and managers.
• Surface Understanding After some time the rep. begins to work on his own, taking calls, solving problems and dealing with customers. From the rote copying, she knows some boundaries and best practices from others. The understanding of how the system works and how to interact with the customer increases. Still the manager and senior members supply coaching and feedback.
• Personal Mastery Now the rep. is examining her own process for working with customers and finds their own tricks and steps to improve the work within the given set of boundaries. Using relationship and continuous improvement to master the innovative internet retail business.

At any given moment all of us, whether in work, relationships, life are Rote Copying, Surface Understanding, and Personally Mastering many things and many times at many levels.

What an organization needs to do it acknowledge this and develop a system where everyone consistently is improving their work. The managers job is to learn how each person is improving their work, encourage everyone to teach and share what and how they are improving, then unify this knowledge in such a way that others can learn from it.

Whether you are mopping a floor, to selling a car, to designing the next innovative patent … It starts with copying what already exists, developing an understanding of how and why it works, then mastering and evolving the process to match your needs and situation.

michael cardus is create-learning

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