From Doyle Young, Managing Director of the EverChange Group

Your Execution Competence – The Key To Facing Reality

Lawrence Summers, the recently departed President and Professor of Economics at Harvard University, recently made an interesting C-SPAN speech in which he referenced change as follows: “We are in the midst of ruthless, severe international competition.” In one sentence, Dr. Summers captured for many, the kinds of change organizations are experiencing.

Recognize the challenges with change
Never in my 30+ years in corporate America have I witnessed such a state of hyper-change; the world is truly becoming ‘flat’. Who would ever have imagined that for all their extensive, up-through-the-ranks experience, our corporate chieftains would have to untangle such complex problems? The list is long, from Sarbanes-Oxley, competition in its various forms, technology shifts, understanding talent needs and too many projects being launched with no capacity to achieve the goals within the timelines identified. Each of us has our own list of change challenges.

But while change management is a topic where intense institutional interest exists, it is only half the equation. And, any consideration by managers around change as a solo topic of discussion is sorely missing the central issue for today’s executive. Yes, while change is important for us to consider, let us be courageous and delve further. Change is just the doorway to the more demanding subject called “execution competence”.

Understand the organization’s capacity to change
From my firm’s work in myriad industries, we are convinced that ‘the rest of the change story’ or predominant issue, is related to execution competence. While recent books on the topic have opened the floodgate of dialogue around how to successfully execute in a world of hyper-change and the importance of creating ‘execution cultures’, executives need to go further by understanding the capacity of their organization to execute. While we know that running today’s organizations is complex and demanding, I am finding leaders of organizations awakening to the fact that while change is a way of corporate life the ability to execute is the sole definer of performance success.

Develop the ability to execute on strategy
What is now starting to hit home in the blueprinting of strategies, is leaders realizing the need to consider the ‘organizational capacity to implement strategy’. Now, more than ever, execution needs to be the central theme in our strategy considerations. For example, do business leaders have a clear reading on employees’ understanding of key strategies? In a recent client survey of 18,000 employees, 74% of the top 1,000 managers indicated they do not understand the one to three year business strategy for the company. Is this a communication issue or is it perception based on performance?

Implement change readiness assessments
If properly planned, enterprise readiness assessments can provide outstanding insights into the hearts and minds of employees. For example, where are the perceived weakest and most vulnerable areas of strategy? Does the firm have a systems model or approach that identifies key performance dimensions that align to successful execution and how does each of our respective business units ‘measure up’ to the ‘execution gaps’? Only with these kinds of information can our dialogue start shifting from “change” to “execution”.

Correlate assessment to capacity to change
In my recent interviews with managers of a large international software company, I was overcome by their lack of ‘surge’ energy, an important performance indicator. In the words of my grandmother, they were “plum tired out”. The group had missed one software launch, with no room left for another – missing the next launch would not be a career enhancing move. Customer demands had left the key managers wondering if they could ramp-up to successfully execute the next project. Interestingly enough, money was abundantly available to the division chief. In my debrief with him, he was unaware of the change averse nature of his key staff in achieving the next set of goals; it was not that the group did not want to achieve its goals; simply put, they were unable to, given the impact of successive emergencies.

A leader’s view of change will determine their conduct around execution. If they see both topics as inextricably tied in terms of planning and execution, then they have an excellent start. Also, they should realize that they may be entering a phase where they will need to make some tradeoffs. For example, are there too many IT projects launched with no capacity to achieve the goals within the timeframes identified? If you’re looking for a good place to start increasing execution competence then focus your readiness assessments to get specific feedback in these performance dimensions areas – more information in these areas will help entrenched executives change their point of view.

1. Continuous Improvement
2. Continuous Learning
3. Clarity of Direction
4. Leadership
5. Communication
6. Uncertainty Alignment
7. Customer Focus
8. Organizational Change Readiness

Develop targeted actions plans that address change aversion
Recognizing trends in change aversion in any one of these key areas can lead to a much shorter execution timeline in effecting change. To be swift and successful, a leader will not only recognize the significance of miscommunication with key staff and constituents, but possess the tools to immediately act on tearing down the barriers in the way of implementation.

Where to target
Situations where readiness assessments can be of great value are the following:

1. Front end of a change process to diagnose the problems;

2. New leaders to quickly build organizational knowledge and engagement;

3. Restructurings to build employee engagement and maintain organizational focus;

4. Enrich new innovation platforms for products and services; and

5. Mergers and Acquisitions to understand and leverage the comparative strengths and weaknesses and ensure optimal post-merger integration.

Over the coming months, through this eNewsletter, ECG will be presenting thought provoking challenges, insights and case studies from the ‘front-lines’ of our work with clients. With over 100 associates nationwide, utilizing our audit, design and implementation support services, we are committed to helping our clients understand their capacity to change through assessment and giving them the tools to act quickly.

Doyle Young is the author of The Ever-Changing Organization, Creating the Capacity for Continuous Change, Learning and Improvement (St. Lucie Press), and is the Managing Director, The EverChange Group. Please feel free to contact Doyle at Doyle@EverChangeGroup.com.

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