Building the Skills for Successful Change

The pace of business continues to quicken. Companies must repeatedly change just to keep up, let alone become a market leader. Managers and employees are key to the success of these changes. They require new skills and behaviors in order to manage the change and contribute to the new organization. However, many of the necessary, new skills cannot be learned on the job. How can a company prepare its people for change? And how can a company reskill its people in the time frames required?

Education programs play a vital role in organizational change initiatives. Companies that value learning and align their education programs with change initiatives significantly increase their chances for success in their markets. Employees who participate in effective education programs are prepared to participate in, support, and even lead a changing organization.

Kendall Consulting Group has successfully helped many companies plan and conduct education programs, usually in conjunction with major business change initiatives. Our experience and approach has been essential to the success of changing organizations.

In this issue of Innovations, we explore the business situations that drive the need for education programs, describe how education programs are linked to business change, and provide some planning steps that have contributed to successful education programs. Several mini-case studies are included at the end of the article.

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Companies often demonstrate a marked distinction in its attitudes towards employee education. One leading company noted for its agility, stressed continual learning and education throughout their organization. They continually offered programs that even the CEO participated in. Courses were conducted with a wide range of talented faculty and unique approaches. Education programs were tied to company strategies and individual goals, and were tested constantly for their relevance and effectiveness in producing real business change and results.

Other companies use a much different approach to education of their managers and employees. They have limited budgets for education and training. Courses are offered, but not tied to the direction and growth of the company. Employees complain that they are falling behind. The best employees often leave to find places where they can grow and sustain skills needed in their industry.

The first company has learned to value education as a key mechanism to support organizational change. By recognizing that education has a purpose and relevance, they have maximized their return on investment. When companies undertake change initiatives, one of the corner posts of the effort needs to be a vital education program. Yet, few leaders think of or manage the link between change initiatives and education programs.

Today, there are many drivers of organizational change that mandate some kind of educational response. Some of these drivers are:

• The pace of business now allows little time to contemplate options and arrive at orderly solutions; the time buffers available to derive workable strategies are gone -- organizations must know what to do and have the skills in place when a response is required.

• New technologies and applications emerge daily that can have far-reaching impact on organizational competitiveness. However, senior managers often lack the knowledge and skill needed for their businesses to take full advantage of these technologies.

• Job complexity is increasing. Traditional approaches to work often do not work as well as teams, networks, or process management. In many changing organizations, the cross-functional knowledge-base and new style of operation are being learned on the job, often in a way that misses opportunities or postpones the real benefits of change.

• New approaches to business renovation and process redesign challenge many of the old paradigms about business and work. Managers now must also be change leaders dealing with increased ambiguity, complexity, new paradigms, and overcoming resistance to proposed change. These are skills and aptitudes in which few managers receive formal training or education.

Faced with challenges such as these, some executives hope that their employees will develop necessary, new skills on the job (or have already developed the skills in previous jobs and assignments). Other managers launch generic education programs with only "fuzzy" links to the changes in the business. Benefits of these programs are often intangible and unmeasured. Attendees and sponsors alike are left wondering about the effectiveness of the programs.

Links to Change Efforts

Education or training programs should be an integral part of any change initiative in an organization. The programs are "a means to an end," and should help achieve the objectives of the change initiatives. Education programs need to be tied to business results.

There are several characteristics of education programs that ensure they are sufficiently link to organizational change initiatives:

The context and purpose for the education program must be clear and openly articulated to the organization. Program sponsors should have a high-profile within the organization and should state, "We are making these changes, and therefore our employees need to have the following skills, competencies, aptitudes, attitudes, or awareness ..." Further, the context of the educational program must be stated in detail so that the relevance of specific program features is understood and linked to each individual's future needs and contribution to the organization. During an education program, employees should not wonder "Why are they teaching us this? How does this relate to my job? How will this help me?"

Resources for relevant, high-quality education initiatives must be allocated by senior management. Effective education programs require resources - time, staff, and money. Neglecting to allocate adequate resources to change or education programs will cause them to fail. Hoping that employees will pick-up needed skills or understanding on their own without targeted programs is wistful thinking. Similarly, using the cheapest education resources may produce activity, but ineffective results. As a general rule, quality faculty consistently produce quality results.

An education initiative needs to have its own support processes to ensure effective and lasting impact. Steps must be taken to ensure integration of the program goals and materials into the daily work of attendees. Program results should be tied to personal goal-setting, performance appraisal systems, and reward or recognition systems of an organization. Without these links and measurements, an education program becomes a few interesting days away from an attendee's daily routine, and the attendee has no motivation to personally change his/her behavior or attitude.

Barriers to Impact

One company began the renovation of its information technology group with an education program aimed at changing how the group dealt with their internal clients. The program stirred-up considerable controversy around changing responsibilities, but failed to achieve the expected results. When the education program was assessed, the following were impediments to the program's contribution to the change process.

• Participants doubted the relevance of the course material to their daily jobs. Further, they did not believe their daily jobs would change. Participants had not learned or accepted the context for the change program. The opportunity to discuss and debate the changes to their jobs was not adequately provided during the program.
• Employees felt they were already doing a good job and didn't need to improve their skills. They were not listening to or hearing criticisms of their performance.
• Program sponsors forced weeks of material into a three-day program to save money and reduce the time participants were away from their jobs.
• Middle managers were not required to attend the program. Participants saw this as a vote by those managers that the program was not important. Additionally, the middle managers were not prepared to reinforce program messages and concepts or to call upon participants to use and apply course skills.
• Other initiatives were deemed a higher priority by senior management. Program participants had little time to perfect new skills.
• The culture of the organization did not value formal education. Only skills learned from the "university of hard knocks" were valued.
• Senior management had not linked the program to pay scales, promotions and promotability, career tracks or performance appraisals. The participants were not rewarded for their time and effort.
• The program participants felt that they could resist the changes being implemented by blocking acceptance of the program teachings. There were no reinforcement mechanisms in place to augment the lessons learned or to encourage outside learning.

The foundation for successful education must be set ahead of time. Patching up problems after the education program has begun is almost impossible. Participants in any education initiative must be convinced that the program is worth their time; it must be relevant to their daily work.

Planning Successful Programs

Planning an effective education program begins with a stakeholder analysis that is associated with a business change effort. [For more information, see Innovations titled "Managing Change: A Proven Path to Business Success." Click here to go directly to that article.] The change team, which is leading the change program and defining the supporting education program, would create the stakeholder analysis. A stakeholder analysis identifies each of the major stakeholders or stakeholder groups that will be affected by proposed changes, documents their interest or stake in the change, anticipates points of support and resistance, and lists key actions that can be taken in order to facilitate a smooth transition. Education is one if the key actions to be taken.

The change team needs to understand how education would enhance each stakeholder's ability, understanding, or cooperation. Continually asking "What are the goals for education here?" will help add focus and relevance, and ensure linkage to the overall change goals of the business. Once the purpose, role, and targets of education are clear, the tactics for the education program can be planned.

Education is undertaken for any of four reasons:

Skills development. The changes planned for the organization require certain employees to develop new proficiencies and skills.

Attitude change. A value or culture change requires people to behave in a way appropriate to the new business processes and strategies.

Awareness. To facilitate the change process, employees need to be aware of the changes underway and management's expectations of their roles and participation.

Knowledge building. People need to know more about their industry, markets, and business to successfully do their jobs.

Next, a plan for the education program is assembled. Key questions that need answering include:

• What is the purpose(s) of the education or training?
• Who is the sponsor for this program?
• Who should participate? Are their managers involved?
• What are the best mechanisms and media to get the education across?
• Which faculty will be effective given course context, purpose, and media?
• How will the value and effectiveness of the education be assessed?
• Where shall we conduct the program?
• What will be the timing and frequency of delivery?
• How will the program schedule fit with the schedule of the change program?
• What are the barriers to the program's success?
• How will reinforcement and continued learning occur?
• What are the expectations regarding education or training?
• What has been our experience with educational programs?
• How does the education program fit with other communications programs? [See companion Innovations article on the role of Communications in business change. Click here.]

Answers to many of these questions will be easier to identify if the leaders in the organization have discussed and agreed upon a set of education principles. Education principles detail the rules for education programs in areas such as eligibility - who can and should attend; measurement - how will we know if the program has been a success; assignments and mobility - how will we treat people after or during the program; priority - priority of education over daily jobs, other projects, vacations, etc.; and the timing and sequence relative to other initiatives going on in the business. [For more information, see another Innovations article: "Principle-Driven Operations: Challenging and Clarifying the Basis for Work and Change"]

Summary

To ensure an education program's effectiveness, program planners should coordinate and integrate the programs with organizational changes. The organization should encourage the application of new skills, attitudes, and knowledge that the program presents. Adequate time and training should be permitted to develop new skills and to fit the skills to changes in the business processes. Performance goals and appraisals should reinforce desired skills and behaviors. Measures and methods to evaluate effectiveness in applying new skills should be available to both employees and managers. Job descriptions or competency models should be changed.

Education programs play a vital role in the success of organizational change. Employees who participate in effective education programs are prepared to participate in, support, and even lead a changing organization. These employees are armed with the tools for success.

Case Studies

Company A. To retain experienced information systems employees and meet a companyÕs need for a problem-solving group that could work across divisions, this company created an internal consulting group with eight information systems business analysts. The manager of this new group and one of the senior analysts worked with Kendall Consulting Group to define and communicate the need for an education program that would be especially relevant to the new team. The manager devoted time and resources to define the program and to ensure that the participants understood the need for the change. KCG provided the technically skilled team with training, coaching, and case analyses over several months in consulting skills and methods. The new manager had KCG create a customized business process redesign methodology that fit the skills and capabilities of the team members and enabled them to produce powerful results in their assignments. Further, KCG was asked to partner with each of these new consultants as they conducted their initial engagements to ensure that the consulting concepts were effectively applied and unforeseen problems addressed effectively. KCG also helped build new management processes for the group, including competency models and an appraisal process for the team.

Company B. Leaders of a manufacturing company needed to dramatically reduce operating costs and improve productivity in operations in order to retain its competitive position. Management conducted several sessions to introduce the case for action and build support for an education program and culture change that would target these results. The focus of the program was the plant managers and operating supervisors who needed new approaches to innovation and problem solving that would deliver breakthrough business results. KCG created an education program that would teach managers and supervisors the tools, techniques, and attitudes needed to identify breakthroughs in their operations. In the initial program session, productivity improvement and cost reduction innovations were identified totaling over $500,000 per year. Further, managers embraced the program and agreed to implement the program in their own plants. Senior management announced new appraisal and bonus processes that would support and encourage breakthrough thinking. The program is now being rolled out to the rest of the manufacturing employees, and mechanisms are being established to share ideas across the various plants.

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Innovations is KCG's publication focused on organizational and technological change. Each issue of Innovations presents one or two case studies on a key topic as well as an approach or methodology relating to the situation. A recent issue is published below. We would particularly like to hear your comments about this issue and how you were able to use it in your company, or, conversely what you wish you could find in terms of subject material.