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How to Implement Successful Change Fast A Case Study

Written by: Terry Ingham

Article Overview: This article is about how one company dealt with an unprecedented pace of change.

How to Implement Successful Change Fast A Case Study

Setting the scene

The company involved has been in existence for over 50 years and in the past had been very profitable, but that was in the past. Over the years the company has changed hands a few times, with the current shareholders buying the business in 2001.

When the current owners bought the business, they made it quite clear that they were committed to the success of the business and to the site. Since the purchase, business conditions have worsened significantly with fierce competition coming from both the Chinese and more latterly Indian producers. It was clear that drastic action had to be taken to improve the site profitability; this triggered a wide-ranging restructuring programme, which resulted in the workforce being reduced by over 30%.

The ‘challenge’
Less people, more priorities, better customer service and cost savings were to become the order of the day. In the past, all attempts to implement change had been too short term or had limited success. If the business didn’t want to go down that same path again, it needed to do things differently this time. This meant it needed to equip its people with the skills to deal with and cope with the changes that were heading their way – and it had to do it fast. From now on continuous improvement needed to become the norm if the business was going to improve its performance and output. From now on, everyone was going to have to ‘step up to the plate’ and be counted.

So the scene was set, the business had its challenge, but it wasn’t going to be easy…

This was a traditional ‘Yorkshire, no nonsense culture and the management style reflected that. The site also has two trade unions, which needed to be involved in, and accept, the changes needed.

The ‘wider context’
As has already been outlined this project is not just about coaching, it’s much bigger than that, it’s about implementing a major change initiative at break neck speed. Although this article only addresses the coaching implications of this project, it is still useful to understand the context in which the coaching was set. Once the business had decided what it needed to do, it needed to decide how to do it and it quickly realised that it was not equipped with the skills for the job. The business needed help and this is where we came in.

A few months prior to all this, the Site Manager along with his Engineering Manager attended a seminar held by on Business & Operational Improvement and decided to invite us in to ‘have a chat’ (have you ever had a Yorkshire chat? – make sure you are prepared!). As a result of our chat, we got the go-ahead to undertake a Manufacturing Performance Assessment (MPA)*. That assessment threw up that the business was overmanned and performing well below capability according to industry benchmarks*. We made recommendations and we had done a good job, or so we thought. So we weren’t prepared for the response – thanks, but no thanks, was the answer that came back - but we kept in touch (be it carefully!) and eventually the site manager invited us ‘back for a chat’. We made sure we went prepared!

The ‘needs’
We discussed the findings from the MPA once more, but this time we also discussed what needed to be done about it. Five areas for improvement were identified that needed addressing:-

1. Re-organise the organisation around the new manning levels
2. Eliminate work that does not add value
3. Implement a reporting and control system
4. Change behaviour and attitudes by developing all levels of management
5. Become a continuous improvement organisation.

The coaching project was covered under item 4.
So why coaching? The MPA identified that if the organisation was going to have any chance of getting where it needed to go then people development would have to be treated seriously. It would require learning new skills and lots of training, but it didn’t stop there. It was also recognised that people were going to have to change their behaviours and attitudes as well and that would call for much more than training. What was needed was one-to-one help and support for people to change the way they looked at things and dealt with them and that called for coaching.

The ‘agreement’
The coaching brief was simple: - ‘To increase the effectiveness of the management team by enabling them to work successfully as a team’. Within the confines of this scope, we were asked to ‘Balance the needs of the individual in terms of the behaviour and performance against the needs of the organisation’.

The coaching programme started in July 2005 and is due to finish in April 2006. As we write this article, we are about halfway through the programme.

Two codes of conduct were adopted for this programme. One at a high level overarching the whole programme and that was the Association of Coaching’s code of conduct and one designed to be used specifically at a local level and dealing with issues we believed needed to be addressed (see fig 1below).

The ‘big sell’ – preparing the ground
The coaching element of the programme started with a whole host of one-to-one interviews. Line Managers, Functional Heads, Senior Managers and the Site Management Team were all invited to take part, on a voluntary basis, with one exception, the Site Management Team – for them it was mandatory. The purpose of the interviews was simple – to gain buy-in to the process, see things from the participants perspective and to identify the key issues that needed addressing.

At the beginning of each interview, it was confirmed the interviews were confidential and that the purpose of the interviews was to seek their views and opinions. It was also explained that this was their chance to have their say and to influence the shape of things to come. After some initial rapport building each interviewee was asked ‘If the company could only address 3 key issues what should they be and why in your opinion?’ Once the sessions were completed, the interview data was analysed and fed back (anonymously) to the Site Management Team. At that meeting, we discussed all the issues that needed to be addressed. They included - what training would be needed, when the training was going to be, how we would start up and run our coaching and mentoring programme, how we would support the process, and what support we would need from our consultants.

The ‘process’ – our road to excellence programme
Our programme consisted of five key stages:-
1. Provide coaching and mentoring training (mandatory for all prospective mentors).
2. Launch senior management coaching programme.
3. Brief line management on the coaching and mentoring programmes.
4. Launch line management mentoring programme.
5. Instigate regular mentor action learning sets (monthly).


1. The coaching and mentoring training was a great success. The management team created a common understanding about what coaching and mentoring was and the difference between them. They also agreed they were going to use the GROW and the 4-point coaching model. They bonded as a team, established a clear purpose for their programme and set specific objectives – something they had not been too good at in the past. One big dilemma for them was should the programme be voluntary or mandatory? In the end, they decided they should lead by example. That meant that they all took part in the coaching programme and they all became mentors so for them it would be mandatory. For everyone else it was voluntary.

2. The launch of the management coaching programme took place straight after the initial training was complete. This was a twin-track approach. At the same time as our dedicated external coach was coaching our senior managers, they were also being coached in how to coach others.

3. Once the senior management coaching programme was underway it was time to turn attention to getting the line management mentoring programme up and running. This was done by briefing the line management on the coaching and mentoring programmes. All line managers and key personnel were invited to the briefing session which provided an overview of the programmes and how they worked, as well as providing everyone with an opportunity to deal with any concerns that they may have and ask questions. At the briefing, it was made clear that the programme was voluntary and that everyone was being encouraged take part.

4. Launching the line management mentoring programme involved senior managers taking on the role of mentoring line managers/key personnel (the term mentoring was used to distinguish the difference between the external and internal elements of the coaching programme. The only stipulation here was that senior managers could not mentor their own line managers. The logic for this was simple: -
- We wanted to provide line manager with ‘another avenue of development opportunity’ and
- We wanted to ensure objectivity.
5. Instigating regular mentor action learning sets The training did not stop once the initial training was complete. An ongoing programme of monthly action learning sets was instigated. These events were again a great success. It was a time when we not only got a chance to pick up new skills and ideas from our external facilitator(s) but also got the chance to share our experiences with each other (anonymously of course) and this was a great way to learn our experiences. It also made us realise that we were not the only one’s having this or that problem.

The ‘benefits’
When asked what do you think the benefits of coaching has been? The company’s HR Manager said…

‘For us the benefits of coaching were on three levels; from being coached, coaching others and the benefits the mentee’s have gained’. She continued… ‘People now ‘think better’ and ‘behave better’. We are more confident as managers and we have become better managers. Having an external coach was the right thing to do. Just having someone there to talk to who was outside of our politics, impartial and objective was so beneficial. Our coach supported us every step of the way, encouraging us to think for ourselves, considering all the options and seeking our own solutions, but it doesn’t stop there, these skills are transferable so the home life benefits too’.

‘As for the mentoring of others well, that’s given us the opportunity to help others in the same way as we have been helped and that’s made us realise that we can make a difference and that’s a great feeling. Mentoring has taught us to listen more and ask better questions’.

‘As for bottom-line benefits, we are on target with all the objectives of our change programme and those achievements are down to our people and what they have achieved over that last few months both on a business as well as a personal level. A good example of that is our OTIF* levels, they are up from 49% in November to over 70% in December and that’s down to the people involved in that project and the changes they have made to the work they do and the way they approach their work – and that’s just one example, there’s many more.

So what does the mentee get out of all this we asked?

‘This programme has provided our mentee’s with an independent sounding board, someone who is outside of their line management, someone who will help them to gain clarity of their situation or problem and encourage them to resolve it - for themselves’. When we embarked on our coaching programme, our mentor’s had to approach the mentees, in some cases coerce, and cajole them just to take part. Now we are finding that people are approaching us and asking if they can be involved.

The ‘learning’
We also asked ‘So after all this what have you learnt and if you had your time again what would you do differently?’

‘When you first start mentoring people it’s hard but you need to keep your nerve and stick with it. This is where your coach comes in. If you have a good coach they will encourage you and keep you going’

‘We are only about halfway through our coaching programme but the initial signs are very encouraging. Positive feedback from line managers is indicating that people want more and are willing to share their experiences now they understand what it’s all about and can see the benefits it can provide’.

‘Having said that, if we had our time again we would put more effort into getting buy-in as early as possible. In our case only the two, most senior managers were involved in selecting the consultants we were to work with. This meant that when they (our consultants) turned up on our site, there was a lack of understanding, which in turn led to a great deal of mistrust. I think it’s fair to say we had an anti-consultants mindset seeing them as hoisted upon us. My advice is, involve all your management team in the decision..

The ‘future’
And finally, where to from here? 'Coaching is now part of the way we do things. We intend to extend the coaching on offer, roll it out across the site, make it available to everyone and integrate it into our personal development review process’.


References
1) MPA means Manufacturing Performance Assessment. It is a benchmarking key performance measurement process
2) Based on known benchmarks within the chemical and process industries sector
3) OTIF is On Time in Full. It’s a measure many companies use to measure customer service levels

First printed in Coach the Coach - Issue 24 - 2006

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Article Tags: attempts, better customer service, break neck, business conditions, change initiative, continuous improvement, drastic action, existence, indian producers, management style, neck speed, norm, priorities, profitability, purchase business, restructuring, shareholders, trade unions, workforce, yorkshire



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