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Change for Good...What You Leverage and Measure, You Get!

Guest post by: Bill and Katharine White

Article Overview: Planning for change is a key phrase of the day. We all know why...we have to get better, be more productive, drive more customer loyalty, make less errors, do more sales, achieve more employee engagement. "You can't manage what you don't measure" is a companion mantra, acknowledging the value of meaningful change metrics.

Change for Good...What You Leverage and Measure, You Get!

Planning for change is a key phrase of the day. We all know why...we have to get better, be more productive, drive more customer loyalty, make less errors, do more sales, achieve more employee engagement. "You can't manage what you don't measure" is a companion mantra, acknowledging the value of meaningful change metrics. So we consider a cultural change project, a total quality initiative, a breakthrough training program, and we waffle on what leverage point(s) and measures will evidence success.

How could it be that a company leader gets excited about the potential that a cultural change project could achieve, brings in the right consultant at the right time, for a reasonable investment, but often never pinpoints up front, the exact key variable(s) and associated metrics that will demonstrate successful outcomes?

It is most often because of how difficult it is to achieve consensus about what should be measured and how sensitive some of those core issues are which need to be changed.

Wrestling among multiple indicator sets, executives tend to be married to their "discipline familiar" functional metrics, i.e. HR to employee retention, Finance to profitability, Operations to productivity and Quality to process variation. Wherefore art thou those exact measures that would demonstrate this new change initiative is delivering on its promise?

Still further confounding the picture is that while specific "change efficacy" measures may be selected, the dialog ends precipitously short of determining what leverage points within the company are most predictive of the improvement measures?

For example, if a key to profitability in a technology company is the effectiveness of sales conversations with customers in the field, then improving those conversations through a targeted intervention such as incorporating coaching skills into the sales approach, should directly stimulate a measurable increase in sales. Those sales then drive company profitability, and voila, we have a direct correlation with an intervention (sales "coaching" conversations) and profitability.

If this example was fact rather than fiction, all company executives would be "sold" on profitability as a solid measure, and the enhanced, (through coaching) sales conversations as a key leverage point.

Back to exacting measures from executives on culture change projects: What is a change agent to do, as one approaches the executive team right at the beginning of the project? Imagine a hospital daunted by a worsening shortage of nurses, in the context of recruitment and retention rates predicting disaster? The promise of a values driven, behavioral change consultation is only as powerful as the potential for improving recruitment/retention metrics by zeroing in on what might be the real cause(s) for why nurses leave the organization.

The impact measures that executives clearly care about are whether the hospital "cultural change" initiative can attract and retain nurses. Extending the dialogue to what leverage points are the "make or break" experience(s) for retaining nurses may uncover that many nurses are psychologically and verbally abused by other health care professionals (other nurses) during their first year of employment, causing them to leave for other potentially more rewarding jobs.

Targeted interventions could then focus on awareness training and zero tolerance for evidence of such abuse, often referred to as "lateral violence" (Griffin et.al, 2004). Tracking the exact measure of nurse retention in the first year of employment after the intervention(s) then, will tell the story on program effectiveness.

How far will your organization go to exact agreement up front from executives and key others, wrestling through to a consensus on leverage points and impact measures? Will brainstorming the leverage points and impact measures include some staff "closest to the action"- it had better. Before any project is launched that holds the promise of change, go to the mat with your entire team to get leverage points and exact measures down pat. Then, and only then, can one best expect on-target

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Article Tags: customer loyalty, employee engagement, interventions, leverage, meaningful change, planning for change, profitability, project launch



Related Forum Posts
Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Points which are considered in a bank? - I have tried to value banks several times and found it very hard to proceed with it. I know a bit. But it seems to be too less to proceed. Can we take this up?? Here is what I know 1. Price to book is a more imp. 2. Net interest income and non-interest income need to thought of. 3. Loan loss provisioning. 4. Coverage ratio. 5. Cost of funds. 6. ROA, ROE 7. NPA 8. Deposits and advances. 9. Capital adequacy ratio 10. Tier 1, Tier 2 capital consideration. 11. Leverage, loan book value 12. LIBOR, SLR, CRR There are many more. And even in the ones above, it’s pretty hard to value a bank.
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Are you an Opportunity Addict? - 1) if you find yourself saying yes without thinking about how it will affect your other priorities 2) you have over 10 projects/inventions going on at the same time and this seems normal to you 3) you have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on manufacturing, prototypes, etc. not to mention thousands of hours of your time....but you havent followed through on any of it 4) most of your projects are falling behind or have completely fallen off your radar....which is fueling your frustration The first step in recovery is to recognize this as a pattern of self sabotage. If you are clear in what your overall goals and objectives are, you should be able to create a lens through which you measure opportunities. You create your life, and your to do list. Change, Add, Remove, Adjust time-lines - whatever you like. But remember that every piece of unfinished business - stays that way J


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