Talent Management Activity Alignment Key for Growth
by Carol Henriques
As the global economy shows signs of volatility, businesses face a new set of challenges as they strive for stronger performance. Organizations working on their growth agendas are not willing to sacrifice the progress they have made. But the investment associated with growth can be unpalatable in economically uncertain times. So many organizations have embarked on dual objectives: belt-tightening and growth.
As the economy weathers uncertain times, businesses are hard-pressed to squeeze every ounce of fat from their organizations to reinvest those dollars into activities that drive growth. At the same time, organizations are deploying people in different ways to better align them with the company's business strategy and quest for profit. That means changing the way people work.
True change - the ideal of best intentions designed to create new behaviors with different outcomes - is elusive. For individuals, it is certainly a challenge. But for organizations struggling to affect transformational change, well-intentioned approaches to company-wide change frequently fail.
Transformational change is difficult to initiate and even harder to sustain, especially during times when external markets are changing rapidly. As one sage client said, "Making change happen during uncertain times requires that we do the equivalent of changing a car tire while zipping down a highway at 60 miles per hour! We have to maintain or improve today's performance while we position ourselves for even stronger future performance. "
The most common pitfalls are found in how companies approach transformational change. Many have historically tried broadscale change through behavioral training and culture programs. These drain resources and distract individuals while never really addressing the core issues: Behavior in an organization really changes when one changes the work. The role individuals performs is the primary determinant of the behaviors they demonstrate.
Three Phases of Activity Alignment
The key to transformational change is rather simple: People change behaviors if there is a change in the work they are doing. Activity alignment occurs when job roles and work activities are aligned with the strategy and priorities of the business. As simple as it may sound, achieving activity alignment requires extreme discipline through three phases:
1. Strategy development:
Make a vision come to life with clear strategies, initiatives and well-defined work activities. There must be a direct link between strategy and core capabilities, where the organization needs to excel in order to drive the strategy forward. To facilitate a transformation, the organization must first examine its strategy and ask clarifying questions: What is the future state it wants to achieve? What are the specific, measurable objectives for the business? Are the objectives sufficiently defined to identify the work activities associated with them?
Organizations often have to make choices about strategy. Some may choose to focus on running the business, while others may concentrate on business growth. Still others may find it necessary to balance both concerns equally.
Once the strategy is in place and the company is positioned to achieve objectives, how will it get there? Its leaders need to define core capabilities by answering the question, "What do we need to be great at?" This makes it possible to define the critical processes, activities, roles and skills/competencies necessary to execute the strategy and deliver desired results.
2. Organizational design:
Group work activities into refined or redefined jobs. After the strategy is defined and the supporting capabilities are determined, consider design, since an overhaul of the business processes, tools and talent often is required to organize or align the company around the new strategy. This is a five-step process:
a) Processes and activities: What processes must be designed and implemented to achieve the strategic objectives? What metrics measure these activities?
b) Resource allocation: What allocation decisions will need to be made to support these activities and processes? The question is whether to allocate resources to organizational capital (processes, systems) or to human capital (salaries, incentives).
c) Systems and tools: What systems and tools - technology, processes and delivery of services - will be put in place to support the strategy and meet critical objectives?
d) Jobs and structure: What roles are critical to carrying out the new strategic direction? How will the roles be designed and organized into an effective structure?
e) Assess and select talent: Which current employees possess the skills to fill the new roles? Where are the talent gaps, and how will the organization fill them?
Redesign should be approached by using a value-based methodology that will identify critical activities and their performance requirements, categorizing each according to the type of value generated: value requirement, or transactional activities; value protection, or protection of assets and ensuring work and people are properly managed; and value creation, or highly leveraged activities that create great value for an organization.
Using these three value characteristics, leaders can design jobs with activities that are aligned with the strategy. While most jobs have some elements of each of the value characteristics, if an organization can create more homogonous jobs, the roles are cleaner, and there is a better likelihood individuals will be staffed and perform effectively.
The roles should avoid combining value-creation and value-requiring activities. It is very difficult for individuals to perform transactional activities and create longer-term, high-value solutions for the business. Many jobs are junked up. They have evolved over time to have too many of each type of activity. These become nearly impossible jobs that require superhuman effort to accomplish results.
Once jobs are clean and critical knowledge, skills and behaviors are defined, it is time to assess and select people for new jobs. After the organization redesign is complete, a transition or implementation must begin.
3. Transition:
Put the right people in the right jobs, and put support processes in place to ensure effective performance in the new roles. Determine which activities will be required to transition this newly organized company to the desired future state. Management must expect and plan to handle resistance. In fact, transformation often can cause a performance dip as equilibrium shifts during the process. This change in employee attitude and performance can arise during each of the three phases of change.
A performance dip can develop for different reasons and at different stages. It may be a product of deficiencies in root-level strategy development, when a lack of clear vision exists and senior leadership seems unwilling to take calculated risks or take ownership and accountability for the strategy.
However, a dip is most common during the design process, when the wrong people design the work, leading to work activities and performance requirements being ill-defined in order to allocate resources effectively. Frequently, there is a breakdown in the design of new job roles that are then ineffective in supporting work activities or enabling individual success.
Often, poor transition management is the problem. Poor project management and risk planning, lack of rigor in talent selection, misalignment of skill sets with future roles, inability to make tough calls on favorite employees, improper training, as well as disconnects between compensation and roles, all can contribute to a performance dip during transition. During implementation, managers need to clearly define individual performance expectations and metrics.
This process is hard to put into action because it requires focus in operationalizing business strategy through organization and people, while simultaneously being supported by all traditional change management activities and tools.
Countering a Performance Dip
When the activity alignment activities are properly performed, there's a shorter period of performance dip. A structured change management process can proactively counter a performance dip with great success. Change management entails people management, or setting individual performance expectations, assessing and selecting, training, redefining compensation and rewards and supporting individuals so they perform effectively. It also involves:
a) Communication: Deliver the right messages to the right people at the right times so they can align their work with strategy.
b) Risk and impact management: Identify and manage the risks and impacts associated with the change.
c) Leadership and sponsorship: Engage leadership to drive change.
The Role of Leadership
While talent managers can change the work, they can't transform an organization overnight. The transformation process requires discipline, great communication and strong investment in the support structures and processes that enable people to be successful. By definition, providing that discipline, communication and support is the role of leadership.
The notion of activity alignment holds true for leaders, as well. As roles in the organization change, so do leaders' roles. Transformational change requires leaders who can lead on multiple dimensions, who possess the competencies to build the operational excellence required for profitability, as well as the innovative focus to capitalize on product, market and customer opportunities.
To achieve lasting change, a company must create activity alignment through a step-by-step process that begins with developing a vision designed to achieve strategic business objectives, supported by core competencies and followed by a new design composed of clearly defined processes and roles that must be effectively transitioned. Once the work has changed, the behaviors will follow, as will business results.
In uncertain economic times, the dual objectives of belt-tightening and growth are undoubtedly difficult to reconcile. However, if the imperative is to change, there is no easy way out, no silver bullet or magic pill to swallow. Companies trying to achieve lasting change and growth cannot cut corners on the steps that relate to activity alignment, which are outlined above. Change doesn't have to be expensive, but it will require the time and resources to get it right.
[About the Author: Carol Henriques is a principal at Capital H Group
by Carol Henriques
As the global economy shows signs of volatility, businesses face a new set of challenges as they strive for stronger performance. Organizations working on their growth agendas are not willing to sacrifice the progress they have made. But the investment associated with growth can be unpalatable in economically uncertain times. So many organizations have embarked on dual objectives: belt-tightening and growth.
As the economy weathers uncertain times, businesses are hard-pressed to squeeze every ounce of fat from their organizations to reinvest those dollars into activities that drive growth. At the same time, organizations are deploying people in different ways to better align them with the company's business strategy and quest for profit. That means changing the way people work.
True change - the ideal of best intentions designed to create new behaviors with different outcomes - is elusive. For individuals, it is certainly a challenge. But for organizations struggling to affect transformational change, well-intentioned approaches to company-wide change frequently fail.
Transformational change is difficult to initiate and even harder to sustain, especially during times when external markets are changing rapidly. As one sage client said, "Making change happen during uncertain times requires that we do the equivalent of changing a car tire while zipping down a highway at 60 miles per hour! We have to maintain or improve today's performance while we position ourselves for even stronger future performance. "
The most common pitfalls are found in how companies approach transformational change. Many have historically tried broadscale change through behavioral training and culture programs. These drain resources and distract individuals while never really addressing the core issues: Behavior in an organization really changes when one changes the work. The role individuals performs is the primary determinant of the behaviors they demonstrate.
Three Phases of Activity Alignment
The key to transformational change is rather simple: People change behaviors if there is a change in the work they are doing. Activity alignment occurs when job roles and work activities are aligned with the strategy and priorities of the business. As simple as it may sound, achieving activity alignment requires extreme discipline through three phases:
1. Strategy development:
Make a vision come to life with clear strategies, initiatives and well-defined work activities. There must be a direct link between strategy and core capabilities, where the organization needs to excel in order to drive the strategy forward. To facilitate a transformation, the organization must first examine its strategy and ask clarifying questions: What is the future state it wants to achieve? What are the specific, measurable objectives for the business? Are the objectives sufficiently defined to identify the work activities associated with them?
Organizations often have to make choices about strategy. Some may choose to focus on running the business, while others may concentrate on business growth. Still others may find it necessary to balance both concerns equally.
Once the strategy is in place and the company is positioned to achieve objectives, how will it get there? Its leaders need to define core capabilities by answering the question, "What do we need to be great at?" This makes it possible to define the critical processes, activities, roles and skills/competencies necessary to execute the strategy and deliver desired results.
2. Organizational design:
Group work activities into refined or redefined jobs. After the strategy is defined and the supporting capabilities are determined, consider design, since an overhaul of the business processes, tools and talent often is required to organize or align the company around the new strategy. This is a five-step process:
a) Processes and activities: What processes must be designed and implemented to achieve the strategic objectives? What metrics measure these activities?
b) Resource allocation: What allocation decisions will need to be made to support these activities and processes? The question is whether to allocate resources to organizational capital (processes, systems) or to human capital (salaries, incentives).
c) Systems and tools: What systems and tools - technology, processes and delivery of services - will be put in place to support the strategy and meet critical objectives?
d) Jobs and structure: What roles are critical to carrying out the new strategic direction? How will the roles be designed and organized into an effective structure?
e) Assess and select talent: Which current employees possess the skills to fill the new roles? Where are the talent gaps, and how will the organization fill them?
Redesign should be approached by using a value-based methodology that will identify critical activities and their performance requirements, categorizing each according to the type of value generated: value requirement, or transactional activities; value protection, or protection of assets and ensuring work and people are properly managed; and value creation, or highly leveraged activities that create great value for an organization.
Using these three value characteristics, leaders can design jobs with activities that are aligned with the strategy. While most jobs have some elements of each of the value characteristics, if an organization can create more homogonous jobs, the roles are cleaner, and there is a better likelihood individuals will be staffed and perform effectively.
The roles should avoid combining value-creation and value-requiring activities. It is very difficult for individuals to perform transactional activities and create longer-term, high-value solutions for the business. Many jobs are junked up. They have evolved over time to have too many of each type of activity. These become nearly impossible jobs that require superhuman effort to accomplish results.
Once jobs are clean and critical knowledge, skills and behaviors are defined, it is time to assess and select people for new jobs. After the organization redesign is complete, a transition or implementation must begin.
3. Transition:
Put the right people in the right jobs, and put support processes in place to ensure effective performance in the new roles. Determine which activities will be required to transition this newly organized company to the desired future state. Management must expect and plan to handle resistance. In fact, transformation often can cause a performance dip as equilibrium shifts during the process. This change in employee attitude and performance can arise during each of the three phases of change.
A performance dip can develop for different reasons and at different stages. It may be a product of deficiencies in root-level strategy development, when a lack of clear vision exists and senior leadership seems unwilling to take calculated risks or take ownership and accountability for the strategy.
However, a dip is most common during the design process, when the wrong people design the work, leading to work activities and performance requirements being ill-defined in order to allocate resources effectively. Frequently, there is a breakdown in the design of new job roles that are then ineffective in supporting work activities or enabling individual success.
Often, poor transition management is the problem. Poor project management and risk planning, lack of rigor in talent selection, misalignment of skill sets with future roles, inability to make tough calls on favorite employees, improper training, as well as disconnects between compensation and roles, all can contribute to a performance dip during transition. During implementation, managers need to clearly define individual performance expectations and metrics.
This process is hard to put into action because it requires focus in operationalizing business strategy through organization and people, while simultaneously being supported by all traditional change management activities and tools.
Countering a Performance Dip
When the activity alignment activities are properly performed, there's a shorter period of performance dip. A structured change management process can proactively counter a performance dip with great success. Change management entails people management, or setting individual performance expectations, assessing and selecting, training, redefining compensation and rewards and supporting individuals so they perform effectively. It also involves:
a) Communication: Deliver the right messages to the right people at the right times so they can align their work with strategy.
b) Risk and impact management: Identify and manage the risks and impacts associated with the change.
c) Leadership and sponsorship: Engage leadership to drive change.
The Role of Leadership
While talent managers can change the work, they can't transform an organization overnight. The transformation process requires discipline, great communication and strong investment in the support structures and processes that enable people to be successful. By definition, providing that discipline, communication and support is the role of leadership.
The notion of activity alignment holds true for leaders, as well. As roles in the organization change, so do leaders' roles. Transformational change requires leaders who can lead on multiple dimensions, who possess the competencies to build the operational excellence required for profitability, as well as the innovative focus to capitalize on product, market and customer opportunities.
To achieve lasting change, a company must create activity alignment through a step-by-step process that begins with developing a vision designed to achieve strategic business objectives, supported by core competencies and followed by a new design composed of clearly defined processes and roles that must be effectively transitioned. Once the work has changed, the behaviors will follow, as will business results.
In uncertain economic times, the dual objectives of belt-tightening and growth are undoubtedly difficult to reconcile. However, if the imperative is to change, there is no easy way out, no silver bullet or magic pill to swallow. Companies trying to achieve lasting change and growth cannot cut corners on the steps that relate to activity alignment, which are outlined above. Change doesn't have to be expensive, but it will require the time and resources to get it right.
[About the Author: Carol Henriques is a principal at Capital H Group