RWD

“If I say yes, then what?  I don’t have an extra 10 minutes in the day to make sure this is a success!” 

This may be true, but rarely is there a good time.  In 20 years of performance consulting, I have only seen 1 organization actually shut down to embark on reinventing their business model, facilities, people and processes.  The rest however have found a way to go after something that they deemed valuable or game changing while still supporting their current clients and organizational challenges.  No matter how good it sounds or great the benefit you expect, undergoing a small change takes time and effort.  Undertaking a Transformation takes herculean commitment. 

Over hundreds of projects and organizational initiatives, we have studied the factors that ensure the outcome is as expected and the value promised can be realized.  Many of these factors have been discussed on this blog over the past year by the likes of Poulin, Long, Brown and Newman.  In as many cases though, a good idea may not ever have a chance to succeed or fail because the executive is not ready to pull the trigger.  This particularly peaked my interest.  In a time where the economy more than ever has turned the burning platform into a nationwide inferno, more and more programs are being delayed, reduced or shelved.

I recently spoke with two CEOs about this phenomenon to try to get to the root cause.  While many questions followed, one of particular interest was the one above.  Without extra time, how do I or we know IT will be a success?  It is not focused on the specific organizational challenge or solution. Rather, it spoke to the concern of bandwidth and sustainability.  Without getting a warm fuzzy around this aspect, the political and career risk is just too great to take the chance.

So here’s the good news.  By commitment we don’t only mean an individual with passion and charisma and authority.  We mean organizational commitment, shared commitment, shared responsibility.  Otherwise known as Transformational Governance.  For the CEO, what this means is that the burden and benefit do not lie solely within his or her hands.  It is a definable process with a structure in place to ensure unobstructed progress and secure and sustainable achievement.

Our experience has led us to believe that there are several key areas, very interrelated, which require executive participation to assure success in any Continuous Improvement initiative.  These key areas are:

• Value Proposition – Case for Change
• Vision and Communication Plan Development through RWD’s Blue Sky Process
• Master Schedule – To develop, track and countermeasure all aspects of deployment
• Governance Process and Visual Management

Click here for Part II where Mike will dive into transformational governance!