Getting the Leaders to Get It Although in our hearts we all know better, there is a common assumption in change efforts that the leaders of the organization will immediately understand and embrace the change. In fact, as logic would dictate, the leaders, by virtue of their position at the top of the organization, have the most to lose through the change. After all, it was the old order of things that gave them the position of power they now hold. The Facilities Board was no exception. Although all professed the virtues of the change, it took many open discussions within the team, many alignment-oriented verbal two-by-fours delivered by the Vice President, and an intensive two-day off-site retreat to gain true commitment. The second prong was the Guiding Coalition. The coalition, known as the Vision Team, consisted of a diagonal cross-section of the organization with people representing almost every function, level and site within Facilities. It also included two full-time representatives from key customer groups and two members of the Board. This group was given the charter and authority to lead the change effort. For almost a year, this group met on a weekly basis to develop the Vision, Assess the culture, gather data from customers and devise mass and targeted intervention and communication strategies to drive the change forward. Through intensive, but applied, training and team building, this group also emerged as a high performance team. The third prong consisted of the management layer beneath the director level. This group named itself the CREW. The CREW was designed as a mechanism to break down the silos within the organization and serve as the leadership and communication vehicle to get the transformation message across to the whole organization on a daily basis. The Crew meets formally on a quarterly basis to receive training relevant to the new culture and to create a spirit of teamwork and family across the organization Step III >>

Background

Critical Success Factors

Kotter’s Eight Step Leading Change Model as Applied to Facilities

Conclusion