Holistically Executing Business Strategy: The Gruntled Employee

Holistically Executing
Business Strategy:
The Gruntled
Employee Approach
Mary Vaughn, Metargy, Inc.
What is HR’s role in business strategy?
Some common business
strategies
 Reorganizations
 Mergers & acquisitions
 Technology
implementations
 Outsourcing/globalization
 Growth strategies
Typical HR role in
business strategy
 Redefine roles
 Onboarding
 Organizational change,
training
 Cultural awareness, RIFs
 Skill/talent development
Success rate of business strategies
Common business strategies
 Reorganizations

Mergers & acquisitions

Technology implementations

Outsourcing/globalization

Growth strategies
Success rate
 Less than half of reorganizations
achieved their objectives
 83% of M&As failed to produce
any benefits. Half reduced value of
the company
 Technology projects had an overall
failure rate of 71%
 70% of the companies had very
negative experiences with
outsourcing
 75% of growth initiatives failed
Problem Number 1: Non-holistic approach to
implementing business strategy
Problem Number 2: Solving the wrong
problem
Issues
Look
at Analysis
the Same
AAnother
Six Sigma Black
Belt’s
of theData
Data
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
India
EMEA
Australia
Asia
Americas
Problem Number 3: They create a new set of
problems
Problem Number 4: Business strategy negatively
impacts employee morale and engagement
Three causal factors for failed business
strategy



Your employees weren’t
engaged in implementing
or accepting the change
introduced by your
business strategy
Your leaders weren’t
successful in connecting
employees to the change
Your business system
didn’t adequately support
the change by encouraging
needed behaviors
Three critical success factors for every
business strategy

Employee
Behavior
Leadership
Behavior


Business
System
Engaged employees
working together
interdependently
Effective leadership
connecting employees to
the business strategy
Business system
characteristics that
encourage the right
behavior for the business
strategy
Typical reorganization business strategy







Determine if existing jobs and structures meet goals
Identify new structure that will support business goals
Define new organization chart & job descriptions
Determine skills needed for each position
Train resources in new skills
Change HR systems
Implement new staff meetings and management systems
What’s the problem with a typical
reorganization business strategy?




Problem Number 1: It’s a
non-holistic approach to
implementing business
strategy
Problem Number 2: It
usually is solving the wrong
problem
Problem Number 3: It can
create a new set of
problems
Problem Number 4: It
negatively impacts employee
morale and engagement
Engaging employees in business strategy
Employee
Activities
Decision
Making
Passive
Dominant
Independent
Interdependent
Makes own
decisions
Makes joint
decisions
Leads task
Works alone
Collaborates
& cooperates
Defers decisions Makes decisions
to others
for others
Completing Follows
Tasks
direction
Resolving
Problems
Discounts
significance
Overreacts to
significance
Appreciates
significance
Appreciates
problem interdependencies
Conflict
Resolution
Avoids conflict
Uses conflict to
an advantage
Confronts
conflict
Resolves conflict
equitably
Relating to
Others
Does not
respect self
Does not
respect others
Insists on
respect
Respects self
& others
Encouraging employees to behave
interdependently





Assess the collective
employee behaviors
Conduct organizational
change workshop
Assess behavior preference
of key individuals
Train key individuals in
understanding personal
behaviors and causal factors
for them
Mentor key individuals in
critical success factors for
improving behavior
Change
Behavior
Preference?
Ensuring leaders connect employees to
business strategy
Leadership
Activities
Authoritarian
Laissez-Faire
Connective
Providing
Direction
Closely involved
during
implementation
Disengaged during
implementation
Supports team during
implementation
Motivating
Employees
Motivates through
negative
consequences
Motivates through
empowerment
Motivates through
compelling vision with
measurable objectives
Building Team Points out
Capabilities
weaknesses
Expects employees Coaches & mentors
employees
to improve on
their own
Communicating
Listens without
much comment
Talks more than
listens
Listens as much as
talks
Interrelatedness of employee and leadership
behavior patterns
Typical examples of how leadership
behaviors impact employee behaviors
Authoritarian
Laissez-Faire
Encouraging leaders to behave connectively




Assess leadership behavior
preferences
Train leaders in
understanding leadership
behaviors and causal
factors for them
Coach leaders in critical
success factors for
improving leadership
behavior
Reassess leadership
behavior preferences
Leadership
Assessment
Leadership
Assessment
Aligning business system characteristics to
encourage the right behavior
Business System Dependent
Characteristics
Independent
Interdependent
Organizational
Framework
Limited roles &
responsibilities;
cumbersome org
structure
Management
Systems
Top-down plans;
upper management
only reviews
Decentralized plans
& management
reviews
Aligned plans &
management
reviews
Bureaucratic &
strictly enforced
processes
Flexible &
unenforced
processes
Supportive &
institutionalized
processes
Process
Information
Technology
Controlled data &
limited access
Unclear roles &
responsibilities;
unclear org
structure
Decentralized data &
uncontrolled access
Helpful roles &
responsibilities;
supportive org
structure
Shared data &
planned access
Interconnectivity between behaviors and the
business system components
Interconnectivity between business system
characteristics and organizational culture
Aligning business system characteristics to
encourage right behaviors





Assess effectiveness of current business system and
organizational culture
Conduct workshop on the relationship between business
system and organizational culture
Coach executives in critical success factors for aligning
business system with desired culture
Implement business system
critical success factors
Reassess effectiveness of
modified business system and
organizational culture
Organization
Structure
Technology
Organizational
Culture
Processes
Management
Systems
What’s the big deal about the relationship between
business system characteristics and culture?
Business System Dependent
Characteristics
Independent
Unclear roles &
responsibilities;
unclear org
structure
Interdependent
Organizational
Framework
Limited roles &
responsibilities;
cumbersome org
structure
Management
Systems
Top-down plans;
upper management
only reviews
Decentralized
plans &
management
reviews
Aligned plans &
management
reviews
Bureaucratic &
strictly enforced
processes
Flexible &
unenforced
processes
Supportive &
institutionalized
processes
Process
Information
Technology
Controlled data &
limited access
Decentralized data
& uncontrolled
access
and then . . .
Helpful roles &
responsibilities;
supportive org
structure
Shared data &
planned access
Results from using the The Gruntled
Employee holistic approach
Costs of Delivering Services
Productivity
12,000
11,222
11,000
10,000
9,000
8,000
6,705
7,000
6,160
6,000
4,626
5,000
3,000
4,315
4,095
3,645
4,000
3,601
2,819
2,000
1,499
1,000
0
Q1 Y1
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Q2 Y1
Q3 Y1
Q4 Y1
Q1 Y2
Q2 Y2
Q3 Y2
Q4 Y2
Q1 Y3
Q2 Y3
Results from using The Gruntled Employee
holistic approach
Level of Defects
Industry Average
Q1 Y1
Q2 Y1
Q3 Y1
Q4 Y1
Q1 Y2
Q2 Y2
Q3 Y2
Q4 Y2
Q1 Y3
Q2 Y3
The Gruntled Employee holistic approach:
Opportunities for HR

Become a strategic partner with business executives




Identify behavior needed by employees to successfully
execute the strategy
Identify behavior needed by leaders to engage employees
in executing business strategy
Facilitate workshops to encourage correct behaviors
Survey leaders & employees to
Organizational
Business
identify behaviors the current
Culture
System
business system is encouraging
Business
Results
Opportunities for HR in solving four typical
problems with business strategy
Problem 1:
Non-holistic approach
to implementing
business strategy
Ensure that employee &
leadership behaviors
are addressed as part of
business strategy
Problem 2:
Solves the wrong
problem
Implement techniques
to help employees
embrace the strategy
Problem 3:
Creates a new set of
problems
Help identify new
problems that will
surface with the
strategy
Problem 4:
Negatively impacts
employee morale and
engagement
Propose a way to
implement business
strategy that also
improves employee
morale
Implementing business strategy holistically
Determine
causal factors
Determine
critical success
factors
Improve behaviors
to connect
Align business
everyone
system to support
to the
strategy
strategy
Tools to help HR become a strategic partner
with the business
TGE Surveys




Personal Behavior
Preferences
Leadership Behavior
Preferences
Organizational Change
Readiness
Governance Effectiveness
TGE Workshops




Understanding Personal
Behavior
Leadership Development
Successfully Executing
Business Strategy
Improving Business
Results
Thank You!
Mary Vaughn
metargy@gmail.com
720.409.9383
The End