Lead an Innovative Organization: From Change Management to Manage For Change

Have you ever thought, “If I could just avoid all this bureaucracy, I could get things done?” You’re right. Too many organizations think they’re helping the teams when those very practices make work more difficult to accomplish. Sometimes, all you need to do is stop demotivating people from doing the work. Innovative organizations don’t just innovate their products—they innovate their processes. You might not be able to influence all of these ideas, but you can start the conversation.

Key Takeaways:
1. Identify processes and procedures that prevent innovation.
2. Visualize management collaboration reduces decision time.
3. Realize that all motivation is internal and how to elevate motivation.
4. Create a culture of experimentation
5. Create opportunities instead of performance management.

Transcript

1. Johanna Rothman @johannarothman www.jrothman.com Lead an Innovative Organization: From Change Management to Manage FOR Change
2. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Your organization wants innovation. How do they act? 2
3. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Common Innovation Problems • Want to “manage change” instead of embrace change • Managers work in silos • Lots of planning at all levels—too little strategy • Bureaucracy burdens workers • Mechanistic view of management • Conservators (conserve the status quo) outnumber the experimenters 3
4. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Want innovation? Innovate management/leadership practices. 4
5. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Consider These Suggestions • Define “why” for the organization • Reduce management decision time • Shorter feedback loops to reduce all planning burden • Reduce policies and procedures • Encourage change: • Make it easy for people to disagree • Make small mistakes • Eliminate performance management 5
6. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 1. “Why” for the Organization • Why is your strategy: Why does your organization (products & services) exist? • Return $ to shareholders is an outcome of satisfying customers. • Strategy answers these questions: • Why this product/service? • Why now? • Strategy has nothing to do with slogans 6
7. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 1a. Define the Organization’s Driving Force • What you offer for products and services • The markets you serve • Your unique technology • How you sell • How you distribute • Natural resources: Do you consume or save natural resources in some way? • Production capability • Organizational Size/Growth • Membership 7
8. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 1b: Use Driving Force to Identify Products & Services • Organize all products and services into these buckets: • KTLO: Keep the lights on • Grow current business • Possible transformation • Assess how many projects are in which buckets • My suggestions for an innovative organizations: • 10% KTLO; 40% Grow; 50% Transformation 8
9. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman What If You’re Not a Top Leader? • Build your portfolio up from the various products and services your team(s) deliver and support • Bucket into: KTLO, Grow, Transform buckets • See if you can generate the “why” from those • Assess the percentages in each bucket 9 Strategy Deliver
10. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 2. Reduce Management Decision Time with Management Teams • Do your functional managers/leaders collaborate? • Organizations based on individual rewards: • Reduce management collaboration • Create slow decisions • Optimize too low 10
11. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Fast product experiments lead to more innovation. You need fast product development feedback loops (other two presentations) and fast management decision time 11
12. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Decisions Take Forever 12
13. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Management Teams • Senior leadership teams already exist • Many orgs have a cohort at one level • Why not have cohorts at each level? 13
14. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Resource Efficiency vs Flow Efficiency • The more managers work in flow efficiency, the faster all the work finishes • Once managers work in teams, they can also address the why for the organization 14
15. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Evolve Management 15
16. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 3. Reduce Planning, Especially Based on Estimates • Too many “plans” depend on estimates or forecasts • Those estimates or forecasts don’t take cycle time into account • The longer the cycle time, the longer everything takes—even simple things 16
17. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Reduce Feedback Loop Duration • Cliff looked at the time from T2 to T5 (cycle time) • Started at 2-5 weeks • Reduced to a few days • Projects finished inside of 6 months • Time from T0-T2 regularly a year or more • Management asked for estimates every single time they replanned 17
18. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman (Mgmt) Delays Often Outweigh Work Time 18
19. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 4. Reduce Policies & Procedures • How many policies, procedures, rules, and other things that impose friction on people? • Ask for vacation or sick time • Imposed “standard” agile approach • Imposed boards and other tools • How few rules do you need? • Guidelines and constraints (as few as possible) • Delegate problems and outcomes, not tasks 19
20. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 5. Make Disagreement and Mistakes Easy • Product development requires learning • How easy is it for you to: • Disagree • Make mistakes • Work together • Mistake-proof the outcomes • Experiments create short feedback loops 20
21. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Small, Safe-to-Fail Experiments Work • Reframe “Fail Fast” to “Learn Early” • Allow safe-to-fail experiments • Need at least one hypothesis for change 21
22. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman 6. Eliminate Performance Management • Performance management does not work • Ranking doesn’t work • Comparing people or teams doesn’t work • Competition doesn’t work • Feedback, especially reinforcing feedback, does work 22
23. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Create Engagement • Learn why each person works (one- on-one) and see if you can offer them opportunities • Explain the why • Encourage autonomy, mastery, purpose • Encourage flow efficiency at all levels • Create an opportunistic culture, where people discover new and interesting work, skills, collaboration, and more 23
24. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Lead an Innovative Organization • Clarify your purpose (you, team, organization). • Build empathy with the people who do the work. • Build a safe environment. • Seek outcomes and optimize for the overarching goal. • Encourage experiments and learning. • Catch people succeeding. • Exercise your value-based integrity. 24
25. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Manage for change: Optimize to learn 25
26. © 2021 Johanna Rothman @johannarothman Let’s Stay in Touch • Pragmatic Manager: • www.jrothman.com/ pragmaticmanager • Please link with me on LinkedIn • Modern Management Made Easy: https://www.jrothman.com/mmme 26