What do you do if your organization needs a transformation and you're an executive?

As an executive steering a transformation, first I'd check if my crystal ball needs an update. Then: 1. Understand: Like Sherlock, but with data. Discover why change is necessary through deep analysis and perhaps an inspiring walk among office plants. 2. Communicate: Give a speech so motivating that even the coffee machine feels compelled to do better. Share the vision and steps clearly and creatively, ensuring everyone's on board. 3. Act: Form a team of "Office Avengers" to not just plan but live the change. Foster a culture of innovation. Finally, embed the transformation in actions and company culture, ensuring the change is real and lasting.

If it's a large-scale transformation it could be worthwhile to hire a third party to help validate or dispute your conclusion that transformation is necessary. Many consulting firms specialize in this area. Tackling transformation without proper due diligence is expensive; therefore, the upfront investment of hiring an outside party can be justified.

Executives play a sponsor role in any change management, unless they are competent in leading change. Assess the situation and needs. Get a clarity why you need a change and the magnitude of this change. If it's a major change or transformation then external resources or consultants could be a good option if your change management team lacks resources. Otherwise discuss the change option with your change leader (typically the OD manager) and let him/her develop the case for change and full change plan. Once it is reviewed then your role is to provide commitment and support throughout the change journey.

As an executive my role is not to drive change or even to identify change, if so then I have failed in building and organisation of talented, driven, and knowledgeable people. My role is to foster an organisation and a culture of constant improvements, of willingness to make misstates, of drive to learn. I also need to set into place a clear and transparent governance and processes to support the gathering, analysis, and prioritization of change proposals.

Conduct a thorough assessment of the organization's current state, including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Identify the areas that require transformation and prioritize them based on their impact on the business.

As a leader trying to set a compelling vision for the future, you must honor the past and consider the current if you want to employees to get on board with your... too often leaders jump ahead and forget to bring others' mindsets along. A change colleague of mind used to say, "you have to go slow to go fast" and he was absolutely right!

A compelling vision is essential, but you must go beyond simply creating one as an executive. To make your vision truly transformative, anchor it in your organization's core purpose and connect it to a meaningful impact on customers and employees. Use storytelling to vividly illustrate how the 'future state' will improve everyone's day-to-day work. Break the vision down into achievable milestones, celebrating progress to maintain momentum. Involve teams in defining what it looks like to live those values in their daily work, fostering ownership. Finally, don't underestimate the power of emotion. Acknowledge the challenges of change while highlighting its inspiring potential for the organization and its people.

Clearly articulate the desired future state of the organization. This involves outlining specific goals, objectives, and outcomes that the transformation aims to achieve. The vision should be ambitious yet realistic, inspiring employees to strive for excellence. Ensure that the vision aligns with the organization's purpose and core values. A compelling vision should resonate with employees and reinforce the organization's identity and mission. Communicate the vision consistently and transparently across the organization. Use various channels, such as town hall meetings, emails, and workshops, to ensure that employees understand it.

Connect the reason for the change to a strategic organisational goal. Without the “why” it is challenging to create the momentum and urgency of the efforts. What will be different once the vision is realised?

Setting a transformative vision means pinpointing the 'why'—the core reason prompting the change. Let's say your company is shifting to a digital-first approach. A vision isn’t just “We’re going digital.” It’s “We’re embracing digital to meet our customers where they are, making our services accessible anywhere, anytime. This transition to a digital-first model enhances our responsiveness and innovation, ensuring we remain leaders in our field.” This vision is shared in meetings and internal communications, directly linking everyday tasks to strategic goals, making the change tangible and meaningful for all.

As an executive in a company, you are the driving force behind shaping its future. You have the power to stay ahead of market trends, disrupt the status quo, create a competitive advantage, and transform your company. It's your responsibility to confidently share your ideas with the CEO and ensure they understand the market needs. Your unwavering leadership can propel your company to stay relevant and achieve unparalleled success!

The most important factor in driving engagement is to break down the change to the individual level. While a clear vision and mission is needed to understand the reason for change, the „what’s in it for me“ drives the engagement of the individuals. Therefore a strong leadership alliance through all hierarchical levels is crucial.

If leadership takes the right initiative to build engagement, employees don't just feel cared for but respond with more involvement. By clearly articulating the vision of the company and adopting a mentorship approach to management, the leader takes action to drive engagement but also build trust! Engaged employees are highly involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. They are psychological "owners," drive high performance and innovation, and move the organization forward

To ensure the success of organizational transformations, strong support from top management is essential. As an executive, your role is crucial in driving this support. It's vital to convey the importance of change by engaging with employees at all levels and effectively communicating why their participation is vital.

During transformation, its always important to make employees engaged in cross functional and collaborative to create a place of sharing ideas, thoughts and knowledge to work together in solving the complex issues. This helps in creating the like minded groups together in brining more values and enthusiasm for any forms of transformation to work at its best levels. Executives are more sensibly responsible in identifying the pulse and champion to create a valuable and positive work environmental culture in making the transformation a "True Value". Also, encouraging and empowering associates with adequate support and giving them a sense of leadership will make them more responsible for a better outcomes than expected.

Sustaining change requires recognizing that one transformation leads to the next. It's essential to regularly assess if the transformation goals align with the strategic direction and if the strategic direction itself is still on the right track.

Reward and recognize through out the transformation and at the final step. Celebrate the failures, share the successes and appreciate the transformation that teams with their skills and support your people are making.

By implementing these strategies collectively, organizations can create an environment conducive to sustaining change and achieving long-term success •Support from the Top •Use Change-Sustaining Approaches should be integrated into the transition plan and/or the following stage of the evolution. •Shift Paradigms When Needed – To organize ongoing efforts to explain the advantages of change and assist people in acclimating to their new circumstances •Talk and Communicate - Why certain actions, processes, behaviors are expected •Utilize change agents for change sustainment •Invest in Planning for Sustained Results •Prior to putting strategies into action, determine whether the situation warrants a change and adjust as necessary.

Be very clear on your role in the transformation - are you leading it? Are you role modelling the changes? Are you a passive supporter? Do you need to deal with people who may struggle with the change? Each executive will have a different role to play. Be clear on yours and make sure you are equally clear on your peers' roles

Change needs an agent. One that sees the need and helps drive the change. Does not matter if you’re a junior executive or the CEO. By convention an executive is supposed to execute the change but he/she could very so be the reason for change in the first place. What he/she has experienced or observed may be what has ignited the need for change. An executive can as much lead the change as much as he/she may execute it.

Think about who in your organisaiton ccan help you. As executives we often jump outside of our organisations to help us secure transformational change. I would strongly urge you to think about who is in your workforce, and why there is no one there can can not be diverted into this work to secure the change. External companies will be helpful at stages - but use them at the right time and stage. In my experience, if change starts with the external company driving it - there is little chance of long-lasting implementation. And sometimes when we are seeking change, we can get blinded by the drive for change to happen quickly and convince ourselves we need external support to be successful. You need their support at certain times

One step that seems to be missing from this overview is that if you're an executive and change is needed, it's important to create the leadership and bandwidth to enable that change to be properly implemented. If you're not the executive in the lead, then who is? Even if the initiative is not being driven by an executive, someone needs to be the point of contact for consultant support that is brought in. Time and focus also needs to be created for those implementing and those impacted by the change. That will likely mean delaying something else that is on the priority list.