In the April 2015 issue of Talent Management Magazine an article written by Warren Parry and Randall Wandmacher of Accenture discussed Using Fact, Not Feeling to Deliver Change. The article contained a list of 10 drivers of change. This blog post with their permission will look at how these drivers effect change within your organization.

Driver #1: Systems and Processes – Every thing you do within your organization is based on a process of some sort. It is critical that you begin the improvement process by determining whether you have in place the required resources to achieve your goal of changing the corporate culture. Your systems and processes must be constructed in such a way as to allow the organization to take the steps necessary to reach the end goal.

Driver #2: Skills and Staffing – You have identified the problem and in order to achieve the viable solution you need two ingredients in place. First, do you have the right people in the right place at the right time to meet your goals? The other side of the coin is does your organization have the right skills in place to deliver the process changes. You either have the skill sin place or develop current human capital assets to be able to fill the need.

Driver #3: Vision and Direction – Continuous process improvement is not a fad. It is not something that passes through your organization in the night. It needs to be explained to the organization in terms of where you are headed and why you are headed there. You need to determine how well the idea is being accepted by all parts of the organization.

Driver #4: Communication – The key to successful implementation of the TLS Continuum is founded on the message you deliver to the organization. How are you getting your message across? Are you delivering it by mandate or are you finding multiple ways to deliver the message? Are you taking advantage of social media to open an active forum to discuss the plans? The ways and the message content are critical to the success of the journey to the new corporate norm as far as the new culture is concerned.

Driver #5: Business Leadership – When you look at management there are several types of managers in place. First we have managers who are excited about the concepts of the pending change. They become your biggest supporters. Second we have the undercover manager who communicates the messages coming out of the process because that is their job. At he same time they do everything they can to sabotage the effort. These are your most dangerous members of the business leadership. Finally you have the managers who totally hate the idea and openly say they don’t like it. It is important to realize that a successful process improvement initiative comes from both top down as well as bottom up.

Driver #6: Team Leadership – Like the idea of business leadership this driver of change, this driver is the critical piece in it looks at the ability of managers to instill a sense of value to the organization. This initiative that you are beginning is going to have a positive value to all the organizational stakeholders. Your managers need to assist their staffs as coaches not managers to make the message stick.

Driver #7: Teamwork – Look at your organization with a magnifying glass. Does the organization still operate with the idea that something is not my job? Does the organization still believe in silos? Deming told us that this wrong. Precedent tells us that successful implementation of change requires the creation of cross-functional teams where the single most important goal is the implementation of problem solutions. This can only be achieved when everyone from manager to rank and file are on the same page.

Driver #8: Accountability – Accountability comes from two aspects. We begin with the clear understanding of the roles, objectives and outcomes are. At the same tome we must understand that we have a responsibility to our stakeholders to meet their demands. You need to clearly define who is responsible for each step of TLS Continuum and to the voice of the customer.

Driver #9: Passion and Drive – As we discussed in Chapter 9 of Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma successful change is based on the view of the TLS Continuum becoming the corporate mantra. Everyone within your organization understands and acknowledges and espouses the mantra that continuous process improvement is a necessity within the organization. Everything they say, do and act reflects back on the drive to meet the voice of the customer.

Driver #10: Fear and Frustration – The final driver of change is to recognize that some aspects of the organization are going to fear the coming changes. They are going to fear for their jobs. They are going to fear for their teammates. They are going to fear for the movement away from their comfort zones. They are going to be frustrated with the seemingly endless “fad” of the day and whether this time it is any different from the past. As an organization you must identify the rates of these fears and frustrations and be clear about the challenges confronting the organization as you make the changes.

Join the dialogue and tell us what drives change in your organization?