On this blog I am often talking about performance in the context of organizational transformation. As executives evaluate where they want to take the organization, the path from where they are now to where they want to be almost always involves some type of change, and the topic is a major focus and interest for me. Transformation comes in many forms, from major business process re-engineering, to dealing with disruptive technologies, to the more typical transformation required to maintain an effective organization in an ever changing business environment.
Over the last few decades it seems as though the pace of change has increased. Innovation and the level of connection and collaboration have made change feel like a snowball running down a steep hill gaining in size and speed. This in turn has forced effective organizations to become masters in the art of organizational transformation and ensured that having the capability to successfully execute change is a prerequisite for having a high performing organization.
For all of the above reasons I’m always interested in what folks that have had a lot of experience with organizational transformation have to say on the topic. Over the next few weeks I have scheduled time with folks that have led or participated in organizational transformation efforts to get their take on how to be successful and what they have learned from their efforts. In this post I lay out the 7 core questions I’ll be asking and why.
- Please give me some background on your experience with organizational transformation. Where have you had experience with it and how do you feel about the outcomes.
- You often hear about top down approaches or bottom up approaches to change. What has your experience been? Do you have strong feelings about how transformation should be approached in this regard?
- On the subject of approaches, are there methods or approaches that you have found to be helpful in managing change for organizations? What are some of the key processes that you feel need to be in place to be successful?
- What are the key skill sets you believe are important for someone entrusted with organizational transformation? Are their specific skills that are a must have?
- What are the disciplines that are needed to be a part of your transformation effort? I’m thinking in terms of technology staff, business people, and financial folks. Who needed to play a role in your experience to make the effort successful?
- Organizational transformation covers a lot of ground and everyone’s experience may be different, but are there particular types of technology that you feel are helpful to this sort of change? If you had to build a technology toolbox for organizational change what types of things would be in it?
- I’m assuming that over the course of your career you have benefited from education, advice, books, and other materials that helped you to better understand how to move forward. Do you recommend specific resources, books, or other educational resources to be people who are tasked with managing change?
I’m hoping that with the questions above I can get a good conversation going around organizational change and add to my own knowledge on the subject. Are there burning questions you want to ask? Give me some feedback and I’ll add an 8th question.
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