I read the article “Leading Organizational Transformations” by Steve Dichter, Chris Gagnon, and Ashok Alexander of McKinsey and Company. You can find the full article here. The article is about performance improvement measures working as a cohesive whole. The authors discuss the difference between top-down culture change and bottom-up performance improvement. They discuss changes in terms of scope, objectives, process, and iteration. One of the first things they point out is that you can’t change culture without improving performance. Change must be focused, integrated, balanced, and team-based.
They suggest a four-phase approach and break each phase down into a few chunks for implementation.
Phase 1 – Direction Setting
Phase 2 – Process Design
Phase 3 – Performance Improvement
Phase 4 – Realignment
They say to improve performance and make changes, the organization must get all the teams working together, including HR, accounting, customer service, and operations. They advise not to make change too fast and not to assume change is over too soon. One point that applied to our work in class is that you can train the managers, but if they don’t know how to translate that into performance goals for their team that they can evaluate, progress won’t be made. The article said several things we have heard through webinars and our Human Performance Technology course reading. Set goals, determine gaps, understand root causes, brainstorm and try out solutions, monitor results, and adjust.
The intended audience for this article is managers or business owners who want to make a change. It is for people at the top, the C suite. The intended context is an organization that needs to undergo a significant change that may take a very long time to implement. The information is from McKinsey Quarterly/McKinsey and Company. They are credible business researchers and publishers. My only concern regarding this article is that the people who need the information in this article are not looking for it. The article is from 1993. The information seems like it is still relevant, but I would be interested to know what results came from the plan they proposed now that it is 30 years later.
This article applies to our current course and future professional consulting. Businesses are continuously changing, so understanding effective change management is essential to being a business leader. In training and consulting, seeing how training fits into the organization's greater goal is helpful in producing a product that meets customer needs.
References:
Dichter, S. F., Gagnon, C., & Alexander, A. (2022, January 12). Leading organizational transformations. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved August 4, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/leading-organizational-transformations