In this survey, executives were asked about 24 practical actions most important to the successful implementation of an organizational transformation. Below are the specific actions in order of their impact (from greatest to least) on the likelihood of a transformation’s success, according to the results.

1. Senior managers communicate openly about the transformation’s progress and success
2. Everyone can see how her/his work relates to the organization’s vision
3. Leaders model the behavior changes they ask employees to make
4. All personnel adapt their day-to-day capacity to changes in customer demand
5. Senior managers communicate openly about the transformation’s implications for individuals’ day-to-day work
6. Everyone is actively engaged in identifying errors before they reach customers
7. Best practices are systematically identified, shared, and improved
8. The organization develops its people so they can surpass performance expectations
9. Managers know that their primary role is to lead and develop their teams
10. Performance evaluations hold initiative leaders accountable for their transformation contributions
11. Leaders use a consistent change story to align the organization around the transformation’s goals
12. Roles and responsibilities in the transformation are clearly defined
13. All personnel are fully engaged in meeting their individual goals and targets
14. Sufficient personnel are allocated to support initiative implementation
15. Expectations for new behaviors are incorporated directly into annual performance reviews
16. At every level of the organization, key roles for the transformation are held by employees who actively support it
17. Transformation goals are adapted for relevant employees at all levels of the organization
18. Initiatives are led by line managers as part of their day-to-day responsibilities
19. The organization assigns high-potential individuals to lead the transformation, giving them direct responsibility for initiatives
20. A capability-building program is designed to enable employees to meet transformation goals
21. Teams start each day with a formal discussion about the previous day’s results and current day’s work
22. Use diagnostic tools to help quantify goals (e.g., for new mind-sets and behaviors, cultural changes, organizational agility) for the transformation’s long-term sustainability
23. Leaders of initiatives receive change-leadership training during the transformation
24. A dedicated organizing team (e.g., a project-management or transformation office) centrally coordinate the transformation

by McKinsey & Company 2015 It is worth bearing these critical elements in mind as you start to think about or embark on how to handle transformation and cultural change whether this is on a large scale or small scale. All of these elements are like part of a jigsaw puzzle, the more pieces you implement the higher likelihood of success but of course it is not guaranteed. Think about what other key factors may be important to change in your business and build these into your checklist. At Lean leadership Coach we have similar and even deeper mental checklists for change and improvement but more importantly we have some key processes and tools to help people through the change process itself.  

When I was a Professional Tennis coach I would get a lot of students (young, old, business people, club players and above) coming to me because they wanted to get better at tennis or they didn’t even know how to play tennis at the time, but wanted to get good. Looking back, and still as a part time tennis coach now, it struck me that the process of coaching tennis is no different to coaching business for business improvement success. Tennis shots are the tools, the basics to master, but getting good at tennis is so much more than just the shots. For high level or just match play, it requires strategy, tactics, the mind-set, the commitment and desire to be the best, training for strength, endurance and stamina are all part of it, and then more advanced knowledge for increased competition levels.

However, in tennis as in business we normally start with the tools or shots, because they help engage people and demonstrate how to go about certain things to understand the mechanics and make some immediate improvements, because they are visible and tangible with immediate feedback on results. But, the bigger learning as suggested is not just the tools, or shots, but the wider knowledge that helps them to get to the next level….however, all that is another story for a future blog post.

For now, lets focus on a player coming for help to improve their tennis game and recognise the similarities between tennis coaching and business consulting and coaching…

Typically, before doing anything on a tennis court or with a racket i would always consult with the player about what the problems were with their game, what did they feel was letting them down the most. Mainly to understand their own self image, perception and perspective, because often people judge themselves by just the results of certain shots or outcomes but then label everything as bad!.  I would ask them about themselves, get to know them a little better and start to ask why they want to get better. What is their motivation? and then talk about their vision for getting better, their goals or level they wanted to reach and by when?

I would briefly have a look at their tennis game with a hit around, almost like a quick assessment, actually see and confirm their own perceptions or maybe see it totally different. I would also ask them how serious they were and their level of commitment to want to be better and agree how i work and how I can help, ensure the player understands they have the ownership for their own improvement and it will need effort, commitment and discipline on their part with rules going forward. This was like a contract to commit to each other to achieve their goals. What I would do, and what i expected from them from the outset. i would outlay a strategy and plan to reach the goals along a specified timeline.

The next part was to have a lesson on the tennis court. I would take notice of their preparation before starting, but then get playing to get a deeper understanding of their current level, observe certain things, and create an overall impression of what was going on. This is almost what these days in business consulting, i would call a Business Assessment with a wide scope on the overall and holistic business to get a good read and baseline of where things are at in various areas, not just looking at results, but looking more at what creates the results.

With this overall assessment, I would make some suggestions on where to start i.e. quick wins for improvement, it could be technical things, or just the basics. Typically, what i would find is that what someone thinks they are doing is not what they are actually doing. This difference is mainly because they can’t see themselves and need a coach to lift awareness. The awareness alone can sometimes be enough to improve shots i.e. racket back early, the right positioning to hit the ball, weight transfer, and follow through, etc. It is interesting that these are the basics, not advanced but often in Sport and in Business, we forget the basics, the foundations on which we build for improvement and so going back to basics, can sometimes by the first step to build on.

It is interesting to note that typically people who are decent at tennis, can forget, or lose the edge by not practicing. They don’t lose the know how of how to hit a tennis ball, but the consistency and reliability of the shots break down or change over time because the muscle memory starts to fade like a business process breaks down (but it can all be re-connected by neurons in the brains for tennis!!).  So, often it’s not that a player needs to learn more to begin with, it is sometimes learn less but un-learn the poor habits, and idiosyncrasies that have crept into the shots.

For a coach, and often for an outsider in a business with experience, this is easy to observe and fix but sometimes there are more complex issues that can result. i.e. these poor shots (in their mind and have labelled by them) start to cause frustration because the ball doesn’t go where they want it, they mis-hit it, or do something on impact that affects the shot altogether. This cause of frustration came from technique, but it was now causing deeper problems in the mind and each time a shot was missed, the player shouts and curses themselves, which only serves to contribute to the problems and make the shots worse, but now also with less confidence, self worth and image. Even more interesting is that the harder people try, it is possible to get lucky a few times, but in general the worse it becomes because fundamentally technique is wrong and it becomes hard on the ego. When times get tough, this is when players give up, they actually stop trying, lose motivation, talk themselves down that much that it’s not for them. This is where the mental side of the game comes in and it’s no different for business, people lose motivation because it all seems too hard.

Anyway, I digress, so once the the overall assessment is done and I have a plan for the player, each lesson will then be about looking to work on those areas that need immediate attention and prioritised in that way. Some exercises will work specifically on certain shots and others will help become more rounded as a player and build other skills. Working to perfect these skills and shots to get them consistent, repeatable is about standardising the inputs to get a repeatable output, through practice and adjustment. It is no different to the process of kaizen or continuous improvement in business, where we work on improving an area to a point it is stable and consistent before going to the next level of improvement. So, each tennis lesson is a mini kaizen to improve.  The more practice the easier mastery becomes and perfection arrives, although like kiazen, in tennis, there will always be another improvement!

After a while, I would often find it necessary or be asked to do a deep dive into a particular area of a players game to really understand it at a deeper level, put a particular emphasis especially if there seemed to be little or no improvement and needed to work out from the basics what was going on. This is similar to taking time out to re-look at things on a deeper level within a business like a diagnostic helps to do. It could be part of the whole game as opposed to a full assessment, for instance the serve, or volleys or the smash. Taking the shot in isolation to deep dive and see its current state and set targets to improve it to a winning shot. Identifying what needs to be changed and improved to get from current state to future and putting a plan together to get there is what was done.

Of course the constant in all this, is have a coach to guide and support the learning process. The coach brings a lot of skills to help improve a situation whether it improving tennis or a business, the tools or the mindset, creating awareness or sharing experience there is massive value.

Whilst brief, and missing a lot of detail, described above has some real comparisons with working with a business to help them improve. The first part is understanding the vision, goals, targets, strategy and plans to get from where you are now to where you want to be, the next is an overall business assessment to see the holistic problems, issues and opportunities, then to do some training, assess the strengths and weaknesses and fill the gaps, start to practice the learning with guided support and then keep improving each week with kaizen, towards the goals set and timing within the plan. Every now and again it may be necessary to do a deeper dive into some areas to look at any deeper issues to help fix them.

This is exactly what we offer for business, a whole suite of approaches including consulting, training, workshops for assessments and diagnostics, events for kaizen improvement and of course on going coaching, mentoring and support to get better and better….

If you would like us to help you get from where you are to where you want to be then please feel free to contact us by phone, website or email.