Getting to the Critical Few Behaviors That Can Drive Cultural Change
The Critical Few
Focusing
on a “critical few” behaviors is one of the fundamental tenets of working effectively
with organizational
culture. Sometimes called keystone behaviors, these
are patterns of acting that are tangible, repeatable, observable, and measurable,
and will contribute to achieving an organization’s strategic and operational
objectives. The behaviors are critical because they will have
a significant impact on business performance when exhibited by large numbers of
people; they are few because people can really only remember
and change three to five key behaviors at one time.
In the
work done by Katzenbach Center consultants around
the world, we have seen how a focus on a critical few behaviors helps bring
about changes that contribute to meaningful business outcomes, whether it is a
medical devices manufacturer tallying 10 straight quarters of revenue growth or
a technology firm saving US$100 million a year in warranty costs.
A New
York Times article by Charles Duhigg, author of Smarter, Faster,
Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business (Random House, 2016), provides a simple example of
critical few behaviors in a nonbusiness environment. When Duhigg’s family
members tried to solve the problem of not getting to eat dinner together often
enough, they applied a classic Toyota Production System technique of “the
Five Whys” — framing the problem, then repeatedly
asking “Why?” to uncover root causes. In Duhigg’s case, the root cause turned
out to be that the family was always late getting out the door in the morning
because it took so long for the kids to get dressed, which triggered a cascade
of delays throughout the day. The solution the family developed — laying out
clothes the night before — allowed them to have calmer mornings, leave for work
earlier, get work done earlier in the day, leave work on time, and get home to
have dinner as a family more often.
Choosing and laying out outfits the night
before is a perfect example of a keystone behavior. It is actionable, highly
visible, measurable, and able to deliver short-term results. Most important,
adopting the behavior has a meaningful impact on the ultimate goal.
Not all our business problems can be solved
through such simple actions. But defining and selecting the critical few
behaviors is an important first step. And rather than repeatedly asking the
simple question, “Why?” you can get there by following a four-step process.
Know
what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s
vital to identify the area or issue in which you are trying to make a
difference. For an organization, this often means aligning with the strategic
priorities or, sometimes, the goals of a critical enterprise-wide
transformation effort. Examples could include reducing injuries in a plant
environment, or increasing IT system reliability and resiliency. Defining the
ultimate goal will help you to understand what the behaviors should be aimed
toward.
Define
the behaviors that will contribute to the goals. A behavior is a habitual way of acting that is
considered the norm or expectation — it is not a one-time action, a policy
change, an outcome, or a mind-set/attitude. To reduce injuries in a plant, a
company may focus on maintaining a safe work environment. Declaring a plant
“clean-up day” is an example of a one-time action. By contrast, an appropriate
habitual behavior could be getting employees to take ownership to maintain the
safety of the shop’s workspace, which would include proper waste disposal and
the elimination of tripping hazards. You can brainstorm behaviors that will
contribute to the goals you’ve defined by asking, “In a future state in which
we’ve achieved the goals, what would people actually do (or do
differently)?” Then review your brainstormed list to make sure all the
behaviors are specific, repeatable, and preferably applicable to everyone in
the organization — at all levels and roles.
Prioritize
the critical few behaviors. A common way to do
this is to plot the behaviors using the axes of implementation and impact.
Implementation criteria include:
·
Actionability: Are people able to perform the behavior?
·
Degree of visibility: Can people see others performing the behavior?
·
Measurability: Can you measure (preferably objectively) whether
people are performing the behavior?
·
Speed of results: Can people performing the behavior deliver results
in the short term?
·
Ease of implementation: Given the current organizational environment, how
easy/difficult will it be for people to perform the new behavior?
There is only one impact criterion: Will
people performing the behavior make a difference in your efforts to achieve
your defined goals?
In prioritizing the critical few, impact is
exponentially more important than the implementation criteria. Ultimately, the
best choices for the critical few behaviors are those that will move the needle
furthest on the strategic and operational objectives of your organization.
Validate
your choices by getting input from both formal and informal leaders. You might consider using a voting process — it
could be an electronic voting tool or something as old-school as a show of
hands — to gather formal leaders’ views and prioritize down to the critical
few. Then get input from your organization’s “authentic informal leaders”
(AILs), those people in your organization who have not been endowed with formal
authority yet exhibit the informal leadership strengths that can influence
their peers or teams. (My colleague Reid Carpenter has helpfully
described how to find and engage AILs.)
When establishing the critical few with AILs,
it’s usually best to start by discussing the strategic and operational goals,
then presenting a smaller subset of behaviors for AILs’ reactions. The key is
to generate input on which behaviors resonate, and share stories of how they
would (or already do!) exhibit these behaviors. If AILs are excited about a
particular behavior and the impact it could have, it’s a good bet that it is
one of the critical few. Armed with this insight, go back to your formal
leaders to finalize the plan of action.
Now the journey of driving, reinforcing, and
measuring those behaviors throughout the organization can begin. We’ll discuss
this topic in more detail in an upcoming blog post. But in a nutshell, as the
organization embarks on these efforts, it is important to choose both formal
and informal methods to spread the behaviors, and to ensure that formal aspects
of the organization (such as performance management, awards, and compensation)
are aligned with the critical few behaviors. Leaders should also choose a few
key metrics to evaluate the adoption of the behaviors and their impact on
strategic and operational goals.
Of course, driving change through a critical
few behaviors won’t be as easy for a complex corporation as it is for a family.
In Duhigg’s case, the parents could dictate the new behavior and exert a large
amount of control over whether it was followed. Still, it is possible to
leverage a few behaviors into tangible progress for your organization. And it
can be incredibly satisfying to help your organization’s people contribute more
tangibly to the strategic and operational goals — almost as satisfying as
having dinner with your family.
Kristy Hull
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Getting-to-the-Critical-Few-Behaviors-That-Can-Drive-Cultural-Change?gko=463e5&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20170601&utm_campaign=resp
No comments:
Post a Comment