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Robust Innovations finds that management
teams respond positively to the development of integrated strategies and
of the supporting portfolio of projects to accomplish the strategic
objectives. This is true as long as the projects relate to product
development, process development, organization development, and to some
degree, people development. Most teams also understand that their
organizations should have cultures that enable innovation, but few are
comfortable leading cultural change.
 During
integrated strategy development, Robust Innovations advocates that the
management team be responsible for defining the preferred culture and
then being the culture change agents. The culture process starts during
Business Climate definition, and change plans are defined during Project
Idea Generation. Robust Innovations applies a slightly modified version
of the Congruence Model described by O’Reilly and Tushman2.
This modified form is pictured at the right. The “driver box” is
labeled “strategic objectives” whereas O’Reilly and Tushman use
“critical tasks.”
The strategic objectives come directly from quadrant #2 of the
Structured CPS Process used to develop integrated strategies. To
maximize effectiveness, people in sufficient quantity and
expertise, organization (including structure and processes) and
culture are systematically tuned (1) to support attainment of the
objectives and (2) to be mutually consistent. In Robust Innovations’
experience, Management Teams readily accept the fact that accomplishing
alignment is their responsibility.
To define a culture modification plan,
the Process Leader first guides the Management Team through the
definition of the existing culture in the organization. After
strategic objectives are established, the Process Leader helps the
Management Team define the attributes of a preferred culture that aligns
well primarily with the objectives, and secondarily with the people and
organization boxes. Comparison of the existing and preferred cultures
shows that certain attributes should be removed and that new attributes
should be added. Based on the change analysis, the team defines its
project plan to embed the preferred culture. The plan details the actions
the team will perform to (1) consciously model the behavior it values
and (2) continually communicate the importance of the new culture.
A similar approach is used to define
explicit plans for “people” and “organization.”
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2O'Reilly,
C.A. III and Tushmann, M.L., "Winning through Innovation: A Practical
Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal," Harvard Business
Press (1997). See chapter 4. |
