Every cloud has a silver lining. The current crisis has at least two.

1. You get an opportunity to challenge the status quo; to build a road-map for the organization that you always wanted.
2. You have time available to plan and execute the transformation

In the first article in this series, we explored how the current COVID-19 crisis can be leveraged as an opportunity to create a reason for change. “D”- Dissatisfaction with the existing, provides the “Why” for change. In the second article, we explored the role of a leader in creating hope for a better tomorrow. “V”- the Vision, establishes “What” the transformed organization should look like.

D*V*P>R

Now, in this third and final article of the series, we explore “P”- the Process to get there; the recipe of “How” to convert the vision into reality using our change equation. Also, what you can do in next 10-15 days to prepare for change is recommended. This is just a recipe and covers the basics, having ample scope for you to add in your own special ingredients. To make the flavors work together, it is important to understand the fundamentals. Just like any other, our recipe also comes with 2 sections-

1. the Ingredients
2. the Directions.

For a productive transformation, you need to handle 4 ingredients– Strategy, People, Process, and Technology.

Strategy

Strategy impacts the consistency of decision making. In absence of a clearly articulated strategy, the people tend to either take decisions based on their personal value system, or more often, delegate the decision making upwards to avoid responsibility. This can lead to the senior management being swarmed with "z category" decisions and not having enough time to assess the situation. It hampers growth as size of the company increases. Many small and family run business suffer from this.

People

People have different motivations and value systems. Their decisions are based on their capability, their perceived power equations (Structure) and societal acceptance (Culture). Transforming the business requires transforming the collective value systems of the organization.

Process and Technology

Processes and Technology can both facilitate and hamper the decision making. People mostly like to take the path of least resistance. If you ever wondered why people are not following the laid down processes, begin by examining the ease of executing the processes. The more complicated the process and technology, the more fractured the decision making will be.

Steps for Transformation

Finally, the directions for transformations is a subject of many books- simple, but not easy at all. It is about using the ingredients in a manner to maximize their impact. At a high level it can look something like this-

1. Start with a vision (simple, inspiring, emotional)
2. Get the commitment of top team (if required, get the right people at the top)
3. Build a strategy (what will make you win? how will you measure success?)
4. Get the right people (capability and values)
5. Define processes (value delivery, support, and management processes)
6. Decide appropriate organization structure (make decision making east for people)
7. Evaluate and deploy technology solutions (affordable, secure, scalable)
8. Set up a constant review and upgrade cycle (PDSA)
9. Execute the plan
10. Be the change you want to see.

Wow! that was a mouthful!

We have only touched the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As I said, simple, but not easy. We will take up the details of the decision-making process, the ingredients and transformation process in much more details in an upcoming series of articles.

For now, the opportunity lies in utilizing the downtime to create the organization of your dreams. If all you could do during the lock down is to come up with a shared vision with your top team (step 1 & 2) and make some headway in defining a strategy and capabilities required to execute them (step 3 & 4), you would have overcome the core inertia that stops you from turning your intentions into reality.

I invite you maximize this downtime. Take a head-start. Be prepared for the post COVID-19 world.

In words of Steve Jobs- “To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.”