Mining The Middle Ground: Developing Mid-level Managers for Strategic Change

MINING THE MIDDLE GROUND Developing Mid-level Managers for Strategic Change MINING THE MIDDLE GROUND Developing Mid-l...

Author: David N. Williams

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MINING THE MIDDLE GROUND Developing Mid-level Managers for Strategic Change

MINING THE MIDDLE GROUND Developing Mid-level Managers for Strategic Change

David Williams

St. Lucie Press Boca Raton • London New York • Washington, D.C.

SL2953_fm_frame Page 4 Wednesday, August 9, 2000 2:45 AM

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, David N., 1954– Mining the middle ground : developing mid-level managers for strategic change / David N. Williams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57444-295-3 1. Middle managers. 2. Organizational change. 3. Management. 4. Strategic planning–United States–Case studies. 5. Strategic planning–Canada–Case studies. I. Title. HD38.2 . W55 2000 658.4′3—dc21 00-040282

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© 2001 by CRC Press LLC No claim to original U.S. Government works International Standard Book Number 1-57444-295-3 Library of Congress Card Number 00-040282 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Printed on acid-free paper


Preface There are over 5.4 million middle managers in the U.S. and Canada today1 and in excess of 30,000 companies that employ them.2 The vast majority of managers in large corporations fall into this group, yet it represents one of the most overlooked, ignored resources in most organizations’ strategic change efforts. Strategic change represents the greatest critical challenge for organizations in the 1990s,3 but these efforts fail somewhere between 50 percent and 80+ percent of the time.4 Middle managers take much of the blame; they are stereotyped as barriers, hindrances, and deadwood. This book takes a markedly different view. Adequately developed and enabled, mid-level managers can be the strongest resource: • For directing and managing strategic change efforts • For knowledge creation and breakthrough thinking • For seeing through the work necessary for successful change

and they are a readily available resource at that. The vast majority of managers in today’s large corporations are middle managers. Developing and tapping this resource is an option organizations cannot continue to ignore. Managerial hierarchies are an integral part of the most competitive companies worldwide.5 While no one supports overly complex, over-staffed hierarchies, the major differences between strategic success and failure in organizations today are not found in those that have large middle management groups and those that do not. Removing middle managers does not deliver success; of North American companies that downsized in 1989–1994, 66 percent found productivity worsened, 49 percent found profits did not improve, and in 86 percent morale plummeted.6 Success is found in those companies that effectively use their middle management resource, that tap their knowledge and leadership potential as an integral part of their change efforts (as well as in day-to-day management). Mining the Middle Ground is based on the following four basic, interlinking premises: 1. Mid-level management represents an untapped resource in most organizations’ strategic change efforts. Middle managers have a scope of knowledge, leadership, credibility, and a unique potential ability to “facilitate the process of organizational knowledge creation”7 that is unavailable either to senior or first-line personnel. Their “Middle Ground” position puts them in an ideal place to: • Bridge the visionary plans and priorities of senior management and the often chaotic, applied reality of work confronted by first-line mangers and employees8 • Accumulate and communicate necessary information • Manage the development and implementation of permanent changes Is mid-level management a barrier to change? No, not at all. These are the people who make change happen. It is important to limit the layers to an organization, but as it grows there will be middle managers. There


is no way we could have accomplished what we did without the hard work, without the active leadership of middle management. There will be conflict over the vested interests between senior and middle management. Responsibilities and accountabilities are different. Those differences have to be recognized and dealt with. That’s normal. President and CEO — Retired MD Management Yes, however not as big a barrier as most other levels of managers. The only way to deal with it is by getting them involved. The worst thing is when they are not part of the effort and are told, “Here it is.” If they are involved they may still be a hindrance; if they are not involved, they definitely will be a barrier. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation 2. Strategic planning and first-line projects are not enough to accomplish successful strategic change. Mutually isolated strategic objectives and tactical accomplishments do not add up to success. To be successful, strategic objectives and tactical projects need to be logically connected such that optimal conditions for success are created, only high-impact projects are launched, and those projects combine for strategic success. This connecting “Middle Ground” is operational* change management. It is very often forgotten in strategic change efforts. Operational change management links broad strategic objectives to the detailed, complex environment of first-line processes, management, and employees. It provides the context, focus and goals for tactical projects, decision making, and actions.8 In a strategic change effort it takes on a campaign structure, launched and carried out specifically to achieve the strategic objective. The Campaign** is the primary tool of operational change management in a strategic change effort (and from here on the term Campaign will be used in place of it). Campaigns are the realm of middle management. Strategic planning and change leadership are the realm of executive management. Tactical projects are (usually) the realm of firstline managers and employees. 3. There should not be only one tactical approach in any major strategic change effort. The absolute goal in any strategic change effort must be to meet the objective. The moment any one tactical approach becomes a monopoly, the chances of successfully reaching the strategic objective have been limited. Too often, organizations find themselves distracted and bogged down by just trying to get a given tactical approach to work. We started out with a strategic objective: implement a 100 percent guaranteed 24hour emergency replacement service. Customers needed it. We couldn’t get an order out in 24 hours to save our lives. We decided to try Total Quality Management, sounded great. A year later and we were still trying to figure out how to make TQM * The term “operational” refers specifically to the operational level of strategic change management, which links strategic objectives to tactical actions, not to production organization, procedures, or management. ** With apologies to the U.S. military for abusing their term.


work, in fact, making TQM work had become the focus; we still couldn’t get 24-hour orders out. I found myself fighting against TQM to get the focus back on the problem. And I like TQM. Operations Manager Silicon Valley Distribution Center The most effective way to meet a strategic objective, whether radical reengineering, incremental improvement, or otherwise, is to use a full menu of tactical approaches. For any tactical project, the approach with the greatest chance of success and that will make the greatest gains on the strategic objective should be used. The timing and location of tactical projects as well as the approach to be applied is the responsibility of the Campaign Team.

Project 1:

Project 2:

standardize customer information gathering

reengineer file maintenance and updates

#1

#2

STRATEGIC PROCESS: Order Completion

#3

Project 3: incrementally improve shipping paperwork accuracy

Figure 1

Tactical projects can draw on a variety of approaches.

4. Strategic processes may flow horizontally (across functional groups), but strategic change needs to be managed both vertically and horizontally. vertically: the organizational hierarchy, priorities, accountabilities, and responsibilities must be understood, aligned, and reconciled with the change effort. Weak or missing alignment results in conflict between layers of management as well as between management and employees. The distance between the strategic objective and tactical change can seem so great and mid-level managers can be seen as such barriers that senior managers conclude that it’s better, faster, and cheaper to forget about alignment, just skip over them entirely and get right to the front-line experts. “Leap-frogging” over midsections of the hierarchy is


called skip-delegation; it is a “fatal flaw” that is commonly designed, intentionally or unintentionally, into many strategic change efforts. If you don’t have the vertical alignment, the buy-in and support of the objective at the top, an executive team that says, “We are committed to this, we will give you the resources, everything you need to develop a solution that works, including the recognition, to get the job done,” you are doomed to failure. You may as well not even start it. Then you have to get the buy-in from middle management, buy-in to the point of ownership. Without that you’re not going very far. Executive Owner — Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management horizontally: effective strategic change requires a common, shared understanding of the organization’s cross-functional, essential processes as well as strong, careful management that spans the functional groups.

There is an inherent conflict between the organization chart and the creation and delivery of “strategic” products and services. The strategic processes that create and/or deliver those products and services are chopped up into pieces by departments, sections, or divisions — functional “silos” which are accountable for their own piece. Managers are held responsible for how well their sovereign part works, not for the whole. These pieces and the whole are often in conflict with one another. Warring silos make small room for meeting strategic goals. Only by recognizing, understanding, and working with the whole strategic process can organizations efficiently build effective strategic change. This is tougher than it sounds. Once we could look beyond the silos we were able to see that there were parts of the process that were higher priority for change than others; that allowed us to allocate resources more effectively. We were able to plan, accounting for the full process and for the resources available to us. Team Member — Manager Pilot Plant Production Yield and Efficiency Wesley Jessen Corporation

A Campaign Team serves both to bridge the vertical gap between strategic plans and tactical projects and to break down the horizontal barriers — the silos that block understanding and management of cross-functional processes as a whole. Cross-functional teamwork and collaboration are an essential part of a Campaign Team’s efforts. However, the model does not prescribe changing the organization chart (although changes may result as an outcome of the knowledge and experience gained). The goal is to understand and deal with the barriers that it can present and the ignorance that it can dictate. Mid-level managers are in a unique position to deal with managing both the vertical and horizontal aspects of change. Their scope of vision and goals are closer to those of executive-level management but, at the same time, they have more experience with and a better understanding of the details of day-to-day work and


the responsibilities and accountabilities that go with it. They are in the center of the communication chain rather than at either end. Their understanding of their own functional areas (as well as the hand-offs to and interdependencies with the other departments) is more detailed than that of executive management but broader than that of first-line personnel. This approach gave us a framework for getting people involved at the various levels. We were very much more empowered as managers to initiate or deal with change in that it gave us a method for getting participation, cross-functional as well as across levels. Team Member — Sales and Enrollment Marketing Administration Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

This book presents a strong argument for developing and utilizing middle management, both as a resource for strategic change and as a valuable management asset, and explores both the theory and the day-to-day logic behind this. This is also very much a “how to” book about developing middle managers as a resource for strategic change through strategic change. The actions, steps, and recommendations for building and tapping mid-level managers are laid out as an integral part of carrying out a process-based strategic change effort. It is written for managers, both senior and middle, who want to know how to make this work, who grow frustrated with theory and philosophy and success stories alone. It is presented in sequential order, beginning with establishing the strategic objective,* forming and launching middle management Campaign Teams, spinning off tactical projects, and ending with implementation of changes. Each of the 12 chapters deals with a major phase of putting a Campaign in place and getting the needed results. Each is broken down into the stages, steps, recommendations, and tips for completing this journey. On first reading, you may want to pass over many of the detail given in the steps, tips and pitfalls, and discussions. Come back for these details when you are ready to start. An essential ingredient to this model, one that only the reader can add, is customization. As presented, it will need to be adjusted and adapted to meet the needs and character of each organization. This was a point that officers from each of the seven case study organizations asked to be underscored.

THE CASE STUDY ORGANIZATIONS Seven organizations agreed to be cited by name as case studies for this book. They were selected because their Campaign efforts represent a variety of strengths and challenges. They allowed intensive interviews with all levels of managers and employees. The participants shared their experiences and insights about the breakthroughs and the challenges they experienced. For this, the author is very grateful and the reader will be enriched. The case study organizations represented are: * As such it does not include several essential steps in strategic planning, such as developing the vision or mission and goal definition.


Blue Mountain Resort — a four-season recreation center Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre — hospital and community health services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre — hospital and community health services Wesley Jessen Corporation — manufacturing Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa — health insurance Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota — health insurance MD Management — financial management and consulting Some quotes have been left anonymous at the request of the interviewee or at the author’s discretion. In these cases it was felt that the information and perspective given were important enough to include the quote without citation. A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY, ESPECIALLY FOR THE USERS OF STRATEGIC PROCESS MANAGEMENT The structure, strategy, tools, and techniques of the Campaign all evolved within a more global strategic change approach called Strategic Process Management (SPM), which we have developed and worked with over the past 15 years. The concept of Campaigning was created in order to focus more on the middle management team — the SPM team — that plays such an essential part in the strategic change effort. It deserves this attention. The terms Campaigning and the Campaign Team are meant to more clearly differentiate a single objective-driven effort from the overall concept of Strategic Process Management and the organization, the management style, and the knowledge base that it incorporates. Tactical teams are the same as spin-off teams. The term “tactical” is favored because it more closely describes what those teams do and their relationship to the operational work of the Campaign Team. Interview quotes were modified to reflect these differences in terminology. My apologies to the participants; no disrespect is intended. REFERENCES 1. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1999; Statistics Canada, Economic Indicators, Ottawa, 1999. 2. Economic Census, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C., 1992; Economic Indicators, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, 1999. 3. Monograph, Booze-Allen & Hamilton, McLean, VA, 1990. 4. Streble, P., Why do employees resist change?, Harvard Business Review, 47, 86, 1996. 5. Hilner, F. C. and Donaldson, L., Management Redeemed, Free Press, New York, 1996, p. 53. 6. Some companies cut costs too far, suffer corporate anorexia, Wall Street Journal, July 5, 1995. 7. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, p. 128. 8. Gray, A. M., Campaigning, U.S. Marine Corps, Department of the Navy, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 10.


Author David N. Williams, executive consultant. David Williams specializes in helping organizations succeed at large-scale change. His consulting work over the past 20 years has been focused on building successful strategic change for and with his clients. This includes structuring and aligning organizations around change priorities, tapping all levels of management and employees, measuring process performance and results and, ensuring that the critical ingredients for successful change are in place. He has consulted with hundreds of executive and middle managers, primarily in healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, finance, hospitality and government organizations. Measurement and analysis are special areas of his expertise. David is president and founding partner of Williams Alliance International of North Carolina and Ontario, Canada. Before founding his own consulting company in 1990, he was director of corporate quality at Mitel, a major telecommunications development and marketing organization; he spent five years as a statistical engineer with Hewlett-Packard and five years as a start-up and technical manager for customer service programs at Pacific Gas and Electric. David is the author of Quality Improvement Projects: Making Them Work (Quality Transition Corporation, 1992), and Guidelines for Major Improvement Projects (Department of Justice internal publication, 1998). He has a master’s degree in applied statistics within sociology from Washington State University. He and his family divide their time between the United States and Canada.



Acknowledgments This book is the result of a lot of work with a wide variety of people, across a large number of organizations. It has been a group project from start to finish, even though I was writing it by myself. I am greatly indebted to the case study organizations for their faith in me and in this book: Blue Mountain Resort, Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, MD Management, Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre, Wesley Jessen Corporation, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. They gave their managers’ and employees’ time generously. The people, in turn, gave their ideas and knowledge freely. They certainly helped me to understand parts that I did not and opened my eyes to things that I had overlooked. It is not possible to give credit by name to all of the people who helped, who participated in interviews and discussions; to them I can only extend my thanks and acknowledge their contributions. A few who gave extraordinary time and enthusiasm are David Sinclair, David Gutzman, DoraLynn Davies, Maureen Solecki, Dave Dunsmore, Roland Breton, Tony Faoro, James Moritz, Dick Brown, Tim Huckle, Christine Witt and Gord Birbeck. For help and service above and beyond the call, my thanks. I also want to recognize my colleagues for their support and mentoring. Dee Hoffman, Jean-Marc Legentil, Linda Moran, Gary Cooper, Ron Bolf, Ken Crombie, and others who were generous enough to read drafts and to give me their open and honest opinions. Special thanks to Jim Huggett for his understanding support, and to Achieve Global, for its belief in Strategic Process Management. I also owe recognition to experts in the field, some of whom I have never met but feel I know well: Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi, General A.M. Gray, U.S. Marine Corps, and W. Edwards Deming. I drew extensively upon these men’s writings for insight and knowledge. For where I do not cite them specifically, I acknowledge their influence in general and thank them for making their knowledge available to me. William Merryman guided me, pulled me and kept my optimism up through many drafts, edits, and dark days. For his professional skills and, even more, for his friendship and support, I am very grateful. Kathryn Williams, who always made time to listen, to read, to encourage me, and to help me to remember that this was a worthwhile effort, I cannot thank enough. David N. Williams



Dedication To Serene Williams, who quietly taught me to be tenacious.



Contents Section I

Before the Campaign Begins: The Role of the Executive Team

Chapter 1 I. Introduction......................................................................................................3 II. Define the Strategic Objective.........................................................................4 III. Understand the ∆ .............................................................................................7 IV. Assess the Organization’s Readiness and Capabilities for Change................8 V. Create a Compelling Mandate for Change ...................................................10 Chapter 2 I. Introduction....................................................................................................15 II. Identifying Your Organization’s Strategic Processes ....................................17 III. Picking the Right Strategic Process ..............................................................30 IV. Recommendations for Choosing a Strategic Process ...................................31 Chapter 3 I. About the Campaign Team............................................................................35 II. Selecting Team Members ..............................................................................43 III. Planning for Team Support, Preparation, and Launch .................................60 Section II The Campaign Chapter 4 I. Getting Established........................................................................................75 II. Refine the Objective ......................................................................................77 III. Set the Process Vision ...................................................................................92 IV. Establish Ground Rules and Expectations ....................................................93 Chapter 5 I. About the Playing Field ................................................................................99 II. Map the Strategic Process ...........................................................................107 III. Survey the Environment ..............................................................................115 IV. Measure Process Performance.....................................................................119 Chapter 6 I. About Campaign Planning ..........................................................................125 II. Locate High Impact Change Areas .............................................................130 III. Define Tactical Project Objectives ..............................................................138 IV. Create the Campaign Plan...........................................................................142 Chapter 7 I. About Communication ................................................................................147 II. What to Communicate.................................................................................151


III. Communicate with Whom? .........................................................................152 IV. How to Communicate..................................................................................153 Chapter 8 I. About Tactical Teams ..................................................................................155 II. Tactical Contexts of Knowledge .................................................................158 III. Selecting Tactical Team Members...............................................................161 IV. Planning for Tactical Team Support, Preparation, and Launch..................174 Section III Tactical Projects Chapter 9 I. About Tactical Project Mechanics...............................................................185 II. Set Team Ground Rules and Expectations..................................................185 III. Refine the Objective ....................................................................................188 IV. Understand the Subprocesses ......................................................................192 V. Design and Test Changes ............................................................................196 VI. Proposal and Recommendations .................................................................202 Chapter 10 I. About the Ongoing Role .............................................................................203 II. Looking at the Big Picture ..........................................................................214 III. Maintaining the Campaign Context ............................................................216 IV. The Ongoing Role of the Executive Team .................................................217 Section IV

Beyond Tactical Projects

Chapter 11 I. About Implementing Change ......................................................................225 II. Change Design and Test..............................................................................228 III. Preparing for Implementation .....................................................................231 IV. Rollout of Implementation ..........................................................................235 Chapter 12 Conclusions..................................................................................................243 Index .....................................................................................................................247

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SECTION I Before the Campaign Begins: The Role of the Executive Team The primary function of executive management in a strategic change effort is leadership. Leaders establish and maintain strategic direction and missions; they develop vision, a plan, and strategic objectives. They gain and maintain support for their change goals and priorities. During change design and implementation they enable and empower managers to act. A large company we do business with asked about what we’ve done. They asked what’s essential. One item must be there: the person at the top must be driving this. If there is a common denominator to failure it is the lack of top-down drive, to ask the questions about alignments. The person at the top has given permission but they aren’t driving it. I don’t think they’re ready for this yet: they didn’t return. President Blue Mountain Resort

The primary role of middle managers in strategic change is to plan, organize. and provide resources for the change effort, to coordinate ongoing logistics and actions, and to produce orderly results. Both leaders and managers are essential to a successful change effort. When the roles get confused change efforts stumble. Establishing a strategic change objective is not the same thing as organizing and maintaining a change effort. Maintaining the priority and focus on an objective does not guarantee the detailed understanding or tactical actions necessary to design and implement successful change. Executive managers are solely responsible for and singularly capable of leading a strategic effort. When they attempt to expand into the middle-ground role of middle managers, to try to carry out operational and tactical work, they become limited by their knowledge and by time. These limitations often prove fatal to the change effort. Only executive management can effectively fill the responsibility of leadership. In turn, mid-level management is uniquely qualified to carry out change management. Middle managers cannot establish strategic visions and objectives; executive managers cannot effectively nor efficiently organize and resource a complex strategic


change effort. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 address the roles, responsibilities, and actions of the Executive Team in preparing for launch of the Campaign and the Campaign Team. Their roles do not end there; various responsibilities are dealt with throughout this book, especially in Chapter 11: Implementing Change. To help people to be successful, executive management commitment to the change effort has to be there right to the end and beyond. If it isn’t there in the end, to approve resources for implementation or to give recognition, you really lose. It’s very easy at the front end to launch the team and say, “We’re right behind you all the way and here’s why it’s important,” all those wonderful things, but if that commitment isn’t there in the end to say, “Yeah, let’s put our money where our mouth is,” it’s not going to work. That commitment at the front must be there at the end too. A president or any head of an organization has to understand that they need to be committed to the process change effort and demonstrate that commitment. By commitment I mean being there when the issue is selected, when the teams are launched, being there when needed to remove or resolve barriers, remain informed, acknowledge people in the end, be an advocate of the overall strategic process change approach. Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre


CHAPTER 1 Establishing the Challenge I.

INTRODUCTION

“Establishing the challenge” involves methodically beginning the change effort, clearly stating the hoped-for or needed outcome, developing an understanding of just how big the change will be, taking stock of preparedness, and then creating a compelling mandate, a sense of urgency1 for the upcoming effort. This can be a tougher task than it sounds. A strategic issue that seems very clear, straightforward, and pressing to the Executive Team can seem vague, nebulous, and not particularly important to middle managers and even more so to first-line employees. In order to take on the leadership role and in turn to delegate management of the change effort, and in order to gain the active involvement and support of midlevel managers, the Executive Team must first be able to define and agree on the change objective themselves. They need to confront and deal with issues within their own ranks before taking the change effort further. They need to be able to communicate it to others. Middle managers will rise to the challenge more readily if they sense that executive managers understand the size and scope of the effort and will sustain the effort over time. In an effort like this you have to focus and focus on one problem. Management came to us and said — improve that process; customers are complaining, “That didn’t give us much to go on; we didn’t know whether to go all the way back to the beginning to find out what to improve.” The initial lack of focus lasted throughout the effort; we never did get over it. We didn’t know what to do; we didn’t know if they thought they had given us enough or if they expected us to go back. Internal Consultant Anonymous by request

3


4

DEVELOPING MID-LEVEL MANAGERS FOR STRATEGIC CHANGE

II.

DEFINE THE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE

The strategic objective is a clear, concise statement of the needed result of the strategic change effort ahead. It is usually derived from the strategic plan, but sometimes not.* Its creation combines both developing a shared statement of the needed result and gaining unity of purpose within the Executive Team. Without common, shared understanding and support among the executive managers it is not a workable strategic objective. Before putting the Team together get the objective straight. Don’t leave it to the Team to set the objective. It has to be ready to go or the Team flounders unless there is a very strong senior management member working with them to help them to put it together. That senior manager can’t be wishy-washy about it; he must know the direction senior management wants the Team to go. Team Member — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Fund Administration MD Management

A strategic objective normally has three parts: a statement of what is to be changed (in measurable terms), by how much, and by when. A strategic objective must be defined narrowly enough that it can be linked to a strategic process(es) which will be the basis of the Campaign Team formation and work. Strategic objectives define the challenge for the Campaign Team. Emphasis needs to be placed on the term “measurable” for two reasons. First, because if an objective is measurable it is more likely to be clear. Second, because if an objective is not measurable the Executive Team will have no way of knowing whether it has been met or not, at least not objectively. The Executive Team may not be accustomed to working with such relatively specific objectives. They may be more experienced with establishing broad goals such as improving customer satisfaction ratings or decreasing the cost of production and handing them off to middle managers in the functional silos to figure out how to clarify them and what actions should be taken to meet them. Developing a specific, clear, and focused objective will require more work on several fronts. Additional data may be needed in order to create an objective from broader strategic goals. More work will also be needed to gain consensus and unity within the executive team and in the organization as a whole. It can be easier to just give a broad objective to operational management and to let them sort it out. However, the costs of handing off a vague objective to a Campaign Team are high; they can easily bring the strategic change effort to a halt. Predetermined, specific objectives for the Teams, for the change effort, were very important. That wasn’t easy. The senior management team wasn’t used to doing that and it took some practice. But it was very important: we had to know what we were * Strategic change objectives should derive from a strategic plan, simple as that. However, reality can often confound best-laid plans. Mandates and other edicts from outside sources, such as the competition, regulatory directions on policy, procedural and budget changes, accreditation standards, major customer demands, or headquarters orders or actions can force strategic change on an organization. If such a mandate is set it should still be reconciled with the organization’s strategic plan.


ESTABLISHING THE CHALLENGE

5

expecting from these Teams and then we could ask if they had what was required to meet the expectations, training, equipment, team members, support, time, and so on. That was hard to do but essential to their working through their project effectively. And it helped us, as senior management, to better understand what the company was going to have to go through to meet the targets, to change. President and CEO — Retired MD Management

CASE STUDY: BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT In order to reach our goals, we have to be innovative, in our products and services, in how we organize ourselves, as well as in employee management. I mean managing employees so they can manage the customers’ stay here, to make it a good experience, a good value, one they will want to do again. President

Blue Mountain is a four-seasons resort situated due north of Toronto. It is Ontario’s largest and busiest mountain resort. Skiing in the winter, an 18-hole championship golf course, tennis, and other recreational attractions as well as hotel and conference facilities make for a complex, multifaceted organization. Innovation is considered by management to be the number one means to achieve their first priority — return on investment — as well as for coping with the continuous growth the resort is faced with. Blue Mountain employee count expands and contracts with the seasons. It employs 200 full-time, year-round employees and an additional 890 in the winter ski season and 250 in the summer season. This adds to the challenge of keeping employees trained and engaged in the resort’s ongoing effort to deliver high-quality service. Cross-functional teamwork is seen as vital to making that happen. Guests come into touch with every department and we don’t really have any control over how that happens. We have to be flexible, to take care of our guests where they need or want us to. That takes working together as teams, both formally and informally. That has been one of our greatest accomplishments. President

Blue Mountain began working with strategic processes and Campaign Teams in 1992 by tackling skier risk, snowmobile use and maintenance, customer communications, and guest registration. These efforts have been expanded to all aspects of the resort, including the golf course.

Clarity of objective takes on far greater importance with a cross-functional approach. In a more traditional approach, clarification is done within functional silos; goals are broken up and operationalized within the various departments or


6


divisions, each using its own perspectives and paradigms. When objectives are handed off to a cross-functional Campaign Team, the Team does not have a common functional perspective against which to interpret the objective. When we were first given the issue it was very vague; or at least we thought was very vague. It was also very politically loaded. Just taking the issue selection out of the political arena is a major correction I would make. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Director, Systems Support Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

A vague objective will stress the ties of the newly formed Campaign Team; it will increase: • Divisiveness across functional lines — each Team member will fall back on his/her own functional perspectives to interpret the objective and to sort out where to go with it. This can easily turn into “proxy warfare,” where the differences that exist between Executive managers end up being fought among Team members. Power blocks can form to back one particular perspective or another, to enforce a particular point of view. Consensus and the energy that comes with it are lost. • Fear — there will be great concern among Team members that they are working on what the Executive Team wants them to work on. This fear, if left to grow, can lead to paralysis. We had people who were willing to do whatever improvement efforts that would get them the most credit. They would work to improve things in their own functional areas, but in terms of really looking at the whole strategic process, there were very definitely weak links. Vice President, Human Resources — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Risk of the Team going after the wrong objective — one the Executive Team didn’t intend for them to deal with in the first place. Launching a Campaign Team, leaving them to the hard work, only to have to come back two or three months later to tell them they have been working in the wrong direction, is not an enviable task. • Stall time — like a boat stuck on a sandbar, all propellers running, lots of mud flying, but no movement ahead. Divisiveness, fear, working in the wrong direction, or even switching directions several times wastes a lot of energy and time, rare commodities in most strategic change efforts.

Even when a reasonably focused objective is developed and handed off there will still be the inherent differences of perspective and scope between executive and middle managers that have to be dealt with. An objective that seems clear and specific to executive managers will rarely be clear and specific to a team of middle managers. That is OK, just keep telling yourself that it is perfectly normal. Team members will initially have to work closely with the Executive Owner and the Executive Team to clarify the objective and to minimize any differences in understanding about just what it is that the Team is expected to accomplish.



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The objective was redefined three or four times. We set and reset the measurements each time. In the end we settled on an objective of ensuring the SPDs and ID cards would be delivered within 30 days of effective date. Even that was debated: “Was 30 days too much?” Team Member — Product Implementation Assistant Vice President, Communications Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

III.

UNDERSTAND THE ∆

Just how big of a challenge will meeting the objective represent? The Executive Team needs to have an understanding of what it is they are asking participants (and the organization as a whole) to do in order to: • Realistically commit the organization to an extensive effort • Gain support for the objective (both within the Executive Team and in the rest of the organization) • Allocate resources (labor, budget, etc.) to the project • Estimate time frames allowable for getting results

Estimating the challenge calls for an understanding of the difference, the ∆, between where the organization is today and where it needs to be when the objective is accomplished. Various aspects of the challenge to consider are: • Structural and process changes — just how different must the organization (and the way things are done) have be at the end of the effort? • Work force changes — greater or lesser counts, different skills, etc. • Client/customer changes — will the changes affect your existing customers or will there be new customers? • Capital outlays — what kinds of budget allocations will be required to meet the objective (best guess)?

At this point all of these will have to be estimates based on the Executive Team’s vision of the outcomes. Every strategic change effort is difficult, from start to finish. Asking people to join a Campaign Team, to take on such a task, without really being ready to commit the organization to a change effort, is not only unfair to the participants, it also sends a clear message to others that “we aren’t serious about change.” Some of this has to do with perspective. Executive Teams often carry a “wait and see” attitude: wait until the Campaign Team is done and files their proposal before making a final decision of whether to change or not. A lot of speeches can be given about the importance of change and meeting the objective; but the decision is pending. When a Campaign Team is formed, its members usually perceive that the primary decision to change has already been made and that their role will be to figure out what the change will look like. A collision between these two perceptions


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will demoralize the Team, reinforce the cynics, and remind everyone else that they shouldn’t get involved in this sort of thing in the future. A big difference now is that senior management has a better understanding of the task they hand off. In many cases it’s huge: the detail affects every single part of our organization; everybody has to be a part of defining the change from broad sketches down to the fine details; pointing out the problems and the solutions. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

IV.

ASSESS THE ORGANIZATION’S READINESS AND CAPABILITIES FOR CHANGE

Change consumes resources (of all sorts: human, budget, facilities, etc.) not just in final implementation but also in design and development. It also taxes an organization’s capabilities, some of which may never have been needed before or may have been let go in efforts to “get lean and mean.” Intellectually understanding and agreeing with the need for change and being ready and capable of developing and implementing it are two very different things. If the resources, skills, and capabilities aren’t there, the Campaign and tactical teams, no matter who is on them, will simply not be able to carry out the work that needs to be done. Even if the Team perseveres, the organization will not be able to act on the results and implement the changes put forward. The challenges that came up had a lot to do with ongoing operational problems exclusive of any given change process that we were working on. The biggest barriers we bumped into were those that are endemic to our overall operation. The extent to which I was able to cajole, coerce and otherwise face up to those issues I did and had some success; but it’s the same for a lot of other projects; no matter what the priority. Although I probably had better results with this strategic effort. Executive Owner Anonymous by request

Readiness and capabilities primarily fall into two overlapping categories: • “Hard” resources such as budget, labor time, facilities, equipment, training resources, documentation systems, etc. • “Soft” capabilities such as knowledge, project management skills, change culture, management leadership skills, etc.

Many organizations do not have the resources or capabilities required to carry out strategic change, hard or soft. They are simply not there, and if they aren’t there they will have to be found and/or built. This can contradict the “lean and mean” philosophy that some companies carry.



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Over-optimism and lack of understanding by executive management about the organization’s readiness and capabilities are very common. Their own skills and abilities for coping with change, as well as a lack of understanding of just what resources are required to develop and implement changes, can make it difficult for them to judge just how capable and ready the organization is for change. This makes it doubly important to move beyond “gut level feel” in assessing readiness. There are many evaluation tools that can be used (or consulting organizations that can implement them and interpret the findings) to develop an objective understanding. Some of the aspects to evaluate are: • Commitment of hard resources — the toughest ones for many organizations are labor time and energy. Strategic change will require time from some of the sharpest people in your organization, at executive, middle, and first-line levels. This time will have to be taken from existing work; it is neither reasonable nor fair to expect anyone to take on the work required to carry out strategic change while continuing to fulfill his or her day-to-day jobs. Adjustments to the participants’ formal and informal work compacts will be needed. • Culture of change — as one U.S. federal agency manager put it: “our agency, unmarred by any change whatsoever in over 100 years.” Change will not be welcome nor easy, even with a compelling mandate. • Leadership skills — these can prove to be some of the most difficult capabilities to acquire. It is not unusual for Executive officers to release managers, because of lack of ability to accept change objectives and to take on a leadership role in them. These include the abilities incumbent on managers to establish and manage the effort, to resolve conflict that arises, as well as to step up to the responsibilities which executive and senior managers must take on: 1. Process management skills and experience 2. Project management skills 3. Training capabilities and culture; if people carry out or are involved in the processes, then change means training 4. Team and interpersonal skills 5. Communication skills and medium (channels) in place 6. Union relationships. Unions can play an important part in strategic change efforts • Meeting skills — this refers to more than the normal rules such as one speaker at a time, respect the facilitator, etc. It includes being able to set and accomplish objectives in a meeting, to make the necessary decisions, and come to the conclusions necessary for progress. • Burnout levels — people have a high tolerance for change but too much can leave them unable to accept more. Working “150 percent” for very long is not a reasonable expectation.

A. Recommendations • Be careful of overoptimism. Change capabilities and readiness are not soft skills that can be fudged or overlooked. If the organization is not strong in these areas and no actions are taken to correct for them, efforts at change will not be successful and participants will walk away convinced that change just doesn’t work.


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• Maximize objectivity in the evaluation. It bears repeating that the Executive Team is not objective in this. Use an outside consultant or internal person with assessment experience. • Act on the results. There is a bad tendency to disbelieve the results of these evaluations. Overoptimism comes into play: “. . . we can’t be that bad. If we try to strengthen all of those things it will delay the change effort. We can do this. Let’s go.” If it seems that acting on the recommendations will delay the change effort, remember that not all actions have to be taken before the effort gets underway (although some, such as committing labor time and modifying informal and formal work compacts certainly have to be). However, realize that if needed resources are never made available or capabilities are not developed the change effort will most likely fail. • Plan the actions needed. The consultant hired to assist with the evaluation or your HR manager should be able to put together a strategy for preparing the organization for change. Everything does not have to be done all at once, but all areas of readiness and capabilities must be understood and planned for in advance.

V.

CREATE A COMPELLING MANDATE FOR CHANGE

Creating a compelling mandate for change, simply put, means mustering support for the effort that lies ahead — support across all levels of the organization, from executive to mid-level to first-level managers and first-line employees, customers, suppliers, and stakeholders. It means creating an understanding of the need for change, a sense of urgency, in anyone that can hold a “pocket veto” power over some aspect of the effort. Support and understanding are never perfect and they never reach 100 percent, but a critical mass needs to be achieved so the supporters will carry the effort. One of the key factors to the whole thing is buy-in right from the top. Different organizations have different success with this. There is no question that employees respond to the actions and body language of those in power. In our case those are the medical staff. To the degree that you fail to get them involved — more, to get their buy-in, you will fail. If you don’t have them significantly bought into the effort and the price of change, you are in big trouble. True buy-in is the key to the whole thing. Internal Consultant Vice President, Finance Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Once the ∆ and the organization’s readiness and capabilities for a change are understood, the Executive Team needs to make several final decisions: • Are we ready to commit this organization to the change objective we have established? • Are we, as a group, ready to take the necessary actions to support it and to drive its success?

Consensus on these points is crucial; without it there will be a splintered effort. Executives unwilling to give support tend to withdraw into their silos when the effort



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becomes difficult or goes in a direction they don’t like. Once consensus is gained the Executive Team is ready to take the change objective to the organization. No company leader should be able to opt out. Nobody is doing OK by their customer. The information services and sales silos were allowed to opt out of the change effort; their leaders didn’t participate. There shouldn’t be an adversarial role in an organization: everybody should be, must be, pushing toward some common values, such as customer service. Vice President, Human Resources — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Creating a compelling mandate, or “burning platform”2 means crafting a message that will both gain support for the effort that lies ahead and will also push the recipient to: • • • •

Realize that there isn’t much of a choice but to go through with the change Accept change in their job or situation Have confidence that the change has been thought out Have a sense of hope that a successful outcome will be good for the organization and those who stick with it

Clear decisions have to be made, communicated, and people have to be held accountable. It takes somebody, the executive officer, to say, “This is the way it is going to be”; and everybody saluting it. That is what we lacked before. We walked out with a hodgepodge discussion and nobody understood if a decision had been made, let alone what the decision was, what they were expected to do and what they would be held accountable for. Group Vice President, Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

To create an effective mandate the Executive Team must believe in it themselves and support it across a common front. This will mean stepping away from their primary role as head of a functional group and moving toward a “whole organization” role. Communicating the mandate is a major test of leadership. It is not a one-time, two-time, or even a ten-time event. Gaining initial support is the easiest part, before anyone has experienced the effort that goes into strategic change. Maintaining support over the life of the effort is much harder. Openness at the top leads to openness at the middle and first line and then it leads to more cooperation. If people know what’s going on, then there is a better chance of getting their cooperation at any level. If they realize that management is being honest about the reasons for the actions they are taking, then there will be more respect for the decisions and, in turn, cooperation in going along with it. President Blue Mountain Resort


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Both managers and employees have to understand the need for the effort. Everyone needs to know in simple, blunt terms why the effort is needed. That means putting it in terms that they will understand. For senior management that means usually financial, for first-line people it probably means putting it in terms of pay and jobs. And that has to start with the CEO. You can’t have a strategic change effort that isn’t being given a high priority and pushed by the CEO. They have to say, “Here are the reasons for why we have to change, here are the rewards.” And they have to keep reminding everyone when it gets painful. And it will get painful. The CEO can’t delegate that. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation

A. Recommendations • Never underestimate the resistance to a change effort. Overcoming resistance to change is an effort that begins with the conception of the idea and continues until long after changes have been implemented. • Communicate the mandate in phases. Do not over-sell at the launch; nothing will have changed yet and nothing will change anytime soon. Too much push results in an “all dressed up and nowhere to go” feeling. People feel let down. One expectation that wasn’t good was the big RAH expectation that everyone was led to have. Because the outcome was much more subtle. Maybe if there had not been the BIG RAH RAH, if people had not been led to believe that they would walk in and see some kind of radical change — and when they didn’t see it they were really disappointed. Really let down. Team Leader Anonymous by request • Draft “high leverage” people to assist with formal and informal communication. You don’t have to communicate the same way to everyone. Look for informal opinion leaders to draft and grow as information release points. Extra information and contact will be needed, but their role in forming positive support will be valuable. • Develop first-line managers into primary communication channels to first-line employees. Take the time to give them more information on the change objective, the mandate behind it, and the possible outcomes, and to help them to understand and support the change effort. Their physical proximity to first-line workers, their credibility,3 and their role as opinion leaders will carry the message much further than otherwise. Their backing will also be essential in permanent implementation of changes.

CASE STUDY: WELLMARK BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF IOWA In addition to strong sales, our continued growth at Wellmark has been spurred by historically high retention rates, which average well over 90 percent each year. Our customer focus, whether for individual or group customers, means once they enroll with us, we tend to keep them on our books, year after year. Group Vice President, Administration — Retired



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This organization serves a clientele of nearly 1.7 million people spread over the expanse of both Iowa and South Dakota. It delivers healthcare coverage, third-party administration (of healthcare coverage), financial services, and Medicare A program administration. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa and its subsidiaries are the chosen healthcare coverage suppliers for over 81 perecent of the large employers (1,000+ employees) in its service area. Wellmark pioneered healthcare cost management in Iowa. It began offering healthcare coverage in 1939 and has been working to serve a fast-growing market ever since. The growth of employer healthcare plans through the 1940s and 1950s, as well as the addition of dental and pharmaceutical plans, added to this growth. By the end of the 1990, Wellmark served nearly 900,000 members. Currently, they are serving nearly two million members. Change at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa is driven both by a need to be competitive and to continue to deliver healthcare coverage which is customer focused. Wellmark was one of the first health insurance companies to invest in Health Management Organizations and area-wide planning. In the 1990s Wellmark’s drives for internal change were based on its high priority on growth, its customer service, and its goal of moving from an emphasis on health insurance to health improvement.

REFERENCES 1. Kotter, J., Leading Change, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1996. 2. Carr, D. and Johansson, H., Best Practices in Reengineering: What Works and What Doesn’t in the Reengineering Process, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995. 3. Larkin, T. and Larkin, S., Reaching and changing front line employees, Harvard Business Review, 74, 101, 1996.


SL2953_C02_frame Page 15 Wednesday, August 9, 2000 2:37 AM

CHAPTER 2 Laying The Groundwork The services we deliver require a cross-functional approach: we have to do that well. And our processes are becoming more cross-functional in nature, not less. We already knew it but we really hadn’t recognized it for being as important as it is. Now we know it and we work with it extensively, starting at senior management. It has to start with senior management. Executive Owner Vice President, Information Technology MD Management

I.

INTRODUCTION

Anyone who has built a home (or had one built) can recall the time and energy that went into planning and getting ready — before construction ever began. Chapter 1 dealt with identifying the objective, understanding the challenge, and making the decision to go ahead. Chapter 2 begins the mechanics of getting ready; first by identifying the cross-functional “strategic” processes that make your organization work and second by identifying which of those processes to tackle first in order to have the greatest impact on the strategic objective. Teamwork at the Executive Team level is an absolutely essential part of the foundation for working with a cross-functional approach. And you can’t fake it. The staff knows when there is divisiveness at the senior level. If you have splits, if there is disagreement over an objective, the staff will spot it a long way away. We have the president and five vice presidents. We work well together, that is an advantage. I’m not saying that everything is perfect, we disagree, we have conflicting and competing priorities. But there is not one that I don’t feel comfortable working with, discussing differences and coming to an agreement or at least a consensus with. And that is what I am talking about: if the senior management team cannot come to consensus on the objectives that it hands to a strategic team, if they can’t support

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the team trying to meet that objective that it hands to a Campaign Team, if they can’t support the Team trying to meet that objective, then it won’t work. Executive Owner — Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management

The actions outlined here and the groundwork laid are essential for several reasons. First, they are necessary for enabling middle management to take ownership of and manage a strategic change effort. Second, they are critical to developing the Executive Team’s change leadership role. Third, they begin an organization-wide change in perspective. Recognizing the cross-functional processes in your organization is fundamental to understanding the way it really works — the way it develops and delivers products, services, and support. It is fundamental to the development of middle management’s role, strategic change, and in turn, to the development of middle managers. It is fundamental to the Executive Team moving into its full change leadership role. It is fundamental to an effective strategic change effort and a Campaign-based effort. One aspect of this approach I appreciate a great deal is that you aren’t managing the traditional stove pipes, that there is recognition that the critical processes move across the organization and the big issues have to be resolved by working with these cross-functional processes. Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

Completion of the steps necessary to lay the groundwork is both the responsibility of the Executive Team as well as a necessary step in each Executive manager’s shift to a cross-functional perspective. It cannot be delegated. Learning and consensus building are fundamental ingredients. At the same time there may be a strong sense of urgency to “get on with it!!” However, getting these opening steps right will save literally months of work in the strategic change effort and can make the difference between success and failure. It gave us a way to take on the really big strategic issues we were facing. We had had some early successes but we really didn’t make the big gains until we started looking at and working with the whole process. The president was able to pay more attention to the strategic teams; someone was responsible for improving a process and he could hold them accountable. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation

CASE STUDY: MD MANAGEMENT We are learning to be a big company: that is itself a big change. We’re adding new services and new products at the same time we are adding staff. At the same time,


LAYING THE GROUNDWORK

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our business targets are changing; we have moved from being a mutual fund provider to a financial planning and advisory organization. We have had to learn how to change well; we wouldn’t have remained competitive otherwise. Vice President, Finance and Administration

MD Management is a financial planning organization owned by its clients, physician members of the Canadian Medical Association. Founded in 1969, MD has evolved and grown continuously across its life. Beginning around 1992, growth became explosive, the organization tripled the dollar amounts under its administration to over $9 billion, increased its number of financial advisors 10-fold and opened 36 new offices. Cross-functional process management was introduced as one means to cope with this explosive growth and constant change. New products and services, radical upgrading of existing processes, and the need to bring new employees up to speed smoothly and effectively all required a greater focus on strategic processes and an efficient, structured way to bring about change. They have coped well with their growth. Dealing with a limited customer base means that dissatisfaction will be felt quickly; customers will vote with their feet and there is no expansive base on which to draw more. Customer satisfaction ratings have risen over the years and customer transactions have grown steadily. The mutual fund business is so competitive, we’re playing against the major financial institutions in the country; we can’t afford to get behind. Things are changing so quickly, we have to be very good at keeping up or staying ahead if possible. Campaign Team Leader Manager, Taxation Services

II.

IDENTIFYING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S STRATEGIC PROCESSES

Identifying the strategic processes in your organization involves more than making a list. It is, and this bears repeating, the beginning of a change in perspective. As this perspective change builds and grows, no manager will think about the company the same way again. The biggest difference in thinking will come from setting aside the functional blinders that have kept each manager within the narrow confines of his or her work area. Cross-functional cooperation has become a style of working for us out here. I don’t mean just my style of management, I mean the whole staff, each person, has become involved in helping to make this a better place to play golf. Our people seem to understand that it is going to take a team to really make this golf course work. This came directly from getting every group involved: pro-shop, outside staff, player support, and maintenance. Every group took part in the effort. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort


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“Blinders” is the right word for it. Blinders were used with workhorses to limit their attention to the business at hand — walking down the row in front of them; minimum distractions please (or you ended up in a fight with an animal that was much bigger than you). Managers and then employees will move from understanding their jobs within the confines of their work area to understanding them as part of a whole strategic process. It took the cross-functional approach to really begin to see whether there was a better way to do what we were doing. Up to then we were looking pretty much inside our own department, looking for ways to fix what we were doing. The cross-functional approach took us beyond our own department and we were able to ask whether that was the right way to do it at all. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

Strategic processes usually are: • Big — with lots of variation and lots of complexity. • Cross-functional — most often they are never thought of as single processes at all, because we are so trained to stay within our functional line of thinking. They are usually considered to be a series of separate, functional processes. • The most important processes to your organization’s survival — they have the greatest impact on your customers. They are how your customers see your organization. They are fundamental to operations and to your competitive position. • Hardest to change — the greater the number of steps, employees, and managers (and management levels), and functional groups involved, the more difficult the process is to change. Individual and team-level processes are the easiest to change (and they certainly can prove daunting). Functional-level processes are more difficult. Strategic processes are geometrically more difficult again. The greatest barrier in the sales and enrollment Team were the silos that our process was divided into. We didn’t have alignment of the priority; different groups opted out. The finger pointing remained: “It’s not us, it’s you.” Team Leader — Product Design and Development Director, Systems Support Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Now that is a bad-news scenario. The most important processes in an organization, the ones that have the greatest impact on your customers, are the most difficult to change. As long as they are left as a group of functional processes, each operated by separate, often warring, fiefdoms, they will remain so. Simply put, that is, why the perspective has to change, why the approach to change must be different. However, it can’t change without middle management playing a central role. This does not mean trashing the existing organization chart and hierarchy. First, understand the strategic



Figure 2.1

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Functional silos dissect strategic processes into pieces and segments.

processes and meet the strategic change objectives. Organizational changes will come about either as a result of process changes being implemented or out of a realization developed through the Campaign that the organization chart is getting in the way of the processes. It wasn’t so much the whopping successes such as cost saving or that our processes were substantially changed. Those did occur, absolutely, but the greatest success for us was creating the discipline and the mindset in people, as an organization. Once we learned that the best way to tackle strategic issues and major changes was to take a cross-functional approach, to get a group of people together that understand and work with it from start to finish, we made it a permanent part of the way we do business today. That to me is the greatest sign of our success. The outcomes of individual projects are secondary to the creation of that mindset; to always be thinking that way. Executive Owner — Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management For the most part we are successful because of the cross-functional teamwork we have starting with senior management and working its way down through middle management. We expect our first-line employees to work as a team because our first priority is supporting the client and if we don’t work together the customer will know. But if we don’t have teamwork from the top down I don’t think we could ask or expect that of the employees. Executive Owner Vice President, Information Technology MD Management


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A. Recommendations for Identifying Strategic Processes If you don’t have the vertical alignment, the buy-in and support of the objective at the top, an executive team that says, “We are committed to this, we will give you the resources, everything you need to develop a solution that works, including the recognition, to get the job done,” you are doomed to failure. You may as well not even start it. Executive Owner — Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management

The Executive Team needs to work on and complete these steps as a body, for a number of reasons: • Silos start at the top. The change in perspective must begin and grow from here; if it does not, it will not be adopted nor will it work at lower levels. Fractures founded in the Executive Team widen as they move through the organization. • Their “whole organization” scope of view is essential. • They are most likely the only ones with the knowledge and the authority to tie strategic objectives to strategic processes and then to establish the priority necessary to initiate a strategic change Campaign. If strategic priorities are not effectively linked to strategic processes and, in turn, the Campaign Team, the effort will be weakened from the start. • They are the only ones who can drive a strategic change effort that goes beyond the standard boundaries of authority and responsibilities. The successes we’ve had, for example, going daily or trading on third-party funds, those have resulted from the Executive Owner and the whole senior team being very committed to the objective, to supporting the cross-functional team and willingness to give as much power to the team as we can. It doesn’t happen all at once, though; it has been something that we have grown into. Executive Owner — Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management

Communicate and reinforce the final outcomes of this work among members of the Executive Team. It can quickly be forgotten. Changing perspective, a longheld perspective, will take time and persistence; it starts here but will only continue if the outcomes are documented and kept alive. There were areas that felt they were above this; that they were doing nothing wrong and therefore did not get involved. In some instances these areas were smack in the middle of the process and the people on each side were getting hammered. The director or VP level didn’t take a stand on it; they did not require or even expect that their reports would work on this. That hurt a lot. Team Member — Sales and Enrollment Product Control Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa



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B. Steps to Identify Strategic Processes Identifying strategic processes and then choosing the one to work on first takes three steps: Step 1: Draft a List of Strategic Processes Initially the concept of spending time on an intangible, a process, was foreign to us. There is a feeling that it is a lot of theory. Until you actually get to the details, what am I measuring and what is the significance of doing each action, how do we pull the processes together, until you really get to the tangible things it’s hard to really understand the benefits. We do now, but it took a lot of learning and work. Executive Owner Vice President, Information Technology MD Management

Sit down, either individually or with one or two others (reports or other members of the Executive Team), review the criteria, and then brainstorm a list of strategic processes in your organization. Strategic processes are (at least two or more criteria have to be met): • Real processes — They are not hypothetical, fuzzy, or vague concepts. They are made up of steps and actions that take inputs, add value, and produce outputs. They begin and end with specific steps and deliver outputs, products, and/or services for internal or external customers. They can be a loop, such as financial planning, but even then there is a point where one loop ends and the next begins. We had no real concept of process; the focus for resolving our problems was technology. We had problems with the mailing of various marketing information, a variety of problems, for a variety of reasons. My colleagues kept saying, “Well, let’s just get somebody to fix it,” typically a technology firm or somebody that specialized in the technology end of mailings. Executive Owner Vice President, Information Technology MD Management • Always cross-functional — spreading across a variety of departments, sections, units. They are a collection of functional level processes. • How your customers and most stakeholders see your organization — Only managers and employees inside your company (along with a few stakeholders and regulatory agencies) see (and care about) the functional groups. Customers generally only see and care about products and services and what they have to do to get them. However, some strategic processes are (and should be) completely invisible to the customer, such as financial planning and the employee “hire to retire” process. • Not “systems” (for lack of a better word) — Systems, such as information systems, communication systems, or facilities maintenance are a “conglomeration” of small processes that produce relatively independent outcomes. Information systems, for


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example, every day, every hour, produce information and data that are essential to the company, but these are relatively separate events, independent processes. Communication systems handle phone calls, e-mail messaging, and hundreds of other communication transmissions daily; but again, these are relatively independent actions, handled by interlinked but separate equipment.

A Strategic process, by contrast, is made up of a series of steps that are (or should be) closely linked and coordinated in order to produce a primary output(s) although there may be secondary outputs along the way. Strategic processes use systems for support in a wide variety of ways; they are integral and essential to most strategic processes.

CASE STUDY: RED DEER REGIONAL HOSPITAL CENTRE We are having to work with the complete patient flow, from the general practitioners’ office, through our hospital, to community care, with a strong emphasis on cost and efficiency. A lot of health care organizations that were previously independent have become an integral part of the healthcare region, a part of our hospital’s processes, really. The fiscal restraints have caused changes to occur very rapidly. Those are our priorities for strategic change right now. Vice President

A medium-sized hospital with 285 beds, Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre is the largest acute care facility in the David Thompson Health Region of over 12,666 square miles (32,815 square kilometers). It provides hospital services to the Red Deer community and is a referral hospital, taking patients from clinics and smaller hospitals throughout its expansive healthcare region. It serves a population of over 189,000. The city of Red Deer sits about 90 miles due north of Calgary, Alberta. Beginning in 1994, Alberta “regionalized” its public healthcare system in order to put more emphasis on community-based settings for healthcare, redirect funds from administration to patient care, and focus on the promotion of individual wellness. Generally, it was hoped that regionalizing healthcare would improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the provincial healthcare system. This resulted in massive changes in provincial and local administration, regionalization of services, and reductions in funding which, in turn, drove fundamental changes throughout the hospital. It also had a major impact on the patients the hospital was admitting and how it had to treat them. Cross-functional Campaigns were used as an integral part of the overall change effort required to meet change goals. The size of the hospital, its relatively flat organization chart, as well as ongoing major changes to the organization required the hospital to be very flexible in the application of the Campaign approach. What we have been noticing is that the nature of patients has been changing; they are older and sicker than in the past. They require more resources at a time when we find our resources more restricted, so we have to come up with more effective ways to work



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with them in terms of discharge planning and in terms of looking after them when they are back in the community. While they are here we deal with them quite well, but it is for such a short time: our average length of stay is 5.66 days. And the number being admitted straight from emergency has grown to around 25 percent. So we don’t have the cushion we had in the past where people came for investigative tests several days in advance of treatment, say surgery, and then had a day or two to recover after their acute episode is over. It’s now scrunched into an average five-day episode and when patients go home it is very important to make sure that effective support is in place. Vice President

a. Tips and Pitfalls There is no one right list. Even for the same types of organizations the lists can differ depending on strategic priorities and other variables. For example, the “employee life cycle” process: every organization has employees, but for some the process of hiring, developing, and retaining them will be far more important than for others. It will make the list for some and not for others. Begin identifying three basic process parameters even as the list of processes is developed: • Where each process begins • Where it ends • What its primary output is

This is the beginning of the “process profile.” Core processes are not the same as strategic processes; a list of core processes will usually be a subset of a strategic process list. Core processes are those that create and deliver products and services fundamental to competitive position and strength. Strategic processes can go beyond that definition to include support processes such as financial planning or “employee hire to retire.” Drop the standard names that have been given to the processes, such as “order fulfillment,” “research and development,” or “sales.” Different people have different perspectives on what these names mean and they quite often don’t fit the crossfunctional processes you are trying to define. Very often they refer to a department or section; using the name will reinforce the functional silo perspective (and can very much confuse everyone in and outside of the Executive Team). Replace the standard names with new ones that incorporate the designated beginning and ending steps (from the profiles created). Instead of “diagnostic test,” try “diagnostic test order to availability” or “ instead of “sales,” try “sales lead to contract paperwork filed.” This may seem like simple word games but taking this action can save an amazing amount of time and misunderstandings. It will also aid in creating the new cross-functional perspective. Stay broad — managers will usually err on the side of being too narrow. They will tend toward identifying functional processes.


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Keep the customers’ or stakeholders’ perspectives in mind; how do they see your organization? What goods or services do they receive or recognize as important? Beware of getting too broad with this. “Value” or “wellness” are not goods or services; they are concepts; processes don’t deliver concepts, they support them. Strategic processes are cross-functional. If a process seems strategic but also seems to reside in only one functional group, reconsider the primary output and where the process begins and ends. For example, “diagnostic test” is considered a strategic process for most hospitals, but it is also a department. However, when carefully considered, the process of delivering diagnostic test results to the physician or surgeon begins with the physician or surgeon submitting samples for test and ends with the results being made available in the patient’s file. The Diagnostic Test Lab is only a part of the strategic process. Consider the process’s life cycle; if two adjoining “very large” processes have very different life cycles, such as product design and manufacturing, it is reasonable (and more workable) to make them two separate processes. Creating a good list of strategic processes is a balancing act and in the end one that will only be resolved by going to work to list them. It also will need to be refined and revised over time, with changes in strategic priorities and experience. No strategic process is an island, in and of itself. They intersect, overlap (some), the end of one may begin another. There are usually 6 to 10 strategic processes per organization (hospitals can have closer to 20). Smaller companies will have fewer, as few as two or three. Things get complicated with very large, complex, multidivisional organizations. Each division may have its own strategic processes as well as strategic processes that run across divisions or are common to different divisions. Ask customers and outsiders to review your draft list or, even before you start drafting the list, ask them what their perceptions are of what your organization “does for a living.” Their opinions can be very valuable to simplifying your perspective. Not every part of, or everyone in, the organization will be a part of a strategic process. The cafeteria, building maintenance, and building security probably will not make the short list. And that is OK. Step 2: Consolidate the List In this step the Executive Team, en banc, combines the brainstormed lists into a common one. The defined beginning and ending steps and primary output will fill an important role in helping to figure out whether one is a subset of another. Use the same criteria defined in Step 1. Be ready for a major discussion, heated debate, even an argument session.



Figure 2.2

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Strategic processes can overlap, abut, run parallel, and cut across each other.

a. Tips and Pitfalls The needed change in perspective, from functional to cross-functional, won’t come in a day or a week; it comes with work and application. When the consolidation is done, get the resulting list “up on the wall.” Make large and small copies and get them put where they can be seen in rooms where executive managers meet. A list of strategic processes is never “done.” The Executive Team should plan on critically revisiting and revising the list annually. b. Examples of Strategic Processes There is no standard list of strategic processes by industry type. The lists below are meant to give some ideas, to help you to get started. Review all of them, consider how they reflect the differences across the organizations. You may find yourself disagreeing with some of them; that’s good. No “generic list” is ever correct and complete for all organizations; they have to be created one by one.


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Lists of Stategic Processes for Various Industries Manufacturing Production Begins: “on order” or with production schedule Ends: customer takes delivery or product moved to stock Primary output (i.e., objective of process): product Order fulfillmenta Begins: customer decides to order Ends: customer signs for delivery Primary output: delivery of product/service Business resource management Begins: business plan finalized Ends: end of fiscal year (or production schedule complete) Primary output: coordinated manufacturing Design of new product Begins: marketing decides on new product or service Ends: concept moved (i.e., signed off) to production Primary output: new product/service Employee development Begins: creation of position Ends: employee retires/ends term of employment Primary output: complete/skilled labor force Customer life-cycle service Begins: customer buys product or service Ends: customer retires/ends product or service need Primary output: ongoing customer service support Service callb Begins: customer requests service, or scheduled maintenance, or system notification of maintenance need Ends: customer sign-off of service Primary output: service/support on product/system Training/Consulting Company Carrying out a training event Begins: customer request or event scheduled Ends: evaluation forms summary reviewed with customer Primary output: delivery of session New product development Begins: decision to develop new product Ends: final beta test complete, product signed off Primary output: new product/service Material order fulfillment Begins: order initiated Ends: order delivered/signed off Primary output: materials delivered New lead generation/follow-up

Begins: need for candidate list Ends: representative presents to account Primary output: new contact established Sale of product Begins: lead generated Ends: paperwork submitted for signed contract, or follow-up to customer “no” response Primary output: complete sale Hospital Patient care journeyc Begins: doctor makes decision to admit (either in office or in emergency) Ends: patient released Primary output: patient support while in hospital; patient available, prepared, and receives needed treatment/testing/ diagnosis Surgery Begins: referring doctor and patient make decision Ends: release Primary output: surgical treatment complete Medication therapy Begins: doctor prescribes medication Ends: patient completes medication therapy Primary output: medication treatment Patient feeding Begins: pre-admit Ends: patient discharged Primary output: dietary needs of patient met Diagnostic testing Begins: doctor decides on need for diagnostic test(s) Ends: results in patient file Primary output: diagnostic test results Emergency treatment Begins: patient enters “emerg” Ends: patient admitted or released Primary output: treatment or plan for treatment Health Insurance Company Customer service Begins: point of customer contact Ends: resolution delivered/inquiry closed Primary output: resolution to question, issue, etc. New product development Begins: decision to develop product Ends: product is ready to market/sell Primary output: new or modified product Business process management Begins: corporate plan complete Ends: fulfillment/evaluation of efforts to meet plan



Primary output: meeting business goals/budgets Provider management Begins: need for provider(s) (e.g., doctor, hospital) under given plan Ends: provider contract ends, not renewed Primary output: services available per program Claims Begins: claim submitted Ends: claim file closed Primary output: payment to provider (or resolution) Enrollment/membership Begins: enrollment period Ends: membership ID card and benefit book delivered, group is supported Primary output: capability to support client claims Membership management Begins: enrolled Ends: contract is ended Primary output: current file, all transactions complete Inquiries Begins: inquiry arrives (telephone, mail, etc.) Ends: inquiry resolved Primary output: resolution Sales and marketing Begins: lead Ends: (potential) client no longer in business Primary output: ongoing fulfillment of customer needs (sale and support of product) Ski Resort Promotion of accommodation to room entry Begins: development of marketing materials Ends: guest arrival/room entry Primary output: information about accommodations/services/costs, facilities availability Overnight guest stay to check-out Begins: room entry Ends: departs parking lot a

b

c

d

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Primary output: accommodations and services Hill development and maintenance Begins: June 1 Ends: June 1 (following year) Primary output: guest access to runs, risk maintenance Food services Begins: preparation of menus Ends: close of restaurant for season (or beginning of next season menu cycle) Primary output: food/beverages available to guestsd Skier services Begins: guest enters parking lot Ends: guest exits parking lot Primary output: guest of ski facilities/risk management Hiring, orienting, and training seasonal employees Begins: August 1 Ends: approximately May 1 Primary output: staff needs filled, employee preparation and processing Generic Strategic Processes (Common to Most Organizations) Employee development Begins: decision to fill a position Ends: employee retirement or removal from position Primary output: complete/skilled labor force Strategic planning Begins: start of annual cycle Ends: end of annual cycle Primary output: current strategic plan and actions taken to fulfill the plan Financial planning Begins: start of annual cycle Ends: end of annual cycle Primary output: budget, guidelines for managing financial expenditures Material management Begins: decision to purchase Ends: delivery of materials Primary output: overall management of supply/stores

Note that in some cases order fulfillment may overlap with production or may be one large process. Here is an example of a strategic process within a process. The life cycle of customer support will call for a series of service calls, but in this case the organization feels that carrying out service calls is a fundamental part of their competitive position. It could be that this is underscored in their strategic plan. Here is a case of a series of overlapping processes. Patient care journey is a broad “patient life cycle process”; while what follows are a series of different treatments or services that may be delivered during a stay. Hospitals are very complex organizations; the essential overlapping of processes is part of the basis for that complexity. Within this long lifecycle process was a second, strategic process of “daily food services cycle” which began at 5 a.m., ended at 3 a.m. the next day.


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Step 3: Create a Profile for Each Strategic Process A process profile is a “shorthand” summary description of a strategic process. It defines the scope (where the process begins and ends), objective (primary output) of the process, the functional groups involved, as well as other critical parameters and information. The purpose of this step is to understand and share enough about the process to know the scope of the change effort, what functional groups will be involved, and who is affected by the process. It will serve as the basis for developing the Campaign Team. A profile should be completed for each strategic process that makes the final list. Without a formalized approach we would have never cut across the silos. You might get one or two divisions to work together, but without the formal Strategic Process Management approach we wouldn’t have gotten all six needed divisions. We wouldn’t have intentionally left them out — there isn’t that sort of animosity — but you wouldn’t get all six together. You just don’t think of involving them without the formalized approach. Executive Owner, Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

a. Tips and Pitfalls If IT plays an essential, ongoing role in the process, include them in the model. For example, in an “order receipt to delivery” process, the system played an essential part, from the creation of a customer file through each major step when the file was updated to the final release of an invoice. It would have been very difficult to have documented that process without including the IT system. Carefully consider which functional groups have an impact on the process or on the primary output. Sometimes, departments that have a great impact can be hidden. Our customers were telling us that they had often found they couldn’t purchase products because they had been put on credit hold by our credit and collections group because they had returned product that our sales rep had told them to return. Up to a third of our accounts were on credit hold at one time. When we started [the Campaign] the credit group wasn’t even a part of the Team; no one really thought of them as a part of the process of order fulfillment or realized what role they played. We dubbed them the “sales prevention” department. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation



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BEGINS

ENDS

Func. Group

Func. Group

Func. Group

Func. Group

Func. Group

Primary output: Customer(s): Principal stakeholders: Key suppliers:

Support systems:

Figure 2.3

A profile contains broad descriptive information about the processes.

CASE STUDY: BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF NORTH DAKOTA We have to remain competitive on costs but also pay strong attention to value. If value comes into question, then customers will either not buy our services in the first place or go somewhere else. Executive Owner, Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota covers over 75 percent of the state’s privately insured population and has consistently ranked at or near the top of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s Quality Assurance rating. It delivers health insurance to a mostly rural population spread over almost 71,000 square miles and


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administers the federal Medicare program for the state of North Dakota. Even with this solid background, the management team remains acutely aware that they have to hold onto their more than 350,000 customers through top-quality service, doing it better than the competition. This priority led them to begin working with strategic processes and Campaigns (as Strategic Process Management) in 1994. Campaign Teams were initially established for three strategic processes and delivered improvements in both customer service and internal process efficiency. More so, the approach created a “horizontal” perspective, an understanding of how the most important processes move across the functional silos.

III.

PICKING THE RIGHT STRATEGIC PROCESS

Review the strategic priorities. The strategic process to tackle first is the one that will have the greatest impact on the priority strategic objective (although there are a couple of other considerations noted later in this section). Linking process to objective can be inherently obvious, e.g.: Objective: “we must reduce length of stay for surgical patients by 25 percent” Process: “surgery, decision to admit through release to responsible party”

or Objective: “cost per product unit must be lowered” Process: “production, sale through delivery of product”

Or it can be not so obvious: Objective: “guest risk needs to be reduced at our ski resort” Processes: • “Guest access to ski facilities” • Hill preparation and maintenance • Resort vehicle/equipment use and maintenance (not listed as a strategic process).

Where the link is not clear, determining which one to work on first may take additional information and data about cause and impact. The objective itself may have to be narrowed. Vertical integration is essential. We didn’t get that message as well as we needed to. The first executive session didn’t sink in; the politics got in the way. You have to really spend time with the Executive Team to ensure that they really understand what



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they are committing to, what they are buying into, and that the approach and the priorities will be vertically integrated throughout the organization. Internal Consultant CQI Coordinator Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

IV.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHOOSING A STRATEGIC PROCESS

Make sure that you are right before moving ahead — The link between the strategic objective and which process to work with first is usually straightforward, but if it is not it is worth taking the time to be sure. Acting on an assumption, guessing at it, even if all senior managers show their support, can leave room for doubt and double guessing (by everybody in the organization, including Executive Team members). It opens the door wide for politics and pressure to come into play. Assumptions, politics, and pressure will undermine the cohesiveness and unanimous support that will be needed to support the Campaign in the long run. More thought needs to be put into the process selected. It was huge. But the toughest part was keeping the priority alive. Picking a small safe project makes it hard to keep the priority alive. Team Leader — Product Development Assistant Vice President, Actuarial and Membership Services Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

Major change efforts already under way — Efforts under way within your organization need careful consideration, especially those that fall within, overlap, or that will otherwise have an impact on the strategic process. If there is a big project already under way, it may be stirring up a wasp’s nest to try to form a Campaign that encompasses or overlaps it. It can be done, but extra effort will have to be taken to involve and reconcile the change agents in current projects to the role of the Campaign and to figure out a relationship between them. At best, the Campaign can be a great help to existing projects by putting them into perspective to the whole strategic process; at worst, the existing project can form an armed camp to protect its turf. Every action possible should be taken to avoid this last option. Realize that the first Campaign effort will be a big learning period — For the Campaign Team, the Executive Team, and for the whole organization. Learning and doing at the same time is the optimal way to pick up new skills, but it is always more difficult and takes more time. However, the alternative of trying to learn everything before starting a Campaign isn’t realistic. The good news is that the second project will be much easier and faster.


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Learning and doing take time. Organizations often lose sight that the first project takes longer due to learning. It differed; but easily 50 percent was due to learning time. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

A. Steps in Choosing the Strategic Process Step 1: Rank the Identified Strategic Processes in Terms of Impact on the Objective or Mandate Use an objective basis for ranking the processes. It bears repeating that the strategic process selected is the one where changes made will have the greatest impact on the strategic objective. The strategic objective or mandate is key; it needs to be rock solid. If a strategic plan has not been developed look for other, data-based sources of priority setting: • • • • • • • •

Benchmarking (internal, within industry, or “all industry” comparisons) Customer satisfaction information Regulatory mandates Market research Key performance indicators Competitive analysis Financial review Employee/management organizational review

If the basis for ranking is not objective, the process selected is not likely to get the support it needs to complete a Campaign. Whatever the criteria for the ranking, the selection must be able to stand the test of time. Campaign Team members and tactical project participants will put a great deal into making the effort work. Time, pride, integrity, and sometimes even a career will be put at risk. To pick a wrong process and then to let a Campaign fade away because of it is unforgivable. If there is even a medium level risk of that, stop now and return this book for a refund. The accountability for letting it happen certainly starts at the top. We got into mergers in the middle of all of this; so we got all wrapped up in everything else. It was almost like, “We’ll do this important work and the rest of you just keep making the business happen.” So once people understood that the priorities were on this other stuff, then the work inside, the priority on trying to make things better through the crossfunctional teams, went away. Priorities reverted to internal silo priorities. Group Vice President Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa



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It is very possible that a strategic change objective has been handed to your organization through a regulatory mandate, technological changes, change in the competition, acquisitions/mergers/divestitures, or other mandate. You are sitting here reading this section wondering why anyone has a problem with deciding where the priorities are or which process to choose. Be patient; not everyone has the good luck (or bad, depending on how you look at it) of having strategic priorities so clearly set and processes selected by a regulatory agency or other outside source. The actions for identifying the strategic processes on which to focus are the same as those given above. The Medicare group had a burning platform: the government was saying, “You will get there by October,” and they did. Vice President, Human Resources — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Step 2: Select the Process to be Assigned to a Campaign Team Do not pick a small, backwater process that may be safe for learning but no one will care if there is success or not because it isn’t strongly connected to a strategic objective. It is a balancing act; don’t pick an objective where the Team will be beat before it starts but don’t pick one so unimportant that the Campaign will be forgotten before the month is out. It is better to err on the important side. The biggest challenge to be faced by all managers, senior and middle, will be to maintain a high priority on the Campaign. If a strategic objective and/or process of low importance are selected there will be at least two strikes against maintaining the priority. Where you are going to apply it requires a lot of thought, to make sure that it is applied appropriately, to make sure that you aren’t just firefighting the issue and that you aren’t taking on too big or broad of an issue. It is a balance: don’t take on something small for fear of the challenge; that would be a mistake because it just gets lost in all of the other things that are more important, but don’t take on something that is so big that it is vague. The issue has to be able to be clearly defined. Also remember that a Team doing this for the first time is learning. They need more time and probably should practice on a clearer issue. Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

If quick process change results (i.e., within two or three months) are essential (not just needed but needed NOW), don’t assign it to a first-time Campaign Team. Use whatever approach your organization has used up to now. Learning takes time, and the first Campaign will always take longer. Once the Team has developed an understanding of the approach, of the process, then changes can be made quickly; but not the first time; not starting from scratch.


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Campaigns are not for all types of improvement; that is important to remember. It is too much work to tackle small problems. It takes a lot of support, a lot of marketing to get it done. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation


CHAPTER 3 Creating the Campaign Team I.

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN TEAM

The Campaign Team is responsible for researching, organizing, carrying out or delegating and managing the tasks necessary to meet the strategic objective. Its middle-management members interpret the strategic objective, develop a necessary understanding of the cross-functional process (in reengineering they design a new process), choose high-leverage change areas, and then plan, launch, and manage tactical change efforts. When the objective is met, the Campaign is finished. Every Campaign Team works toward a strategic objective, although some strategic objectives may require more than one Campaign. The Campaign Team members manage the strategic change effort. They determine the sequence of actions that will most effectively meet the strategic objective. The Team establishes tactical objectives, and then prepares, launches, and manages ongoing tactical team efforts to accomplish them. A Campaign Team can manage and coordinate several tactical teams working simultaneously, each one potentially using a different tactical approach. The number of tactical projects ongoing at one time will depend on the size of the strategic process as well as the character, size, scope, and time span of the projects. The two most important considerations are to not overburden resources and to not have the projects physically overlap. This concurrent, modular strategy allows for a faster, more far-reaching change to occur without a high risk of suboptimization (suboptimization: where independent maximization of parts of an interrelated process leads to decreased performance of the whole). An essential part of this management role is to keep tactical teams from shooting each other and the rest of the process in the foot as they go about their activities. The Campaign Team is responsible for ensuring that you win both the battles and the war.

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A Campaign Team is made up of middle managers. This is at the heart of developing mid-level managers as change managers and integrating them into the strategic effort. Middle managers are stereotyped for their resistance to change. Close enough to executive management to understand the strategic visions and goals, they are also responsible for the budgets and objectives of day-to-day work. Middle managers by nature want stability in the work place. The battle cry of change for senior managers may be, “Times are great, let’s create a crisis!!” but I don’t know of a middle manager to go to a mountain top and yell, “Fine and dandy, let’s create a crisis.” By nature, they just aren’t that kind of manager. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation

Caught between the high-level visions and day-to-day work objectives, they are often forced to choose between change objectives and getting the work out. Several layers above first-line employees, they usually do not have current or extensive knowledge of the working details of the process. Their understanding is at the broader, functional process level. Yet this functional process knowledge is bounded by the organizational chart; they are isolated within their functional silos, responsible for a big piece of an even bigger process that they do not know. When you sit in your own little world you get a distorted view of the process and of the company. This whole, cross-functional approach broadened my perspective. Team Member — Sales and Enrollment Product Control Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa Middle managers are the ones at the end of the day that will have to make the changes happen. People say, “It’s the front-line employees that make it happen,” and that’s true to an extent, but it’s middle managers that have to convey the change from wherever it is created, take it and whatever is necessary to their work area for the first-line employees to do their jobs. Middle managers are the workhorses of change. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation

In reality, mid-level managers are in a unique position to act on strategic change. Properly structured and approached, these “weaknesses” can be turned into strengths; middle managers can become strong change managers and drivers. The Campaign Team acts as both a catalyst for and a structure within which this happens. It acts as a link and a processing center, spanning isolated functional groups as well as tying the strategic visions, objectives, and priorities of the Executive Team to the “chaotic realities” confronted by front-line managers and employees. Middle managers are close enough to the two ends to make sense out of them; to buy into and be motivated by strategic objectives but also to know what the impact


CREATING THE CAMPAIGN TEAM

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of meeting the objective will be on first-line process budgets, schedules, and timelines. They understand the widely varying levels of detail and time spans that senior managers and first-line employees have to work with to complete their different tasks. As such, middle management is better able to translate and understand “what is” as well as to conceive of “what will be,” to create the operational-level knowledge necessary to bring about strategic change. You lose the detail because the middle managers don’t have that but you gain buyin and decisions made. You get the details from other sources, but you can’t get the buy-in anywhere else. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

Executive Management

Middle Management

First-line Management and Employees

Figure 3.1

• strategic vision • strategic objectives • change leadership

• contradiction resolution • interpretation and communication • change management

• reality (what is) • get the day-to-day work out • change implementation

Mid-level managers form a critical link in strategic change. (Based on a figure from Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.)

Conversely, first-line employees are not usually assigned to Campaign Teams; their expertise and involvement are reserved for tactical teams. First–line employees are indeed experts; no one knows more about the day-to-day work processes and


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what it takes to make them work. They are immersed in the details of their first-line, task-level processes.1 For this very reason they are not normally effective on Campaign Teams. It is a very difficult challenge for them to move from this detail perspective to the broader perspective required for linking strategic objectives to tactical tasks and for developing an understanding of the full strategic process. First-line employees can also have a difficult time understanding and trusting the strategic plan and its change objectives. It can be difficult for them to understand how broad visions and objectives relate to them in their jobs or trust that those visions and objectives will enable them to attain their personal goals. What may seem straightforward to executive management can seem vague and ambiguous to first-line employees.2 Middle managers in their day-to-day role serve to make this link day to day.3 They continue to do this in a more structured way as part of the Campaign Team; they work to create a framework, a context, within which first-line employees can make sense out of strategic objectives, to explain how they relate to first-line employees’ jobs and their individual goals. In addition, first-line employees can have a difficult time working on teams with managers; partly because of the two reasons noted above but also because of the status hierarchy (power and prestige ranking) built into organizations. They often do not feel comfortable speaking their minds in the company of senior managers, even when they are supposed to be equals on a team. Camaraderie across department managers, building trust between these people to lower defenses. This is essential so you can really begin to have some joint problem solving, so they can at least begin asking the right questions, so they can begin understanding what each other’s departments are doing and believe they are doing the best job they can. Campaign Team Member/Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

A Campaign Team is an extraordinary team; it overlays the existing org. chart; it does not change it (although the knowledge created from the cross-functional perspective may lead to organizational changes over time). This is unlike a selfdirected work team which replaces the organizational structure that existed before it, or a matrix structure where managers permanently report up through two or more organizational lines at the same time. While reporting and accountabilities should change during the Campaign itself, these changes are not usually permanent. By overlaying the normal bureaucracy, the Campaign Team acts as a “hypertext” organization,3 bringing forward and integrating three very different contexts of perspective and knowledge (and knowledge-creating activities): • The “day-to-day” context — the knowledge and perspective each member brings of his/her functional organization and day-to-day operations • The cross-functional context — the perspective and knowledge developed by the sharing and blending of the different day-to-day “business as usual” perspectives brought to the Team. Team members develop a concept of the strategic process



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and an understanding of how it works today. When eight managers join a Campaign Team there are eight different perspectives on how the strategic process works. When they are done there will be only one. • The Campaign context — the perspective and breakthrough knowledge created in response to the strategic objective. Simply put, it is the understanding and frame of mind that can only come from being challenged with a strategic objective, “what is, what must be, and the changes that will get us there.” (It is the Campaign context with its strategic objective focus that primarily differentiates it from a crossfunctional team.) It is built on the cross-functional as well as the day-to-day contexts and is developed through the interpretation and clarification of the objective, analysis and identification of change areas and then the planning and managing of change design and test. The very first thing when you get the people in the room and say, “This is what we are going to do” you’ll see all of the minds turning, because each one has a different perspective on what needs to be done. For example, me as a tax person, if someone says, “We are planning to offer mutual funds through our own system” I immediately start thinking, “How we are going to do the tax reporting, what are the problems going to be with computing adjusted costs?” Other representatives, the IT people, the systems people, marketing, financial services, corporate affairs. . . all of these representatives think about the change from their own perspectives and the issues that come up. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management Given the silo structure we were so entrenched in, the Teams were very important. They allowed us to pull together the people who were important to getting results when we started crossing the barriers. The Teams were important because of the variety of knowledge they brought forward. If two or three individuals had tried to complete the project it would have turned out much differently. It pulled in the people from different areas. All of them learned a lot. Internal Consultant TQM Coordinator Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Of the three different contexts of knowledge that are used in carrying out a Campaign; two of them, cross-functional and Campaign, are new and have to be built within the Team. To build the cross-functional context, the day-to-day, tacit knowledge that the members bring to the Team is converted into shared, documented, explicit Team knowledge about the current strategic process. The Campaign context is built on the foundation created by both the day-to-day and cross-functional contexts. Within it, the Team carries out critical analysis and then moves into knowledge creation — the formation of new ideas and process changes required to meet the objective. As members of the Campaign Team, middle managers work within all three contexts of knowledge to create and manage4 the change effort. They move back


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and forth across them during the Campaign, pulling in information as needed and creating new knowledge as progress requires. Knowledge creation is inherently an individual activity. This is not to say that it is an isolated event. Knowledge creation occurs through a cyclical exposure of the individual to explicit information and observations. Knowledge creation occurs within the individual and then must be converted to explicit knowledge. But individual knowledge is of little value in a strategic change effort until it is converted into explicit knowledge which, in turn, can be used in change development and decision making. This ongoing conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge is an essential ingredient to the Team’s work. It is a learned skill (or set of skills) and takes special attention and action to be successful. Many of the recommended steps, tools, and techniques in the various Campaign phases are aimed at converting individual knowledge to group knowledge. When the Campaign Team is finished the members take their new cross-functional understandings and perspectives back to their day-to-day roles and apply them to simplify and streamline work processes as well as to improve both formal and informal cross-functional communication. Once the objective is met Team members often continue to work together to maintain (and expand on) the cross-functional context. In this role, they can act to maintain cross-functional communication links, to incrementally improve and streamline the process, to resolve problems that arise, and to act as an expert knowledge resource which the Executive Team can tap as needed. These are important roles, far better than isolated, warring silos. However, without the drive and demands of a strategic objective a cross-functional team is not a Campaign Team. I don’t think of myself as being in a silo any more at all. Everything I do, when I’m faced with changing the process, I get on the phone to all of the surrounding groups and get their input. I never do anything just on my own. Even something that seems small, I make sure it isn’t having a negative effect on other areas. That is part of mapping. I follow the process across the different groups to see what each functional group will have to do and make sure they understand that and buy into it. That is really important when you’re trying something new. If a functional group doesn’t buy in you can forget the new process. Team Member — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Fund Administration MD Management

A working Campaign Team is the most effective way to build a cross-functional context. While it can be created without a full Campaign, generally the motivation of a strategic mandate is the most effective “carrot and stick” to draw out the tacit knowledge that each Team member holds about this functional area. And, once it is brought to the table, to document it, make it common knowledge, and then build on it.



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One of the things I liked most was being able to see a variety of middle managers, in some cases people that had never worked together before, brought together to focus on a problem or an issue and look for ways to resolve it. In the past they had not much choice about how to work on problems; they worked within their own areas but not much across the silos. There was a lot of blaming each other, but with this approach they were able to work together to make a better process for everyone. They began to understand that everyone involved in the process wants it to work well and by working together they can accomplish that. Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

A Campaign Team is a power group. While the group still reports to the Executive Team, by forming and working as a Team it has more power, more authority, than that carried day-to-day by its individual members. This power has two primary sources: the information and knowledge that is created within the Team and the formal and informal authority given to it by the Executive Team to meet the strategic objective. It wasn’t that we handed power over to the middle managers. They have the power. Our main goal was to allow them to use it. They have the knowledge, the information, and the tools to do what you need for them to do. Well, we had to give them some training around the tools: that is where Campaign tools and techniques came in. Allow them to do it. Remove the obstacles from their using the power that they have. President and CEO — Retired MD Management We were able to carry more weight by sticking together. We weren’t individuals with opinions; if someone put an idea before the team, it got considered from all angles and when we were done it would have evolved into a pretty solid recommendation. We were able to make some very difficult decisions happen. One of those was the engineering staffing; we were understaffed. That was a tough one; I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be alone on that. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation Working on the Campaign Team definitely gave us a lot more ability to bring about change. Just by sitting down at the beginning and clarifying the issue to be addressed, to either go back to the Executive Team or to deal with it ourselves; senior management gave us a lot of power, to address the details and bring issues as well as good ideas up to them. It’s not a democracy; executive management will make the decisions. But the change objectives and the solutions wouldn’t have come out the way they did if we weren’t involved. There is a feeling of having a stronger role. The Team is stronger than the individual parts and that’s a real advantage. First, because we are more often right about things — being more likely to be right gets your ideas bought off on a lot more.


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When you begin seeing the issues and working them out as a team, people see that it’s being done the right way; they feel better about what is being designed. If you were doing it on your own, in a less organized way, you wouldn’t have the gains. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

CASE STUDY: WESLEY JESSEN CORPORATION We had developed very serious business problems. It seemed as if we couldn’t take an order right, we couldn’t ship it right. The research we did showed that we were dead last in the country among the seven major contact lens manufacturers. Customer dissatisfaction became our number one driver for Campaign Teams. With a major effort that included employee training, measurements, and working to improve strategic processes we went to number two in two years. Vice President, Sales, U.S. and Canada

Wesley Jessen develops, manufactures, and markets contact lenses. They have been doing it longer than anyone else in the world and continue to be the worldwide leader in specialty soft contact lenses. The founding partners created the first commercially successful contact lens in the early 1950s, shortly after the company was founded. Since then it has developed and introduced a variety of major innovations in soft and disposable lenses. It has nearly 2,700 employees and sells contact lenses worldwide. The company is perhaps best known for its creation of colored contact lenses in 1986. The product was an immense success. It doubled the company’s sales and tripled its number of accounts. It was in the wake of this explosive growth in sales that Wesley Jessen saw its satisfaction ratings with optometrists slip to last out of the seven major manufacturers. It wasn’t the product, it was the service. Strategic Process Management was recognized as the best method for focusing on and tackling the specific problems faced. Campaign Teams were launched against a variety of processes with surprising results. During the time that Wesley Jessen was involved in the order fulfillment strategic change effort, it also developed and introduced a completely new disposable lens production system. In 1999, Wesley Jessen was the fourth largest soft lens manufacturer worldwide and the leader in the specialty lens segment. The company continues to improve its competitive position through new product introductions, international expansion, and effective execution of proven marketing strategies.



II.

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SELECTING TEAM MEMBERS

The goal should not be to get everybody on a Team; the goal is to meet the objective and to get really good results. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort

There are three different types of members drawn from the Executive Team and from across the functional groups that make up and support the strategic process: • Executive Owner • Full Team members (including Team Leader) • Auxiliary members

Figure 3.2

Campaign Team membership represents both horizontal and vertical organization.

A. Recommendations for Selecting Team Members Turnover hurts the Campaign effort, both in knowledge development as well as priority maintenance. Actions need to be taken to minimize turnover and to effectively deal with it when it occurs, to bring a new member up to speed as quickly as possible.


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Loss of a Team member is a statement of lack of support. New people on a team just don’t have the credibility. Team Member Anonymous by request Continuity and flexibility are two very important parts of Team membership. We had only eight people; there was no turnover. There was continuity. We established a ground rule that there would be no substitutes. That was a very important rule. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

A blend of personality types will build a stronger, more flexible Team. You need a mix of people, creative and day-to-day process experts. You have to have both; if you don’t, you can end up with the creative daydreamer planning things that can’t be implemented or with the lack of “stretch” thinking about new ways to work out an issue. Team Member — Individual Group Enrollment Group Leader, Individual Markets Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Keep the Teams small — between six and eight full members. Cover the full process but err on the small side and let the Team add people if needed. Our Team was big and that allowed silos to be carried into the Team. Subgroups formed that would try to shift the objective as we went along. Keeping it small means the people on the Team must be truly representatives of their areas; that requires trust and respect of the person on the Team. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation

Keep members in close geographic proximity to each other; widely dispersed team members will have a very difficult time of it. While it may seem ideal, inevitably distance wins out. The best plans for getting together, for completing work independently, rarely come to fruition. Team members are not available to give the necessary support; to developed shared knowledge, the Executive Owner is unable to “move and shake,” to remove challenges and barriers, across long distances. Be very cautious about inviting customers, suppliers, or other stakeholders to be full-time team members. While input from these groups is very important, their presence in Team working sessions can prove to be an inhibitor to members being as open and honest with each other as they need to be, and the outsiders may hear things they do not like or you wish they had not.



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Remember, customers, suppliers, and other external stakeholders, normally are experts on their own processes, wants, needs, and expectations. While this will vary by their role (some will have greater participation in some processes and in some types of organizations than others) it can be a costly mistake if they are seen or see themselves as experts on your organization’s internal workings. There are other ways to get input from customers (or others) than having them sit as full members of a Team's meetings. If their participation is important consider asking them to be auxiliary members. This caution is not to say, “Do not ever put external representatives on a Campaign (or tactical) Team,” just be very careful in considering the potential effects and (diplomatically) clarify their expertise and role up front. Address formal and informal work compacts, e.g., time and responsibility allocations, rewards, and recognition for all Team members, from Executive Owner to auxiliary members, before asking people to participate. Candidates will have questions about these areas and will want answers before they feel comfortable making a commitment. Be proactive in raising this topic, it will be on the candidates’ minds but they are often unwilling to ask. Even if all of the answers aren’t finalized, the key concerns of “how much of my time” and “what happens to my career” had better be close to complete before expecting anyone to commit to the effort. This topic is addressed further in Section III of this chapter.

CASE STUDY: GREY BRUCE REGIONAL HEALTH CENTRE This isolated regional hospital in Ontario, Canada serves a mixed population of 150,000 made up of rural and city dwellers as well as a tourist population that booms each summer. It can take from two to ten hours to drive from Grey-Bruce to Toronto (the next nearest major hospitals), depending on the weather. This isolation, coupled with being the largest secondary health care facility in the region, requires that it offer a broader scope of services than other hospitals of equal size, including medical, surgical, emergency, psychiatric, chronic care, and rehabilitation services (and others). An extensive range of ambulatory care services as well as therapeutic and diagnostic services are available to support the full, diverse range of medical specialties available at this remote hospital. Our change priorities have not been focused on improvement nor something as elegant as reengineering. It has been a matter of survival, of figuring out how to do things differently, cheaper and with different organization structures. The pace of change today is faster than any I have seen in my 30 years in health care and the changes required are more radical, such as a drop in average length of stay from 11 to 6 days across the board. President — Retired

The Health Centre initiated Strategic Process Management and Campaigns in 1994.


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B. Steps for Selecting Team Members Step 1: Select the Executive Owner There is no magic formula for what the Executive Owner is supposed to do but respond to the needs of the Campaign. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

The Executive Owner is a member of the Executive Team assigned to and accountable for acting as a part of the Campaign Team. He or she carries unique responsibility for making the Campaign successful and has the authority to take actions to make it so. Campaign Team members are accountable to the Executive Owner. The role goes beyond sponsor or champion; the Executive Owner is an accountable member of the Campaign Team. The role really spans the life of the Campaign, from supporting the individual Team Leaders when they were in distress — and two out of three definitely got in some distress — to encouraging the spin-off tactical teams, helping them to understand how important their role was to championing the recommendations for change that they developed. I was always available when asked and in some instances got very involved, giving pep talks and assisting with breaking down barriers to progress and helping to get measurements that were needed. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

As a Campaign Team member the Executive Owner has his/her own unique tasks and responsibilities. He/she does not normally get involved in the day-to-day workings of the Campaign. The responsibilities are: • Two-way communication link and general representative to the Executive Team. The Executive Owner delivers to his/her peers status reports (including challenges and barriers) and briefings on proposed changes. He/she, in turn, reports to the Campaign Team. To fill this role, he/she must maintain a solid knowledge of the Team’s activities, progress, and challenges. This can be a very new and challenging part to an executive manager’s job. The Executive Owners were at the Vice President level; it was critical to get that level of management involved in what the Teams were doing. When they made status presentations to the President, it wasn’t just a presentation: he would really grill them about the Team’s effort. They had to know about what the Team was doing and vouch for the effort. If there was a block, they had to have addressed it because the President would want to know why not if they had not. I hate to say that those meetings caused our success but they did.



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I used to call it “forced pain” because if we hadn’t had that stage, if the President hadn’t have been there requiring the Executive Owners to report, it wouldn’t have worked. The Executive Owners started expecting the Teams to make progress, and they needed to hear about it or the barriers to it. They started going to be briefed at some of the Campaign Team meetings; that meant that the Team members not only showed up but they got their work done, because the President wanted progress, measurable progress. It was not pleasant for an Executive Owner to get up and show that the number of errors, or whatever the measure was, had not improved from last time. The president would ask them point blank: “How can you have gone 3 months without making gains? Was anything done?” He expected to see measurable improvement and he made it pretty rough if it wasn’t there, especially if nothing was being done. If the Teams were progressing, if changes were being explored, it was OK, but if there were no measurable gains the VP had better be knowledgeable of what was being done. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation • Mover and shaker for the Campaign Team at the executive management level. An executive manager has a level of rapport with his/her peers that allows for discussion, pressuring, influence peddling and sometimes the “arm twisting” necessary to negotiate and resolve challenges and barriers to progress. Because it’s cross-functional, each department has their own agendas; the Executive Owner added the capacity to keep the bigger picture in mind. The Executive Owner has the ability to address fears that the other Team members can’t. People resist changes because of fears of losing staff, support, things not working right, more things than I can even say. The Executive Owner has the authority to say, “If you need that in order for this to work right, I’ll fight to get that for you.” A middle manager doesn’t have the ability to say that. They don’t have the ears of the other Vice Presidents. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort • Priority maintainer. This will range from pep talks and negotiations with peers and other managers, to conflict resolution, to holding Team members accountable for commitments. A high priority is like liberty, it requires vigilance; it must be constantly fought for and reinforced. The Executive Owner needs to act to keep things moving. People will follow a leader, but leading means movement and when the movement stalls people get frustrated. That was something I struggled with, trying to decide when I should get involved and put my direction in, to say, “This is so,” or just let the Team continue on. If I erred,


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I erred toward letting it go on too long. At the beginning, that leadership is very important; once the Campaign gets going you can back away. Executive Owner — Sales and Enrollment Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Advisor and sometimes director to the Campaign Team — There will be times when, for a variety of reasons, the Executive Owner will need to give advice or direction to the Team; to modify, correct or strengthen the course of action. The Executive Owner is the accountable officer for the Campaign, he/she has the authority to take whatever actions are necessary to ensure success. Any way you go you need an Executive Owner and sometimes he needs to give a lot of input, to keep the Team more focused on the bigger picture instead of the tactical. The empowerment of the Team is incredible but it can happen too fast; the Team needs a lot of direction. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort • Authorizes budget expenditures and other Team member actions, which are designated as needing executive-level approval. • Performance evaluations for Team members. This may require changes to formal HR records but it doesn’t work any other way. The Executive Owner is most knowledgeable about Team member performance and members need to be accountable to him/her for results. Some people accepted the approach; they became more powerful and effective. Other people were feeling like, “Oh my god, I’m really going to have to do this and be held accountable for it.” And they backed away from it. Executive Owner — Sales and Enrollment Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Recognizes Team successes and stages other managers to give recognition when due. Sometimes even the most obvious successes are not seen. Executive Owner — Sales and Enrollment Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa Recognition, and in the case of a first Campaign — extra recognition, will serve to reinforce the Executive Team’s commitment that “We think that this effort is important” to both Team members and nonmembers alike. There can be strong peer pressure to “get back to work” and, on the whole, Team members would rather be back doing their regular jobs. There can be a great deal of doubt about whether



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they are out of the loop, or have taken on a role that will not move them toward their career goal or promotion. Team members need to be assured that their efforts are going to move them toward promotion, pay increases, and higher status. This is the recognition and reward that counts. • General communication medium and manager of both formal and informal Campaign information. Getting information out to the rest of the organization consistently and continuously across the life of the change effort is essential to success. The Executive Owner will need help from administrative support, other managers, and colleagues. He/she will not be able to do it alone. • Addresses and resolves (or reconciles) challenges and barriers to the Campaign’s progress. This is perhaps the largest of the Executive Owner’s responsibilities and he/she will need the support and assistance of colleagues to be effective. A lot of the responsibilities listed above will be integral to this one. The biggest challenge my team faced was just calling meetings. In the end I got more involved. And the end result was incredible. We created the call center, but I had to get involved. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort

Many of the challenges and barriers will not be unique to the Campaign at hand. Facing them, learning about them, and resolving them is an important part of building the organization’s strategic change capabilities. Challenges will come from many sources. Some will be resolvable. Some will only allow, at best, reconciliation. a. A Discussion on Challenges and Barriers The Campaign will inevitably bump against challenges and barriers that will impede or stop progress; challenges and barriers that Team members will not be able (or possibly not want) to resolve. The members themselves can create barriers. Sometimes the Team will ask for help in dealing with these challenges; sometimes they won’t even notice that they are there. It will be up the Executive Owner to note lack of progress, look for the blocks, and deal with them. Vigilance is a big part of the role, to be able to recognize a barrier as a barrier and then resolve it. Not all barriers or challenges can be removed. Sometimes a detour will be required, sometimes an adjustment to the Campaign plan, sometimes even a change in the strategic objective. A partial list of common barriers encountered follows: • Loss of priority. An assigned priority is never absolute. It will have to be reconfirmed again and again, subtly as well as formally, in closed session as well as open, to members of the Executive Team, Campaign Team, as well as to other managers and employees. Loss of priority usually comes in subtle forms, such as delayed budgets, participants not showing up, or work not getting done. Rarely will someone come out and say, “This isn’t important; let’s stop.” The Executive Owner will not be able to overcome this alone, but he/she will need to be ready to spearhead the drive.


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Executive management gave us the clear impression that the effort was important; that if we needed support they would be there to support us. And they were. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Clinical Coordinator Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Lack of project management. Small projects are easy, big ones with multiple actors take solid management skills; scheduling actions, assigning responsibilities to individuals, following up etc.. • Problem Team members. This one is hard to describe because sometimes what appears to be a problem member is just one who is challenging the other members to think or to act differently than they are used to. Generally, problem members are recognized by not meeting their commitment of moving the Campaign ahead. I checked to assure that the Team Leader was fulfilling his role and after a long time of his not doing so I stepped in and got that role filled with someone that would. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort The bottom line is they just don’t get the work done. They don’t act constructively. They consistently don’t accept and support Team consensus decisions. They would rather look for reasons not to act, such as disagreeing with decisions made, personality conflicts with other Team members, or demands of their regular job. One characteristic that is common is that they are consistent in their problem performance. Resolving one issue they raise will only bring on another. This is not to say don’t try to resolve their issues. Sometimes they may have a real problem, such a conflict between their work on the Team and their day-to-day work role — but don’t let “hope spring eternal,” always chasing one more resolution that will turn a problem team member into a good one. Problem members require special attention and action. They can, subtly and not so subtly, demoralize and undermine Team members’ willingness to progress. Pay attention and remove them early; waiting too long can bring a project down. Part of being on a Team has to be that members give each other and the Team Leader positive support for what they are doing. One thing I saw was that he made the other Team members feel negative, bad, about what the team was doing. We’d build consensus and he would tear it down. I started with one problem Team member and within four months ended up with three. I should have acted sooner. Team Leader Federal Agency • Barriers at the Executive level — Priority on the strategic objective, respect for and support of decisions made by the Team and participation of every functional area has to start at the top, at the Executive level. If any Executive manager cannot consistently support the strategic objective, if there is withdrawal of support for a



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Team member’s time commitment or other resource commitments, if he/she is not open to changing work processes within his/her functional area or giving up power or prestige; the divisiveness will find its way into the Team and the Campaign. Note that this is not meant to be a blank check for specific changes proposed by the Campaign Team to resolve the objective, it refers only to the objective, the need to resolve it, the use of a Campaign Team, and the time and resources that will be needed to do so. There will be time for action review and input later. Sometimes it is subtle, sometimes it is not; the results are the same. I am more optimistic than some, management does not have to be “reengineered”6 to make the cross-functional approach or a Campaign work, sometimes one or more individuals will have to be removed though. Not all members of the Executive Team were able to accept giving more authority to middle management or the role of the Campaign Team. There were a couple of members that did not have it in them to let go. I’m not sure why, but they just had to control. They could not delegate or motivate. We have worked through that; we had to let one Vice President go but another is coming along. Learning how to do this is not easy. President Anonymous by request • Campaign wandering — Teams can easily lose their focus. The day-to-day complexity of a Campaign project requires that someone keep his/her eye on the big picture, keeps the strategic objective clearly in focus, and verify that the Team is moving toward it. Never underestimate a Team’s ability to wander. We had been given a specific directive by the board to improve accuracy on inquiry responses. But in this case, the Team members felt that there were other things they would rather have worked on, that would have had a greater impact on the customers. They kept wanting to go off in different directions. I kept telling them, “We aren’t moving anywhere until we get this one resolved or can say that we can’t improve it.” They were a good Team; they didn’t veer too often but when they did I would reinforce where we were trying to go. I’d ask, “How does this relate to the objective?” Executive Owner — Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota • Turf wars — While ideally the Team comes together to work with the whole strategic process — without borders — reality is that the walls do not always disappear easily. People opted out; different groups were allowed to go back into their silos: “Our job is to sell; we’ll do this piece of it and you guys do your piece.” Senior Manager Anonymous by request


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Throughout the Campaign the Executive Owner can expect to learn a lot. I learned that while this approach is more time-consuming there is less stress and it’s more meaningful and a lot more rewarding to get your team involved in the decisions. The reality is that it always turns out better. It only seems like it takes longer; the less time an autocratic approach takes at the beginning gets eaten up at the other end putting out fires and making sure the change actually happens. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort This approach certainly allows me to think differently when I work with my managers on issues. “Let’s start with a clear issue; let’s get some data on it.” They respond to this; they understand why I want data, why I’m taking this approach.” Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

You may be thinking that that description of the Executive Owner’s role and responsibilities sounds pretty much the same as that of any line manager over a given operation or project. Absolutely true (for the most part)!! That is what makes it different from a “champion” or “sponsor.” Those roles are too often seen as being like cheerleaders on the sidelines — making noise but having little impact on or direct responsibility for the effort. The Executive Owner needs to be formally accountable for the success of the Campaign and to have the authority to take steps to meet that accountability. At the same time the role is different from standard line management. A Campaign is an extraordinary effort and requires actions that are out of the ordinary. For example, establishing and maintaining priority and recognition of effort — those will be different because the Campaign will most likely be seen as a distraction from doing what is important, getting the day-to-day work done. The Executive Owner is usually the first member selected for the Campaign Team. Once selected, he/she takes the lead role in assuring that all activities needed to get the rest of the Team selected and ready are completed. b. Criteria for Selecting the Executive Owner The candidate for Executive Owner should: • Have current responsibility for a major portion of the Strategic process. This is an important one. If this criterion is not met, the Executive Owner will find her/himself on the outside of the managers who do have functional responsibility for the process. • Have good project management skills • Be good at delegating — but also at following up • Have good communication skills • Have good diplomacy and consensus-building skills • Have patience



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If you are going to take on such a large task, you need to realize that it is going to take time to accomplish it. Executive Owner, Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota • Be flexible. There is no one position description that will fit perfectly; the Executive Owner will have to adapt to the character of the organization and the Team. My involvement has been basically listening, encouraging, trying to remove barriers, or trying to let them know if I see them bogged down or not focusing on the right areas. But I have been pretty hands-off in my involvement. You feel remote from the process in some ways. You’re involved at the beginning, you get regular reports, but you’re not in there doing the work. For some of us it’s difficult to hold back and to keep an overall perspective. With the patient flow process I’m even more remote because of a lot of other things that have been going on. The Campaign Team has been basically running the process.” Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — WESLEY JESSEN CORPORATION: PRODUCTION YIELD AND EFFICIENCY CAMPAIGN We were under extreme pressure to increase the yield of a new, cutting-edge, hightechnology production line. Our yields were around 30 to 40 percent. The bareminimum goal was 65 percent. We had all been acting pretty independently. Where we had used a cross-functional team on our prototype process, working with a full production line was intensely more complicated, more expensive, required a much broader base of people, and also more direct involvement of senior management. Team Member Manager, Pilot Plant Production

Yield improvement goals of 65 percent were met within the first year after the Team was launched. They have since been exceeded. Those were rough times. People were under a lot of strain. The Team gave members a forum to bring ideas, to be heard out. It kept people from working toward different objectives, ranging from increasing production to testing new products. We were better able to focus on the priority of improving yield on the line. It absolutely decreased the strain between the people working on improving yield. It brought a tremendous amount of accountability to bear on the problem. We focused on the priority problem areas and assigned responsibility for fixing them. The Team leader was more able to hold people accountable for accomplishing the assigned tasks. This was a real strong part of this Team. Sometimes working on a


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Team allows participants to hide from accountability, but that didn’t happen here. Responsibilities were assigned and people were held accountable. Team Member Manager, Technical Services We were able to make some very difficult decisions happen. One of those was the engineering staffing: we were understaffed. That was a tough one; I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be alone on that one. Team Member Manager, Pilot Plant Production

Step 2: Select Campaign Team Members Campaign Team members are responsible for taking whatever actions are necessary to meet the strategic objective. These include: • Completing the basic tasks of the Campaign • Working as part of the Team, taking direction from the Team Leader and Executive Owner • Representing their functional area • Communication, formal and informal • Raising visibility of challenges and barriers to progress, and working to resolve them • Learning, learning and learning

Review the process profile. There should be at least one manager per functional group (with the exception of IT, which usually has an auxiliary member on the team, depending on the nature of the process and the change effort). Team membership should (for the most part) be voluntary. Approach candidates individually, explain the objective and the role of the Team to them and ask for their support and participation. Do this before any Team meeting. Candidates need to make up their own minds; they are making a personal commitment. This is the first cut at developing buy-in to the objective. The second comes with the Team briefing. You have to have Team members that are committed. The people who should be there have to want to be there or at least they have to be motivated to be there. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

The full Executive Team makes decisions about selection and removal of Team members. One of the toughest challenges reported is getting and keeping good people on the Team. No manager wants to volunteer a top- or near top-performing report,



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if they know that others will not put forward someone of equal worth. Loss of a Team member during a Campaign can be a major setback. a. Criteria for Selecting Campaign Team Members Pick the right people. There may be some hard feelings at first, “Why was that person picked and I wasn’t,” but get on with it. Be open, explain your selection criteria and add that membership can change over time and they may join in the future if they are interested. I think, though, by being clear and as objective as you can be about the selection criteria, that people begin to see what you, the manager, value and support in terms of behavior in staff. It’s reinforcement. You will have some people, not all, but some, strengthen in the skills you want them to have. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

Candidates for the Campaign Team: • Should report directly to or one level below the Executive Team. The decisions that Team members are required to make, as well as the scope of knowledge needed, all add up to a prerequisite for a participant who reports closely to the executive level of management, otherwise you end up with skip-delegation. Skip-delegation occurs when one or more levels of management have no responsibilities and accountabilities in a major change effort. This happened a great deal in efforts to implement quality circles and Total Quality Management and has continued to happen in reengineering efforts. Middle management was designated as a barrier to change and delegated to a passive support role. First-line teams were formed, trained, and left on their own. They failed, a lot. Skip-delegation results in priority conflict between managers and their reports. Managers prevail, usually, and the change effort suffers. The more levels below the Executive Team the Campaign Team members lie, the weaker the links in accountability and alignment. Each level skipped over means that there is a nonparticipating manager who must: • Buy into the established priority. • Buy into the fact that one of his or her reports is being taken away (half to full time) for a minimum of six months. • Be held accountable for, and in turn hold the Team member accountable for, putting the allocated time into the Campaign. If the manager isn’t accountable for his/her report putting in the committed time, it can easily create conflict with the Team member, Leader, and Executive Owner. Sometimes there will be no option but to pick a manager that does not report to the Executive Team. Overcoming skip-delegation is not impossible but it does take extra formal attention and care. The primary goal is to avoid conflict for the Team member, to assure that no one is torn between two accountabilities.


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They need to be influential in their work area. That is one reason why it’s important to have the manager or someone who has a good dialogue with the manager. Someone at a lower level or who does not have that dialogue is really at a disadvantage. You lose the detail knowledge that first-line employees have but you gain buy-in to decisions made. You can get the details from other sources, but you can’t get the buyin anywhere else. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management • Team members need to be credible and have the trust of their managers as well as their peers and reports. They will be making ongoing decisions, big and small, that the Executive Team members will need to trust are right, sometimes with and sometimes without extensive consideration. (This does not mean blind trust; the Executive Team will have input to progress as it is being made as well as sign-off on all final recommendations made by the Team.) Without this trust Team members will find each small decision questioned and doubted. The Campaign will bog down. If that respect isn’t there, the Team’s decisions will carry no weight. If you go much lower than middle managers, you won’t have the trust. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation • They must be capable of working as part of a team, to take on tasks and complete them, in order to get a job done. This means buying into the objective, participating in gaining consensus, accepting outcomes, and taking on the tasks that need to be completed. Do not put problem managers on a Campaign Team. Especially don’t put them on one of the first ones where everyone has to learn the approach, their role, the strategy, tools and techniques. Only include them if you are ready to put time into actively working through their own individual problems. Get the best people involved and make sure that they are people who are willing to do this, that don’t feel that you’re just forcing it on them and who will not react to it as if it’s just another flavor of the month. When you’re first learning how to do this you need partners, but you’d better be ready to keep your end of the bargain. Executive Owner — Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management Put people on the Team who are willing to focus on what you are trying to do as a Team rather than constantly turning to the big global issues such as “should we be doing this at all?” Team Member — Product Development Vice President, Development Business Strategy Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota



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• Have good communication skills. Team members are not individual or independent contributors to the Team. They are acting as representatives of their functional groups. As such, they have to be effective at gathering information from and communicating results to peers and reports.

All in all, what has just been described are the sharpest, most experienced mid-level managers, just the ones no senior manager wants to lose. Keep two things in mind: • The change effort will be handicapped without them. How important is meeting the strategic objective? • There may not be a safer way to train subordinates. Handing day-to-day responsibilities off to their reports can offer an excellent development opportunity. Team members will still be able to support and advise these “trainees” in their tasks.

Step 3: Select the Team Leader A strong Team Leader is crucial. The people involved will be committed when they are there, but when they leave the room it’s up to the Team Leader to follow up and get things done. And the Team Leader has to be able to inspire them to action from time to time. A few of the people were swamped and didn’t want to deal with this and I’d have to help them to find the time, to get some way to get the work done. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

The Team Leader is a peer of the Team members. The Team Leader is a logistics and project management leader. In addition, he or she carries all of the responsibilities of Team membership and should meet all of the selection criteria. Additional responsibilities of the Team Leader: • Project management; assuring that actions are scheduled and assigned as necessary to meet Campaign objective(s). • Maintains focus on the objective. • Assures that relevant Campaign outputs are documented and distributed to Team members, Executive Owner, and other executive managers, peers, and reports. • Keeps the communication link with the Executive Owner. Communication runs both ways. The Team Leader owns responsibility for assuring that information is available on request or is pushed to the Executive Owner, if it is not requested. • Resolves challenges and barriers to progress or escalates them up to the Executive Owner. If they don’t know about them, they can’t help to deal with them. • Assures that Team support needs are met, such as administrative support, training, facilitation, equipment, consulting, etc. • Financial management. The Team Leader and the Executive Owner hold responsibility for the Campaign budget. • Coach and motivator. The Team Leader works to maximize Team member participation.


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a. Criteria for Selecting the Team Leader It has to be someone who will have the authority, both the moral and technical authority, to lead people. Technical authority in terms of delegated authority but also moral authority; that people want to follow that leader. President and CEO — Retired MD Management

Above and beyond meeting the criteria for Team membership, the Team Leader should: • Report to the Executive Owner. Rapport, accountability, and trust will be easier where a reporting relationship is already established.* One major difficulty I had as a Team Leader was that I was not functionally aligned with the project I was leading. I worked in another area entirely; my bosses had no interest in the results and did not ask about how things were going. Eventually my own motivation began to wane. Team Member — Small Group Enrollment Group Leader, Group Enrollment and Membership Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa It was easier to be an Executive Owner over Team Leaders reporting to me, within my department. I was able to show my support just by walking down the hall. I’d see them and ask them how it was going. And they felt more comfortable coming to me with issues. I just didn’t have the same rapport with the Team Leader from the other department. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort • Have strong project management skills. A Campaign is a project; actions need to be scheduled, assigned, and followed up. • Have strong interpersonal skills. The Leader needs to be someone who Team members will feel comfortable coming to with problems and issues. They also will need to be able to defuse interpersonal conflict problems among Team members. • Have strong leadership skills. This refers to both management skills as well as perseverance, the ability to inspire and motivate a group of individuals to work toward resolving a tough task. Campaigns are always tough tasks.

* While there is a risk that an Executive Owner and Team Leader from the same functional group could dominate a Campaign Team, I have not often seen that happen. Other Team members are not usually passive about being “dominated” and the Team Leader is usually as much concerned about getting along with his/her peers as he/she is about taking direction from a manager. More common are the problems that result when the Owner and Leader are from different functional groups.



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You have to keep after it. If a meeting doesn’t happen, if data isn’t analyzed on time, don’t let it go, reschedule and get it next time; don’t let it go. Don’t let things like that stop the effort. You have to be diligent, be encouraging, be positive; but keep with it. If you don’t have data it isn’t going to work, so go back and get it. There is a tendency that if they miss it once they’ll miss it again and pretty soon there’s no data at all. Same with people missing meetings: that isn’t acceptable. Keep it fun, but keep after it. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

b. Tips and pitfalls A Team Leader holds responsibility for making sure a number of things get done, but this does not mean he/she does them all. The various tasks can and should be delegated to other Team members (or rotated). Step 4: Select Auxiliary Team Members Auxiliary members provide process expertise, most often technical and financial, but also any other sort that makes the process tick. Their input is critical to developing a full understanding of the strategic process and how to change it. Very often they are from functional groups that are not on the critical path of the process or represent outside organizations that have an important stake in or impact on the process. In the case of unions, they may have a stake in the role of the employees that work with the process. They are not full-time members because they don’t have as large a part in the process, but they are expected to be available when called on to meet the needs of the Team. Auxiliary members can be representatives from: • Technical support groups such as information technology, finance, communication systems, or legal • Unions • Suppliers • Stakeholder groups • Other functional groups that are periodically or peripherally involved with the process or play an important support role, e.g., Health and Safety, HR, Finance, Building Maintenance, Security

Unions deserve special mention when laying the groundwork for a strategic change effort. Depending on their relationship with the employees, unions may be a very important part of the effort. Often, union officers can have better communication links with and greater trust of the employees than the Executive Team; at least they can augment management communication efforts. Their officials and/or board members can play a strong role in creating understanding and buy-in to strategic visions, goals, and objectives as well as smooth employee participation in the Campaign and the design and test of changes.


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Auxiliary members should also be assigned and removed by the full Executive Team in order to ensure adequate participation. Too often, these members and their managers do not take their roles seriously and outcomes are handicapped. Modify position descriptions, performance management criteria, etc., as necessary and applicable to ensure that responsibilities are clear and that the support these members give is recognized.

III.

PLANNING FOR TEAM SUPPORT, PREPARATION, AND LAUNCH

The Campaign Team is an expensive group in terms of salary and impact on the organization’s operations and output. The most needs to be made of the time they will spend on this effort. Their expertise is most useful and most needed in developing knowledge and in managing the research and development of change. Yet without adequate support, Team members end up spending much of their time and valuable energy just taking care of logistics, trying to figure what to do next, and trying to work together as a Team. Documentation, communication, and creative work time suffer. Support refers to specific, necessary, ingredients that will enable the expertise gathered in the Team to be applied and for the Campaign to progress reasonably smoothly. Support refers to: • • • • •

People: expert consultant, facilitation, and administrative support Facilities, equipment, and applications Budget Adjustments to the formal and informal work compacts Briefing and training

We needed dedicated administrative support. We didn’t have the knowledge to do a lot of the graphics work, even if we had the time. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Adequate support is not only nice to have; it is essential. It may seem expensive and a hassle but it can make the difference between project success and failure. Figuring out how to make adequate support available is an important part of developing your organization’s change capabilities. Availability of support (or the lack of it) often is an unofficial barometer of Executive commitment to the Campaign. Difficult decisions may have to be made. Many organizations have set “lean and mean” as an operating policy, and support roles such as training and facilitators were the first to be eliminated. In some cases contract professionals can fill some of these roles, but when tactical teams begin to develop and test changes, and during final implementation, many of these roles are best if brought in-house. Every organization is limited in its ability to meet these resource needs. However, be very careful; too much limitation can hinder or kill the change effort. Lean and mean organizations



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very often find themselves unable to carry out strategic change because of their lack of resources. A. Recommendations for Planning Team Support, Preparation, and Launch • Changes to formal and informal work compacts should be thought through in advance of team member selection. • Plan and take action in advance of the Team getting started. Don’t wait for the Team members to figure out that they need it; by then, it can be and often is too late. Plan for and put the recommended support in place first, then back out the parts that are not needed. • Customize support to fit the characteristics of the Team and organization. Be creative; the description given below of support needs is not meant to be a formula for implementation. There are a variety of ways to meet the needs.

B. Support People Support personnel primarily assist and facilitate the Team’s completion of the steps it needs to go through. Support personnel include: • External consultants to deliver expertise and know-how on the strategy, steps, tools, and techniques which the Campaign and Tactical teams must move through. External consultants are most often needed in two areas: 1. Campaign strategy, process performance measurement, project management, i.e., how to carry out a Campaign Getting our hands on data was one of our biggest barriers. We really needed an expert to come in and help us get the measures set up. It just took us too much time. It isn’t reasonable to expect Team members to learn how, to know what data to capture and how to do it. Everybody ends up with their own ideas, but knowing which data is meaningful is tough. Internal Consultant Senior Systems Analyst MD Management 2. Process change technology, i.e., how the process itself might be modified. This includes technology expertise such as information, communication, manufacturing, etc.,7 and nontechnology expertise such as “best practice” experts on various subprocesses. The use of technology support will depend on the nature of the Campaign, and whether it is aimed at radical reengineering or incremental change. The expense of an external consultant is small compared to the cost of a stalled Team spending days trying to figure out what to do next and how to do it (or redo it). Use “how to” consultants wisely, plug them in where needed and find one that will transfer expertise to the Team or, better yet, to an internal consultant. This is another part of building the organization’s capability to bring about change.


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We discovered just how difficult learning and doing at the same time can be. First we had to learn the tools and strategy; that was not easy. And it was a tough project, a big process. We probably used up six months just learning. The consulting support really helped a lot. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Medical Affairs Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota • Internal consultants. An internal consultant usually is a manager or professional employee who is designated to build expertise in Campaign strategy and tools. If an external consultant is needed to deliver “how to” expertise on a Campaign, find one who will transfer knowledge and be a mentor to an internal consultant. An internal consultant will then be able to support future Campaign and Tactical teams. Criteria for selecting an internal consultant include: 1. Experience with measurement and data analysis. That background can be financial, quality control, IT, or another applied statistics role 2. Time 3. Personality: This is an important part of a good internal consultant A solid background in measurement, data gathering, and analysis. They can learn pretty much everything else they need. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation It is a full-time job with three Campaign Teams in place. The consultant needs to get their hands dirty to learn the processes and then help the Teams to apply the tools and techniques to their processes and get the measures in place. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation It proved to be a delicate situation: the consultants knew how to do this stuff better than we did and were inclined to take over the Team. The message, very unspoken but real, tended to come back that they knew how to do this stuff and we didn’t, so they tended to dominate the Team, in more ways than just giving us “How to” support. It didn’t go over very well with Team members. Team Leader — Sales and Enrollment President, Wellmark Financial Services Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Team facilitators. When meetings have skilled facilitation they move more efficiently and effectively. Agendas get followed; there is less side-tracking; things get done. Facilitation support should not be considered optional.



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In the charged, creative environment of Campaign (and Tactical) Team meetings, participants can easily wander, stall, and get stuck on minor issues or conflict. Dominant members dominate; passive members can be shut out and not contribute. A facilitator acts as a guide and a “lubricant” to get through the rough areas. While interpersonal skill training for Team members is highly recommended, a trained facilitator will still be necessary to some extent. One of our Teams had three strong members that had had extensive interpersonal skills training, but they were absolutely immobilized by the conflict that came up. These were high-level managers. And this happens in many situations. Having the skill base does not mean being able to apply it. I’m not saying that the skills training isn’t important. I’m saying two things really: one, that this training may not be sufficient and two, that it isn’t necessarily vital to success provided you have an effective facilitator who can really lead the group. One Team would have absolutely died if they had not had someone that could manage the conflict. It’s too close to the bone when you’re talking about the work you do. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Team facilitators should also be able to act as critical observers and informal communication channels. They can see when a Team has hit a barrier (or gone down a gopher hole) that the Team itself cannot and may not want to see. The facilitator should communicate those observations to the Team Leader or Executive Owner. Ask every question that comes to mind no matter how stupid it may sound inside your own head. You need to keep throwing those questions out there: it helps them to focus and to make sure that their ideas are clear to themselves as well to others outside of their group. Internal Consultant Manager, Accounts Payable Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa The facilitator is a partner and advisor to the Team Leader. The skills of the facilitator can be used to balance and fill the Team Leader’s weak areas. The facilitator’s role should be customized to meet the needs of the Team. Two options exist for meeting facilitation needs: 1. Supply trained facilitators to work with the Team(s). At the same time Team members will need to be trained on roles and rules for participating in meetings. Never assume that middle managers know how to effectively participate in meetings. 2. Train Team members on the skills and rotate through responsibility for the facilitator role. This one has to be considered with caution, good facilitation skills come with practice; even trained individuals may not do a good job. It is, however, better than no facilitation at all.


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The best option is to mix and match using both approaches. Mixing and matching can help to build internal capabilities. Team members will learn the role and value of solid facilitation by having a “pro” work with them and they can better develop their own facilitation skills by having a pro as a model. • Administrative support. Administrative support is mostly communication support; gathering, documenting, processing, and disseminating Team output such as process maps (in various versions), meeting notes, etc. Without adequate administration support, communication can be limited to the point of nonexistence. Administration support also assists with the logistics of meetings, e.g., facilities, equipment, notification, as well as procedural support such as purchasing and supplier interface. Administration support personnel should be accountable to the Team Leader.

C. Support Facilities, Equipment and Applications Needed facilities will include: • A dedicated room where the Team can meet, work, hang charts, install and test technology (if applicable), yell, holler, and generally carry on as any Campaign Team does. Dedicated doesn’t mean that it can’t be used by anyone else. It means that the Team has first choice, that they don’t have to take down charts, etc. There is a tendency to undervalue this prerequisite. Space is tight in most organizations and the outcome of not having dedicated space isn’t immediately obvious; but after years of watching Teams, some with a room of their own and most without, I would put this high on the list. Moving from room to room each time: 1. Uses up energy, scheduling, informing, finding rooms, etc. Meetings will be canceled because a room isn’t available. Team members won’t come to a work session because they couldn’t or wouldn’t find the room. 2. Loses information. Eventually taking charts room to room, putting them up and taking them down, becomes too much; the Team stops doing it. The loss of charts means the loss of shared information, knowledge creation, and shared understanding. • Office space. This may or may not be needed. In some cases Team members find it very difficult if not impossible to carry out Campaign work in their normal offices. All I have to do is walk near my office, anywhere near my co-workers, and I know I can’t walk away. They need me; there’s too much work to do and I can’t just leave them to cope with it by themselves. I feel like I’m deserting them. Manager Federal Agency Reengineering Team • Equipment and computer application needs. These will be primarily those used in normal office work. However, some extraordinary ones are a flowcharting application for the desk top computer. Specialized applications are cheap and much much easier and faster to use than a graphics or presentation package. Faster and easier means that process maps (flowcharts) will get done, not just the first time



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but through each of the multiple drafts and redrafts. Also useful is a flip-chart master that will turn 81/2" x 11" sheets into flip-chart-size sheets, flip-charts, easels, and lots of marker pens.

D. Support Budget Let’s face it, process changes involve costs. You have to figure out a way to redesign things and that means you have to pay for it. The team can have wonderful ideas, but they can’t do a thing if they don’t have the budget and the management push to get it approved. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

A Campaign will require funds be made available during its start-up, research and development stages just as much as for the full-scale implementation of changes. Funds will be needed for: • • • • • •

Equipment and accessories Consulting and training Benchmark travel Quick-fix implementation Process technology and best practice expertise, and Developing and testing changes

The Executive Owner should take the lead on assuring that funding and other resources are available to support the design and implementation of a proposed change before a lot of development gets under way. A management team is fooling itself about change if it doesn’t provide the means, financial and otherwise, to design and implement the change in a professional manner. It’s doomed to failure otherwise. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort

A common mistake is to assume that the Executive Team can review budget needs and approve them as the Campaign progresses. Executive Teams don’t work that quickly. It also puts them back into the role of managing change rather than leading it. Set the budget in advance and leave the Team to manage it. This will: • Show executive commitment to the intent to implement change effort • Give the Team a sense of the extent of change they can work toward. (That is, if they are given a very large budget, they will realize that they can consider larger, more expensive changes. Vice versa, if they are given a small budget they will realize that they must restrict the expense of changes). • Be a strong act of empowerment for the Team


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Many Executive Teams decide to wait to commit funds until the Campaign Team finishes its development work. They want to be “sold” on the changes developed by the Team. In reality, they are delaying the decision of whether to change at all until the Campaign Team has finished its work. If a Team puts the commitment, time, and effort necessary to develop and test changes only to have their proposals rejected by the Executive Team, it will greatly demoralize the Campaign Team members (and the organization in general). This does not mean accepting whatever the Team develops. There will be a great deal of communication, review, and approval during the design and test work of the tactical teams before changes are finalized or implemented. That is the time to give input about the acceptability of a solution. Committing a budget means making a commitment to change. Financial controls and accounting procedures will need to be put in place to manage expenditures. It is important to remember that the budget allocation made at this point should cover the Campaign Team work as well as the design and test work of the tactical teams. Review Chapter 9 for more detail on tactical projects. E. Changes to Formal and Informal Work Compacts “Formal work compact”8 refers to position descriptions, responsibilities, performance, and compensation agreements, appraisal criteria, reporting, and accountability structure. Each of these areas will need to be addressed for all participants — Team members, auxiliary members, and support personnel — more for some than others. If they are to work on the Campaign full time, five areas will need to be covered: • • • • •

Modifications to their position descriptions How this Campaign assignment figures into salary and promotion considerations How they are to be evaluated and appraised, by whom and by what criteria To whom they will report, and How their existing work responsibilities will be handled so that things will not “fall apart” while they are gone

If the assignment is part time, this step becomes more complex. The five areas described above have to be addressed as well as how to proportion the part-time work. Most managers’ positions and duties are not clearly broken down into various tasks. Figuring out what can be “off-loaded” to make room for the new assignment will have to be sorted out specifically and realistically. The goal is to prevent Team members from feeling as though they have just had two or more days of work per week added onto their existing full-time jobs. Get each Team member and their senior manager involved in deciding which responsibilities can be off-loaded, to whom, and how they will be shifted. The informal work compact refers to undocumented, social dimensions of the agreement between employer and employee8 (in this case managers are employees). For example:



• • • •

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What kinds of prestige rewards will be given for what kinds of performance? What has to be done to be seen as valuable to this organization? Will I still have a job if we (the Team) design me out of one? What happens if my stand-in significantly changes my job while I’m gone?

This informal dimension is not often addressed openly but it should be, prior to the Campaign. It is critical that specific answers be developed and formally communicated to participants. To make management involvement work, there needs to be an acceptance that this can change or eliminate their jobs. There has to be a safety net there. But none of us felt that high level of support. There certainly was no comfort with changing the process to the extent where we might do away with our own jobs. So you had a Team of middle managers that owned major pieces of the process that weren’t going to make any changes that were going to impact their jobs. Team Member — Individual Group Enrollment Group Leader, Individual Markets Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

The limitations caused by fear of loss of job or prestige are just as real as Team members not showing up to do the work. Consider what formal and informal compact changes (or reassurances) may need to be addressed for the whole organization. The thinking about compact changes at this level will probably need to be broad at first, such as “some jobs will change,” or “work will be shifted to different sites,” or “no one will lose their employment, their seniority, or their pay.” Then communicate these thoughts to the organization. Fear (and misinformation) can run rampant during a Campaign. If there is no information, people make it up and when they make it up it is usually negative. 1. Tips and Pitfalls A word of caution: be prepared to live up to commitments made. Compacts, both formal and informal, violate trust if broken. It will take a lot of energy and time to regain trust once it is lost. The bottom line in adjusting formal and informal compacts is that participation in a Campaign Team must not be viewed as negative or punishment. Middle managers can easily perceive the opportunity to participate as “now you get your work doubled for the next year” or “we have a new opportunity for you outside of your career path.” These are not rewards, they are penalties. It is up to the Executive Team to counter the punishment perception, to make sure that participation is an opportunity for learning and strengthening their management skills, for expansion of their career path, and for achieving promotion and higher status.


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F. Support Briefing and Training If we could do it over I would have spent more time up front talking to Team members about what we were trying to accomplish and why it was important. A lot of them walked into that first meeting kind of blind. They all bought off on it — with a little bit of skepticism — because a lot of them have been here a long time; we had been fixing things, we fix things every day, but they were a little skeptical about this formal team-based process for fixing something. Executive Owner — Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

Briefing includes communicating to the Team and support personnel essential information about the Campaign charter, roles, and responsibilities. Both written summary (for future reference) and personal presentation (to allow for questions and clarification) should be used. BOOM! People found themselves in a hotel meeting room without any real idea of why they were there. People really didn’t know why they were selected or what they were doing there. You can’t just jump into it without defined roles and responsibilities. Internal Consultant Manager, Quality Improvement Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

Most of the briefing content is outlined in Chapters 1 and 2. The briefing should include: • • • • • • • • • • •

•

A discussion of the organization’s strategic plan and how the objective fits into it The change ∆ A summary of the assessment of readiness for change The compelling mandate for change The Campaign strategic process and its profile The list of the other strategic processes and the ones most likely to be impacted by changes to the Campaign process Team members and why they were selected Support preparations (people, facilities, equipment, training, etc.) Budget to be allocated Adjustments to the formal and informal compacts (especially how responsibilities will be off-loaded to make time available for the Campaign work) How far the Campaign Team can go and how radical it can get in meeting the objective, e.g., “Don’t worry about existing policy restrictions or the existing organization structure. Do what it takes to meet the objective.” Limitations and boundaries on the Team. Actions and options they cannot consider or take in working toward the objective, such as “no net loss of jobs,” “no changes to current union contracts,” or “no impact to the development of the new production line.”



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• Other actions the Executive Team will take to support the Campaign, such as turnaround of inquiry responses within seven days, resolution of barriers within two days, no cutting into team membership, etc.

Training covers two areas: Hard skills: the strategy, tools and techniques for carrying out a Campaign. Hard-skill education is recommended in: • Project management; setting an objective, establishing an action plan, assigning actions, roles, and responsibilities • Flow-charting tools. There are a lot of them and different ones work much better for different purposes • Data gathering and analysis • Process analysis • Change development, testing, and implementation Soft skills: a Campaign effort is like a motor; the strategy, tools, and techniques are the mechanical workings; interpersonal and Team skills are the lubricants. No matter how well the mechanics work, without lubricants the engine will eventually break down. All of the training in the world won’t change some people. But yes, relative to what we would have been without it, I think that it brought a lot of us up a couple of notches. I would recommend that all Team members get it. Team Member Anonymous by request It’s not just receiving training that is important, it’s also the reinforcement. If those skills are to be used in the Team meetings, it is essential that they be modeled by the Team Leader and facilitator and that members are expected to use them and their use is reinforced by management. Internal Consultant Manager, Quality Improvement Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Middle managers do not normally work in teams. They may sit through meetings periodically and someone may have declared them a “team,” but to work effectively in a Campaign Team they will need some grounding in: • Meeting basics; e.g., One speaker at a time, follow an agenda, respect the facilitator, etc. • Interpersonal skills and conflict resolution • Issue resolution • Consensus building • Communication Consensus building? They didn’t know what consensus is! Frustrated Team Leader Anonymous


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These skills will be important for Campaign Team meetings; they will be essential for tactical team sessions. 1. Tips and Pitfalls The greatest risk is overconfidence. Many will feel that training, especially in soft skills, is like going back to elementary school. Somewhere they will have had some of this training, any training, before. They may feel foolish getting trained on topics that seem to be “common sense.” Stick with it, carry out the training and, more importantly, reinforce the concepts in the working sessions. The tough part is in the doing. It’s not rocket science, but making it work is tough. Team Leader — Diagnostic Test Director of Laboratory Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Compounding the risk is that Team members don’t know what they don’t know. The strategy and use of tools are quite different between a strategic change effort, e.g., a Campaign, and an improvement project. Initially we were bogged down because we made a mistake of thinking of this as Total Quality Management. Our senior managers didn’t understand. They wanted us to put up plaques saying things like “Quality is part of your job.” Team members kept wandering off looking for little things to improve. It took us a while to understand that we were supposed to be doing something different. Campaign Team Leader Federal Government Agency

Use “just-in-time” training. Two to three hours of training every week or two, more toward the front end, on these skills should be adequate for most Team members. Schedule just-in-time training in advance, either by date or by Campaign milestone. This approach to training is strongly supported, but it takes planning and delivery. As Teams get underway, it can be difficult to break them away from the Campaign work long enough to take training, especially in soft skills. Hard-skills training is best when delivered as the tools are needed. Mix consulting support with training. A balance has to be struck between how many skills should be learned and where consultant support should be brought in. Two key criteria are (1) repetition; will the skill or knowledge be needed again or is it a one-time application, and (2) complexity; how tough is the skill or expertise to learn. Measurement, data gathering, summary, and analysis are tough to learn for most people. Training in standardized mapping and analysis tools will improve communications. These tools become an important part of the language used when presenting and communicating Campaign findings and recommendations within the Team, to the Executive Team, and to the organization as a whole.



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G. Preparation and Launch There are two steps to preparing and launching a Team: Step 1: Preliminary Briefing and Training Do the briefing first, before any training begins. It should be delivered by the Campaign Executive Owner, the CEO, and any other member of the Executive Team who needs to show clear support for the effort (this basically includes any Executive Team member who has a report on the team or otherwise has influence over the strategic process). The preliminary briefing and training topics voted “most needed” by case study participants were: • A one-day overview of the Campaign strategy and road map, and the tools and techniques that will be used • Project management skills • Rules and guidelines for facilitating and participating in meetings, and • Personality typing (such as Meyers Briggs and others)

More detailed training in Campaign tools and techniques, interpersonal skills, etc., was also seen as very important but was recommended to be delivered as needed, across the life of the Campaign. a. Tips and Pitfalls Allocate the time to do a thorough briefing; the information will take time to sink in, and participants will have a lot of questions about what is being said and not said. Team members have been invited to join the Team; they have been motivated enough to be there. The briefing acts both to inform as well as to assure them that the Campaign has been thought through, their support is justified, and that they are going to come out of it OK. Step 2: The Formal Launch The launch formally initiates the Campaign Team. It has two parts: • A formal “pulling the Team together” session in which participants are reminded of the importance that the organization places on the Campaign and are given an advance “thank-you” for their participation. “Formal” and “importance” are the key words; consider an off-site luncheon or dinner. This session may be combined with the briefing — but it doesn’t replace it. • Informing the rest of the organization of Team formation and charge as well as any thoughts on adjustments to formal or informal work compacts. By this time, most managers will have already heard about the change effort (hopefully via credible channels). This communication should briefly and simply announce the start of the Campaign, and summarize the objective, assignments, and time frames,


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and changes (or lack of changes) to formal and informal compacts. The facts, just the facts, are needed.

CAUTION: do not “over-hype” the launch. Big, high-charged announcements do not communicate priority, they feed cynicism. Actions establish priorities. The Campaign Team has a lot of work to do before changes are made. Don’t overset expectations. Be careful of building an “all dressed up and nowhere to go” feeling. For the first several months, Campaign Team activities will primarily have an impact on Team members and the managers who must absorb adjustments to work responsibilities. Few other people, if any, will be affected or know about this work. Big announcements of change before any change is ready to implement is a mistake. A “whisper” introduction is preferable to brass-band hoopla. Not so quiet as to suggest that something is being hidden; just no hype, no big noises. Communicate through normal channels; but it is also a good time to begin developing and using first-line supervisors as a primary change communication medium.

REFERENCES 1. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, p. 128. 2. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, p. 15. 3. Larkin, T. J. and Larkin, S., Reaching and changing front-line employees, Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1996. p. 95. 4. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, p. 169. 5. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, p. 128. 6. James Champy, Reengineering Management, Harper, New York, 1995. 7. Carr, D. K. and Johansson, H. J., Best Practices in Reengineering: What Works and What Doesn’t in the Reengineering Process, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995. 8. Paul Strebel, Why do employees resist change, Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1966, pp. 86-92.


SECTION II The Campaign THE CAMPAIGN TEAM A Campaign is a series of organized actions undertaken over time, usually within a specific time frame, in order to achieve a set strategic objective. The Campaign Team organizes and manages the Campaign. The next five chapters (Section II) are about responsibilities the Team must fulfill and the actions the members take to meet the objective. These responsibilities and actions both draw on and expand the unique position middle managers hold in the organization as well as develop them as managers. Without middle management we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere on this. Without their active participation, support, willingness to listen and to do things we just wouldn’t have accomplished what we did. That was a critical component of making it happen. Internal Consultant Manager, Quality Improvement Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

The Campaign Team takes ownership of the strategic objective. It creates an integrated understanding of the strategic process and locates the high-impact areas for change. It then plans, manages, and in general, creates the most advantageous conditions for the tactical projects — always to maximize the chances of strategic success. In general, the Campaign Team acts to link the broad strategic objective to tactical actions, projects, usually, that are required to design and develop process changes. Tactical projects are about detail, the amount of detail necessary to test and implement permanent change. The Team sets the objectives and boundaries for the tactical projects and defines the approach to be used. They form, prepare, and launch the tactical teams and then maintain ongoing coordination of and support for the projects. They assess the potential impact of the changes on the overall strategic process and oversee final implementation.


The Campaign Team’s efforts can be divided into several overlapping and integral parts: • • • • • • • •

Refine the strategic objective Create a vision of the future process Map the strategic process Create process performance measures Design a new process (in the case of reengineering) Locate the high-impact change areas Prepare, launch, and manage tactical project teams Coordinate and manage change implementation

Coordinating and managing change implementation is covered in Section IV Beyond Tactical Projects.


CHAPTER 4 Establishing the Campaign I.

GETTING ESTABLISHED

From here on the work of the Campaign Team truly begins. The Team takes ownership of the Campaign and begins managing the effort to meet the strategic objective. “Taking ownership” means: • Refining the objective so that its wording and focus are those of the Campaign Team and such that understanding of it is shared mutually across Team members as well as with the Executive Team • Verifying process scope and depth — Team membership and support • Creating a shared vision of success, and • Defining ground rules and expectations by which members will work together as a team

These actions begin the Team’s development of cross-functional and Campaign contexts of knowledge. Through them the members begin to explore and draw on the unique strengths of their middle-ground position. The first two, refining the objective and verifying process scope and depth, work to verify groundwork completed by the Executive Team. The effort required for the Campaign Team to complete these steps will depend on how thorough the Executive Team was in carrying out its tasks. If the executive managers were not thorough, these steps will be a more difficult task for the Campaign Team. However, their completion will also become far more important given the essential role the objective, process scope, and depth information play in a Campaign. A major challenge will be getting the Executive Team to participate adequately; they must still give consensus support to the objective, even if they were not willing to take the time to get it right the first time. While these actions are presented sequentially, they will probably need to be completed in parallel. “Ground rules and expectations” may need to be put in place first or the process scope, Team membership, and support may need to be verified

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and adjusted before the Team begins to refine the objective. It will depend on where the biggest gaps are. “Refining the objective” is suggested first because it, the objective, will have greatest impact on Team membership and support and the rest of the steps to be completed.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN: BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT — PROMOTION TO ROOM ENTRY Customer communication needed to be improved: • Guests were getting lost traveling to the resort, about 15 percent stated that they had difficulty finding the resort. • A rough estimate showed that over 1,000 calls per week were being “lost”. • 4 percent of guests surveyed reported that it was difficult getting through by phone. Guests can be very annoyed at getting lost; just when they are looking forward to having a great time they should be happy, but instead they are angry and frustrated. Campaign and Tactical Team Member Customer Service Representative

Several different tactical teams were used. One was made up of first-line employees who took on improving signage and directions; another was made up of managers who reengineered the phone-answering and reservation-taking process. We standardized directions by getting a notebook out to all employees and managers that might pick up a phone or FAX directions. It allowed them to give optimal, simple directions to anyone coming from almost anywhere. We introduced a web site giving directions. We also improved other information sources and signage on the roads leading to the resort. And we implemented a call center. Before, each operation took its own calls. Where we used to have calls being bounced around and lost, now we have trained people taking them. To create the call center required a cross-functional team and close management involvement. The changes had to come from all departments and all levels of all departments. And executive managers had to lead in the giving up of functions that had been their responsibility for a long time. The results were fantastic. Our call load has roughly doubled but we are able to pick up 80 percent within 20 seconds. The numbers we have now show that we are losing maybe 200 calls a week due to people not wanting to wait. And concern with directions doesn’t even register on our customer surveys. Executive Owner Vice President, Sales and Marketing The most unbelievable thing happened; the manager of the hotel said he would allow someone from another department to take reservations. That’s not an easy thing to accomplish. Most managers want to hold on to functions, to not give up control. That


ESTABLISHING THE CAMPAIGN

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changed to “No, I want to greet and care for my guests after they arrive. You get them here, then turn them over to me and I’ll take care of them.” Internal Consultant Vice President, Human Resources The call center move had perhaps one of the greatest impacts on our resort that we have ever had. We estimate the impact on our sales in terms of hundreds of thousands of dollars. President

II.

REFINE THE OBJECTIVE

A. About Refining the Objective Over the life of the Campaign, the objective will serve to answer the essential question, “What are we trying to do here?” The Executive Team has done extensive work drafting the strategic objective; however, the Campaign Team itself must now verify this work. The members need to develop their own interpretation, understanding and agreeing on just what it is they are to be held accountable for. The steps ahead are essential to this goal. They also serve to ensure that the strategic objective is specific, focused, and that both the Campaign and Executive Teams mutually understand it. Until the team is told, “This is what you have to work on and this is what you have to achieve,” they can’t start. It may look like they are under way but really they aren’t; they are just trying to figure out which way to go or they are going in different directions. Internal Consultant Senior Systems Analyst MD Management

The worst case is if this answer is not shared, either among Team members, or between the Executive and the Campaign Teams. Without shared understanding the strategic change effort will become splintered and will work against itself. It will fail. Work will be required to maintain this shared understanding throughout the Campaign. If it is not there from the beginning it will be far more difficult to get later on. Take the time to be clear on what your team is working on and why it is working on it. Because once you have a clear goal and buy into it, you are ready to move. Without those two things it isn’t going to go very far. Team Leader — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Director, Payment Safe Guards and External Relations Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa


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Understanding and agreement have to be gained in two ways: • Vertically — Team members have to share a common understanding with the Executive Team • Horizontally — Team members have to share a common understanding among themselves (cross-functionally)

Vertically requires understanding and agreement between the Executive and Campaign Teams about what is going to be accomplished and how it will meet the strategic objective. The Executive Team drafted the objective based on strategic concepts and language, from a scope of reference that was inevitably broader and more conceptual than middle management’s. (Just as the subprocess objectives set by the Campaign Team will seem broad and inoperable to tactical team members.) The Campaign Team members must operationalize the objective into a form that they, middle management, can understand, share, and work with. At the same time, the Executive Team must feel comfortable that the Campaign Team’s version captures the strategic issue as executive management sees it. The understanding and agreement formed are essential to the formation of the Campaign context. It has to be a solid goal that is not questioned. And the Team is expected to meet that goal on a specific date. That date sets the time line and establishes time priorities. It forces the Team to stay on track, to keep pushing. It establishes the priority of time — if the project is not pressing, there is always something more important to take its place. Team Member — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Fund Administration MD Management

Horizontally requires that terms and concepts must be understood in the crossfunctional context, across all functional representatives to the Team, whose members, up to now, have probably not worked together. Refinement is an iterative effort. The first pass usually results in a series of questions sent to the Executive Team. A series of drafts are then usually exchanged before a final, agreed-upon objective is reached. At the completion of the Campaign Team’s refinement work, the objective crafted by the Executive Team will almost certainly have changed. The executive managers will need to understand why and to feel comfortable that the revised edition will address the strategic issue they originally established. The Executive Owner, in partnership with the Campaign Team, takes the lead role in assuring that the concerns and logic behind the modifications as well as the final version of the objective are clear to and understood by the Executive Team members, and that the final draft captures the initial strategic issue. In traditional change management, the refinement steps occur after the strategic objective is allocated to the functional groups. The managers within the departments or sections translate and make plans to accomplish the parts they own. In a Campaign, refinement is more difficult because it has to occur within the cross-functional context. Team members have to move outside of their individual and functional



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paradigms in order to come to a consensus on what the objective means. They will not have their normal peer group to look to for assistance or guidance. Buy-in is very, very important. The whole Team has to understand and buy into the objective; if there is someone on the team that can’t, they should leave the team. “I don’t want to do it because I don’t believe in it” doesn’t work; they should leave the team, even if there is no replacement. That kind of member will drag the Team down. Team Member — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Fund Administration MD Management The senior management team handed down a fairly vague issue, but I think that will always happen. You have to make sure that the Team understands and has consensus on it. In hindsight I realize we did not have consensus on the objective and it really dragged out our effort. That really took the steam out of it. Executive Owner — Sales and Enrollment Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Refinement is the first time the team will work to form the cross-functional context; it can be more difficult than it may seem at first glance. In the past, when faced with this sort of consensus building, managers were able to develop “cosmetic agreement” and then go back to their functional silos and work on their pieces of the objective as they individually or functionally interpreted it. In a Campaign, members won’t be able to go back to their functional groups and “forget about the crazies” up in marketing, engineering, production, or wherever. The other Team members are now their peers; true consensus will need to be reached among a group of people that probably have not worked together before. If there are eight people in the room, there will initially be eight different interpretations of the strategic objective. To progress from here, there needs to be only one. One major challenge is getting all team members to really put the project objective first. It amazes me how individuals will put a lot of energy into putting their own personal agendas first, before the team’s and the company’s priorities. There will be people who will not be singing from the same hymn sheet. Members have to learn how to work outside of their compartments; their own silos. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation Clarifying the objective, that took months. We were handed an unclear objective issue and had a hard time making it specific. Internal Consultant TQM Coordinator Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa


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B. Recommendations for Refining the Objective Never assume an objective is clear or commonly understood within the Team. They may have all shown agreement in the briefing; but they were then still in an individual, day-to-day context; each person’s understanding was based on his/her own functional perspective. They had not yet begun to work together as a team, to develop the cross-functional context of knowledge. Members may adamantly claim to understand when they first sit down together as a team. Be prepared to challenge what may appear to be agreement in order to test whether the cross-functional context is being developed. It can take some effort to shake people out of their habit of nodding agreement with the expectation that they will then go back and work it out in their own area. Some members will back away or acquiesce rather than participate. Common terms such as “timeliness” or “cost” have a variety of meanings. The only way to ensure that everyone’s understanding is the same is to take the time to work through the following steps. The diagnostic and therapeutic and the patient flow Teams found that their issues were not clearly defined and it got too fuzzy and made all of the steps too difficult. The Teams had to step back and redefine it, to move away from the fuzzy, unclear stuff. With the diagnostic and therapeutic process, their original issue was improving utilization of laboratory resources. That proved to be too vague for them to make much progress; they had to stop and clarify it. Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre 1. Refining the objective does not mean changing its spirit or character as set out by the Executive Team. Whatever the Campaign Team does to it, the final objective must still deliver the results established by the Executive Team (unless the senior managers modify their needs in free and open negotiations). 2. Questioning or challenging the Executive Team may not come naturally to some Campaign Team members. As a shared understanding is hammered out, questions usually begin to arise about what the Executive Team meant by various terms or ideas (or about their sanity in some instances). This may be difficult for some; they may have never questioned or challenged executive management before and they may not want to do it. The Executive Owner may have to take a lead role in overcoming this potential block by encouraging questions and clarifications. 3. Refinement does not include arguing about why the strategic objective was established or why a Campaign Team was created in the first place. That should have been answered in the initial individual and group briefings. If the “why” is persistent, the Executive Owner and the Executive Team will have to deal with it separately from refinement. Campaign Team members cannot establish or impose the “why” on their peers. Tenaciously hanging onto “why” can be a sign of a problem Team member. Resolve the concern or remove the member; the doubt that the member carries can easily spread to other Team members over time. 4. Take the time to do research, to get data, to ask questions of colleagues if research is necessary to improve clarity or specificity. Refining the objective does not have to be done in one session.



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5. Begin learning consensus-building skills now. It would be nice if refining the objective were a bit further along so that members could have had a chance to practice consensus-building skills on less important tasks, but here it is smack at the front end. The objective has to be refined first and this can’t be accomplished without fully shared understanding and agreement. It took our Team members time to learn consensus-building skills. The Campaign forced the strategic issue but we had to overcome the Team issues first. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Provider Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF NORTH DAKOTA: PRODUCT IMPLEMENTATION The Campaign objective was to reduce the average number of working days over the original project due date. This was an important objective. We were routinely late in product implementation. We’d bring on a new group product and we wouldn’t complete the paperwork for several months. Team Leader Assistant Vice President, Actuarial and Membership Services The priority was heightened because we were moving into managed care. For years, products had gotten out with minor contract changes and we were flexible. Customers liked that. But managed care required us to get those products out much more quickly, then we discovered we really didn’t have a standard process. It became much more of an odyssey than we imagined. Campaign Team Member Manager, Membership Services We met and exceeded our objective. We are consistently under 10 days. We understand so much more now about the process; more importantly, our clients have started to come to us to tell us that we have exceeded their expectations. This includes some of our biggest customers. We found that in product implementation it is important to put expectations back on the customer who has to supply us with data we need, especially in membership. Of all of the things that can hold up the enrollment process, that was the biggest. And it had one of the biggest payoffs, learning that it is OK to put pressure on the customer to be an effective part of the process; they really are an integral part of the process. Team Member Vice President, Development Business Strategy


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Another thing we learned was how tough it was to get through the hurdle that marketing is the only customer contact point; a lot of staff didn’t feel comfortable with changing that paradigm, but we had to change it. There was no way those things could have been known or could have been removed up front. It took a full strategic process project to do it. Campaign Team Leader Assistant Vice President, Actuarial and Membership Services When we first started we set out on an incremental approach. But what we started to discover was that the change areas we selected first had to be fixed by standardizing them. For example, the way marketing reps gather information. The reps really didn’t want to but we implemented a checklist so that each of the group reps would collect the same information and turn it into a standard format. What we found was that each department or group was very competent but that the flow of information across departments was a real problem. It was such an eye opener for the reps. They were going, “Wow, we didn’t know you needed all of this,” or “We didn’t know the effect this little piece of missing information had on the overall outcome.” Team Member Assistant Vice President, Communications

Tactical teams were organized and launched in the high-leverage change areas of project planning and benefit communications. We rolled out the changes in phases and the reps in the first areas saw the results right away and gave strong testimonials that we used to continue rolling it out. Team Member Manager, Membership Services

C. Steps for Refining the Objective An objective can generally be broken into three parts: • What is to be improved • By how much • When

These parts are integral to each of the steps below: Step 1. Clarify the objective Step 2. Focus if necessary Step 3. Review and sign off-by the Executive Team



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As usual, the steps are not clearly sequential; they are interdependent and interactive. Communications, questions, and sign-off by the Executive Team may happen several times within and between the steps. However, clarifying “what is to be improved” is a fine place to begin. Step 1: Clarify the Objective What is to be changed? “What” has two intertwined parts: • The strategic process • The process characteristic(s)

a. The Strategic Process First, review closely the briefing materials presented by the Executive Team, especially the process profile. Where the process begins, ends, and its primary output are the three critical parameters and should form the first topic of discussion. Consider: • Specifically, what action(s) or steps begin and end the process? If the process is cyclical, such as financial planning, identify the steps where one cycle ends and another begins. • Is there to be more than one start point? It’s OK if there is, just identify them. If there are a lot, use the 80/20 rule, and identify the start point(s) that account for 80 percent of the work that goes through the process. Same with the end point(s); there can easily be more than one end point, especially when customers can cancel, walk out, discharge themselves, have their purchase orders rejected, or just decide they don’t want to go any further with the process. • What is the primary output? Are there different versions? How different are they? Do different outputs require major variations in the process or different processes? • Is the strategic process made up of component processes; not component processes in the sense of vertical silos but cross-functional, horizontal processes that make up the strategic process? The health insurance claims process is an example of where there are component processes. How different are these components in terms of primary output and start and end points? Which one(s) account for 80 to 90 percent of the work, of the profits, of the outputs, of the customers? (See Figure 4.1 and Figure 4.2.)

Answering these questions requires some judgment. A hospital emergency ward can treat a wide variety of patients, but most of them will follow the same strategic process with minor variations. Only a few, such as extreme emergencies, will bypass the normal process. In contrast, the claims process in a health insurance company has the same general output, a resolved claim, but can require three or four completely different processes depending on the customer type. From the executive manager’s perspective, it’s all the same process; from the Team member’s, they are entirely different processes. Neither group is right or wrong; it is just a different scope of vision.


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With our group it was unclear what process we were going to work on. It took some time to get it sorted out. We struggled with product development and implementation: it wasn’t clear where one started and the other left off. We redesigned the entire process. Team Member — Product Development Vice President, Development Business Strategy Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

STRATEGIC PROCESS: Resolving claims

Figure 4.1

The Executive Team’s view of a strategic process.

A strategic process may actually be a compilation of component processes, all cross-functional, all delivering the same key output, but through markedly different steps and possibly with different start and end steps, as in Figure 4.2:

Component Process A Component Process B Component Process C Component Process D Figure 4.2

What looks like one process to an Executive Team may actually be a set of crossfunctional component processes.

The existing process was a mess. When we defined it you could see that it was a mess. We really grappled with what to do about that. There were at least two or three processes there and once we realized that and started treating them that way, it went fine. We pulled them out individually; we could study them separately. They were distinctly different, not even working in the same time frame. Internal Consultant CQI Coordinator Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre



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When we got down and mapped the process we realized that there were 15 different places an inquiry could go to and each one represented a strong potential for error. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

b. The Process Characteristics The process characteristic, or “parameter,” is a measurable variable or attribute of the strategic process that is to be the focus of the change effort. The objective must include both the described characteristic and a sense of what needs to be done to it: shorten it, make it more precise, make sure that it happens a certain percentage of the time, etc. For example: • • • • •

Decrease the average length of time to deliver diagnostic test results to patient file Hit the set delivery date 99.99 percent of the time Improve the applications design process; reduce the cost per production unit Reduce variation around the design specification Increase percent complete final paperwork

The most common process characteristic categories are quality, efficiency, and cost (i.e., better, faster, cheaper). There are others that are also becoming more standard, such as organization efficiency and employee satisfaction. These are broad, vague terms; usually, more specific ones will have to be used, but they are good examples of characteristics. Process characteristics, by definition, must be measurable. They can be measured in two ways, as attributes or variables. Attributes are measured on a “yes/no” scale: • The characteristic is either there or it is not, e.g., each manager has the specified operating system on their desk top computer. • The output is either above a passing point or not, e.g., test results are required to be in the patient file in less than four hours.

Variables are measured on a continuous scale, e.g., time, volume, or weight: • It took 3 hours (average, last week) to deliver diagnostic test results to the patient file • Average labor time per unit processed

One of the most common mistakes made when defining an improvement characteristic for a strategic objective is that it is expressed in terms of a specific change to be implemented, e.g., a type of technology, a type of organization structure, a change that will have an assumed outcome. An attribute measure of “is the change there or not” is used. An example of this is “improve the mail-handling process by implementing self-directed work teams.” The assumed (needed and hoped for)


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outcome is a reduction in the cost of handling orders and, perhaps, improved employee satisfaction with work. Without identifying, measuring, and tracking those characteristics in the objective, there will be no way to ever know if the implementation of self-directed work teams had the assumed and hoped-for results. Even if implementing a specific change has been identified as the Campaign objective, such as “implement self-directed work teams in the mail process,” the process characteristics that will reflect whether the change is operating well, whether the assumed outcomes are being recognized, need to be identified in the objective. For example, “improve timeliness of delivery and cost of operations in the mailhandling process by implementing self-directed work teams.” The designated change, self-directed work teams, in effect becomes a “how to.” It bears repeating: without measures of the process characteristics there will be no way to know if the changes are delivering the desired results. Any change can be implemented badly. The characteristic must be measurable. If it can’t be measured there will be no way to know if or to what degree the objective has been met. The most effective way to clarify the characteristic is to define it in terms of how it will be measured specific to the strategic process. For example, if the objective is to shorten the length of time to move through the process, how exactly will “length of time” be measured? Where will the stop watch start, where will it end? First, the wording in the characteristic must be clear. If the objective is to “deliver 100 percent complete final paperwork”: • What constitutes “final paperwork?” • What has to be complete, the paperwork content or the total pieces of paperwork? • What specifically does complete mean, that each space is filled or that each is recognized and addressed (i.e., is a slash OK)?

Second, after the wording is clear, consider how the characteristic can be expressed as a measurement. “How much,” the second part of the objective, defines the extent of change in the process characteristic necessary to be successful. It is described in measurable terms, usually in terms of the difference, the ∆, between the current process characteristic, (or characteristics, in the case of reengineering where the objective uses multiple process characteristics to describe the new process, e.g., it operates at x level of quality, y speed, and has z cost per unit) and where it needs to be at the end of the Campaign. The greatest challenge in clarifying the “how much” is for the Team to define it in terms of measurements that are specific to the process. The Executive Team is used to dealing with broad measures, sometimes not specific to the strategic process at all or sometimes based on external resources (such as customer satisfaction studies, competition surveys, or benchmarking). For example, the Executive Team objective stated “99 percent reduction in paperwork errors.” The Campaign Team clarified this to read “to decrease error counts from the current average of 1.8 per file to less than 2 in every 100 files.” “By when,” the third part of the objective, places a specific calendar date on the completion of the “how much.” Make sure the “by when” is marked clearly. In one



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very large company, the Campaign Teams spent almost three months unsure about what the Executive Team meant by “2001” as a deadline; did they mean the start or the end of the year? There must absolutely be a D-Day for project results and for making decisions on those results. And if you miss the day then you put it off to next season, or we won’t do it at all. That’s mainly needed here, where the season plays such a huge role in what we are doing and how much time we have. Winter comes and there isn’t much time to do anything but keep this place going. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort

c. Tips and Pitfalls Suspend evaluation of plausibility until the objective is both clarified and focused. First make sure that terminology and measures are clear, specific, and commonly understood. Then, in conjunction with verifying the process scope, team membership, and support, consider plausibility and whether to ask the Executive Team for adjustments in order to make the chances of a successful outcome reasonable. At this point try to get specific enough about measurements to define the characteristic in terms of what will be measured, where, and when. Do not worry at this point about whether the data are actually available or not (that comes later). It will probably be helpful to create a simple draft map of the process in order to get a better picture of what the characteristic is and how to measure it. Review Chapter 5 for instructions on a straightforward tool for flowcharting strategic processes. Verify conclusions about “what” with the Executive Owner before continuing working on “how much.” If the “what” is wrong, any discussion of “how much” will be wasted. Step 2: Focus the Objective if Necessary Focusing means narrowing either the “what” or the “how much” parts of the objective to a specific component process, output, or error type. Or it may mean taking on the strategic objective in a stepwise fashion, completing a fraction of it in a given time frame, learning from the results, and then taking on the next. For example, the “reduction in paperwork errors” Campaign Team may decide to accomplish a 95 percent reduction in the first 12 months in order to get a sense of what it is going to take to make effective changes in the process. It may then set the remaining 5 percent goal for the last 18 months of the Campaign. Or the Team may find that out of four component processes, one accounts for 70 percent of order paperwork. Or they may find that one component accounts for a disproportionate amount of errors in paperwork. Any one of these discoveries may lead to focusing in a different way. A fundamental rule in focusing is that the parts, whether a component process or a proportion of the “how much,” must all add up to meeting the whole strategic objective put forth by the Executive Team.


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Step 3: Review by the Executive Team Executive Team review is normally completed in two or three stages, rarely in just one action at the end of the refining effort. The most important result of a review is that the Executive and Campaign Team members mutually understand and agree on the final objective. Review by the Executive Team at this point is aimed at assuring that they understand and share in the Campaign Team’s understanding of and refinement to the objective. Final sign-off on the objective should not occur until after the Campaign Team has verified process scope, Team members, and support. At the completion of refining the objective, the Campaign Team should have a good understanding of what it is expected to accomplish. However, before the objective can be finalized, the Team needs to verify that it can be accomplished, given the membership and support they have to work with. a. Tips and Pitfalls Draft a map of the process first, based on the process profile from the Executive briefing (review Chapter 5 for examples of mapping tools). Keep the map very broad in detail, no more than 20 steps. The goal is to depict the process in as simple terms as possible in order to get a sense of just what the objective is referring to. A more thorough map will be completed after the objective is worked out. Put the map up on the wall. As rough as it is, it will help with the clarification work. Clarification very often includes breaking through beliefs and assumptions held by individuals about the process, concepts, and even basic terminology; beliefs and assumptions that have been held for so long that they may be considered beyond question. Having an “ignorant outsider” involved to diplomatically ask questions which challenge these assumptions can be a very important part of completing this step. I asked a lot of ignorant questions. Where everyone sitting at the table would seem to agree on something, but it logically might not make sense to me I’d ask about it, to get them to explain things to me. Often that would help them to see it more clearly. Internal Consultant Manager, Product Development Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Be careful not to refine the measure to the point where it reflects only one functional area; “how much” must reflect the whole strategic process. This can easily happen if an existing measure is used (existing measures will usually be functional in character). For example, “reduce errors in paperwork” can fall back to a common and already collected measurement of data entry errors in Order Processing. But at the strategic process level, paperwork errors are a much broader problem spanning the entire process from capturing the customer order correctly in the first place, to data entry, to database problems with stockkeeping unit numbers, to lost attachments, etc. Sometimes a measurement can change drastically with a change in perspective.



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For example, “percentage warranty returns” may have in the past been a measure of Quality Control effectiveness, but on reconsideration a Team may realize that this measure captures the entire product manufacturing strategic process. Or “readmits due to complications” may have traditionally been a measure of OR procedures when, on reconsideration, it can be seen as reflecting the effectiveness of the entire surgery process, from physician referral to release. Refinement may initially look like a deluge of misunderstandings, questions, and arguments. That is a good sign that at least Team members are opening up; a deluge is preferable to cosmetic agreement. Keep the Executive Owner involved. He/she does not have to attend the work meetings but he/she does need to be kept informed of progress, questions, etc. There will never be a better time to start the two-way rapport that needs to become a standing part of the relationship between the Executive Owner and the Campaign Team. The Team Leader is responsible for acting on this. Be careful to avoid the “big surprise” of only showing the refined objective to the Executive Owner or, worse yet, the Executive Team after all of the work is done. The Executive Owner usually takes on the role of intermediary between the Campaign and the Executive Teams in the refining steps. He/she can decide on whether the Executive Team needs to be involved as a group. With any objective, pay close attention to what it is the Team is committing to do within the time frame. Is the Team agreeing to deliver: • • • •

Changes Changes Changes Changes

designed “on paper” trialed and tested (i.e., in a lab or otherwise) implemented in “prototype” fully implemented, debugged, and optimized

These are four very different deliverables that will take substantially different resources and time frames to deliver. Full implementation, in most cases, is beyond the capabilities and authority of a Campaign Team; be very careful agreeing to meet an objective that calls for that result. D. Verify Process Scope, Team Membership, and Support Having agreed upon what is to be accomplished, the Team needs now to verify whether the process parameters, Team membership and support are sufficient for the task. Step 1: Verify Process Parameters Process parameters refer to the scope and depth of the process. Scope is the span between where the process begins and where it ends. Depth is the number of functional groups involved in the process. Process scope and depth determine the size of the playing field as well as Team membership. Changes made to the objective may require adjustments to process parameters.


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Given the agreed-upon objective: • Should the process scope begin sooner? For example, in order to reduce hospital length of stay, the process start point may need to move from pre-admit to the point where the physician decides to refer. • Should the process scope end later? To really have an impact on accuracy of shipping content, the process end point may need to be changed from “the product leaves the shipping dock” to “customer opens the box and examines the contents.” • Should more (or less) functional groups be included in the model? One Campaign Team charged with reducing the sales cycle-time discovered that the Executive Team had overlooked the entire credit department when they profiled the process.

Step 2: Verify Team Membership Team membership may very well have changed with refinement to the objective, process scope, or depth, especially if the focus was narrowed to a component process. Questions to ask at this point include: • Are any additional members needed, either full or auxiliary? • Should any different members be involved, for example, a shift in representation from within a functional group? • Should any full members be moved to auxiliary status? • Should any auxiliary members be moved to full status?

Step 3: Verify Support The big question the Team members now face is “can we expect to be successful given the support we have been designated?” If the answer is “no!” or “doubtful” be prepared to go back to negotiations with the Executive Team via the Executive Owner. Support is never perfect but there should be no major or glaring holes either. Team members should consider the following: • Do we know what we are doing? If not, is there sufficient training and consulting support to get us through this? • How much time per week will the effort take, given the challenge the objective represents? Is each team member able and willing to commit the necessary time? • Does the allocated budget make sense? Campaigns always require funds: how much will depend on the character, size, and geographic spread of the change effort. Generally, the larger the ∆, the more funds will need to be budgeted just for the design and development work. • What limitations have been put on Campaign activities and, conversely, how far can the Team go in bringing about change? Does the Executive Team need to be more specific about boundaries? • How will facilitation and training needs be met? Does there need to be more than the Executive Team has put forward? • Do we have the right technical and best practice expertise? This one may not be able to be answered until further along when types of changes to be made are clearer.



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• Is the necessary administrative support available? Do not underestimate the need for administrative support time; a full-time team will usually need, at minimum, a half-time support person.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN: GREY BRUCE REGIONAL HEALTH CENTRE: DIAGNOSTIC TEST CAMPAIGN The Campaign objective was to reduce the length of time it takes to turn around requests for radiology and surgical pathology diagnostic tests through to the results being in the patients’ charts. The process was also inconsistent and unpredictable. Turn around time range was in terms of days: in surgical pathology one to six days with an average of three, in radiology one to eight days with an average of four. We significantly decreased the amount of time required to get results back to the physician. Another important gain was that we actually had to learn the process and our subprocess, the steps that actually go into getting diagnostic tests back to patient files. I’m a physician. I had never really needed to go through this learning, but I’m glad I did. I gained a lot from it. Campaign Team Leader Director of Laboratory In addition to getting test results turned around more quickly there was a very big down stream result. Quicker turnaround on results is having an impact on our length of stay, which is a major strategic issue for us. People stay in hospitals too long partly because physicians don’t get the test results they need to make decisions about discharge; other tests are ordered because the first ones aren’t available and it goes on from there. Executive Owner Vice President, Hospital Services Our gut-level feelings do not always match what is really going on. A lot of the areas I thought were sources of the problems were not at all what we ended up working on. When you have been around as long as I have, you get a sense of what’s wrong and how to fix it, but I discovered I could be totally wrong. Campaign Team Member Manager, Laboratory A big part of our success was getting past preconceived notions, getting beyond the “I know what needs to be done so let’s do it.” As a physician I typically tend to make decisions based on a mix of data and gut-level feel. Without the Team, the strategy, and the concrete approach, we wouldn’t have gotten the results we did. By working outside of your own area, you can be more objective about other processes and that helped me to be more objective when I looked back at my own area. Campaign Team Leader Director of Laboratory


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The Campaign Team selected four high-impact change areas: • • • •

Pathology specimen to lab Diagnostic Imaging library Radiology transcription to chart Pathology reports to patient charts

The first two areas are discussed later in this book.

III.

SET THE PROCESS VISION

The vision is a description of an ideal future for the process. It goes beyond the measurable outcome specified by the objective and describes a broader image of what the process should look like, what its form and nature should be after the objective has been met. The vision reflects the aspirations and intentions of the Campaign Team members. Creating a shared vision offers the Team, many of whom may have been at odds through much of their working relationship, a chance to agree on a picture of the future. While the objective quantitatively defines “What are we doing here?”, the vision answers the question, “What do we want to create?”1 The process vision captures the qualitative character of the final result. It is a picture which the team carries with them, shares with others who become involved in the effort, and eventually shares with all who work to implement the changes. A vision emerges from the personal visions of each of the Team members.1 It is rooted in their personal values, hopes and concerns for the organization, the process and themselves. As Team members, they have the opportunity to bring about substantial change in the organization — the vision allows each to voice his/her individual hopes and concerns beyond the cut and dried, sometimes scary, objective. The vision allows for the human side to be voiced as part of the strategic change effort. While the vision is a picture of the future, it has an important role throughout the Campaign. The vision should help to guide the Team each time a qualitative decision needs to be made, each time a problem is solved, each time a tactical team is working through a change. The vision and corporate values are used when there is no other information upon which to base a decision. There will be many of those decisions.* A. Tips and Pitfalls There is no perfect vision statement. Words are vague, fallible little devices when it comes to expressing hopes and fears. It is better to settle on a statement that is close and refine it over time. * The steps to creating a vision are not covered here. Excellent resources are available: The Vision Retreat, A Participant’s Workbook, James, Burt, Jossey Bass, 1995, or Quigly, J. V., Vision, McGrawHill, New York, 1994.



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Adhere to the “hallway walk-by rule:” a person should be able to read and understand a vision statement as they walk past it in the hall, maybe with a brief halt. If they can’t, it’s too long and may be too complex. A vision should not be a checklist; it should capture a spirit, a mood. “We’ll make the competition wish they were this good” may not have been a perfect vision in form, but it caught a sense of purpose and outcome better than most. It was inspiring; it made people smile; they could identify with the emotion. Keep it realistic; don’t exaggerate. You want the process vision to attract people because it can be accomplished with some work and some bravery, not reject it out of hand as foolishness. The vision statement is not a Campaign slogan for next year’s political elections. Granted, the vision won’t appeal to everyone, some will reject anything more optimistic than “the sun will rise tomorrow,” but keep it realistic. Don’t oversell the vision. It will be the Team’s vision to start with, so keep it within the Team (don’t be secretive, just don’t get evangelical about it). As others are brought on board share it, explain it, show how it affects what the Team is doing and keep moving. Actions will sell a vision better than a million words. Keep it visible in Team meetings; up on the wall; big enough so people can read it when they are sitting at the work tables. Check to make sure that the Campaign vision is aligned with the corporate vision; they should not conflict. The Campaign vision, with its relatively shorter time frame and narrower scope, should be a building block for the organization’s vision.

IV.

ESTABLISH GROUND RULES AND EXPECTATIONS

Ground rules and expectations establish the rules of order, team interaction and project management as well as how the rules will be enforced. Set them early, before any bad habits become part of Team behavior, and come to agreement on how they will be enforced. Agreement is a critical ingredient. There were times when members would not cooperate and it really stalemated the group. This doesn’t conflict with being honest. You can get your honest opinions out while still cooperating with the Team, with using the tools and with consensus building. Team Member — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Medicare Claims Administration Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Ground rules and expectations need to cover a wide variety of topics: • Meeting logistics 1. Frequency 2. Location 3. Roles and responsibilities 4. Materials and equipment


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• Communications: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Who is going to create and release an agenda? Is an agenda required for each meeting? Who is recording minutes? Who is going to type them up and distribute them?

• Project management rules • Meeting rules of order

A. Tips and Pitfalls Some ground rules probably already exist in most companies; however, a strong recommendation is to review and refresh memories as to what the rules mean and how they apply in action. “Respect the facilitator” is almost a throwaway phrase; “. . . of course I’ll respect the facilitator.” But what the rule really means is “Do what they are asking you to.” Talk about the rules and decide on which ones are most important to the Team members. Get agreement from each member that they will abide by the rules. Take the time to learn, model, and work by the rules. Put them up on the wall or somewhere else where participants can readily refer to them. Learning and following meeting rules, especially when participants are not used to being restricted by such guidelines (middle managers often are not), will take time and practice. But they absolutely make for better, more productive meetings. In addition to ground rules, there are several recommended logistical guidelines for a Campaign effort that are often not thought of. These have evolved over time, after working with many Teams and noting some of the bad habits that members can bring with them, or that just seem to come with working on a Campaign. Attendance at Team meetings and getting Campaign work done are not optional — attendance and completion of tasks is a strong sign of support for the priority of the Campaign. Team members, by agreeing to be on the Team, agreed to support the priority. Their manager agreed to their participation and is accountable for their taking the necessary time. Hold Team members accountable for action items assigned. Team members have responsibility to the Team: when they are assigned action items they need to know if they aren’t completed they are going to be called to task over it. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation If a meeting doesn’t happen, keep after it; if data isn’t analyzed on time, don’t let it go, reschedule and get it next time; but don’t let it go. Don’t let things like that stop the effort. You have to be diligent. Be encouraging, be positive, but keep with it. If you don’t have data it isn’t going to work, so go back and get it. There is a tendency that if they miss it once they’ll miss it again and pretty soon there’s no data at all. Keep it fun but keep after it. You have to make the time to do it. As a manager you have 25 other things, people, fires, pulling at you; but you have to make this important,



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because you’ll find yourself wondering, “Why am I doing this, it doesn’t seem very important.” But it is, it’s very important. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

Remove and replace problem team members — Remove them even if they can’t be replaced. A bad team member will suck the energy out of a team; more damage will come from their being on the team than coping with their not being on it. If there is one very negative person it really puts a damper on that team. You either have to bring them around, which is a lot more work, or remove them from the Team, because they will make it far more difficult for the Team to complete its work. I wish there were other options than that, but those are the two most of us have to work with. It’s better when people from the start are willing to make it work together. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Clinical Coordinator Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

Get together as a whole team, en banc, only as necessary and valuable — Just because time has been allocated for Campaign work does not mean the Team has to meet all together. It means that it is time to get work done, whether individually, as a subteam, or en banc. Campaign Teams en banc are not particularly good at detail work. The real value in meeting en banc is in sharing knowledge, group learning, reviewing and giving input, consensus building, and sign-off. There will be steps where the entire team must work together, such as refining the objective, creating a vision, or drafting a process map. Other work, such as wordsmithing the final vision statement or working out the mechanics of a data-gathering strategy, gathering data, working out the details of the objective, etc., are better done in subteams. Subteam work will easily make up more than half of the Campaign effort. If the topic at hand involves only a few members and leaves the rest staring out the windows for any length of time, the Team should not be meeting en banc. This is a real danger signal: the window-starers are bored and their time is being wasted. If they should be involved, find out why they’re not. If their input is not required, break into subteams. Work on Campaign tasks in parallel — many tasks can be assigned to subteams and then worked on in parallel. A draft objective will need to be created first, but refining it and the vision, refining a process map, working out the details of putting process performance measures in place, data gathering, and many other activities (almost everything in Chapters 4 and 5) can be worked on in parallel by subteams. The Campaign Team can meet en banc for knowledge sharing, review, and sign-off on subteam work. More people can be involved and work will get done more quickly. “Partner up” with another Team member — a partner should be someone with whom the Team member can easily and informally communicate both inside and outside of the workplace. A partner can:


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1. Act as a proxy for an absent member in various Team discussions, actions, assignments, and decision making. While this proxy role would not extend to process expertise matters, it is surprising how much can be accomplished with a trusted proxy present. This will, in turn, greatly speed up the Team’s effort. 2. Pick-up or drop-off work. 3. Be the one a member calls when he/she discovers that he/she will be absent (in addition to the Team leader if there is time).

No substitutes — only Team members attend Team meetings. Absences are rarely a complete surprise to the missing member; there is usually time to brief a partner on the work to be covered. The partner takes the place of substitutes. If an absence is to be a long one, the Team may need to consider getting a new member. Substitutions usually hurt more than help. The expectation that a substitute will perform in lieu of the missing member is rarely met. Campaign progress is cumulative; substitutes will have little knowledge of what the Team is doing or the strategy, tools, or techniques in use. Continuity and flexibility are two very important parts of team membership. We had only eight people; there was no turnover. We established a ground rule that there would be no substitutes. That was a very important rule. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Absence from a meeting does not nullify action plan responsibilities — Campaign work has to be done and delivered as scheduled. A partner or subteam comember, with a briefing, should be able to collect and deliver materials in lieu of a missing Team member, at least enough to keep the Campaign on plan. If people missed the meetings, it often would delay completion until the next meeting. That really dragged the effort out. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Rep. Blue Mountain Resort

Make decisions only once — the Campaign Team is faced with tough work ahead. Much of it is cumulative, built on learning and decisions made, often difficult decisions. Work will only progress if members learn to make these decisions efficiently and effectively. That means making them well and making them only once. Rehashing got to be a problem. Even with our rule about making decisions only once. If it hadn’t been there as a rule, we would have had a lot more problems with it. We used that rule more than any other. Team Member — Product Development Vice President, Development Business Strategy Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota



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Consensus building is a must; “consensus” meaning that everyone has full opportunity for input, that they understand the decision made, why it was made, and they can and will support it (this isn’t the same thing as 100 percent agreement). Once the decision is made, it stands (unless future evidence or actions show that it needs to change). There was a lot of hidden veto power: somebody could veto an idea simply by sitting on it. No one would push very hard. So that tended to derail any bold new ideas. We would stalemate in place of actions. We looked at consensus as 100 percent agreement, which supported the veto power. Internal Consultant Coordinator, Process Support Services Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Obviously this rule has to be used with caution. If a member is absent, decisions directly affecting his/her area may have to be delayed. If a discovery is made after the decision that may give reason for it to be reconsidered, those facts should be taken up “off line” with the Team Leader to consider whether to reopen group discussion. Keep ideas up on the wall — literally. If the information is important to group knowledge sharing and learning, put it up where it can be seen, read, and understood by Team members as they are sitting at the work table. This is essential to group learning and knowledge creation. When the objective (or other important information) is put away, members fall back to individual learning and knowledge creation, Team learning stops. This is bad. Having a dedicated Team meeting room and a “flip-chart master” that converts 81/2" × 11" paper into larger formats will greatly assist in this. Getting the high-level process up on the wall really changed people, the realization of all that was involved. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

Individual learning is most common and is what we are most used to; information is gathered, stored, and we put the source away. However, individual learning and knowledge creation are not the same as group learning and knowledge creation; in fact, they can be contradictory. Individuals can store information in memory, files (physical or electronic), or other storage. Groups don’t have a shared brain that keeps important ideas at the forefront of memory. The only thing known to replace it is the written word, put up where Team members can see it. At a minimum, the Campaign objective, vision, strategic process map and monitoring measures charts should always be posted and visible to the group. Other transient or not so transient information may need to be posted as well, such as options that are being considered.


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Each Team member should keep a logbook of Campaign work as well as their own work — It will help in organizing the prolific output of the Campaign as well as help keep a thread of logic running across the long-term project. It will also assist if a replacement member is required.

REFERENCES 1. Senge, P., The Fifth Discipline, Doubleday, New York, 1990.


CHAPTER 5 Understand the Playing Field I.

ABOUT THE PLAYING FIELD

The playing field is made up of the strategic process, the environment within which it operates, and measures of performance that reflect how well (or poorly) it is working. Mid-level managers are in an unique position to develop a full understanding of the broad playing field. They bring to the Team an optimal understanding of their functional piece — more detailed than executive management’s but not as detailed or specific as first-line managers’ and employees’. This really gave us something we did not have before, an understanding of how the whole process works. If Team members don’t know the process, they have to take the time to learn it. Because if they don’t know it, they won’t get anywhere. Every time they try to change something they will be running a risk of shooting somebody in the foot or somewhere else. Team Member — Individual Group Enrollment Group Leader, Individual Markets Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Performance measures capture process operation characteristics across time; they deliver knowledge of how well the process is performing that cannot be captured in a necessarily static, two-dimensional flowchart. Measurement is essential to knowing how well the process is working over time. I don’t want to be put in the camp that suggests that you have to measure everything, but there is a mentality that avoids measurement as just part of analysis paralysis and is to be avoided. A balance has to be struck because you really can get bogged down in measurement. Getting the right ones is essential. Executive Owner Vice President, Information Technology MD Management

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Every Campaign has a playing field on which it carries out most of its work. If there are component processes, there can be multiple playing fields with more or less different maps, measures, and environments. A Team will normally only actively work with one at a time, although members will have to be aware of the close interlinkings between component processes. We were able to see the process as a whole for the first time. There were so many details no one could know the whole process to any detail. When we started implementing the line, we had broken it up into major parts where we thought the problems would arise. Those became silos that blocked our understating of the whole. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Pilot Plant Production Wesley Jessen Corporation

However, understanding the strategic process must go beyond a simple sum of the activities that occur within the functional groups. Perhaps the most important part of the understanding will deal with the relationships and gaps between the silos. These will include the informal, unrecognized actions that are taken as well as the bugs and glitches that occur at the hand-off points, in the “white space” that resides between the silos and in the margins of the process. Hell, that isn’t white space, those are black holes where things disappear and aren’t seen again. Chief of Staff New England Hospital

A Campaign requires Team members to “think big”; bigger than most will have done as middle managers. First, in terms of working with the entire playing field — a far larger space than the functional area with which they normally deal. Second, in having to look beyond the horizon of tactical change to a much more expansive strategic change effort, where no one project or approach will accomplish the goal. Before, if we were having difficulties delivering a certain service it would be a bit of a mystery about why that was the case. There was not a well-thought-out way for determining what the causes were or where the solutions were. We still came up with solutions, and some good ones, but it was hit or miss. There was more personality involved, more personal ownership; I think it took longer. But when we started mapping the whole process, all of a sudden you understand. You can see that, “Oh yeah, for this to work certain things, a lot of things, have to happen,” and you see very clearly that a lot of things can go wrong. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

Developing this perspective will represent a major challenge to Team members; maintaining it is an even tougher one. The newly acquired knowledge will need to


UNDERSTAND THE PLAYING FIELD

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be strong and reinforced often enough so that it will persevere even while Team members are involved in the tactical efforts to come. During the tactical work Campaign Team members can easily forget their “think big” perspective, become wrapped up in tactical details, and lose the cross-functional and Campaign contexts of knowledge. The opportunity to see how somebody else lives, to see what their work environment is like, and to sit there and come as close as you ever will to being in the other guy’s situation. It’s something you can never do enough of but it’s priority no. 99 on an on-going basis; having this broader view is very helpful to planning for the future. Internal Consultant Vice President, Finance Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — MD MANAGEMENT: DAILY FUNDS EVALUATION PROJECT The Campaign objective was to change account evaluation and updating from a weekly to a daily cycle. Customer accounts were evaluated and updated weekly. We really didn’t have a choice about going daily: several actions had already been taken that required it. We were the only mutual fund group I know of that wasn’t daily; we couldn’t compete if we hadn’t gone daily. Our number one commitment has always been client service. Going daily was part of that commitment. Campaign Team Member Manager, Fund Administration This was a huge change. We had to operate in a very different way, not just with a different process but with a whole different mindset as well. We had to take an order and process it that day, not by Friday. People had to rethink their priorities, what they did with their workday. We had to rewrite and rework our technology. When you’re doing overnight runs you can’t make mistakes. The Team took the project on and did a great job with it. When we switched over to daily it happened without a hitch; it was seamless. Executive Owner Vice President, Finance and Administration The technological changes were huge; all of the software had to be rewritten. The accounting side of it required big changes. All of those details had to change. Parts of the process had to be redesigned, reengineered; other parts were changed in smaller, less radical ways. Everybody was touched by the change: everybody in the different parts of the company, from customer service representatives to analysts to technicians. Team Member Manager, Fund Administration


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We did go daily; that was successful. There were other gains too. One of the biggest was understanding and dealing with the cross-functionality of the process, of everything that happens in the company. We have really changed from the silos we were divided into. Now both senior and middle managers are involved and understand what it takes to make a change of any significant magnitude. Our effort to go daily in account valuations was a great success. It went so smoothly, it appeared easy. Everything worked. I know there was a lot of work behind it but it all seemed so easy — we had never experienced such a major success before and having it go so well was a major sign of success. President and CEO — Retired

The knowledge base developed about the playing field will form a fundamental basis for the work to be carried out by the Campaign Team. It will serve in five ways: • It is essential for developing the cross-functional context. This knowledge base and perspective are a foundation block to building middle management as a change management resource. To create this knowledge, members will merge their individual, tacit knowledge about their functional segments into a common, shared model of the full strategic process and its environment. The splintered silo perspectives that are brought to the Team are melded into a unified, shared knowledge base. This understanding will be unique to the Campaign Team and its members. While it will spread with time, their knowledge of and ability to work with the full strategic process, both the formal and informal steps, will differentiate them from both the Executive Team and the tactical teams that will follow. We actually learned about the process, the subprocesses, the various steps that actually go into completing the process. I’m a physician, so I had never really needed to go through this learning, but personally I’m glad I did; I gained a lot from it. Team Leader — Diagnostic Test Director of Laboratory Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre Mapping the whole strategic process forces you to be more objective. Because people certainly went in with preconceived solutions, this forced a lot of rethinking. It gets rid of the bias that comes from working within your own department, your own silo. Team Leader — Patient Flow Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • It is a necessary basis for developing the Campaign context of knowledge. The Campaign context requires a thorough enough knowledge of the “as is” process to figure out what must be done (or not done, in some cases) in order to meet the strategic objective.



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• To objectify the process; to take Team members from the “I am my process” personal identification with which they will begin the Campaign to where the process is an object separate from any individual. Criticisms of the process become less threatening because they are not taken as criticism of the individual and his/her position. Changes become less painful because they no longer feel like assaults on personal property. The nice thing about this approach is that it depersonalizes the process. We had strong territorial issues: a great deal of the job was tied up in the person that did it. There was a lot of history of poor teamwork, lack of established relationships, that sort of thing. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • As a basis for locating the change areas where tactical efforts will be focused, defining the results required from each change area, and the tactical approach needed to gain the results and understanding the potential effects, especially on people. These areas may be the high-impact “vital few” or they may be sites where specified changes must be implemented. In reengineering, the “as is” model helps to locate areas that should not be changed or changed with great caution. • As a framework on which major changes may be designed and/or implemented. For us in information technology, the increased focus on the process that has been brought about here is the difference between making what we do successful or stumbling. It’s an absolute necessity. If we don’t think through what we do in terms of steps, in terms of who is going to do what, what is going to be handed off, who is going to receive it, what are they going to do with it; if that isn’t understood and agreed to up front, then producing a new report or a new screen just isn’t going to be successful. Executive Owner Vice President, Information Technology MD Management

A. Recommendations for Understanding the Playing Field Change as quickly as understanding allows. The catch is that the understanding must be cross-functional and shared. When the Team first meets, there will be a sense of urgency, sometimes a very strong sense of urgency, that change must come quickly. Just when we were getting started, the president was looking for results and it was just too soon. The Campaign moved as quickly as we were capable of moving; there was nothing about the tools or the strategy that was slow, it’s just about getting the work done that is necessary for change. “Move as quickly as understanding allows”


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is absolutely true. If we had moved more quickly I don’t think we would have had gains any sooner; it just takes that much time. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation

With speed comes risk; changing faster than understanding allows is analogous to overrunning your headlights; you can run into unseen things that will very quickly stop forward momentum. The steps required to create the shared knowledge base take time because information gathering and learning take time. That is a human frailty. Don’t rush understanding; faking it will cost a lot more than the time necessary to get it right in the first place. To me it was getting people with all different levels of expertise to work together, for some people to slow down, for some to speed up; that has to be addressed in how you develop your Teams. Sometimes more professional or senior personnel, like me, can tend to dominate a Team; this can adversely affect the whole idea of a crossfunctional Team. Team Member — Diagnostic Test Manager, Hospital Information Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

There are however, faster, more efficient ways to complete these steps. One way is to relieve Team members from having to gather, compile, and groom information themselves. Expert assistance can greatly speed this work and get it done better, faster, and cheaper (when you consider the cost of the time Team members will spend trying to figure out how to do it and then to redo it). Using expert assistance will also keep Campaign momentum moving at a faster pace. Avoid drawing conclusions based on partial information — Some middle managers will chafe at delaying decisions until a full understanding is developed. Information is power; short-cutting the steps to understanding the playing field will weaken the development of the cross-functional context and undermine the Campaign context. Decisions will end up being made in the day-to-day context and, in the end, there will not be a Campaign Team at all. Be cautious of slipping into the sense that understanding is never complete and therefore conclusions can never be drawn. Yes, understanding is a journey, but there must be a point of sufficient knowledge where decisions can be made and actions taken without major risk. That is, in part, the function of this chapter. If the Team has sufficient representation, completes the research outlined in each of the sections, and develops common understanding of the information gained, the risk of gross error is reasonably low. Beware of assumptions and acting on “I think.” — By their very nature strategic processes are never fully understood by Team members at the beginning of the Campaign. The information is out there; going out and getting it will be the only



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way to create Team knowledge about these areas. Some members may feel that it is risky to admit that they don’t know. Give strong positive recognition and support to members who admit, “I don’t know but I can find out.” What I saw, the biggest thing I learned, was that our gut level feelings, do not always match what is really going on. A lot of the areas I thought were the sources of the problems were not the problems at all that we ended up working on. When you have been around as long as I have you get a sense of what’s wring and how to fix it but I discovered that I could be totally wrong. I thought the big problem was getting the specimens to lab but that wasn’t the case, their time to get the samples down to us was really good; it was really how we were doing the processing that was the problem. Team Member — Diagnostic Test Manager, Laboratory Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Do not let any member(s) dominate knowledge sharing — Equal input is vital to an accurate cross-functional knowledge base. On any team there will be dominant, assertive members and those who are less so. Great care must be taken that assertiveness does not translate into “I have more knowledge of the process than you do and let me tell you how it works.” Assuring equal input will be the responsibility of the Team Leader and the facilitator. These sessions will put teamwork skills to the test. It was very important to ensure balanced participation. People usually have a lot to contribute and when someone isn’t saying anything, they are withholding and they can ruin the effort. One of the things about our corporate culture is that it can be threatening to have a different point of view. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Look for ways to maximize “communicability” and group learning in each phase of information gathering or creation and documentation — In its optimal form, communication is learning; the information is organized and transmitted such that understanding naturally results.1 Use process mapping, information and data presentation tools, and methods that will facilitate getting the necessary information to recipients in an efficient and understandable way; first, to Team members, second, to Executive Team members, and third, to the rest of the organization. Note, however, that the stress must be on group learning, developing a shared, common understanding. Many tools and methods can optimize individual learning at the expense of group knowledge creation. B. A Discussion of Team Communication and Knowledge Creation Effective communication within the Campaign Team is essential to learning, to knowledge creation, and to developing the cross-functional and Campaign contexts


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of knowledge. Team members will need to be able to compile, present, and learn large amounts of new, relatively complex information. This can be difficult for some managers who may be unused to such a strong learning experience. There will be a variety of challenges to this; learning and reinforcement will overcome some, and others will be more emotional in nature, such as a fear of admitting “I don’t know.” The tough part is that Campaign Teams are always working under time constraints. It is easy to say “take the time to . . .”, but there may not be time. The following recommendations attempt to balance the lack of time with the essential need to learn and to create knowledge: • Take the time get used to new tools and new ways of learning. Learning is fundamental to Team members, completing their responsibilities; don’t give up on a tool just because members find learning it to be frustrating. Learning a new concept, such as cross-functional processes, opens new ways to capture and present information. A flowcharting tool members have used in the past may actually serve to reinforce the silo mentality rather than break through it. New tools such as blueprint process mapping can take some time to understand and to feel comfortable with. Learning to work with the process blueprinting was tough, because it is a whole new way to understand a process. But it was a really good learning effort. It gave us all a common language to communicate the process flow. It was difficult because at first none of the others knew how to read a blueprint. But with some explanations they learned pretty well. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Patient Care Coordinator for Pre-admission Clinic and Day of Admission Surgery Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Maximize visual presentation of information and data. The goal is to communicate and to create as much understanding and thought as possible in as short a time as possible. Graphical presentation of data and information will do this far more efficiently than written words or columns of numbers. Use graphical presentation tools that allow for “visual analysis” of the information presented.1 • Keep essential information constantly visible to Team members. Creating and sharing knowledge will be a change of behavior for most Team members. The tendency will be to fall back on the day-to-day context, each person drawing on their individual, tacit knowledge and keeping it to themselves. Knowledge is power. It is amazing how quickly objectives, process maps, and performance measures can be forgotten. The only way to reinforce these essential pieces of information, to learn how to think in the cross-functional and Campaign contexts, is to keep the information out where it can be seen and used. • Keep presentations simple and straightforward; elegance can come later. The goal is to create learning and understanding, to transfer information. • Use information gathering and presentation applications that are easy to modify and update. Process maps and data presentation charts will need to be updated across the life of the Campaign. If they are hard to change they will fall out of date. If they are out of date they are useless; worse yet they are misleading.



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• Constantly question day-to-day context assumptions about the strategic process and its performance. This is the knowledge that Team members will come prepared with; it is important and valuable information but it is incomplete and often erroneous for developing the cross-functional and Campaign contexts of knowledge.

II.

MAP THE STRATEGIC PROCESS

A process map is a graphical presentation of the process, most usually a flowchart of some sort. It attempts to capture on paper the actions, steps, and sequence of events that allow the process to receive inputs, add value, and produce products and services. There is no single all-purpose mapping tool; different teams will require different tools just as someone planning a road trip will require a different type of map than someone planning an ocean voyage. It is learned, that’s for sure. Before, if someone had asked me to resolve a problem, mapping out the process is not the first thing I would have done. It really only took the first time for me to learn the benefits. It is a little tougher for others, but a lot of it has to do with how much time people are given to do the learning and how much importance they put on the learning. The ones that have a tough time with it are the ones that were under pressure to be doing other things; they didn’t want to be there, to be putting their time into that. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

Tactical teams will require different mapping tools than the Campaign Team. The two teams have very different perspectives on the processes with which they work. The Campaign Team will need a map that: • Aids in their keeping the cross-functional perspective of the full strategic process • Assists with understanding how the process moves across and within functional groups • Reflects interface points with external customers and suppliers • Lends to the goal of locating high-impact change areas

Tactical teams will need mapping tools that support their creating and defining the level of detail necessary to design and test changes.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT: GOLF SLOW PLAY We chose slow play because that was the number one cause of customer dissatisfaction with our course. We tackled the issue by studying the course, the way golfers move through it, and the amount of time it took them to move from one hole to the next. We tackled holes where play was taking the longest over expected time.


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We discovered that slow play and the dissatisfaction it causes has a great deal to do with perceptions. People often think play is going slower than it really is. We were successful; the proportion of people who say that slow play is the number one dissatisfaction item dropped, leveled off, and then stayed stable. There are other signals that satisfaction is improving; mainly that we are getting a lot of customer compliments and our business is way up, over 60 percent in the last 3 years, from 24,000 to about 35,000 rounds of golf per season. Now, even on my worst day, even the toughest, things are manageable. The greatest gain we made is that we are managing play now where we really didn’t used to. We discovered that it took a cross-functional approach to really manage play. The Team developed “the system” and the staff believes in it. It has become routine. Staff is seeing that we are effectively resolving issues, that it’s getting better. It had been bad enough that some of them, especially the ones that worked where they took the brunt of customer unhappiness, seriously didn’t want to come to work; they were just tired of the headaches and the unhappy customers. Now they are enjoying coming to work. For a time staff were inclined to focus more on changing the design of the course, the layout. And we did make some changes. But we began to realize that a lot of it is what we do as staff and how we do it. For example, it’s how we explain the course rules before they tee off; it’s how we write down the start time and track play across time. This is part of the system for managing play. We note players’ start time, time for hole nos. 4, 9, and 18. If we have a golfer that is just screaming along and champing at the bit because of golfers ahead of him, we can tell him that play is taking about 4 hours and 40 minutes today and the golfers ahead of him are right on schedule. Or maybe they are slow and we can explain that to him. “Your concerns are our concerns, now here is what is going on . . .” That is a much more constructive approach and we are so much better at that now that we know what is going on; it’s crucial. The effort has been a combination of changing staff perspective, but changes to the process itself have given us, all of us, the greatest gains. And the role of the crossfunctional team, getting the different groups that work with the golf course to realize that it is going to take a team like this to really make this golf course work, proshop, outside staff, player support, maintenance, everybody. Team Leader Director, Golf and Tennis

A. Steps There are three general steps that are part of any strategic process mapping effort, no matter what tool is used: Step 1: Map the Process Drafting a map of the strategic process is both an exercise in information sharing as well as knowledge creation about: • How the whole strategic process works from start to end • How the functional pieces fit together • Where problems, black holes, and illogic exist



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• Where (and sometimes what) changes might be made in order to make the process more efficient or in order to begin the work toward meeting the objective By having to define the process in its various pieces it became very clear from where I was sitting that the process was not well defined and that was one of the reasons why the process didn’t work well. There were so many perspectives on how the processes worked. Everybody had their own ideas on how they were going to do it; both within each department and across departments. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

a. A Discussion of the “Blueprint” Process Mapping Tool The mapping tool used most often by the Teams I train and work with is the “blueprint;”* however, other tools are certainly effective. A blueprint map looks like this:

Customer

Functional group 1

1

8

S TA RT

AC T I O N

2

7

AC TI O N

AC T I O N

Functional group 2 3

AC T I O N

9

OK? yes

11

OK? yes

10

no

END

12

no

END


14

AC T I O N

AC T I O N


AC T I O N Functional group 5 6

13

15

AC T I O N

AC T I O N

AC T I O N

TIME

Figure 5.1

An example blueprint process map.

* G. Lynne Shostack, “Designing Services That Deliver,” Harvard Business Review, January–February, 1984. pp. 132-139. While the tool has varied in format and use, Ms. Shostack deserves recognition as the first to make extensive use of this format as a way to critically assess process flow.


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Customer(s) always go in the top row(s). Internal functional groups go below. A supplier can be placed at the bottom, if it plays an integral part in the overall process.

Figure 5.2

The blueprint format represents the organization silos.

turned sideways, with a customer row at the top. The silos are turned sideways purely for logistical ease. It is easier to create, to get up on the wall, to expand, if it runs left to right rather than top to bottom. Unlike the straight arrow across the silos that we have used up to now to represent the strategic process, the blueprint allows for the more complex reality of a process that wanders back and forth across functional lines, sometimes operating autonomously within the functional silos, sometimes not operating within any rules of logic or reason. The blueprint tool accentuates the customers and their interaction with the “internal” process(es). (See Figure 5.3.) It allows for the different functional processes to be mapped separately, within their own silos, but also clearly depicts how they work in relation to each other, the hand-offs and interlinkings (or lack of) necessary to make the overall strategic process work. b. Tips and Pitfalls Create the first couple of drafts with all Team members present: full and auxiliary. Maximize group learning. Use a flowcharting medium that allows for ALL members to have input and to see what is being added to the map as it is being drafted. Make the maps big enough for participants to read while seated. If high-tech methods are



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Customer

A

B

C

D

E

TIME Figure 5.3

A blueprint process map.

available that meet these criteria, use them. If not, use sheets of flip-chart paper taped to the wall and Post-it® notes to add steps. Too much detail is a common and major pitfall in Campaign mapping. The Campaign can easily bog down in too much detail. Middle managers are not experts on the details; they are valuable for their broad perspective. When they get into too much detail they will no longer be bringing their expertise to bear (and they will be wrong a lot). Start broad and add detail as necessary. Limit the first draft map of the process to 30 steps; add an additional 15 steps onto the second draft, maybe another 15 onto the third. As painful and as impossible as that might seem, give it a try; it will change perspectives. It will be the responsibility of the Team Leader and facilitator to keep members out of the details. c. A Discussion About Detail and Perspective Campaign Teams are responsible for the operational management of strategic change. They don’t design the changes, they decide where, when, how, and to what extent change is needed. (In a strategic process reengineering effort they may design a whole new process at the “macro” level.) Tactical teams own the tasks of designing and testing changes. The information the Campaign Team will require to carry out


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their responsibilities will be different from that which tactical teams will need. Campaign Teams will need information that helps them to create and support tactical efforts; they will need to know about organizational lines, boundaries, and critical process paths. Campaign maps should show roughly the kind of detail you might see when flying over a city on a clear summer day at around 40,000 feet. What will you see? Major throughways, blocks of buildings, geographic bodies, rivers, airports — big things. What you don’t see are accidents, detours, footpaths. The first draft should show the process at a 40,000-foot detail (if it is a big process you may need to go up to 80,000 feet) to view the main throughways, major steps and landmarks; don’t worry about detours, accidents, or oddities. Additional detail will be added in ensuing drafts and after the high-impact change areas are identified. The tactical teams will pick up on detail where the Campaign Team leaves off. The members of tactical teams will be the experts on the details, leave it to them. Don’t get bogged down in disagreements on the first draft. If Team members cannot agree on a couple of steps or sequence, “red circle” them (the steps) and keep going; come back later and work out the differences. Often, disagreements or misunderstandings are resolved as the flowchart progresses. If there are major variations in the process flow (e.g., “On Sundays and major holidays this part of the process is different. . .”), chart the most common course of events first, from start to finish, and then go back and add the variations onto and around the first flow. Decision diamonds can be used to determine where an alternative route is used: “Is it Sunday or a major holiday? Yes, then go this way. . . No, then continue on this route.” Use different-colored notes to highlight variations. Remember, at 40,000 feet only major variations should be depicted. Use the process mapping tool that works best given your process and the audiences to which you will be communicating. The blueprinting tool is powerful in its applicability to mapping large cross-functional processes, in its simplicity, and in the amount of information it presents. It is a good tool for a Campaign Team. Managers find that it reflects the way they conceive of work processes, but it doesn’t apply in all cases. The Blue Mountain Resort “golf slow play” Campaign Team that was responsible for improving play-through time on a golf course (see the previous Case Study) used a map of the course to understand the process of customer movement on the course. (See Figure 5.4.) Keep maps easy to create and to change. Every process map is a draft, from the first to the last, because processes will continually change, especially the one(s) that the Campaign Team is working with. If maps are difficult to change, they will fall out of date easily and become useless. I’m not working on that. Do you know how long it took me to get the first one done? Three days!! I am not making any changes. Frustrated administrative support person upon being given a second draft map



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No. 2 No. 3 to No. 4

No. 1 No. 18 No. 17

Figure 5.4

The first priority is to find a process map that works.

Use a computerized flowcharting application; it will make maps simpler to document in the first place and then far easier and faster to change as edits are made. A flip-chart maker will be needed to convert the 81/2" × 11" sheets back to a format large enough to put up on the wall where the chart can be seen and discussed by all. Step 2: Validate the Map Review by customers — it is essential to know what the customers are actually experiencing and, until you ask, you are only guessing. At the 40,000-foot level of detail, it will not be necessary to use a large sample; three or four customers will do. This step is not the same thing as a satisfaction survey. The need is to verify with customers the steps they experience in dealing with the process. Take the blueprint to them, explain it, and get their input. Remember, though, they are experts on what they experience and on their own process(es), not on your process or internal workings. The partnering with our customers has been a major gain for the Medicare processes. Before we just charged ahead. Now we see the value in taking the time to get the input; to do some surveying. Campaigning gave us a framework for knowing what to gather information about, when and how to apply it. Team Leader — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Director, Payment Safe Guards and External Relations Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa


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Review by colleagues — After the map has been edited a couple of times by the Team, take it to colleagues, fellow managers, and reports, for verification and input. You may need to educate them on how to read the mapping tool as well as explain to them the concept of the 40,000-foot detail (one of the first things they will do is start pointing out detail that should be added). Requesting their input and verification will be valuable for (1) assuring that the blueprint is reasonably correct and complete, and (2) for continuing communication about what is being done by the Team, initiating buy-in via participation. a. Tips and Pitfalls Each Team member should form a loose advisory group of colleagues to whom he/she can turn for input and comments on work done. Other opinion leaders from first-line supervisors and senior employees may also be included. Having this group already formed will speed up the feedback effort; it will also create the sense that Team member communication to his/her functional areas is real and ongoing. Advisory group members can be used as two-way communication channels. Each person can be asked to both take information back to his/her colleagues and reports as well as to ask for their input. It gave the employees a lot better understanding of the broader process and how the different pieces fit in. Serving on the committee and then going back and explaining it to other work unit members, they learned a lot about how the process worked that they wouldn’t have known before. Team Member — Sales and Enrollment Product Control Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Step 3: Present the Map to the Executive Team Presenting the map of the strategic process to the Executive Team is an educational effort. The first presentation will probably need to cover how to read the map as well as the information contained in it. Campaign Team members will have learned a great deal during the mapping effort; this will be their opportunity to pass some of the discoveries along. a. Tips and Pitfalls The first time members of the Executive Team see a map of the strategic process they will be faced with two major learning challenges: • How to read the mapping tool • Taking in all of the information contained in a map of the whole strategic process

Don’t underestimate the difficulty of either learning. If the first challenge isn’t overcome, the second one definitely won’t be.



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First, introduce them to the mapping tool used. Be subtle; don’t get up and ask, “Do all of you understand this?” That is like asking if anyone in the room has a learning difficulty. They are executive officers, and they are used to figuring it out as they go; they aren’t likely to volunteer lack of know-how. First, show them the simplest map, i.e., 30 steps, and explain how to read it. Then work up to more complicated versions and the information that was gained. If you walk in and show them the biggest and most complex version and then start talking about it as if they understand, you will have set the Campaign back a long way. Give them time to let the information sink in. Campaign Team members can be so used to the information presented they may not recognize how much there is. Informally double-check with individual executive officers during and after the meeting to gauge their comfort level with the information presented. Remember, be subtle; no executive officer is going to volunteer that she/he doesn’t have a clue. III.

SURVEY THE ENVIRONMENT

A map can only capture so much information about the process. In a sense, the map is a two-dimensional picture of a four-, maybe five-dimensional world. Information is needed about the environment that surrounds the process, the organization, policies, systems, regulations, contracts, agreements, standards, and a variety of other options that can and will have an impact on the change effort. Some features of the environment, such as regulatory standards, stipulations, or union contracts, can have a very strong, definitive role in what changes can be made to the process or how they can be made. Information about the process environment will have a direct effect on planning and launching tactical projects. Tactical teams will not be able to overcome most of the barriers that come from the environment; it will up to the Campaign Team to resolve them. Understanding what those challenges might be in advance can go a long way to dealing with them before they arise. Middle managers are often the most knowledgeable about the environment; they hold day-to-day responsibility for interpreting and working with its various facets. What makes up the environment will differ from one organization to the next, but generally the Campaign Team will need to survey the environment for the following: Regulations and regulatory standards — depending on the degree of regulation in the industry, these can range from occupational health and safety standards to extensive incursions in day-to-day operations, production, paperwork, etc. Regulations and standards come into play in two ways: first in that they exist and have to be dealt with in considering various process changes, and second because they have been interpreted and implemented in the past. In our team we had a situation arise where the members were pushing for change, but they really weren’t aware of the controls that needed to be in place. It was very hard because I felt like I was there saying “No” when everyone was pushing for change. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa


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Confusion can arise between the standard or regulation itself and how work processes were set up to meet it. The fact that there is a regulation can be used as a rock-solid reason for not changing the process even if the regulation makes no mention of how it is to be met. Read the regulation; consider bringing in an expert to help the Team to understand and to deal with it. Contractual obligations with suppliers and customers — contractual obligations come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. It is important to understand not just the obligations as they exist in writing, but also the reasoning and spirit behind them. This will help in designing changes as well as in defusing fears that might arise in suppliers or customers about the impact of the changes on them. Health and safety standards, goals, and concerns — perhaps the most important part about understanding this area is in making sure that any changes to the process do not create a condition of noncompliance. Noncompliance can not only set your organization up for legal problems but, even more important, can cost the organization a lot of money over time by having to rework the process and, worst case, by having to make compensation payments. Policies — policies can often prove to be an iceberg in the path of a change effort. Like regulations, people can confuse a policy with how it has been met. Often, how policies are interpreted and implemented differs widely from intent. If there are significant policies that govern the process, or some portion of it, take the time to study the original document; if possible talk to the person responsible for its development. The important questions that have to be asked are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What policies exist that will limit changes to this process? Where did each one originate? Who “owns” the policy? Is it able to be changed? What was the spirit behind it? Where is the original text?

It will be important to work closely with the Executive Team to understand the policies that are in place, their intent, and how to modify them if necessary. It may be necessary to create a process for modifying policies; this may be the work of an executive-level tactical team. Available facilities, equipment, systems and systems support — for some processes, shortages or limitations in these areas can have an overwhelming impact on the changes that can be considered or how and when they can be implemented. If there are severe limitations on facilities, equipment, or systems, long-term planning can easily become a major part of meeting a strategic objective. A “real world” walk-through can help Team members to become educated on possible limitations. Other change projects planned or under way — this is a four-star concern; a careful study needs to be taken in order to identify any existing or planned change projects that are currently under way. Competition for resources is always present. The Campaign can easily be perceived as an interloper to be shut out, subdued, or severely limited to those few areas where there aren’t already change efforts under way to fix something. The Team can quickly pick up some sworn enemies if there



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is real or perceived conflict or overlap. Turf wars can run rampant. Decisions will have to be made about the relationship between existing projects and the Campaign. The most important point to consider is what precedence meeting the strategic objective is to be given. Don’t ignore or avoid these decisions; they can and will come back to haunt you in the form of bad feelings and a handicapped or stalled Campaign. Existing tactical approaches — tactical approaches such as self-directed work teams, reengineering, or Total Quality Management “improvement teams” can stand at direct odds with a Campaign over perceived or real differences in philosophy or mechanics. Many tactical approaches (and the people using them) should be allies of the Campaign Team (although some will have an evangelical belief that their approach is the only true approach to change). The problem usually lies in confusion over what a tactical approach is and its role in the bigger picture. Deal with these issues with extreme care; there can be some strong emotional ties to existing tactical approaches. There was a confusion with CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement). This led to some problems; people demanding that things had to happen the way they expected or were led to expect them to. In our case some tactical team members felt that frontline decision making should take over. As soon as the senior management team made a decision, the first-line people felt that they should have made it. Executive Owner Senior Manager Anonymous by request

Unions, rules and policies — the shape, extent, and timing of union involvement will depend on relations with management as well as the process being worked on and the types of changes under consideration. Union representation should absolutely be involved at some point prior to testing and debugging changes. Union policies and rules may affect who can do what in relation to Campaign activities and changes under consideration. Better to know in advance. Employee opinions, attitudes, and satisfaction levels — take time to learn if there are any outstanding grievances, grudges, or issues within any given functional area. Work through HR to review the results of employee surveys or other information that has been gathered. Part of this study should include levels of burnout toward change or work overload. Customer contracts, requirements, satisfaction levels, issues, and concerns — even if they only address a small or specific portion of the process, knowledge of any information in these areas can give important guidance to the Campaign and/or its tactical projects. Review existing contractual and noncontractual commitments as well as any other information that may clarify customer needs and requirements for the overall process. A more detailed understanding will be needed around subprocesses that are chosen as “high-impact change areas.” Supplier contracts, logistics, requirements, and/or issues — supplier relationships may range from delivery of products on request to supplier personnel working on site that are integral to the organization’s processes. Just-in-time arrangements,


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long-term contracts, sole-source contracts, arrangements for invoicing and payment — all these and many more variations on the theme should be reason enough to develop an understanding about who the suppliers are to the process. This understanding should include what they deliver, where and when, the nature of contracts, delivery arrangements, and any other information that will let the Team know what to expect if required changes bump into supplier relations (and they will). Market cycles for products and services — knowledge about demand peaks and valleys will be important for understanding the process as well as for managing the ongoing Campaign. Peaks and valleys cause variation in the process; understanding variation and its causes is critical to understanding the process and for developing changes. This understanding will be important when scheduling tactical projects so they don’t compete with resources during peak periods. Budget cycles — change costs money; knowing when money will be available for different types and sizes of expenses will prove invaluable for scheduling the launch of tactical project teams and for scheduling and working out the logistics for full-scale implementation of change. Other stakeholders — do any other groups or agencies have a stake in the process or the environment that surrounds it, such that they might have input into or veto over changes? Add them to the list to be involved in communication efforts. 1. Tips and Pitfalls The list above may seem like a long one to get through. Depending on the organization, some of these are going to be more relevant than others. Consider the list, pick which ones may be relevant or have a strong impact on the work the Team is facing, and consider how much information is needed and by when to avoid nasty surprises. Not every one of them will have to be researched to feel that the environment survey is complete. Most important is to avoid those nasty surprises. Environmental challenges and limitations on the Campaign work will most usually surface in tactical projects when the people involved are less knowledgeable and have less authority to deal with them. Do not ignore a group or an issue because it is a pain to deal with; it will be a greater pain when it puts a clamp on Campaign progress. Take care not to confuse what a policy, standard, or regulation is, what its intent is, and how it has been implemented or met in the work processes. Those may be two very different things. A thorough understanding of the original document and its spirit may be needed. A large amount of change has been blocked due to policies or regulations that are far more flexible than people understand.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — WELLMARK BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF IOWA: PRODUCT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT The initial objective set was to reduce the length of time to design, develop, and bring a new product to market.



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What we discovered, though, was we really didn’t have a process, at least not a consistent, predictable one. The charge for the Team became to lay out a new process by which we would do product development. This has allowed us to respond to new clients; we know what we need to do now. Team Leader Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired We know now that length of time isn’t so important as meeting the product deadline. But we have proven that we can get a product to market in a few months; it had always been a pretty solid belief around here that it took three years. In this effort we identified all the process steps; this was a first in history. It became more concrete, black and white, and we could rearrange those steps to identify market needs in the product development process. We could consciously avoid a step if it meant getting to market quicker. But it would be a conscious decision, where in the past we would hurry things but not really have a clear understanding of what we were skipping. The tangible results were that we knew what the process was and we could deal with it on our own terms. Team Member Director, Systems Support A big learning was that to successfully develop and implement a product you have to involve a lot of groups. There was a tendency to look at product development as only the responsibility of the product development department. We had to pay close attention to the controls that had to be put in place. Some of the changes had to be backed away from because they would not allow for the necessary controls. Team Leader Group Leader, Claims Administration — Retired Our main concern was compliance issues. We had to design the process with that in mind. We have been 100 percent compliant with the new products developed. That is remarkable because we were working in new states with new (to us) regulatory bodies. Before, we were working only in Iowa; we were knowledgeable about the regulatory bodies here. This effort started a belief system; we began to realize that eliminating hand-offs across functional silos was good. We also saw that moving the process closer to the customer eliminated hand-offs. That led to our first realignment, which was around the processes, corporately. For the first time ever we identified our core processes and began to operate around them. Team Member Director, Systems Support

IV.

MEASURE PROCESS PERFORMANCE

Strategic Process performance measures are used to track the level of process performance against a number of process characteristics. They reflect the operation


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of the full strategic process, from end to end. In an incremental change effort, one of these characteristics is used to track progress toward the strategic objective; the others are used to check the effects on the other characteristics. In reengineering, where a set of design targets or parameters will have been identified in the objective, most or all of them will be used to track progress toward the objective. For every strategic process there should be a minimum of three measures, one for each process characteristic: quality, cost, and productivity (or operations). There may be others. This set of measures is needed in order to fully manage change in the process. Financial, quality, and productivity considerations will always need to be balanced in any change effort; the Team will need to know if its changes are having a negative impact on any of these characteristics.

COST Figure 5.5

QUALITY

PRODUCTIVITY

A minimum strategic process control panel.

Without this “control panel” of performance measures, it will be difficult if not impossible to understand current, baseline operating characteristics of the process, to assess the impact of changes introduced or to hold onto gains made. Measurement of the process was an absolute necessity to learning about the process. That has transformed the company. It was one thing for front-line staff to be phoning us and saying, “This is terrible; all of our clients are upset about this,” it was another to know that 2,800 clients are upset, or 120, or 2. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

These multiple performance measures form a control panel for the strategic process. The Team uses this control panel to manage the Campaign and then hands it off to the Executive Team to manage permanent implementation of the changes and, eventually, to augment and/or replace the more functionally oriented measures that have been in use. It was far easier to show sustainable gains with the measurements we put in place, the financial measures that showed cost reduction. For us that was the number one most important thing we did. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation



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Strategic process performance measures fulfill four vital roles in a Campaign. They: • Define the current level of performance for the entire strategic process and reflect the gains on the objective • Allow for accountability against the objective The measurements that we put in place were critical for people to see results of their work. Accidents went down and it was recognized across the resort what it was we were trying to do and what we had accomplished. Executive Owner — Risk Management Campaign Vice President, Recreation Blue Mountain Resort • Show the impact of changes both in terms of progress toward the objective as well as on other secondary process characteristics A big part of it was taking measurements and tracking progress. When a change was put in place, we were able to see the gains in the tracking measures; those same measures showed where things slipped. For us, the monitoring measures were simple line charts put up on the wall at the management meetings and statistical process control charts at Cidra (the Puerto Rican production facility). Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation • Allow gains to be held over time

The Campaign Team must have measures that reflect the performance of the full strategic process. Before a Campaign effort, strategic processes are usually not recognized or worked with as whole, single processes. Functional measures are used that reflect the activities and results of various departments, sections, teams, or individuals. These measures support and strengthen the silo structure. This will need to change in order to build the cross-functional context of knowledge and for the Campaign to progress. One major accomplishment is that we have a lot more information monitoring measures, “gauges in the dashboard” that give us early warning signals about profits or the lack of them. We pretty much know how we are operating, how much profit we made yesterday, where we used to not know until the end of the quarter or even the end of the year. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Representative Blue Mountain Resort


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Performance measures have short- and long-term roles in a strategic change effort. In the short run they are used by the Campaign Team to assess the impact of the design and test work carried out by the tactical teams. In the long run, managers overseeing full roll out of the changes will use the measures to assess the impact of the changes and to hold onto the gains (i.e., recognizing when gains are being lost and taking actions to check the loss). Without performance measures there will be no way to know if gains are disappearing. The tools helped us to visualize where we were going; the blueprinting and the measurement tools showed us where the changes were really having an impact. That helped motivate the Team members over the 2 years, especially the tactical teams. The long-term measures really helped us to stay focused over the long run. Team Leader — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Director, Payment Safe Guards and External Relations Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Performance measures are critical for selling change. Results sell and the Campaign Team will soon be in the business of selling the changes developed by itself and/or by the tactical teams. Measurable results will get the Team credit for their successes. Team members are going to put a lot of hard work into their effort, the least they deserve for accomplishing the tasks ahead of them is credit. Without performance measures to show the results, at best they will get congratulations for working hard. A. Recommendations Performance measures are first among equal-priority ingredients in understanding the playing field. Do not move beyond this phase of the Campaign without assuring that they are in place. Shortcomings in the other areas of understanding can be made up or strengthened over time; poor or missing measures will always diminish the effort. Measurements are the hardest ingredient to complete and yet they are the most important to understanding the playing field. The good news is that once performance measures are in place everything about the Campaign will become a lot easier. Skipping them or minimizing them will be tempting. However, anytime a Campaign proceeds without performance measurements the effort is severely handicapped. Use expert resources to assist with developing measures. Experts can get them designed and in place with far less hassle than if the Team has to learn how to do it themselves. Assign a Campaign subteam to develop and implement performance measures. The full Team should be involved in identifying the needed measures but the mechanics of getting them developed, tested, and integrated into the management information system (MIS) is best left to a working subteam. This subteam can pull in needed expertise in statistical sampling, financial measures, MIS, etc., to assist.



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Measurement was tough. A lot of throughput time data, both for long-term monitoring and short-term analysis, it didn’t exist. And in most cases we’d have to develop them from scratch. That is where my skills in finance and knowing the company’s data processing systems really came in. Once you get the data, what do you do with it, where do you enter it, how is it processed, sorted, and reported? That sort of thing. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation

Recognize the “fear factor.” A major cause for measures not getting developed and /or implemented is fear of what will be shown. There were both challenges, the mechanical side as well as the fear of what we might find out. One fed the other. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with a mechanism to measure a process that had dozens of hand-offs. That was a really difficult thing to do. The was no real lack of knowledge about numbers, it was probably more a fear of what the numbers might show. Internal Consultant Manager, Accounts Payable Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Try out performance measures manually, at least for a couple of gathering and analysis cycles. This will allow for the detailed mechanics of gathering and analysis to be better understood and debugged. It will also allow for critical analysis and adjustments to the resulting measures. Getting MIS support for the gathering, analysis and reporting of Campaign measures is important for their long-term survival. However, make sure you know what you’re getting and that you’re getting what is needed before casting measures into MIS cement. Keep measures to a minimum few that reflect the vital characteristics of the process. The more measures managers see, the less they will take in. Four to eight measures should be sufficient. Beware of measures and data already in use; they are probably specific to a functional group and carry with them a lot of excess baggage. Even if, under proper consideration, the measures do represent the whole strategic process, people will need fairly extensive reeducation to stop interpreting them specific to one functional area. This isn’t to say not to use them, just be aware that they can come with challenges attached to them. Never rely on volunteers or Team members for long-term data gathering or analysis. The very minute a higher priority comes along or the Campaign ends, there will be no more measures. If people are going to be involved as an essential, ongoing part of data gathering, make the tasks a formal part of their work description. Performance measures are too important to leave in the hands of good intentions. Never assume that data are being gathered or analyzed properly during the trial stages. Check on it.


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Never leave the data-gathering methodology alone. Believe that people will screw it up every time, because they will. Baby-sit it very carefully. Never miss a day. Internal Consultant CQI Coordinator Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Test the plan manually to ensure that the final measures are what is wanted. It is very difficult for people to understand what a measure will look like or how it will feel to use it until they see it in a real, tangible form. Gathering it manually for several cycles will allow for more effective critique and refining of the measure. Then automate; get MIS support for the measures. Maximize effective communicating measures and the charts on which they are presented. Use simple trend charts/time lines to track performance over time. Individual measures are relatively meaningless; trends over time capture the impact of change.

REFERENCES 1. Tufte, E. R., The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT, 1983.


CHAPTER 6 Planning the Campaign I.

ABOUT CAMPAIGN PLANNING

Change consumes resources. Large-scale change consumes resources large scale. Making these resources available introduces risk — risk that redirecting resources from day-to-day production may result in loss of productivity, quality, or income and that this loss may not be offset by the benefits gained. The worst-case scenario is that something will fail due to lack of resources, whether it’s the change effort or day-to-day production. We were lucky. We did so much and we pulled it off. But it caused so much pain. We had the support system to keep it up but we were moving way too fast. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation

The only way to reduce this risk is careful planning; planning which balances and paces the use of resources over time, which maximizes efficiency by prioritizing and directing resources toward those projects which will deliver the highest returns for the least resources. This is the function of Campaign planning. Simply put, the Campaign plan explains how the strategic objective will be met down to the level of tactical projects. If the strategic changes to be implemented are clearly defined, such as putting in place a new piece of equipment or technology, the plan will look like a standard project plan. However, if the Campaign involves discovery, i.e., “We don’t know what’s causing the low yield, or how to improve it, but we are going to find out,” then the plan will have to be a more flexible, evolving document. You have to be cognizant of the fact that the bigger the process, the more resource intensive it’s going to be to correct, to manage. Either pick a smaller process, a more

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limited challenge, or be prepared to commit the resources. As long as you walk in with that understanding you can set expectations properly. Executive Owner — Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

The explanation offered in the plan should work at a variety of organizational levels. It should: • Allow executive officers to understand how and when the broad strategic objective they set will be met and what resources will be required to do so • Give mid-level managers an operational framework for how the Campaign will roll out, where and when various tactical activities will take place, and what the resource demands will be • Explain to first-line managers and employees how the objective will be met in terms of their own jobs, their own day-to-day work experience

In a sense, the Campaign plan is a conceptual bridge which serves to span the distance between the strategic objective and the day-to-day tactical projects which will be undertaken to accomplish it. Campaign Team members are uniquely qualified to build that bridge. This approach gave us a more powerful base of information with which to plan. We really hadn’t been able to plan our approach to improving yield before; now we found ourselves able to plan accounting for the full process and for the resources available to us. We were also able to plan in terms of details, such as schedule for running the line, when we could do testing maintenance, that sort of thing. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Wesley Jessen Corporation

Creating a Plan involves four distinct phases: • Analyze the strategic process and its environment in order to locate high-impact change areas • Identify the tactical projects which will be assigned to those change areas and a specific objective for each • Prioritize and sequence the tactical projects • Assemble an overall plan

All three contexts of knowledge, the day to day, cross functional, and campaign, will be used in creating the plan. Analysis draws on both the cross-functional and Campaign contexts of knowledge. An extensive understanding (Chapter 3) of the full strategic process (including its black holes) is essential to an effective analysis. It is in the Campaign context, however, that the creative breakthrough thinking occurs that is essential to conceptualizing major change, to moving beyond the bounds of


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“what is” and “what we (currently) think” to “what this process must become” and how to get there.1 After senior management hands off the objective, middle managers take on clarifying it, figuring out how it’s going to work, what the approach will be. And we do that together. We got involved before but independently, often at odds with each other over turf. We were only seeing our piece of the change; now we see the whole, the overall objective, how we fit in and how we are going to meet it. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management

The use of these two contexts continues into assigning tactical projects to the high-impact change areas and defining objectives for each. The strategic process map provides a framework on which tactical projects (and their results) can be placed and better understood in reference to each other. This is very applicable to a strategic reengineering project. The maps of the old and new processes can both be used to better understand the location and nature of tactical projects necessary to design and implement the new process. Formation of an objectives for the tactical projects is only meaningfully done in the Campaign context; tactical project objectives will be constructively set only with a full understanding of the strategic objective and the priority behind it. Yet day-to-day context knowledge and pragmatism also play a large role in the planning stage. Break through thinking must be blended and tempered with reality. Tactical projects and changes each produces will require resources and expertise. Project priorities and schedules, and the resources and expertise necessary to carry them out, will need to be considered and weighed against day-to-day operational priorities. Also the projects and their respective objectives will have to be interpreted into day-to-day context language in order for others outside of the team to understand them. All three contexts of knowledge as well as the ability to move back and forth between them are required to create a final Campaign plan. Campaign Team members, with the knowledge they have created and with their middle-management roots, are most qualified to do this. This ability to move across contexts will also play an important role in the ongoing management of tactical projects to come. What makes sense in one context can easily lose its meaning when communicated in another. For example, the strategic objective worked out with the Executive Team in the Campaign and cross-functional contexts will probably seem ambiguous and vague to first-line managers and employees. In order to form and launch tactical teams, Campaign Team members will need to be able to help their subordinates (and peers) make sense of the strategic objective within the day-to-day context of their own jobs, experience, and knowledge. The plan assists with this task with its documented framework linking the strategic objective to first-line projects. Conversely, the Plan will enable Executive managers to more effectively lead change. The framework of the plan will allow them to more easily interpret and


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Day-to-day context

Cross-functional context

Campaign context

•

priorities and quotas

•

process and environment

•

breakthrough thinking

•

operations and people

•

functional links, interrelationships and black holes

•

change conception

•

structure and strategy

Figure 6.1

Strategic team members move across contexts of knowledge.

understand the ongoing details and outcomes of tactical projects and how they will “add up” to the strategic objective. It will allow them to apply support where and when it is most needed and to understand and deal effectively with challenges and barriers as they arise. The team leader was invaluable for communicating our ideas back to committee, because they don’t know about our jobs. If we had simply sent work back to them as we talk about it, they wouldn’t understand it. Our suggestions would have drawn blanks. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling OR Booking Clerk Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — WESLEY JESSEN CORPORATION: ORDER FULFILLMENT TEAM When we introduced opaque (eyecolor-changing) lenses we went from around 8,000 to 24,000 accounts in three to four months. We didn’t understand that our infrastructure couldn’t handle the extra load. We had a serious problem taking orders correctly the first time! In less than six months, despite the increase in accounts, we lost about $20 million and 20 percent of our customers. The biggest issue we faced was just filling orders. We had a customer survey that showed we were in the low 60 percent on filling orders right. We made order fulfillment, from taking an order through to shipping it, our first priority. We started with over 130 steps in the overall process and pretty quickly got it down to 70 steps. We got the distribution error rate down to less than a quarter of what it



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was when we started. We went from 775 to 125 errors per million pretty quickly. We moved to second place in customer satisfaction ratings and we saved millions of dollars in cost avoidance. Vice President, Sales, U.S. and Canada One major discovery was just how strong the department silos were that order fulfillment had to move across. The departments each had their own accountabilities and priorities. We found that up to a third of our customers were on credit hold at one time because of our credit policies and because our processes wouldn’t let returned lenses be processed quickly for credit. We were overloaded. Our credit and collection group was just trying to fill their responsibility of minimizing bad debt. When we first launched the team they weren’t even on it; no one really thought of them as part of the process or realized the role they played in it. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Strategic Process Management gave us a way to take on the really big issues we were facing. We didn’t make the big gains until we started looking at the whole process. The president was able to pay more attention to the strategic teams; someone was responsible for improving a process and he could hold them accountable. Vice President, Sales, U.S. and Canada

Three tactical teams were launched initially; additional ones came later along with a variety of policy changes. One of the initial tactical teams was in distribution; the objective was to decrease errors in contents shipped. Technical changes were made to stop erroneously selected product from being included in an order. Additional improvements were made in training of staff as well as in audits of inventory to assess correctness of stock. Distribution errors decreased by about 66 percent. A second tactical team was established in product returns; the objective was to decrease the amount of time to process returns. The average time from receipt to a credit being given was decreased from 11 to 1.8 days. Several policy changes regarding credit returns were also made. A third was in customer service, the front-end order-taking part of the strategic process; the objective was to reduce the time it took to take incoming orders. In customer service we had to get better at the length of incoming calls; calls were taking too long, which was tying up phone lines as well as increasing the error rate in orders taken. At the tactical level the cross-functional approach allowed us to prioritize and to focus our energies where they were most needed. We were able to look at the whole process for the first time: decide which areas needed to be tackled now and which ones should be handled later or through day-to-day management. It also gave me a structured way to get my front-line people to participate in problem solving. We weren’t firefighting, we were asking for their input on how to solve an issue.


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We were able to go from it taking 34 seconds to get a live operator on the line to about 5 seconds. During that time our head count decreased by about 35 percent. With the process changes we put in place, technical systems upgrades, training, as well as changes to employees’ career path, we were able to deliver far greater level of service for less cost per order. And we decreased errors from about 775 per million transactions to 125 in 2 years. Tactical Team Leader Manager, Customer Service

II.

LOCATE THE HIGH-IMPACT CHANGE AREAS

High-impact change areas are those parts of the process and its environment where successful changes will result in the greatest gains on the strategic objective with the least demand on resources and support.* Locating the high-impact change areas should always be an objective, fact-based analysis of the strategic process and its environment. We had such a large area to concentrate on we didn’t know where to start. There were just so many areas. The strategy of picking high-leverage impact areas made a big difference. It helped us to make sense of where to go next. We just felt overwhelmed and that focusing was really essential for the team. Team Leader — Purchasing and Receiving Accounts Payable Blue Mountain Resort The Campaign allowed us to prioritize and to focus our energies where they were most needed. We were able to look at the whole process and the problems coming from different areas and decided which ones needed to be tackled right now, to be given special focus now, and which ones should be handled later or through day-today management. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

The more effective the Campaign Team is at locating and defining the highimpact change areas, the fewer resources will be needed to meet the objective. This is critical to maximizing Campaign efficiency as well as to minimizing risk. The data-based discovery effort that underlies locating the change areas also works to overcome assumptions about blame, causes, and solutions that may have been long held by various functional groups. It moves Team members out of the * In a strategic reengineering effort, where a major part of the strategic process will be radically changed, there will also be high-impact change areas. They will reflect the required sequence of changes necessary to bring about the overall change as well as efficiency of impact.



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day-to-day context of knowledge . . .“the problem isn’t us, it’s them,” into the crossfunctional contex . . .“the problem isn’t us or them, it’s the strategic process.” It then moves them into the Campaign context . . .“we have to figure out how to make this process work differently if we are going to meet the objective.” Data is a key ingredient to any decision-making process once you leave the realm of the top-down organization. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Wesley Jessen Corporation

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — RED DEER REGIONAL HOSPITAL CENTRE: OR BOOKING BACKLOG The OR Patient Flow Team was charged with decreasing the inaccuracies in OR scheduling and bookings. The patient flow process is an important part of how we manage care. Our decision to focus on surgery patient flow was made partly because of the problems we were having with errors and inefficiency but also because the surgical patient is a highrevenue patient. Executive Owner Director, Patient Care Services There were too many errors, patient complaints, physician complaints, poor efficiency and effectiveness. Campaign Team Leader Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing Surgeons’ offices complained about the process, about their patients not being notified and about inefficient bookings; we were booking their time ineffectively. Campaign Team Member Manager, Booking/Admitting The links between senior management, the Campaign, and the tactical teams worked well. Senior management can kill any changes proposed or made by first-line employees but the Campaign Team stopped that from happening. The Campaign Team did some essential work to set up the tactical teams and to support them. We made sure that facilitation, documentation, and communication support were in place. Every session was attended; there was follow-up and good communication back to the Campaign Team. Having someone other than participants on the Team to take responsibility for getting the detailed stuff done makes a huge difference in terms of how the project goes. All of the details, if left up to the Team, they just wouldn’t get done. Campaign Team Leader Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing


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Once the tactical team handed recommendations back to us; a work plan was set up and accountabilities were assigned for implementing various parts of the change. There was strong use of just regular project management. It all tied right back to the Executive Owner, because in the end it is the Owner that makes decisions about moneys spent and resource allocations. Executive Owner Director, Patient Care Services It worked because we had a framework; we had a road map to follow; it kept us focused. There is no kidding ourselves; there was a potential for conflict and there was conflict in the team; but there will be problems to solve in any approach. Executive Owner Director, Patient Care Services

The first high-impact change areas identified were OR Booking and Scheduling, Discharge Planning and Bed Management. The OR Booking and Scheduling project is discussed later in Chapter 9.

A. Recommendations for Locating the High-Impact Change Areas Question assumptions about what needs to be changed and/or how to change it. Many of those assumptions will have been held for so long they seem like facts. Questioning them can be greeted with fear and loathing. The analysis can serve as a basis for testing some of the more unquestionable assumptions. Keep the full playing field in mind: the environment and performance measures, as well as the process. Approach it with an open mind; set aside, as much as possible, any preconceptions regarding causes or solutions to the problems. Know what the object is and work through the process to find the solutions. Trust the process; it will get you to the solution. That was a real challenge; some people walked in and didn’t want to work through the steps. They felt they already knew the answer. But then we wouldn’t have gotten the input of as many people. And input is critical to getting a solution that’s best for everybody. Team Member — Sales and Enrollment Marketing Administration Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa Without the Campaign Team there was a lot of problem solving going on; engineers would take on what appeared to be the big problem for the day and try to solve it. The Team was able to look at the whole process, the problems that kept coming up, and they were able to recognize a common cause; we were short 15 to 20 engineers and we weren’t going to improve yield until we got them. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation



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The total of all high-impact change areas should represent a fairly small portion of the full strategic process. An analysis is not complete until it sufficiently narrows change areas down to just the vital few. Remember, at 40,000 feet those few areas can represent a very large amount of process. Identifying half of the process map as high-impact change areas is not analysis, it is dodging work. There are three general guidelines for analysis: 1. Be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that the change areas selected are correct. A wrong selection decision won’t end the Campaign, but it will channel valuable resources into an unimportant project, where a tactical success may not have a significant impact on the objective. In terms of success, making sure that a solid analysis was done so that we knew what needed to be improved was second only to the president’s championing the effort. Doing that with data was critical. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation 2. Be ready to sell analysis conclusions. Rarely will anyone support analysis conclusions without being sold on them and no one wants their work process to be declared a change area. Be prepared to sell conclusions to the audience you are addressing. Everybody here has an opinion; we’re no different from other companies. Our understanding of the business is rooted to whenever we had a lower-level assignment and that is how we think of the business. Executive Owner — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Vice President, Medicare Claims and Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa 3. Do it now if it has to be done. If a regulatory order, mandate from HQ or other unavoidable dictate requires a specific change be put in place, make that a first priority and complete it first.

B. Steps Locating high-impact change areas is made up of two broad steps: analysis and assessment of the results. Step 1: Analyze the Playing Field and Identify the High-impact Change Areas This step has two required outcomes: • To identify those portions of the playing field where changes should be made — those areas that present the greatest and most efficient opportunities;* and • To be able to sell the analysis and its conclusions * In a reengineering effort, an analysis plan works to locate the logical sequence of change areas as well as to break the overall change area into logical bites.


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The logic of the analysis and conclusions will need to be able to be explained to those who will be involved in and/or affected by the changes and who hold veto power over the Campaign. By focusing on the process there was not a question of whether I was after people. If they had perceived that we were focusing on them as a problem, even the “bad” people, there would be a very strong closing of the ranks reaction: “They’re here to fire us all.” And even when it came down to people it was more of a question of “Are these the right people to do this job?” The front-line people recognized that we were going to be objective about it and by default some people said, “I don’t like this approach, this environment,” and left. But it wasn’t that “They are out to get me,” it was “I don’t think I want to maintain the level of standards they have set.” I was under a lot of pressure; people would say, “You know who the bad workers are, just get rid of them.” But until I knew the process was working right, how could I get rid of a person? I could have gambled on it but it wouldn’t have been worth it. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

a. Tips and Pitfalls There is no single analysis strategy that fits all or even half of Campaigns. Each plan will differ by organization, strategic objective, strategic process, and environment. In general, an analysis strategy should: • Seek out barriers as well as drivers to the objective • Seek out areas where causes reside, not just symptoms • Be based on objective data and information The priority on collecting data was really good. We don’t do that very often; it takes a lot of work to collect data. But once you start doing it and you see the result, the full meaning, the full power of using data becomes apparent. Team Member — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Medicare Claims Administration Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Check for process variation and/or strategic objective ∆ (the difference between the objective and the current state of the process and its environment) dispersal. • Look “upstream.” In sequential processes, high-impact change areas are often in the early steps where incomplete, insufficient, or erroneous actions can have broad effects throughout the process. We tackled the issue by studying the course, the way golfers moved through it and the amount of time it took them to move from one hole to the next. We tackled the holes where play was taking the longest over expected time. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort



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Incremental change will require a different analysis approach than strategic reengineering. Mandated changes will require a different approach again. Because of these differences, a detailed set of instructions for process analysis will not be covered here. In general, the strategy should include: • A review of the strategic objective and executive briefing. This review should determine what the overall nature of the change effort will have to be, e.g., incremental or reengineering. (The difference between major changes and radical reengineering is primarily one of technology and the proportion of the process that is being changed. For example, in a merger major changes will normally be required of various strategic processes in order to standardize and take advantage of shared functions such as accounting and HR. Designing and implementing these changes wouldn’t normally be described as reengineering.) • Designation of the areas in the process that must be changed NOW. This isn’t applicable to all strategic change efforts, but where it is, the last thing a Team should do is spend a lot of time analyzing what or where to change when that is already specified in the objective. • Quick fixes that have been identified, areas where obvious, simple changes can be made at low or no cost or resource burden • An outline plan for how the process, the performance measures, and the process environment will be studied in order to locate the high-impact change areas

An analysis should be completed even if the changes are clearly defined by the Executive Team (or others). The order fulfillment process team gave the whole organization some quick victories; that really raised the morale. We were able to identify things right off that were easy to fix. They were real gains but they were easy. It gave us a lot of leverage to build the overall effort, to get more people into training. We used those early wins to get the president’s attention. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation

A Campaign analysis should not include an exhaustive search for root causes. That is the role of the tactical team in their project. The Campaign Team will be searching for the relatively large blocks in the strategic process where barriers or drivers to the objective reside. Look for the black holes. These are high-probability problem areas. What we found was that each department or group was very competent but that the flow of information across departments and groups was a real problem. Team Member — Product Implementation Assistant Vice President, Communications Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

Beware of what may seem like simple or straightforward changes. They may be more complex than they first appear.


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Move as quickly and decisively as understanding allows. Get extra support assistance for data gathering and analysis, such as: • Expert resources to help with data definition, sample sizing, collection details, implementation, and analysis • Clerical resources to help with the basic tasks of accumulating data, entering them into a database, etc. We spent weeks just trying to figure out what part of the process to focus on. We had lots of paper that showed what the problems were, but we had a very difficult time figuring out which pieces of the process to put tactical teams on. We got bogged down in that and lost momentum. We finally made a decision but people almost didn’t care about it any more. Internal Consultant TQM Coordinator Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

b. A Discussion of Campaign Teams and Process Analysis With the wealth of knowledge and experience incumbent to middle managers, getting ideas about where the high-impact change areas are before a complete analysis effort is not usually difficult; in fact it’s probably unavoidable. There were a lot of people with a lot of opinions, but getting them together to share the different perspectives creates more than a lot of opinions; you get objectivity out of it that we haven’t had before. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

Under a TQM approach to analysis all assumptions were to be set aside, and data were to be gathered and analyzed in order to discover what should be changed. However, there are two significant differences between TQM and Campaign analysis: • The Campaign Team is not searching for root causes, only high-impact change areas. They may not be solving a problem at all, they may be implementing a preordained change or reengineering a process. • The Campaign Team is made up of middle managers who probably will not be willing to set aside all of their assumptions about the areas that need to be changed.

Convincing a group of managers that what they know, the assumptions they hold dear, should be set aside in favor of data gathering and analysis may well be impossible and there is a real risk of losing Team members if you try.



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It was pretty easy to get on some topic that would very quickly take you off to left field. And we always had to drag them back. That was tough. These were managers; they have their own opinions. It wasn’t easy to keep them all tied in. Team Leader — Sales and Enrollment President, Wellmark Financial Services Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

The catch is that the Team still has to be: • Sure that it is right in selecting the change areas, and • Able to sell its conclusions Getting data, even small amounts, was a huge part of getting the team to be more objective and to moving them along. Especially at first when people were pretty fixed on what they thought were the biggest problems and the best solutions. Sometimes someone would be so fixed on a solution they would have forgotten the problem. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

A suggestion: try turning assumptions into hypotheses and then gather data to test and either support or reject them. If the data supports the hypotheses, then the team knows it’s right and has data to sell the conclusion. If not, then it goes back to analysis. The toughest part about this approach is getting managers to agree to put their ideas to the test. However, if they don’t they are unlikely to get adequate support for them; data sells. Without data those ideas are only opinions. The hypothesis approach recognizes the value of team members’ ideas but also sticks to the need for data. Learning the role of data and the weight it lends to carrying an idea through are important parts of middle management growth and growth as change managers. Step 2: Assess the Results Analysis is complete when high-impact change areas are identified and sufficiently narrowed. A common error among Campaign Teams is to leave change areas too broad, leaving it up to the tactical teams to complete the analysis. Doing so will demotivate tactical team members, leave a lot of room for error, and slow tactical momentum. Tactical team members will not likely have the necessary expertise to continue the analysis. Also, they may not come to the same conclusion as the Campaign Team and/or may come to a wrong conclusion. “Sufficiently narrowed” is a necessarily vague concept, and given the differences in strategic objectives as well as in the scope and type of strategic processes, it will have to remain broad. A couple of guidelines:


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• A rule of thumb based on the 80/20 rule: the total number of action steps designated as high-impact change areas should add up to roughly 20 percent (or less) of the total number of steps in the process map. If the map has 40 steps, not more than 8 of them should be included in designated change areas. In reengineering, the total number of change areas will depend on the amount of the strategic process that is being redesigned. • Think about the subprocess included in the change area: who would the experts be and how big would the tactical team have to be to take ownership of the change area? If you find yourself faced with: 1. A broad cross-functional subprocess 2. A change area large enough that a team of experts would have to be made up of managers below the Campaign Team but above first-line managers or employees 3. Over eight members on the Tactical team then the change area probably needs to be narrowed further. This decision will also depend on the size of the strategic process and the size of the organization. In a very large organization with six or more tiers of managers, or with a very big strategic process spanning various divisions, sections, etc., it may be necessary to designate a change area that will require a Campaign Team of its own. That Team, in turn, may carry out its own analysis, locate high-impact change areas, and launch tactical teams to deal with them.

III. DEFINE TACTICAL PROJECT OBJECTIVES When we got to tactical teams, VQA (vendor quality assurance), order processing, color variation and others, it seemed like it even got less clearcut. Setting an objective became more difficult and sometimes it seemed as though it really wasn’t a process at all; measurement was even more difficult. Having a clear objective was at the heart of it. If you got the team started with a clear objective things fell into line a lot easier. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation

A tactical project objective is a clear, measurable statement of the required results for each planned project. For the most part it is structured like and follows the same guidelines as the strategic objective. It is made up of four parts: • • • •

What is to be changed — the subprocess and a subprocess characteristic(s) By how much — a statement of measurable change against the process variable By when — a specific date How — includes the tactical change approach and, optionally, a description of the specific change that has to be put in place

However, there are also some significant differences:



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• Flexibility: tactical project objectives must be able to prescribe change in any aspect of the playing field or through any approach which the Team feels is necessary to meet the strategic objective and which the Campaign budget (and other delimiters set by the Executive Team) will support. Tactical projects use a wide range of approaches: exploratory in nature, e.g., reduce errors in this subprocess; change specific, e.g., implement a new system, application, or process; organizational changes, e.g., implement self-directed work teams in this area; policy changes and measurement changes, e.g., modify defect documentation and reporting. Even with this required flexibility, tactical objectives must still define success in terms of measurable outcomes. • Time span: “by when” will always, by necessity, be restricted by the Campaign plan. All tactical projects should be completed within the time frame given for the Campaign. • How: tactical objectives will often specify the tactical approach to be used, e.g., incremental, reengineering, benchmarking, self-directed work teams, etc. [The tactical teams] used two approaches, standardization and incremental improvement. Provider service did [process] standardization to ensure that when an inquiry came in everyone handled it the same way, everyone used the same screens and in the same sequence. While we were doing that we also looked for problem areas and shifted into incremental improvement. We did incremental change in terms of the screens we were using; they were very bad. So we changed a lot of them to make them easier to use, to get the information that was needed. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

A. Recommendations for Defining Tactical Project Objectives The recommendations given for developing a strategic objective generally hold for tactical objectives. The following are additional: • Don’t micromanage through tactical objectives. A clear and specific required result is not the same as microdetailing actions the tactical team will take. Leave tactical teams room to be creative. Just because the Campaign Team can be more prescriptive doesn’t mean it has to be in every case. Tactical team members are the subprocess experts; with adequate direction, subject expertise, and “how to” consultants they will do fine. • Be realistic about what can be accomplished and by when. Given the required results and the resources available to accomplish it, is there a reasonable chance of success? If not, then expectations will have to be lowered.

B. Steps for Defining Tactical Project Objectives There are five steps to preparing tactical objectives: 1. Profile the selected high-impact change areas — the profile defines the scope and depth of the high-impact change area. The profile should briefly describe for each change area:


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• • • •

Its scope or boundary (e.g., where does it begin and end?) Its objective (what is the key output or functional purpose?) Who is involved in the subprocess Where it fits in the org. chart

2. Define the required results of the tactical change — it may be easier to define the required results first in terms of a qualitative description of the change that needs to take place and then express it in terms of a measurable outcome or impact. The required results should include “what” is to be changed “by how much” and “by when.” 3. Identify the tactical approach — the approaches necessary to accomplish the required result, e.g., incremental change, reengineering, basic process design modifications, self-directed work teams, etc. At this point a decision about the expected tactical approach is based primarily on the required results (although it is also dependent on resources being available to support the effort). The approach used in the overall Campaign, whether incremental, reengineering, or other, does not necessarily define or delimit the approaches used at the tactical level. 4. Establish an estimate of tactical project calendar life — how much time is necessary to deliver the required result. For now, this will be a rough estimate to be refined as the Campaign Plan is worked out. 5. Draft a tentative objective for each tactical project.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF NORTH DAKOTA: CUSTOMER INQUIRY CAMPAIGN The Campaign objective was to increase the accuracy and completeness of responses to customer inquiries from 93.6 percent to above 99 percent (for those inquiries requiring adjustments or research to be done). Each Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) organization is rated on this as well as on several other aspects each quarter by the national BCBS organization. The National Management Information Standard (NMIS) for accuracy is 99 percent. When customers call in we are required to give them correct information, complete and accurate, so they don’t have to call back. You do what you say you are going to do; not meeting the NMIS standard meant we weren’t doing this. There was no question in middle management’s mind that this was important. Campaign Team Member Manager, Customer Service We got it up over the 99 percent standard. We had some fallback, more improvement and now we are doing very well on accuracy; we are consistently over 99 percent, often over 99.5 percent. We met the objective without any sort of negative impact; we didn’t hurt ourselves in any way. I don’t think we would have ever met this objective, fixed the problems, without a formal, Strategic Process Management approach, especially looking back on the number of departments it crossed and the struggles we had implementing changes



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and improvements. The accuracy goal would never have been met at all. We would have continued to go along right where we were. Executive Owner Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service When we got down and mapped the process, we realized that there were 15 different places an inquiry could go and each one represented a strong potential for error. There were so many hand-offs, and every time an inquiry is handed off for research and resolution the chances for error increase. Campaign Team Member Manager, Customer Service Once we analyzed the process and identified the areas to be addressed, we realized that two tactical approaches would have to be used: radical standardization and incremental improvement. Provider service did radical standardization to ensure that when an inquiry came in everyone handled it the same way, everyone used the same screens in the same sequence. While we were doing that we also looked for other problem areas. We discovered that one area lacked documentation; they had no procedure manuals. So the team standardized and documented their processes. Campaign Team Member Manager, Provider Service This whole effort really drove the culture change the president has been trying to put in place, to become more cross-functional. We have made major strides at the senior, mid-, and first-line management as well as first-line employees. Managers learned a lot about leadership: that it is not necessarily about telling people what to do, it is about leading through problem solving and implementing change. Campaign Team Member Assistant Vice President, Medical Management

A series of tactical teams were launched, including teams in Claims and On-line Information Review. In hindsight we missed a layer. We skipped over first-line supervisors. They weren’t included in the teams. When we got to implementation we bumped against a lot of resistance from them, the supervisors. They had already decided that these changes weren’t going to work. We learned the hard way that we shouldn’t have done that. The tactical teams in one area created excellent process changes but the supervisors were resistant due to lack of involvement. Campaign Team Member Manager, Customer Service


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IV.

CREATE THE CAMPAIGN PLAN

Creation of the Campaign plan deals primarily with finalizing launch schedules for the identified tactical projects as well as with planning for the necessary logistical support and resources necessary for them to succeed. It accounts for the space (geographic) and calendar time over which the tactical projects will be implemented. Tactical project objectives with their estimates of required results, tactical approaches, and time frames are only estimates until put into the context of the Campaign plan where they can be critically evaluated in relationship to one another. A project objective that may have seemed plausible by itself may be undoable when juxtaposed with the other planned projects. A Campaign plan has three primary parts: • The identified high-impact change areas in the strategic process and a description of the required results, including a measurable objective, for each • A discussion of the tactical projects that will be needed to bring about the required results in each change area including a suggested tactical approach and estimated resources needed for the success of each one • A long-term plan for implementing and coordinating the tactical projects as well as their outcomes

A Campaign plan should always be considered a working document. It has the characteristics of a project plan but in most cases needs to be more flexible, capable of being adjusted to the realities and surprises of day-to-day operations and crises as well as to the successes and failures of the tactical projects. Tactical projects will uncover new opportunities that should be exploited as well as unseen barriers that may block paths that were seen as major opportunities for change. A rigid plan will defeat itself. Be flexible, because when change hits, it will come hard and heavy, and it will be different each time, and require a different response; and it’s only by being flexible that you can cope with it successfully. President — Retired Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

The plan serves as an agreed-upon framework and schedule for how the various tactical parts will come together as a whole in order to meet the strategic objective. Through it the Campaign Team sets the pace for the Campaign as well as manages demands on support and other resources. It becomes a road map for completing the Campaign. It worked because we had a framework, we had a road map to follow; it kept us focused. There is no kidding ourselves; there was a potential for conflict and there was conflict within the team but there will be problems to solve in any approach. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre



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It minimizes the risk of not seeing the forest for the trees. A key role for the Campaign Team from here on will be to maintain focus on the projects and actions outlined in the Campaign plan. Stick to it. It is a long continuous effort. The early successes tend to be pretty amazing; they get harder as they go along, more effort for less results. It can get difficult to keep the focus with all of the other day-to-day issues you get hit with. You have to keep focused and stick with it. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

A. Recommendations for Creating the Campaign Plan Keep multiple tactical projects working in parallel where possible. This will allow for faster change but will also put a burden on the Campaign Team to ensure that the tactical projects or their results do not bump into or become entangled in each other’s efforts. The more you ask for, the less you get. Be very careful not to overburden the resources and energy available for tactical projects. Space the projects both in time and in location across the strategic process. (Assuming that the “closer” together they are means the more common resources they will tap into and the more likely changes in the two areas will interact.) Two tactical changes may be “top priority” but implementing them at the same time too close together in the process may result in getting the needed results from neither. Pace the projects to deliver results interspersed over time. Overlapping long life- cycle projects with short ones will: • Break up “dead periods” with results from short-term projects while long life-cycle projects are still getting their groundwork laid • Allow for more demanding or problematic projects to be scheduled in parallel with less challenging ones • Allow for balancing out resource demand. High-resource-demand projects, such as an reengineering effort, can be run coincidentally with low-resource-demand projects

B. Steps for Creating the Campaign Plan Creating a Campaign Plan is made up of five steps: Step 1: Prioritize the List Prioritizing the list has to do with determining which change areas should be addressed first, second, and so on. Criteria and considerations for prioritization are: • Changes that have to be made now should go first • Impact on the strategic objective; a high degree of success in one project may eliminate the need for one or more planned tactical projects


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• Subprocess environment issues, various conditions that may have a strong impact on the likelihood of tactical project success, e.g., union negotiations, market cycles, work-loading cycles, etc. • Logical sequence; depending on the type of change(s) and/or the approach being used, some project results may have to be in place first, before other projects can get underway.

Step 2: Sequence the Projects Sequencing projects refers to determining the order and time span (or overlap) between the planned projects in order to set the optimal dates for launching different tactical projects. Project launches can be staggered over time with several projects working in parallel. Criteria and considerations (in addition to the priorities designated in the first step) for sequencing the list are: • Resources and people; there are only so much to go around. Careful consideration needs to be given to any projects which are scheduled to run in parallel or back to back. There is a high risk of overburdening employees, managers, and resources. Also consider other non-Campaign projects or commitments already under way or scheduled. • Logical sequence; interdependencies between change areas may require tactical work to be completed (or at least partially completed) in one area prior to beginning in another. This is especially applicable in reengineering. • Project locale in the strategic process. While strong benefits can be gained by having two or three projects running simultaneously, caution must be used in having two coincidental projects physically close together in the process (that is, where the process steps are physically close, abut each other, interact, use the same resources, etc.). The two projects may overburden resources, complicate and frustrate the design and test of changes, burn out employees, etc. • Chances of a success story and model for future project teams. Successes sell; a change area which has a high likelihood of a strong, successful outcome should be put first. The results can be used as an example and model to overcome resistance in still-to-come project teams. • Cascading effects on other parts of the strategic process; work done on “front-end” portions of a process may have far-reaching ripple effects. It is not easy to accurately estimate what they will be. In some Campaigns it may be optimal to complete front-end work first, before beginning work on other “downstream” change areas. • Strategic objective deadline. Consider the required local results of each project; put the “big hitters” up front so that if delays occur and projects do not get implemented, large gains will have been made on the objective. Also, the longer the expected calendar life of a project the greater the likelihood of delays, causing it to be significantly extended. If it is placed late in the Campaign, it may not fit into the overall Campaign schedule.



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Step 3: Schedule the Projects The project schedule puts specific calendar dates on when various actions will occur in order to prepare for, launch, and support tactical teams and their projects. It serves to put the various projects into perspective, highlighting where projects will be running in parallel and where the greatest risks of overburdening resources may occur. In addition to the Campaign objective deadline and the expected calendar life for each project, remember that there will also be preliminary work to be completed before the projects are launched: • • • •

Finalizing tactical team members Briefing them on the project Training on tactical project strategy, tools, and techniques Training on interpersonal tools and skills

This work should begin one to two months before launch. Get input from executive and local managers about the sequence and scheduling of tactical projects, e.g., the best times to launch tactical projects in their work areas. They will be able to advise on long- and short-term work forecasts, etc. Plan tactical team membership as far in advance as possible. It can be very unsettling for first-line employees and managers to be taken away from their jobs on relatively short notice, even if their managers feel comfortable with the assignment. Step 4: Draft a Campaign Plan A Campaign plan is a summary document for all of the planning information created to date for launching and supporting tactical teams over the life of the Campaign. At a minimum the Campaign plan should include: • An overall strategy statement outlining the analysis carried out as well as the concerns and issues that were involved in selecting the various change areas • A map of the strategic process with high-impact change areas identified • A schedule of tactical project launches and respective calendar lives • The logic and issues/concerns that played a role in sequencing and scheduling them • A tentative description of each tactical project and its objective, areas, and people that may be affected by the change • Estimated resource commitments per project, people, budget, facilities, etc., as well as peak resource demand periods — periods where two or more tactical projects may overlap and create a resource demand “blip” during the Campaign • Interdependencies between various projects • Logistics of working around and with non-Campaign projects • Potential impact on other strategic processes • A projection of how the tactical projects will “add up” to accomplish the strategic objective by the set completion date


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Step 5: Executive Team Sign-Off At this point the Executive Team should feel comfortable with the Campaign plan as it is laid out, the projects that are planned, their timing, expected results, and the resources they will use. Most important is that they feel that the plan has a pretty good chance of accomplishing the strategic objective. At the same time they are not signing away the farm; Campaign progress will be reviewed over time, project results checked, etc. In order to adequately sign-off on the Campaign plan, members of the Executive Team will have to absorb a great deal of information. Plan the time necessary for them to review the details of the plan, especially those for tactical projects, e.g., objectives, resources, and scheduling.

REFERENCES 1. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.


CHAPTER 7 Campaign Communication: Up, Down, and Sideways I.

ABOUT COMMUNICATION

in times of strategic change . . . communication becomes enormously important yet incredibly difficult. In fact, every time we make one of these changes, we find that we undercommunicate it. After four or five times repeating the same message, we assume that it has been heard. In reality, many people have not absorbed the information.1 Chairman and CEO, Xerox

“More communication”2 with managers and employees is a very common response from Executive managers when asked what they would do differently next time in a major strategic change effort. It seems to be common knowledge that a lot of it is needed and that it is difficult to do. What they mean by “communication” is hard to nail down; it seems to include repeating the same message a lot. This perception conjures up images of a foreign tourist attempting to communicate with a baffled local. Realizing that the local didn’t understand the first time, the tourist simply repeats the same message over, louder, and with more hand gestures. The results are the same. Organizations tend to replace volume and gestures with high-tech communication technology and glossy brochures. The results are the same. What is lacking in most organizations is communications. That was one of the first and biggest things I learned as President of MD Management. People told me how little communication they had had with senior management. I tried to create an atmosphere where people could communicate both informally and formally. This approach didn’t show us how to communicate; we had to figure that out, but it gave us a framework; it made apparent where communication was needed and what was needed in our change efforts. President and CEO — Retired MD Management

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First, an applied, working definition of communication: moving the necessary information over the right medium at the right time to the right recipients (to get the needed results). The Campaign Team, and the middle managers in it, are in an optimal position to carry out communication during strategic change. The average distance organizationally and conceptually between the Team and any of the potential recipients of communication is far less than from any other group in the organization. Their middle-ground position allows them a better understanding of the concepts and concerns of the different levels of management and employees. The Team’s crossfunctional representation gives its members insight into the motivations and concerns of the different departments. The steps they have completed to clarify the objective and understand the playing field have expanded their knowledge. As a matter of fact the Campaign Team did an excellent job of providing meeting minutes and they made presentations and provided updates. The bottom line was the progress they made or didn’t, and they made progress. We didn’t go from 91 percent to 99 percent overnight; it took time to get there. Also, most of the other executive officers knew what was going on from conversations with their reports that were on the Team. Our communication channels were open enough that we really didn’t need a strong formal channel but I can see how that could be important at other companies. Executive Owner — Customer Inquiry Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

A few truths about communication and strategic change: • In times of change, there is a far greater need for information by those involved, those who are close to it, and those who are merely aware of it. • Change, especially in crises, is the most difficult time to deal with communication. Everybody is preoccupied: those who should be sending information as well as those who should be receiving it. • If information isn’t available to those who need or want it, they will “bootleg it.” Bootlegged information, rumors, and gossip are almost always negative and usually build on fear and cynicism.”3 • Communication efforts, especially in a crisis, are rarely perfect. The people who need the information the most often want it the least. If you don’t get the information out so that each employee is getting the same message, rumors and word of mouth become the primary source of information for people and the last one to hear will have an outlandish idea of what is going to be done, what the goal is. Whatever the worst consequence is, you can be assured that that is the message that will be heard. We spent a lot of time on communication. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation


CAMPAIGN COMMUNICATION: UP, DOWN, AND SIDEWAYS

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Communication through times of strategic change is so important yet usually so inadequately done it deserves a chapter to itself. What information to communicate in a Campaign, and when, are dealt with throughout this book, but how to effectively communicate deserves special attention; this chapter presents some best practices, tips, and pitfalls toward that end. It is inserted at this point because so much is about to happen. Up to now, information flow has mainly been between the Executive and Campaign Team (with a few major exceptions, such as getting organization buy-in to the strategic objective and informal peer advisory groups) and the Campaign work has been preparatory. Nothing has changed yet; however, with the selection of highimpact change areas and the preparation and launch of tactical teams, the organization is about to become far more involved in the Campaign. Ranging from those who are active in the tactical teams to those who will be affected by the outcomes, to the mildly interested, they will all want and need information about the what’s, why’s, and wherefore’s of the Campaign. Communication plays an essential role by delivering the necessary information to inform, to achieve general support, and to gain action. It can’t be a separate stand-alone effort; it has to involve the whole hospital, the whole organization; because I find you can go through a change effort and six months later management says, “We are going to do this,” and people are left wondering who decided that; who was involved. People will write it off. Team Member — Diagnostic Test Manager, Hospital Information Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

As organizations get larger, communication becomes more difficult. When they are small, one-on-one, face-to-face communication gets most information across; as they get larger, mass media are relied on more and more. Communication is rarely perfect in achieving the needed results. The more difficult or complex the information, the greater the impact on individuals, the greater the likelihood of error. Part of the challenge is that people from different levels, and from different functional areas, speak different languages (or at least different dialects) — languages almost as different as citizens of distant countries. When a message is not understood the tendency is to simply repeat it, louder, with more gestures, to search for the right communication technology that will make them understand. Working with the Vice Presidents, getting them to understand the effort and to share in the priorities, was critical. Day-to-day business responsibilities were given priority over the long-term strategic change efforts. Then as we moved into the Campaigns we had to make sure that the benefits were communicated throughout the company. Making sure that everyone from senior management to first-line individual employees understood how what they’re doing benefited both them and WJ. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation


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Getting the results documented, measurable results, was a major part. They had to see the value of what it meant to participate, the gains that were made by changing the processes, by doing it right the first time. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation It wasn’t easy. I remember talking to people in the clinic, for example, and they just couldn’t understand how they, their job, played a role in the overall effort. To make this approach work you have to take it to the level of first-line employees; that is where things have to change, not just on the teams but to expand beyond what the teams were doing. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation

A. Recommendations for Campaign Communication The four parts of communication are interdependent: the information to be sent, the medium, the time, and the recipients. Getting any one of them close to right will depend on the other three. Getting all four close to right will depend on knowing the needed results. No single message, no single medium will ever be optimal for all audiences, or even for one audience all of the time. Part of the challenge to effective communication is to recognize the difference. Communication must be two-way: information will need to be delivered to as well as taken back from recipients. Opinions, ideas, concerns, questions, will need to be gathered, addressed, and responded to. Just when you think you have done enough you have probably only done 25 percent. There will always be wide variation in individual reaction to information, ranging from intense anger to not even receiving the information. The stronger the content, the greater the effects, the greater the variation. Never assume the information transmitted was received, or received in the same way by all. Always remember that with front-line employees, no matter how good a job you do communicating, there will be times when they don’t get it. Be ready for the feedback that they don’t get the change, they don’t understand it. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

Communication, both sending as well as receiving, uses resources; it takes time and energy as well as systems support, etc. Organizing and releasing information use the more obvious resources, but receiving and understanding it can use large amounts as well, primarily time and mental energy. Maximizing communication



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effectiveness means getting the most amount of understanding with the least amount of information released. The role, and needed results of, communication will change and overlap through the life of a Campaign. At first, the Executive Team works to gain understanding and support from the whole organization for their strategic plan and the specific objective handed off to the Team. As the Campaign Team takes over ownership of the strategic objective and managing the effort to meet it, they will take on the brunt of the communication effort. The information they deliver will range from broad and conceptual at first, to specific and concrete as specific changes are developed and tested. The needed results will range from sharing and supporting a conceptual model to understanding concrete details and changing the way work is done. It was more than a one-time speech or memo saying, “Do this.” We were told over and over, in a variety of ways, that he, the president, expected to see us championing the cause. So there was no single thing being done; there were a lot of signals being given that kept the effort directed and strong. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

II. WHAT TO COMMUNICATE A. Recommendations for Communication First, consider the desired result and then ask yourself (and others) what the intended recipients need to know and how the information should be organized to maximize the chances of getting that result. Different recipient audiences will require different communication techniques to accomplish what may appear to be the same result. Trying to communicate the same way, with the same content, to different audiences won’t achieve the needed results, no matter how much you raise your voice or gesture. At its simplest, every organization has three audiences: executive and senior management, middle management, and first-line supervisors and employees. There will probably be more. The Campaign will not be a normal part of most managers’ or employees’ dayto-day work. Information will need to be put in a framework in order for recipients to make sense out of it, i.e., what is this information? Where and how does it fit into anything that is important to the recipient? Why is he/she getting it now? And how does it apply to him/her? Campaign Team members can get so immersed in Campaign details that they can lose sight of the fact that people elsewhere may not have the vaguest idea of what they are doing or why. Details that should be very important to the intended audience can have little to no effect without a framework within which to understand them.


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You have to tie the whole effort together top to bottom. Make sure that the people, CEO, senior, middle managers, first-line management, and employees understand how what they are doing ties in. Internal Consultant Director, Corporate Analysis Wesley Jessen Corporation

Communicate both good and bad news and successes and failures. Information about bad news and failures will circulate anyway; it will always appear worse if it is left to rumor. Leaving out information will hurt the credibility of the source and the medium. In general, the more information delivered the less will be received. Keep content straightforward and at the minimum necessary to accomplish the purpose, no matter the type of audience. Include only the facts; just what is being done, has been accomplished, or is planned and why (remember to overlap framework information with details). Use as few words as possible, use graphics to deliver information. Make additional information available in resource sites that anyone wanting additional information can access. Resource sites can range from Web sites to Campaign logbooks to scheduled briefings to videotapes. Do not exaggerate hoped-for outcomes. Actions speak much louder than words; values, commitment to an objective, and the need for change are all recognized and understood by the actions taken to make them real. The most powerful communication will be about change work (i.e., design and development) that is planned or actions that have been taken and the results. Everything else will be window dressing.

III.

COMMUNICATE WITH WHOM?

“Whom” are the recipients of the information, the audience. Audience characteristics have been loosely defined in terms of where people reside in the organization, both vertically as well as functionally. As the Campaign progresses, a second, more important, characteristic will come into play to differentiate audiences: those whose jobs are being directly affected by the changes and those whose jobs are not. People whose jobs are directly affected will have a very different set of information needs than those who surround them. The same tiers will come into play within these two groups: executive, middle, and first-line managers and first-line employees. Get to know the audience: Who are they? What are their jobs like? What are their primary information sources? Who do they trust? And how much time have they to take in information? What information do they need? Don’t overlook, discount, or double-guess what is learned.



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HOW TO COMMUNICATE

The medium can range from one-on-one meetings to newsletters to mass simulcasts. How information is carried to the recipients will have a great deal to do with how well it is received and how it is understood: • Don’t expect an audience to change their use of information sources during a strategic change effort; in fact that is a time when people are more likely to go back to their most basic learning behaviors. If they normally use staff meetings for their primary information source, that is the source they will continue to use and, more importantly, to trust, especially when the information being delivered has a direct effect on them or their jobs. Just because a new medium is available doesn’t mean they are going to change their behavior and use it as a primary source. This is not to suggest that no new communication medium be used; just be aware that if the intended audience is not used to it they are less likely to use the information being delivered. • The medium is the message. How people learn of a decision or other piece of information can strongly affect their perception of it, their understanding of the content, and how they react to it. This rule is especially true when the information is about changes that will directly affect them, their jobs, and the formal or informal compacts between them and the company. • Adjust the medium to fit the message and the audience. Formal channels score low with first-line employees and supervisors in terms of credibility and influence. Publications such as newsletters are usually considered too general, washed out, and untrustworthy. Executive speeches to first-line employees, whether live, simulcast, videotaped, or intralinked are also found to breed skepticism and mistrust.3 A major part of the skepticism is explained by the medium that is carrying the message. First-line supervisors have high credibility and are the preferred source of information, especially when the information is about major changes to jobs and employment.3 • Give managers and first-line supervisors extra information and extra support to assure that they have the necessary facts to interpret the messages being delivered and to answer questions about them. They will be an important link in the communication chain. Direct superiors should be the ones to deliver information about changes which will have an impact on their reports’ jobs. • Communicate change information through normal lines of management, never through the Campaign Team. A Campaign Team will have no authority or credibility among managers or employees to make such an announcement. • Actively build opinion leaders and high credibility personnel as informal communication channels. Invite them to participate in the advisory groups formed to review and give feedback on the various work completed by the Campaign Team. This will allow for the gathering of important opinions and ideas as well as feed the informal communication channels with accurate information. It will work to offset some of the rumors and gossip that start.


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REFERENCES 1. Garvin, D., Leveraging processes for strategic advantage, Harvard Business Review, September-October, 77, 1995. 2. Carr, D. and Johansson, H., Best Practices in Reengineering, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995. 3. Larkin, T. J. and Larkin, S., Reaching and changing front line employees, Harvard Business Review, 97, 1996.


CHAPTER 8 Creating Tactical Teams I.

ABOUT TACTICAL TEAMS

Middle managers don’t know the details and you have to get into the details, you absolutely have to. IS (Information Systems) has to design the program we need but they can’t do that without understanding the details. Details are essential . . . Team Member — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Fund Administration MD Management

Tactical teams are responsible for completing the tasks necessary, to the level of detail necessary, to meet the tactical objective set by the Campaign Team. Details are at the heart of tactical projects. The teams’ tasks will vary widely given the objective that they have been assigned; but in all cases, the end results will be tested changes to the existing process and/or its environment. The Executive Team leads the strategic change effort, the Campaign Team manages it, and tactical teams research and develop changes to the level of detail necessary to implement them. Managers really don’t understand the details of the process. They think they do, but when they compare how they think it works to how it actually works they begin to realize how much they don’t know. Tactical teams had a lot better understanding of the first-line processes, the sources of problems, and how to fix them. They were also closer to the customer; employees that are closer to the customer have a better concept of process and can be trained on how to fix it. Internal Consultant Manager, Product Development Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

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The Campaign Team did some essential work to set them up and to support them but the people at the grass roots had to figure it out and make it work. Team Leader — Patient Flow Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

In general, the responsibilities which the tactical teams take on will include: • • • •

Interpreting the tactical objective Developing an understanding of the current process Determining the changes that must be made Designing the changes to the extent and detail necessary to test them and to allow for their full implementation

Tactical teams do not take responsibility for change implementation. They have neither the authority nor the capabilities to carry out permanent implementation of change. Change must be implemented through normal lines of management and the Executive Team owns that. The tactical team that I worked with had a lot of front-line staff and the change in empowerment was most noticeable there. They were really energized by being involved, by being asked for their opinions, to be taken away from their regular jobs for a significant amount of time. This was true for middle management but the contrast wasn’t as great. Internal Consultant Vice President, Finance Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Campaign and tactical teams are locked into an essential and often frustrating symbiotic relationship. They work in compatible but different contexts of knowledge, distinct in perspectives yet sharing a common goal. One cannot succeed without the other although neither may recognize this at the outset. They are mutually reliant on each other and they will be mutually frustrating. Actions can be taken to minimize these frustrations but they are inherent, to some degree, in the nature of the relationship. It worked well. The tactical teams thought the Campaign Team was not carrying its load. That was a lot like how we felt about the Executive Team, that we were doing all of the work and they weren’t doing much. Team Member Anonymous by request Sometimes tactical teams shared the priority to an even larger degree than the Campaign Team. The members would say, “Hey, we gotta get this done.” Team Member — Product Development Vice President, Development Business Strategy Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota


CREATING TACTICAL TEAMS

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The Campaign Team cannot complete effective changes without the expert, detail knowledge brought into play by tactical teams. Campaign Team members will often be frustrated by their lack of detail knowledge, by realizing that what they thought they knew about the subprocesses was not correct. They learn that what are often jokingly referred to as “just details” are actually essential details, and that this lack of knowledge of the essential details limits their ability to act. When the managers [in the Campaign Team] were involved they just didn’t know what we do and then we had to stop and explain to them the what and why about what we were doing. They sometimes just don’t have a clear picture of what’s going on below. At least they don’t know the details, and it is often the details that really need work. It was very difficult to make them understand what was wrong. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Unit Secretary, Pre-admission Clinic Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Now we know we need to get more first-line managers and employees involved. These are the experts on the detail, and lack of detailed understanding in making changes will really cause problems. Team Leader — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Director, Payment Safe Guards and External Relations Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

At the same time, tactical teams cannot bring about significant permanent change without the framework created by the Campaign Team. The contexts that the Campaign Team members work with, their day-to-day knowledge, authority, and connections, as well as the Campaign plan that ties the tactical changes together into a strategic whole are all essential to ensuring that winning the tactical “battles” does add up to winning the strategic “war.” When we were concerned with the process itself, they were the experts and could pin things down. But when decisions had to be made you needed the managers to get the broader picture and often the suggestions that were made did not fit into the overall objective; the tactical teams had to be better briefed on the design criteria. Team Member — Diagnostic Test Manager, Hospital Information Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Tactical teams have limited authority. Unlike the Campaign Team, members of tactical teams usually have little or no day-to-day management authority to draw upon. Members will have a great deal of responsibility, but little authority with which to fulfill it. While authority can be delegated to them for some activities, such as purchasing, they will be reliant on the Campaign Team for support in getting many actions completed or challenges removed. Much of the authority needed is informal and hard to recognize; managers may not even realize they have it or that it cannot be delegated. It comes with and is reliant on the seniority and credibility


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of middle and senior managers. These same limitations on authority explain, in part, why tactical teams usually do not take on responsibility for full implementation of the changes they create. The team leader helped out a lot. If I was not getting what I needed I’d go to him and explain how I had hit a block and he would help out. He has more authority than me; people were likely to go along with something he was asking them to do. That was the only authority I had to ask people to do something; it came from him. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Representative Blue Mountain Resort

Tactical teams are extraordinary teams that work outside of the normal work organization and processes. They will bring together experts of very different sorts and wide-ranging knowledge. Members draw their authority from and are accountable to the Campaign Team for completing their tasks. They are transient; when their tasks are completed the team dissolves. The Executive Team has to relate to the Campaign Team that they believe in what has to be accomplished and a big part of that is to give them the needed support. If the Team is having problems getting something across to certain individuals, senior management needs to put support behind them, to say, “OK, Judy has been asking you to cooperate, what is the problem? She is not an authority figure, but I want you to do it. What has to be done to make you feel comfortable carrying out these actions? Because I’m holding you responsible for doing what she’s asking you to do.” Team Leader — Purchasing and Receiving Accounts Payable Blue Mountain Resort

II. TACTICAL CONTEXTS OF KNOWLEDGE Tactical teams will create and work within their own contexts of knowledge — contexts that are similar and compatible to, but different from, those of the Campaign Team. The narrower scope of the subprocess, the focused character of the tactical objective, the makeup of the team membership, and its shorter life cycle cause the contexts to be narrower in purview and for the lines between them to be fuzzier. Tactical team members will work within: • Day-to-day context of knowledge; this is the work-as-usual experience that each member brings to the team. • The cross-role context of knowledge; this is created by members coming together from different areas of work and expertise, the sharing and blending of their individual, tacit knowledge and perspectives on the subprocess as well as different technologies and practices that can be brought to bear on it. The importance of the cross-role context will vary widely depending on the tactical objective and the approach required. If the changes are to be made within the framework of an



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existing subprocess, especially if the subprocess is cross-functional, then the crossrole context and the knowledge created within it can be very important to the point where the project context will be fully dependent on it. Conversely, if the team is faced with the design and/or integration of a new process or technology, then the cross-role context may be relatively unimportant and most work will be done, and members’ expertise applied, in the project context. • The project context is created in response to the tactical objective. This context is built on the first two, adding on the knowledge gained from critical process analysis and the expert resources brought to bear. It is in this context that process and subject expert knowledge are merged and combined to drive critical analysis and creation of changes. There was absolute value in pulling the tactical team together. We were so compartmentalized; I didn’t know what the ward clerks did after they received the reports; I didn’t know what was involved in Imaging; it really helped me to understand the process. Tactical Team Member — Diagnostic Test Senior Secretary, Pathology Lab Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre So often the jobs we do, we get tunnel vision; we don’t think of the guy on either side of us. Through this approach the blinders were taken off and we got to see the other person’s perspective, what they did, how what I do affects them and vice versa. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Clinical Coordinator Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

Once changes are developed, tested, and documented, the tactical team role is ended. Tactical team members may continue their work as experts on the new subprocess (i.e., the new way it is being made to work), to apply knowledge created in the project context to employee training and implementation of changes in the day-to-day work context. However, unlike the Campaign Team, which may continue in a long-term role in the cross-functional context, the tactical team’s cross-role context is usually not broad or strong enough to work as a basis for an ongoing team.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — WELLMARK BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF IOWA: ELECTRONIC TRANSFER OF FUNDS We had a clear mandate from the federal government: increase the volume of electronically transferred claims, funds and remittances. Our business goals also reflected the need for this change. Volume was going up 15 percent per year; unit cost reimbursement was going down 6 percent to 7 percent per year. We projected in 5 years with that scenario, we weren’t going to cover costs. We could not expect to stay in business with a loss scenario. Executive Owner Vice President, Medicare Claims and Administration — Retired


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Through refining and focusing, the objective came down to reducing the number of paper-based transactions. Getting that first step was essential. If we had gone after something more flamboyant but less measurable we wouldn’t have achieved what we did. Campaign Team Leader Director, Payment Safeguards and External Relations The Campaign Team represented all areas responsible for handling Medicare billings. An in-house resource on Campaign tools and techniques and team facilitation was assigned as well. We managed the horizontal part of the change very well; everyone was there. To get the kind of customer focus that we were after and to make the kind of extensive technical changes we made, you have to have cross-functional teams. Executive Owner Vice President, Medicare Claims and Administration — Retired We started by just locating the paper information movement steps, putting that information on the system, and letting providers know they could get it there. Then we began cutting back on traditional mailings. We saved a lot of money on postage. In the next phase we began working more closely with the suppliers. We got them more involved. We called over 1,000 suppliers to get input on the transition to electronic transfer of bills. Really, our effort focused on the customer side of the process. We could have focused on claims payment and safeguard, but by focusing on customer support we ended up with satisfied customers. We counted paper, measured paper and the number of suppliers we had on the electronic format to determine how successful we were. The goals we set for the tactical teams were essentially to reduce paper; that’s how we felt we could achieve the objective. Campaign Team Leader Director, Medicare Claims and Administration In the tactical teams we identified a lot of detailed areas where waste was going on, where paper was being printed and thrown away. We thought it was being used in another area but they ended up throwing it away. We really got to a fairly fine level of detail and some people, you could tell, felt like this wasn’t what they wanted to do, but that was where we really started to learn about how the process worked. Campaign Team Member Team Leader, Medicare Operations We process around six million Medicare claims a year. We moved from 500-plus pieces of paper for every 1,000 claims processed to less than 200. At today’s volume that represents well over a $100,000 savings per month. And that was when we had 70 percent of the suppliers connected electronically; now we have 97 percent, so the savings are even larger. Campaign Team Leader Director, Medicare Claims and Administration



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The results were outstanding. We saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. Executive Owner Vice President, Medicare Claims and Administration — Retired Nonmeasurable results came in the form of morale improvement; we got to know each other better across the silos and we learned about other processes. Campaign Team Member Team Leader, Medicare Operations We became more aligned in our responsibilities; we began really thinking across functional lines. In the Campaign we worked closely, really for the first time, and began to understand each other’s business. That continues to this day. We have realigned based on our strategic processes. Before, we had contracts and payments with hospitals and other facilities and contracts with professionals, doctors, and other suppliers. The two were kept very separate, from how we handled the customers to how we processed the claims. Now we have merged the two contract types; they are under one manager. Employees are being cross-trained and managers have responsibility over both types of contracts. We had never thought of that before. Campaign Team Leader Director, Medicare Claims and Administration

III.

SELECTING TACTICAL TEAM MEMBERS

Make sure that the team can deliver what they being asked to do. Look carefully at the team composition, how it works, and ask yourself if the people around the table can actually deliver what they are expected to do. Internal Consultant Coordinator, Process Support Services Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Tactical team membership is primarily made up of experts on the high-impact change area, the subprocess, and the changes that will be designed into it. These experts usually are a mix of first-line supervisors and employees, “inside” process experts, and “outside”1 subject experts, i.e., specialists on subject areas such as information technology, industry best practices, regulatory policies, etc. Membership makeup and the proportions of “inside” experts to “outside” experts will depend on the nature of the tactical objective. A tactical team is made up of three different types of members: • Team leader • Full team members • Auxiliary members


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The team leader is drawn from the Campaign Team members. Full team members are either process experts taken from employees and first-line supervisors who work with the process day to day or subject experts such as experts on technologies, best practices, or other areas that will be used to meet the tactical objective. Depending on the objective, tactical teams may require a larger proportion of expert resources than was the case on the Campaign Team. A. Recommendations for Selecting Tactical Team Members • Address needed changes to formal and informal work compacts, especially time commitment issues, up front, before going to managers or employees with requests to participate. This will prove to be a major challenge if overlooked. One of my greatest learnings was about the time commitment, especially staff who have production budgets. It’s hard to make adjustments for that; we, middle management, have our accountabilities and even when the manager above you says, “This is important, take the time,” and you pass that on, the employees will still come to you and say, “I’m really busy this week, do I have to work on this stuff?” We want them to be that way; that is a good employee, one that feels so committed to getting their job done. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that one of the greatest challenges is to overcome the very commitment, the work habits, we have tried to build into the workers. Team Member — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Medicare Claims Administration Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Pick members who will work together to get the project done, to deliver the needed results. Do not put problem or “gripe-driven” employees on the team in hopes that being involved will resolve their issue(s). It usually won’t; what it will do is distract and demotivate the team from getting the work done. I simply had people on the team that were not there to be a part of the team. I would have taken three members off. I had one member that was so vocal, so domineering, that I just couldn’t keep the person quiet. I had two people that hated each other. They couldn’t leave each other alone; I was always hearing about how “so-and-so said this about me . . .” Tactical Team Leader Anonymous by request We had some very difficult personalities to deal with; as a leader I spent as much time smoothing ruffled feathers as I did leading the team through the steps. The most important thing is to get the right mix of people on the tactical teams, team members that are going to be productive and willing to work toward consensus rather than people that would block something just because a particular person said it. Tactical Team Leader Anonymous by request



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• Choose subject experts that will work as a true part of the team, that will work with process expert members, communicate with them, help them to understand how the technology or best practice works, and how it will enhance the process. Sometimes subject experts can be arrogan . . . “We are here to save your worthless processes with our technology” and fail to realize that the expertise they bring to the team will be most effectively put in place as a part of a team effort. • Keep full team membership small, between four to six members (eight absolute maximum). If the subprocess is large enough to require a greater number of process experts, consider narrowing the issue (i.e., additional analysis) or breaking the issue into two (or more parts) to be taken on by two teams, hopefully at different times. An option is to put a subprocess team together, usually made up of managers from organizational levels between the Campaign Team members and first-line employees that will carry out additional work to understand the subprocess and to locate high-impact change areas within in it. This option may be required if the strategic process is very large. The subprocess team usually follows the same steps as a Campaign Team. • Work with “local managers” throughout the tactical effort, from membership selection through change designs, in order to build participation, buy-in, and support for: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Their employees’ participation The resources required throughout the project The logistics necessary to test changes The changes themselves

If they don’t understand what is going on and why, they can and will use “pocket vetoes” across the project and across the Campaign with results ranging from team member dropout, to project logistics battles, to barriers to implementation of final changes. Problems came when we skipped over first-line supervisors. Next time we need to make sure that they are included on the teams, or at least in better understanding of what is going on and the decisions that are being made. Internal Consultant Manager, Quality Improvement Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota In hindsight we missed a layer. We left out the first-line supervisors. We skipped over them — we didn’t include them in the teams. When we got to implementation we bumped up against a lot of resistance from first-line managers, the supervisors. They had already decided this wasn’t going to work. It was doomed to failure. We learned the hard way that we shouldn’t have done that. The tactical teams in one area found all sorts of things to be improved and came up with some excellent recommendations — but when the Campaign Team recommended the changes to the supervisors, they were resistant due to their lack of involvement. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Customer Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota


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• Keep team membership geographically local. While it may be ideal to pull team members together from dispersed sites, it is also idealistic to think that the members will be able to work together effectively across wide distances long enough to complete a project. The cost of travel, lack of local support, and the interruptions to the project during absences all add up to a situation that doesn’t work very well. Coping with doing business across distances is getting easier…but not enough. It is strongly recommended to have Team members in close proximity to one another.

If there are a variety of sites using the same process, the best approach is to develop a prototype change at one site and then benchmark it to others. A local tactical team can take ownership of the changes, adapt them, and test them under local conditions. The only other option is to bear the expense of bringing members together for a week to two weeks at a time across the life of the project. B. Steps for Selecting Tactical Team Members There are five general steps for creating a tactical project team: Step 1: Select the Tactical Team Leader The team leader is drawn from the Campaign Team membership. He or she is accountable to the Campaign Team Leader and Executive Owner for leading the tactical team through the steps necessary to deliver the required results. Having a Campaign Team member as tactical team leader links each of the tactical teams back to the Campaign Team. This close link is necessary to maximize two-way communication flow between the two teams, to maintain optimal support, and to minimize wandering from the tactical objective. It also makes cross-functional and Campaign context knowledge available, which can be used and integrated into the tactical effort.

Executive Team

Campaign Team

Tactical Teams

Figure 8.1

Tactical team membership links vertically as well as horizontally.



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You have to have somebody there working with them. Reading reports and going to monthly meetings isn’t going to do it; there is no way you can know what is going on or what the problems and issues are. I’m not saying I don’t trust them; that isn’t it at all. They worked hard, but it’s like any laborer digging a trench: they are watching their shovels and trying to get their job done. Somebody else needs to keep an eye on the bigger picture, to check if the line is straight, to look for things that are going to get in the way. You’d be surprised at what can go wrong in a tactical team, even with everyone doing their job. Executive Owner Midwest Construction Company

As tactical team leaders, middle managers will use their middle-ground perspective to link the executive vision and strategic objective to the tactical efforts where actual change must be developed and tested. The work they have completed to understand the strategic playing field and to identify the high-impact change areas will have strengthened their abilities to make these links. As tactical team leaders they will continue to build and rely on these abilities. The team leader’s primary job is to enable tactical team members to do the work they have been asked to do. The leaders do not do process analysis, change design, or test, but they mentor it, facilitate it, and remove the challenges that get in the way. Sometimes they work as “ignorant observers,” asking questions and making observations about assumptions and logic gaps. They organize the teams’ efforts: sometimes they push them and sometimes they take hold and pull. They work from inside the teams to create optimal conditions for success. It’s very important to have a strong positive leader. The leader is the contact with management; her role made it successful. Strong to keep the team on track and focused, positive to keep us aware that what we were doing was important. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Admission Clerk, Patient Information Centre Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

The team leader is the accountable manager for his or her tactical team members. They report to the team leader for the length of time they are assigned to the team. The leader is responsible for performance appraisals and evaluations as well as other business-as-usual employee management functions required during the project. The tactical team leader is responsible for: • Tactical project management. The tactical team has a lot of work to do in a limited amount of time. Careful planning and management will be necessary. • Team meeting facilitation, or at least for ensuring that adequate facilitation is available and used. This responsibility may require additional support from others.


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It worked. It got results. It’s just that we had a lot of challenges with personalities in the tactical teams. If we did it again I would be a stronger leader and a better facilitator to help the team get the work done. I’d love to go back and do things differently. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Provider Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota • The communication link to the Campaign Team as well as to peers and others. As a member of the Campaign Team, he/she develops communication and feedback links with other managers and opinion leaders through his or her advisory group; those links will continue to prove their worth throughout the project. • Project expediting: tactical teams are in the business of designing and testing change. Many of the tasks the team is responsible for completing will require authority the members do not have as well as facilities, equipment, support, and employee participation they have no authority to request. Another aspect of enthusiasm is convincing them that they could have whatever it takes to make this work; time and resources, but you have to ask for it. And our officers were really good at meeting those requests. That built the enthusiasm even more. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Often one of the major challenges will be that team members simply may not know how to carry out the necessary tasks. The team leader can lend knowledge, authority (if he or she doesn’t have it, they can get it through the Executive Owner), and logistical support necessary to get things done and to get them done more quickly. When we bumped up against that problem we went to our Executive Owners and they would let everyone know — they were to cooperate with what we were trying to do, the changes we were trying to develop. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort • Recognition of work for both individuals and the team. Measurable success will be the greatest source of recognition, but it is very important to give credit for the “grunt work” that goes into achieving success. Team members as well as peers and managers outside of the team should be aware of the work and be prompted to recognize it as well. • Budget management: tactical projects usually require expenditures to be made for expert consultants, equipment, and facilities that may be required to develop and test solutions. The team leader takes on responsibility for managing expenditures and should be given signing authority. • Representing the Campaign Team in the tactical project. He/she:



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1. Acts to maintain focus on the strategic objective and the Campaign Plan 2. Brings the knowledge of the cross-functional process, the high-impact areas chosen, their required results, and the Campaign Plan 3. Assesses the direction and potential outcome of tactical project work • Addressing and removing challenges and barriers: no tactical project is without challenges and barriers; they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The leader acts to address and remove them quickly, proactively if possible. He helped remove stumbling points. I don’t know how he removed some of the blocks we bumped up against but he usually did. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Representative Blue Mountain Resort • Tactical team representation to the Campaign Team. The Campaign Team will need and want to know what is going on with the tactical project. As the tactical team representative, the leader: 1. Attends all en banc Campaign Team meetings 2. Raises visibility of any challenges to tactical progress 3. Presents and explains project output, such as process maps, analysis findings, and decisions made or decisions which should be made with input from the Campaign Team An important part of this responsibility is to put tactical work into the Campaign context. It can be very difficult for Campaign Team members to understand tactical projects without being interpreted and tied back into the Campaign effort. • Acting to meet team support needs, such as materials, equipment, facilities, test logistics, personnel, admin. support, etc. • Coaching and motivating to ensure that all team members are expected, allowed and encouraged to give input. Blending resource experts with process experts can cause some employees to “shut down,” to be overwhelmed and stop offering input. Employees may also need additional motivation to complete assignments. Don’t let up, don’t take a break. Keep it going, you have to be the driver. At first people, team members, won’t understand the importance of this; you’ll have to act as the driver and what you’ll see is that someone else will pick it up and start driving it and then you need to encourage them to do that too. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort Another important role of the team leader is to make sure that your team members feel wanted. I should have done that more at first; people got discouraged because we couldn’t act on the specific need or particular change they wanted. Let them know that they are an important part of the effort; just being there, giving input, they are important. President Blue Mountain Resort


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Part of it is the belief that this approach or any change management is empowering, or can be, to the people that are participating in it. So generating enthusiasm for the team is important, for the idea that we are going to make a difference, we really are, us. The possibilities of mapping out how this is going to be in the future is up to us and selling it to other stakeholders; that’s exciting, that’s empowering, that gives you control. It’s very important that the teams feel that, that they understand that inside and out. That is a very difficult thing to do. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Resolving team interpersonal issues and problems. It is difficult to say whether first-line employees have more issues or if they are just not particularly good at dealing with them. Interpersonal issues will arise and will have to be dealt with aggressively. They can and will bring a tactical project to a full stop. There was a lot of fighting. I had a lot of closed-door sessions with members. They simply were not able to function well together. Team Member — Individual Group Enrollment Group Leader, Individual Markets Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa Things, issues, were often dealt with outside the meetings and members would come to a meeting and discover that decisions had been made outside the meetings. And that happened because coming to agreement inside the meetings was too painful. We weren’t good at it. It took a lot of time. Internal Consultant Coordinator, Process Support Services Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa The team leader role also delivers very important growth learning opportunities that do not often present themselves in their day-to-day roles. The managers involved in leading the teams have grown considerably in their abilities to manage change and in using this strategy as a tool for day-to-day management. It’s changed the behavior of the two managers that report to me in a very positive way. They are using the tools, the flowcharting, in other projects to a very good effect. In addition to skill development, I have seen them strengthen their abilities to cope with change in a more organized manner, to try to avoid knee-jerk responses to problems. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre



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a. Criteria for Selection of Tactical Team Leader The candidate for tactical team leader should have: • Day-to-day management responsibility and authority over all or at least a major piece of the subprocess. This is key; it allows the leader to address many of the details, issues, and challenges that will arise in the project team. • Good project management skills (at least be trained in them and be willing to actively use them). • Strong team facilitation skills (or, again, at least be trained in them and be willing to work to strengthen them). Support facilitation can be used if this is a weak area. • Time. The responsibilities outlined above will normally require more time than the Campaign Team work. Fulfillment of the team leaders’ responsibilities is essential to the success of the tactical project and the Campaign. Research people tend to want to research things to perfection and can lose track of what we need to produce. Then the production people are faced with getting product out the door. You need a strong leader that can balance this process, not suppress it, because the natural conflicts in priorities are healthy; however, if it gets out of hand it can stymie the effort. Team Member — Production Yield and Efficiency Manager, Technical Services Wesley Jessen Corporation You have to make the time to do it. As a manger you have 25 other things, people, fires, pulling at you; but you have to make this important, because you’ll find yourself wondering, “Why am I doing this, it doesn’t seem very important.” But it is, it’s very important. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

Step 2: Select Tactical Team Members Tactical team members represent the best resources the organization has to offer to design and test changes. They are experts on the subprocess, either in terms of what it is currently or what it needs to become. Team members will work together to create a shared knowledge of what the current subprocess is, what it must look like in the future, and what will be required to get there. The tactical objective and subprocess profile created by the Campaign Team (see Chapter 6) will serve as important information here. The team leader takes the lead in carrying out member selection. He or she will need to organize a working session with Campaign Team members as well as “local” managers (who work with and around the subprocess) to complete this. The primary


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objective is to designate team members, but the session should also work to brief local managers on the “whys and wherefores” of selecting the change areas and to begin (or continue) the ongoing task of maintaining their support for project work and their employees’ involvement in it. Getting local managers proactively involved in the selection step rather than going to them for approval after the fact will slow the selection down. It may even result in not getting the best and brightest members, but it will go a long, long way to minimizing problems and conflicts with employee participation. The other Campaign Team members may be needed, in part, to define and locate the “outside” expertise needed on the team. Subject experts often do not work with the process or even with the organization; someone may have to go out and find them. The kinds of expertise that are needed will depend on the required results and approach designated for the project. Information technology expertise is most commonly thought of when expert resources are identified, but they may also be needed in a variety of other fields such as human resources, union regulations and relations, legal and regulatory, health and safety, etc. If the subprocess is to be radically changed, then a larger proportion of members will be subject experts and a smaller proportion process experts. If the change effort is incremental, inside experts will make up a larger share. Membership can and may need to change as the project evolves; additional subject or process experts may be called upon as required. a. Criteria for Selection of Tactical Team Members For me, being on the tactical team made me feel like I am a bigger part of the Mountain. It gave me a boost to feel that I was being asked to help out. I see the things that I worked on, ideas that I have, are now a part of Blue Mountain. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Representative Blue Mountain Resort • Credibility with and trust of management and peers. In the work they need to complete, tactical team members will need to make many decisions ranging from minor to major, about all aspects of designing, developing, and testing changes. Most of the team’s work will be based on the good judgment and knowledge that members bring with them. If members are not credible, if their knowledge and judgment are not trusted, peers and managers will question and doubt their work; the project will bog down and stop. There will be few perfect team members but there will be potential members who score higher than others on this criterion. • Expertise on the subprocess, technology, best practice, or other subject area from which they are being drawn. Process experts should have worked with the process for at least a couple of years. Subject experts should be expert enough to be able to make decisions about application of technology or practices without having to get permission or check in with their supervisors.



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• Be willing and able to work in a project team environment. Sharing knowledge and gaining consensus within the team will be essential for creating the project context of knowledge and for gaining consensus on changes to be designed and tested. Some people can get so wrapped up in a sense of their own expertise that they have little patience with others who do not understand; this is true for both process and subject experts. They tend to bully their ideas through rather than explain and get buy-in. • Be willing to get the work done, to take on and complete action assignments given either by peers or the team leader. Simply put, get involved, take on assignments aggressively, and do the work necessary to meet the objective. With this particular effort I felt that the senior management team had a problem and they picked the right players to help resolve it. That is one of the most important things; if you pick players that don’t want to participate or have a very negative attitude to change, you’re not going to get that success. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling OR Booking Clerk Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

b. Tips and Pitfalls Don’t put new employees on a project team. They will normally lack two of the most important criteria for selection: credibility and expertise on the subprocess. Yet new employees are frequently suggested for membership; the project is seen as a learning exercise and new employees will have the least impact on getting day-today work out. Putting a new employee on a tactical team as a learning experience is like putting an unskilled mechanic on a race car pit crew during a big race in order for them to get some experience. Give them two or three years’ experience, knowledge, and credibility building before making them a full team member. Step 3: Designate Auxiliary Members In tactical teams, the difference between full and auxiliary members is a matter of time commitment: how much is needed and how much can be given. How much time any given member will need to put in will differ by expertise and project. Auxiliary members are those whose input will be required for only a part of the process or will be peripheral to the main analysis, design, and test of changes. (In some cases first-line employee auxiliary members may have to be used to strengthen the cross-role context, depending on the nature and requirements of the project and the changes being developed.) They are responsible for being available when needed and called on, and for completing work as required. Process experts are usually full members and are expected to give the greatest amount of time. If the project calls for redesigning the process with new technologies or best practices, or integrating them into an existing process, then subject experts may also be required as full members.


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Step 4: Get Line Management Support for Employee Participation You have to ensure that it’s clear to managers assigning staff to front-line teams that this is important, that they need to work it out and not put heavy pressure on the team members to feel guilty about doing the work on the team. Managers need to support the front-line staff and not give them a lot of grief for coming to meetings. Internal Consultant CQI Coordinator Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Completion of this step is very, very important. Do it before asking an employee to participate. Team members will need the support of their managers and supervisors to participate effectively on the team. If they don’t have it, their participation will be a running conflict for them, with both their managers and peers. Support in this case means more than awareness and academic agreement; it means formal and informal commitment by the managers that their employees will put in the agreedupon amount of time. It means that they will help to explain to and get buy-in from the employees’ peers. It is never fair to ask an employee to join a team, to take on tasks that will take them away from their regular work, if their managers do not support them. Putting employees in a bind where they must choose is destructive to them, to their jobs, and to the tactical project. Before going to local managers and supervisors to ask for the participation of one of their reports, be prepared to explain: • • • • •

The Campaign in general as a framework for the local tactical project Why the subprocess was selected and the tactical project change objective What members are needed on the tactical team and why Expected time commitment, labor and calendar time How the loss of their employee will be offset, in other words what actions will be taken so that they won’t take a major hit for not meeting budget or quotas

Note: This last one will take some pre-work. Don’t try to bluff . . . “of course this is so important I’m sure something will be done . . .” or to make empty promises… “we will make funds available . . .” Go in with clear, agreed-upon actions that will be taken. Managers and supervisors will need to know that they are not going to absorb the impact of this effort alone, that production budgets and expectations will be adjusted. They will not be left hanging after giving up one or more of their best people. Change consumes resources; the organization as a whole has to absorb the impact, not just first-line managers and supervisors. Local management support will need to include: • Accountability for the employee taking the time necessary for the tactical project. In other words, if the employee isn’t giving the allocated time to the project team, his or her manager will find out why and correct for it. It won’t have to be an informal request from a frustrated team leader. • Changes to the formal and informal work compact to specify how participating in the team will affect the employee’s job status, performance appraisals, pay, etc.



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• Specific recognition that the employee will not be able to meet and will not be held accountable for day-to-day work quotas, budgets or emergencies.

Support is never perfect: there will still be some feelings of animosity about losing an employee, and there will still be pressure on the employee to get back to work. However, if nothing is done to build management support, the animosity and pressure can and will drive an employee away from participating in a tactical team. I had one member that wanted to drop out but it was that they weren’t getting the support they needed from their manager. We worked through that and now he’s committed again. But it took working things out with his manager to get the support he needed. Team Leader — Purchasing and Receiving Accounts Payable Blue Mountain Resort

Step 5: Take the Request for Participation to the Employee The tactical team leader and line manager should go together to make the request to an employee for his or her participation as a team member. This will emphasize line management support for his or her involvement. Be prepared to give the employee a short briefing on the project, including the actions that will be taken to assure that he or she will not be working two jobs at once. Beware of team member turnover. The short life cycle, scope, and intensity of knowledge creation in a tactical project means that losing a team member in the middle will be very strongly felt. While the team will not have to start over, it probably will have to come to a stop until an additional resource is found and brought up to speed. Participants need to start at the beginning and work their way through each step. Coming into the middle is very confusing. You lose trust; the people that have been working with the project wonder what you’re doing there. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Unit Secretary, Pre-admission Clinic Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

Form a selection team of local managers and Campaign Team members. A request to withdraw a member would go before this team as well. Withdrawals would only be allowed if approved by this team. This avoids the team leader being pitted against local management and works to minimize managers’ fears that they will be the only ones giving up valuable employees. Take care to recognize and address team members’ formal as well as informal work compacts.2 Informal compact items are just that, informal; they may never have been put into words or addressed outside informal conversation. However informal their nature, they will be on the employees’ mind; they will weigh on their


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decision and how they feel about their participation. Bring them out for discussion. Only the employees’ line managers will be able to do this effectively.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — GREY BRUCE REGIONAL HEALTH CENTRE TACTICAL TEAM — RECORDING PATHOLOGY REPORTS ON PATIENT CHARTS This tactical team was charged with improving their portion of the process in order to get a minimum of 90 percent of pathology reports on patient charts within 48 hours. This was an incremental improvement effort. The strategic outcome (based on shared outcomes with the “specimen to lab” tactical team) was that over 90 percent of results were on patient charts within 24 hours. A four-member tactical team worked on the process. Changes recommended and put in place were: • Installation of FAX modems in lab. secretaries’ personal computers, which allowed faxing results to physicians offices and wards immediately on completion • Replacing audiotapes with a digital dictation system, which allowed the pathologists’ findings to be transferred more quickly to secretaries • Job sharing; position responsibilities were changed so that secretaries took work as it came in rather than being assigned to specific doctors We achieved a great success by doing a lot of little things, all of which added up to excellent results. We have a heavy workload and we sped all of this up with little extra work burden. The results are that not only do doctors get the results faster but telephone calls we got wanting to know where the reports were have been reduced at least 60 percent to 70 percent, which increases the work we get done; we used to spend a great deal of our time just answering the phone. Tactical Team Member Senior Secretary, Pathology Lab

IV.

PLANNING FOR TACTICAL TEAM SUPPORT, PREPARATION, AND LAUNCH

Support, preparation, and launch refer to the necessary ingredients, both hard and soft, that will need to be made ready, available, and/or delivered to enable team members to bring their expertise to bear and for the project to progress. Tactical teams are made up of individuals that will come together and, in a relatively short period of time, have to learn to work as a team to create and deliver significant results. Tactical teams’ ability to move through their projects smoothly and reasonably efficiently without significant amount of lost work, rework, or hassles will depend to a large degree on the preparation and support that are carried out and/or made available. Support (or the lack of it) for tactical teams will have a strong effect on the Campaign plan. Tactical projects are often interlinked and cumulative, the results of one tying



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into the launch and/or completion of another. One project going off schedule or left incomplete can have a major impact on the overall Campaign. Areas where preparation and support will be most critically needed are: • • • • • •

People: expert consultant, facilitation and administrative support Facilities, equipment, and applications Budget Adjustments to the formal and informal work compacts Team briefing Training

The list of support and preparation needs will look the same as for the Campaign, but the character of each is somewhat different. A. Recommendations for Tactical Team Support, Preparation, and Launch Plan support in advance; do not wait until the project is imminent or under way. Timing is tight in tactical projects and mustering needed people, facilities, budget, etc., takes too much time. Do not wait for team members to ask for support; they will not necessarily recognize what they don’t have until it “bites them on the leg” and by then it is too late; the project will be delayed. Teams will need expert consultant and facilitation support. Where it comes from, internally or externally, should be the only question. If internal capabilities do not exist or will be overbooked, external sources should be tapped. If budget restrictions do not allow the use of external resources, take the time to begin building (additional) internal resources before launching tactical teams. Minimum resource requirements are meeting facilitation, process analysis, and change design and test skills. Use Campaign Team members not assigned as team leaders for tactical support. This will allow them to: • Apply the training they received in process mapping, measurements and facilitation • Keep current on tactical team activities • Learn the strategy and tools of tactical projects We found that the most effective Campaign Team members were the ones participating on the tactical teams. All Campaign Team members ought to be participating on the tactical teams. The ones who were not on tactical teams would lose touch with the process. The ones involved with them were constantly defending what was going on, what they were doing, to those who were not. Team Member — Product Development Vice President, Development Business Strategy Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Be careful that managers filling these support roles do not slip into being quasiteam leaders or team members. Their input can be valuable at times but they can easily get too involved and overshadow tactical team members.


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B. Steps The needed actions for planning support are not steps so much as they are ingredients. They are listed here roughly in the sequence in which they should be taken. The support needed is much like that for the Campaign Team, although more of it will be needed because of the multiple tactical teams working at one time. Also, tactical teams come in greater variety; membership and project characteristics can range widely, and support needs should be adjusted accordingly. Begin arrangements as early as necessary to ensure that each team gets the support it needs. Step 1: Plan for Support People Support people include: • Expert consultants on tactical change tools, techniques, strategy, and measurement. These consultants act as guides through the steps of the tactical project as well as to advise on the use of tools and techniques such as mapping tools, process and problem analysis, data gathering and analysis, etc. Different projects will require different strategies and tools. • Team facilitators. First-line employees are normally less experienced with working in groups and meetings. Facilitation will be an important ingredient to keeping meetings on track and productive. The team leader can act as facilitator but other support will probably need to be made available as well. Even when you know what you are doing you need the facilitator to document ideas, to clarify, to ensure understanding. The facilitator made sure we were being clear. She asked questions and didn’t let us get away with being vague or unclear. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Clinical Coordinator Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Admin. support. For tactical teams, admin. support takes on a much more varied and extensive role than it did with the Campaign Team. Admin. support will be needed for: 1. Documentation of work; given the detailed nature of the teams’ work, documentation is very important and can be very extensive. 2. Logistical support. 3. Communication with external suppliers, customers, and stakeholders. While all communication is formally routed through the Campaign Team, admin. support personnel will need to work closely with tactical teams to ensure that information is adequately documented, organized, and processed so that it reaches the Campaign Team in workable shape. • Test support; this will include managers, employees, and technical support necessary to carry out tests on changes developed. How many and for how long will depend on the nature of the design being tested.



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Step 2: Plan for Facilities, Equipment and Applications In addition to the needed facilities, equipment, etc., to support tests, the team will need: • A dedicated meeting room where they can leave drawings and diagrams up on the walls • Office space to work in many first-line supervisors and employees will not have space where they can do paperwork and hold small meetings • Personal computers and applications • Specialized flowcharting applications • A flip-chart maker to enlarge 81/2" × 11" sheets to flip-chart-size prints.

Step 3: Plan and Allocate a Budget A tactical project budget will be needed for test equipment and facilities, travel, training, and expert consultants, as well as work space, equipment, and facilities. A part of the overall Campaign budget will need to be set aside for each tactical project. The team leader is responsible for budget management. Adequate controls and procedures will need to be put in place to manage expenditures. a. Tips and Pitfalls Set forth a budget in advance of team launch and give the team leader signing authority up to a level that will include the large majority of expenses. A common error is to wait until the team presents proposals for changes and then to allocate the needed dollars, but this will impede progress. The tactical project will have to stop and wait while each expenditure is considered and approved. Step 4: Plan for Adjustment to Formal and Informal Work Compacts The areas that need to be covered do not differ markedly from those discussed for the Campaign Team: • • • •

To whom will team members report Modifications to position descriptions to reflect the assignment to the tactical team Salary and promotion considerations How evaluations and appraisals will be carried out, by whom, and to what criteria

At least one of our teams did not feel supported; they didn’t feel that they were adequately freed-up to do the work they needed to do in and out of meetings. This work was layered on top of their existing workload. They felt that their Executive Owner should have done more to support them on that. Internal Consultant Vice President Human Resources Blue Mountain Resort


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• How will existing work responsibilities be dealt with? Adjustments will have to be considered for: • Team members; how their positions and careers will be dealt with if their jobs are changed markedly while they are on team assignment, either as a result of project work or because of actions taken to correct for their absence. • Managers directly affected by the loss of an employee to the project team(s). This concern is at the very heart of committing resources to strategic change. Don’t underestimate how difficult it can be to deal with this one. • Employees and managers whose positions and work may be affected by process changes.

Addressing these concerns before the work begins can remove a lot of fear and resistance to the change effort. 5. Plan for the Team Briefing The primary purposes of the tactical team briefing is to build understanding of the change effort, how their part fits in, and to get participant buy-in to the importance of the tactical effort. The character of and setting for this briefing are not significantly different than they were for the Campaign Team; however, the content will be different. Tactical team members will need information about both the full Campaign effort as well as information specific to the tactical project. Information should be delivered both as a document and in a verbal briefing. The toughest part was to connect tactical team members to the strategic objective. Our team was focused on reducing paper. We had three different tactical teams on different parts of the process. Trying to get them to work together and understand their objectives was the toughest part. Internal Consultant Manager, Accounts Payable Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

The information about the overall Campaign should include: • • • • • •

The Campaign objective and how it fits into the strategic plan The ∆ the strategic objective represents The compelling mandate for change The strategic process profile and blueprint The strategic process performance measures The work completed that has led up to the selection of the high-impact change areas and the launch of the tactical project teams • The Campaign plan • The Campaign Team members

Information about the tactical project should include:



• • • • • • • • • • • • •

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The subprocess profile The required outcome of the project at hand How the required outcome ties into accomplishing the strategic objective Any specific issues or features of the process environment that will affect the tactical project The team members, who are they and why were they selected (this may be the first time they have met) The recommended tactical approach to be used, and why The amount of time that has been allocated for the project Support preparations that have been made Budget allocations How far the tactical team can go, how radical they can get, to achieve the required outcome Limitations and boundaries, “out of bound areas,” actions, and options for the project The roles of the Executive and Campaign Teams in relation to the tactical teams, any specific support responsibilities or commitments made by them Adjustments to formal and informal work compacts (for both team members as well as managers and employees that will be affected by the tactical project and its outcomes

6. Plan for Tactical Team Training Training for tactical team members will need to cover both: • Hard skills such as tools and techniques for completing the project, and • Soft skills such as meeting basics, interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, and communication You can teach individuals, but when they come together as a team the problems are different and the people themselves are a unique mix. I think it is a better approach to see how the team forms, what the mix is, and how the people behave, and then deliver the training. Internal Consultant CQI Coordinator Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre Listening skills were very important, being able to listen to what someone else is saying even if you disagree. I found in this team, people would start to say things that I had heard before but I hadn’t really listened to or understood. There was more to what they were saying than I had thought before. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Patient Care Coordinator for Pre-admission Clinic and Day of Admission Surgery Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre


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a. Tips and Pitfalls Plan the delivery of most hard- and soft-skill training on a just-in-time basis. Major doses of training up-front will result mainly in confusion and little or no memory of the skills or information when they are needed. This shouldn’t mean that the expert consultant moves in and becomes a member of the family. Up-front planning should be able to pin down training needs to within a week of need. Strong facilitation of team meetings can be used in lieu of, and may be more effective than, extensive soft-skills training. Try a combination of both strong facilitation and training to get the most out of the team while leaving participants with skills to take away with them. Customize hard-skills training to the project and combine training with doing in order to move the team ahead quickly. All training should be hands-on and applied in order to show how the tool or technique works within the project at hand. Be cautious about training; it can take more time and experience than expected for team members to become proficient with a tool or technique. Be careful using subject experts for consulting on tactical strategies, tools, and techniques. This can be like the hammer salesman explaining how almost everything looks like a nail and he has just the tool for all occasions. The tactical teams can end up using the particular technology far more than needed. C. Preparation and Launch of the Tactical Team Preparation and launch of tactical teams are much like those required for the Campaign Team. There are differences, of course; tactical teams work within a framework created by the Campaign Team and they will need information that helps them to understand that framework. There are three general actions needed. Step 1: Brief the Team Members The tactical team briefing should be delivered in both written and verbal format. The written brief should present just the facts about the Campaign and the tactical project as outlined earlier. It will act as a support document for the verbal briefing. The verbal presentation should be given in an informal workshop arrangement that allows for questions and discussion of content. The tactical team leader should lead it. Other attendees may include local managers and supervisors as well as any Campaign Team members that represent functional areas closely tied to the tactical project or who may be supporting the tactical team. Step 2: Complete Preliminary Training Preliminary training should be limited to: • A half-day overview of a “road map” to be used in the tactical project ahead, what to do first, second, etc., as well as when to use various tools and techniques and



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for what purpose. The road map will have to be customized for each project depending on the approach used. • A half-day introduction to rules and guidelines for working together in project teams.

a. Tips and Pitfalls Consider adding “personality typing” (Myers-Briggs, etc.) to preliminary training and preparation. Campaign and tactical team members who used this approach reported that it was valuable in working together. Allow three to four hours for the briefing session: time enough to explain the wealth of information, for it to “sink in,” for questions to be raised and answered. Arrange for necessary resources and schedule just-in-time training in advance. In the flurry of project activities, training can be lost or short-changed. Step 3: Launch the Team The launch formally initiates the project; it is more ceremonial than substantive in nature. It serves two purposes: • It reminds team members, managers, and Campaign Team members alike that there is a new project team working on the process. • It underscores the fact that the tactical team is an important part of a strategic effort.

a. Tips and Pitfalls No hype or hoopla is allowed for the launch. There will already be skepticism and cynicism enough without giving people reason to have more. Nothing will have changed yet; wait for results to come in before counting the benefits. The launch is intended to transmit a sense of support for the effort, not to celebrate successes that have not been accomplished.

REFERENCES 1. Hammer, M. and Champy, J., Reengineering the Corporation, A Manifest For Business Revolution, Harper Business, New York, 1993. 2. Paul Strebble, Why do employees resist change, Harvard Business Review, 1996, p. 86.



SECTION III Tactical Projects PREFACE Tactical projects are about exploring, designing, and testing process changes — the changes determined by the Campaign Team as required in order to have the greatest impact on the strategic objective. Tactical projects and their results are the building blocks of strategic success. Without them and the resulting detailed process changes, the strategic plan, goals, and objectives are simply writing on paper. Yet tactical teams do not (normally) implement changes. They develop and test them, but they have neither the authority nor the knowledge needed to get others to adopt the ideas or to make them permanent. That is the responsibility of the Executive Team. Chapter 9 covers the mechanics of tactical projects. Even though this subject could fill volumes, the work carried out by tactical teams is dealt with here only in overview. Attention is given primarily to the differences between the experiences of the Campaign and tactical teams. Chapter 10 renews the focus on the Campaign Team and what it is doing, its members’ roles and responsibilities, while the tactical projects are under way. The Team’s collective attention is divided between managing the Campaign, maintaining the big-picture perspective, shepherding tactical teams, and working to assure that the results of the tactical efforts add up to strategic success. With the launch of the tactical teams, the Campaign Team takes on a more nurturing role, giving the process and subject experts room to explore and create the necessary changes. However, Campaign Team members will have more to do than simply aid and support tactical teams. The discoveries, successes, and setbacks encountered by tactical teams will keep the Campaign Team busy modifying and refining framework and plan alike.



CHAPTER 9 Tactical Project Mechanics I.

ABOUT TACTICAL PROJECT MECHANICS

Tactical project mechanics encompass the actions, tools, and strategies the tactical teams use to create the required results as defined by the Campaign Team. These mechanics will differ greatly depending on the nature of the tactical objective, which can range from designing a new subprocess to implementing a specified change or new process, to incremental improvement of an existing subprocess. The tools, techniques, and strategy discussed here, by necessity, are general. While tactical projects can be very different, they should share several common traits: • Each should be methodical in nature, including a full, shared understanding of the subprocess and its environment. • Each must deliver measurable results which clearly link to (or can be derived from) meeting the strategic objective.

II.

SET TEAM GROUND RULES AND EXPECTATIONS

Ground rules and expectations establish the rules of order, standards, and expectations for performance and behavior in tactical team meetings, completion of work, and project management. They also include how these rules and expectations will be enforced. Much of the discussion on ground rules and expectations for the Campaign Team (Chapter 4) applies here. The recommendations specific to the unique characteristics of tactical teams are given below: A. Recommendations for Setting Ground Rules and Expectations • Team rules and expectations need to be set by consensus. Members should have input into their creation; rules should not be mandated (unless things really get out

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of hand and then you may be in trouble). Buy-in and support are essential to making any rules effective. Learning to abide by them will have to be gained over time. • The team leader should not be put in the role of sole rule enforcer. If team input and consensus are gained, members will normally be willing to bring peer pressure to bear on rule breakers. • Meeting rules and expectations, once established, need to be followed by everyone who works in and with the team; e.g., consultants, Campaign Team members, managers and others. Senior and middle managers can practice terrible meeting manners when working with subordinates.

The logistical guidelines given for the Campaign Team (Chapter 4) are even more applicable to tactical teams. They are repeated here because of their import: • Getting work done and attendance at meetings are not optional. • Get together en banc, as a whole project team only as necessary. • Assign work to subteams. Details of changes can be worked on by experts in that area and brought back to the team. • “Partner up.” • There can be no substitutes. • Absence from a meeting does not nullify commitments made in an action plan. • Make decisions only once. • Keep important information and ideas “up on the wall.” For the tactical team “important information” will include tactical project and Campaign information, the objectives, process maps and monitoring measures. Campaign information should be posted because the tactical project is defined within the framework of the Campaign. If the project moves outside of the framework, it loses its priority and its value (or at least most of it). Keeping both posted will help to maintain alignment from the strategic down to the tactical level. • Team members should keep logbooks of project work.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — RED DEER REGIONAL HOSPITAL CENTRE: OR BOOKING/SCHEDULING TACTICAL PROJECT We were given the objective of streamlining the full booking process. We started out thinking we were to improve the process, but there were so many problems we ended up redesigning it. Specifically we were to minimize the number of times the patient was contacted and to make sure the needed information was gathered and delivered. Tactical Team Member Unit Secretary, Pre-admission Clinic We used to call the patient six to eight times for each scheduled operation; now we call each one two maybe three times. Before, the patient was phoned to let them know their surgery date, they were phoned to set up the pre-admission appointment, then they came in, then we phoned them to let them know the surgery was scheduled, then


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we phoned them to make sure we had enough information to admit. Now they are given a date, the pre-admit clerk phones to gather the demographic information and makes the appointment, and that’s the end of it as far as before surgery. Tactical Team Member Clinical Coordinator Our team was made up of first-line employees. That made it easier. We all wanted something to happen, we needed it to happen. We were all frustrated and we needed to make changes. Tactical Team Member Patient Care Coordinator for Pre-admission Clinic and Day of Admission Surgery We used to not trust the information that was given. Everything was repeated; bits were gathered over and over. We trust each other more now and we trust the patient more; that someone won’t misuse the information if you give it to them. We trust each other’s judgment, the input we give, and that the other departments will make their information available. Tactical Team Member Patient Information Center Admission Clerk The changes were a mix of technology, defining the process, and training. We increased communication through the LAN system and other technical changes. Each department has a process flowchart that we follow right through and we have standards. Tactical Team Member Unit Secretary, Pre-admission Clinic We got the surgeons’ staff involved in the process; they have to be to make it work. We started by inviting all of the surgeons’ staff people to a meeting in our auditorium. We presented the redesigned process to them, their role in it, and why it had to be that way. Now, if there are new surgical staff, we have them come in and I take them around. Tactical Team Member Patient Care Co-ordinator for Pre-admission Clinic and Day of Admission Surgery We are getting a lot of positive feedback; patients are saying that they were well informed; the teaching was very thorough and they felt prepared and knowledgeable when they came in. It makes sense that if we seemed confused and disorganized in setting up their surgery the patient would worry more. Tactical Team Member OR Booking Clerk


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III.

REFINE THE OBJECTIVE

The tactical project objective should be a clear, measurable statement of the required results of the tactical project. That is what the Campaign Team attempted to create, but inevitably, differences in perspective and terminology leave tactical team members wondering about what company the Campaign Team members work for, who was responsible for hiring them, and how anyone could have such a vague concept of the problem. Clarification will be needed. The Campaign Team completed extensive work developing the objectives for the tactical projects yet each tactical team must review the objective, verify the terminology used, and come to a shared understanding about what it means and exactly what are the required results. The Campaign Team took ownership of the strategic objective and now the tactical team must do the same with the tactical objective. Members will need to develop a shared understanding of the objective in order to become a team. Over the life of the project, the objective will answer the essential question, “What are we supposed to be doing here?” The structure of Campaign and tactical objectives is the same: what, by how much, and (sometimes) by how. However, there are differences between Campaign and tactical objectives. For the tactical team: • • • •

The time frame is shorter The process scope is narrower A specific process change is prescribed more often The change approach (e.g., incremental, redesign, etc.) is usually defined

Refining the objective should result in a shared understanding of what it is the tactical team is charged with accomplishing: • Horizontally, across all members of the tactical team to ensure that each member is clear on the purpose of the project. This can represent a greater challenge for tactical team members than it did for the Campaign Team. Where Campaign Team members are all mid-level managers, tactical team membership is often more diverse. Members with possibly very different jobs from “poles apart” work environments have to figure out how to work with each other and, in some cases, with “outside” experts. Developing a shared understanding may take more time and concerted effort than for the Campaign Team. • Vertically, across the tactical and Campaign teams. The final objective must still be understood and sanctioned by the Campaign Team. Members of the Campaign Team will need to understand how the refined tactical objective still works toward accomplishing the strategic objective.

A. Recommendations for Refining the Objective The pace set in the refinement steps will establish the momentum for the project. Move briskly and decisively. A slow start can set a slow pace for the rest of the project. Also, team member interest will be at a peak at the start; they will want to



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get under way; a slow or stumble start can lose this early energy. Refining the objective should be completed within the first one to two meetings, even if those meetings must be long. Create a simple blueprint of the “as is” subprocess to help team members understand the different parts of the objective and process parameters. Keep Campaign information clearly posted: • Objective • Blueprint • Performance measures

Have information on the Campaign Team analysis and logic for selecting the subprocess readily available. B. Steps for Refining the Objective Step 1: Clarify the Terminology and Concepts One of the toughest challenges in this step can be clarifying the terminology and concepts where the Campaign Team has specified a change. Specified changes can range from very broad guidelines such as “use just-in-time” concepts to very specific directions, such as “integrate xyz equipment into the process to replace existing equipment.” The potentially wide differences between team members can mean very different levels of understanding. While not everyone has to become a subject expert, they will need enough of a grasp on the concepts and terminology so that they can work together meaningfully and bring their own individual expertise, inside or outside, to bear on designing the changes needed in the subprocess. If a team member doesn’t understand the objective, he/she cannot be expected to work effectively to meet it. If the tactical project is to involve new technology or new concepts not dealt with before, carry out a technology briefing. Set aside time dedicated to informing team members (both full and auxiliary) on: • What the specified change, technology, or concept is and (generally) what it accomplishes • How it works • Key concepts and principles • Key terms or words • The logic or rationale behind suggesting the change for implementation in the subprocess • Generic steps or stages for implementing the change

Subject experts should come prepared with materials such as a glossary of terms and product/concept descriptions and ready to present a summary of the information outlined above. This briefing is an important part of building both the cross-role and project contexts.


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Time is of the essence in a tactical project. The critical question before the tactical team is not so much “can we meet the deadline” as “how can we accomplish this within the time frame” or “how much can we accomplish in the time frame given.” This is not to suggest that tactical team members must accept the objective without comment. Their input will be important for the Campaign Team to adjust and evolve the Plan as the Campaign progresses. Step 2: Focus on the Objective a. Tips and Pitfalls Like the Campaign Team, the tactical team may choose to focus their objective to either an incremental piece of the full objective or on one of several component subprocesses. One focusing action (details in Chapter 4) may be to narrow the testing of the change. The subprocess may be used by a large number of work units, sites, or teams. The tactical team may determine that they will only have time to document details and then test the changes on one or two groups. It will be important for the tactical team to explain how any component subprocesses left out of their efforts will be accounted for in test results (i.e., how can we be sure that the changes will work if they were not tested?), and how change details will be modified, if necessary, and otherwise prepared for implementation in those areas. Step 3: Verify Subprocess Parameters, Team Membership, and Support Once the objective is clarified, the next task will be to verify the scope and depth of the tactical process and whether the team has the necessary membership and support. Subprocess depth has a somewhat different meaning than it did with the strategic process. For the strategic process, it referred to the different functional groups involved in it. For a subprocess, it refers to the number of different sections, units, teams, etc., that use the subprocess, or a part of it, and will be required to implement the changes designed. In many large organizations, not all of the different users of the subprocess will be able to be represented on the team; this will make it doubly important to understand where it is used and the variations on the subprocess across users. a. Tips and Pitfalls A lot of users of a subprocess, i.e., a lot of depth, can mean a lot of variation in the subprocess. The tactical team may need to limit the amount of variation it can deal with; for example, members may need to limit their work to just the local site (especially if that is where the members are from) with the understanding that additional work will have to be done to adapt and adjust it for implementation at other sites.



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Depth and scope can also affect the labor and calendar time that will be required to work on the project. Changing them, making them broader than originally intended or understood, can drastically change the amount of work the team will be required to complete. Tactical project support tends to be overlooked or gets lost in the effort. Five critical areas are: • • • • •

Consultant support around project tools and techniques Facilitation support Admin. support Facilities and equipment for testing changes Adjustments to formal and informal compacts

Take the time to double-check time commitments. Adjustments to scope and depth and other aspects of the project (as well as team members really beginning to understand what it is that is expected of them) can have a major effect on the amount of time needed or perceived to be needed to complete the project. Step 4: Campaign Team Sign-off The tactical team leader acts as a proxy for the Campaign Team in clarification discussions. He or she should be able to determine whether input from or sign-off by the team is necessary for the project to move ahead given the clarifications or adjustments made.

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — GREY BRUCE REGIONAL HEALTH CENTRE: DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING FILM LIBRARY TACTICAL PROJECT I have to say the library process was a classic example of something simple and straightforward to begin with but in reality it was anything but. In fact, it was incredibly complex. It was being pushed and pulled by so many power groups it is amazing anything ever got done. Internal Consultant Vice President, Finance

The film library tactical team was charged with the objective of radically redesigning the film library so that it would: • • • • • •

Allow film to be located in 10 minutes Respond to emergency requests 7 days a week, 24 hours a day Ensure that files are refiled within 24 hours Match files with master files within 24 hours Include a report within each “film bag” Ensure release forms are signed in all cases


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It didn’t start out that way. After we began we discovered that the existing process was a mess; when we mapped it you could see that it was a mess. We really grappled with what to do about that. We decided we had to design something new. Internal Consultant CQI Coordinator The results were excellent. They were able to get most x-ray reports out within 24 hours. We were getting compliments from doctors on the improved turnaround time. Internal Consultant Vice President, Finance

IV.

UNDERSTAND THE SUBPROCESS

Understanding the subprocess and its environment lays an essential groundwork basis for exploring, designing, and testing changes. It creates a necessary framework within which changes can be created. It is made up of: • The subprocess, the actions and decisions that create and deliver its primary outputs • The strategic process that bounds it • The environment that surrounds it. At the subprocess level, the environment becomes much more “close up”; various aspects of it, such as regulations, can specify the fine details of work procedures. Examples of what the environment includes are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Internal (and sometimes external) customer wants, needs, and expectations Suppliers’ roles, deliverable and requirements Facilities and equipment Employee knowledge and attitudes Systems and technical support Documentation systems Measures of process performance Regulations and standards

Subprocesses are the incubation sites for change. Only by working at the subprocess level of work can new ways of doing things be explored, designed, tested, and implemented. The strategic visions, plans and objectives of the Executive Team are made real in the details of the subprocesses. The understanding that will be created will serve: • As a launch pad for analysis and discovery that will be carried out under incremental improvement efforts • As a framework on which to lay out and develop specified changes under benchmarking, best practices, or mandated change



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• As a solid knowledge base of the “as is” process necessary to carry out reengineering

Each of these approaches takes different paths and uses the information gathered and knowledge created in different ways, but they have a common basis in the need for a shared understanding of the subprocess, for a team to be formed, and for the cross-role and project contexts to be created. This gave us more of a process-focused outlook, a whole process, rather than “How am I going to defend my turf and how I do things?” It gave us respect for each other’s role in our jobs, to appreciate what the others were doing. Internal Consultant Manager, Product Development Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

The understanding created in this step will be essential to the subject experts completing their roles in the team.* They come to the team with little or no understanding of the subprocess; they can be a solution looking for a problem to solve. The information developed in understanding the subprocess will form the basis, at least in part, for them to begin structuring how and where their expertise will be used, how the changes they envision will be actualized. A. Recommendations for Understanding the Subprocess For tactical teams, lack of skills in the tools and techniques necessary to develop the needed understanding will very often be more pronounced than for Campaign Teams. Combined with the relatively tighter time frames they are working with, the lack of skills can be the undoing of tactical projects. Use of expert resources as well other support personnel to help with information gathering, grooming, and organizing is highly recommended. Beware of anyone dominating knowledge sharing. Added onto the tendency for some people to be more assertive will be the “power and prestige” rankings that will come into play. Team members with more seniority or higher levels of subject expertise will tend to have more to say and expect their ideas to predominate over others of “lower ranking.” Subject experts can be the worst at this, perceiving themselves as the font of all knowledge worth knowing. Though informal, these rankings become very real in teams. The team leader and/or facilitator will have to pay close attention to balance out participation. B. Steps for Understanding the Subprocess Looking at the process, the flowcharting, was very important. It was very timeconsuming and frustrating at times. We had to look at and understand each individual department and how they handled their piece of the process, then put the different * The key term is “in the team.” There are certainly many instances where hired experts have completed their efforts without or in spite of the team. The results range from OK to disastrous.


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processes together and look how it didn’t work, then fix it. By the time we had finished that we had really come together as a team. There was no real need in the end to get buy-in, no one had to give a big talk, there was just a clear, shared understanding of “This is how it should go.” Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Patient Information Centre Admission Clerk Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

Step 1: Map the Process A process map is a graphical presentation of the subprocess. Like the strategic process map, it captures the process on paper as a flowchart. At the subprocess level a wider variety of mapping tools will be needed than was the case at the strategic level; subprocesses come in a far greater number of types, shapes, and sizes. There are few differences between creating a blueprint for a strategic process and a subprocess. Setting up the functional rows takes some thought. Rows will be used to designate subprocess actors rather than functional groups. Who the actors are will depend on the size and scope of the subprocess; they may be set at a variety of levels, sections, units, teams, or even individuals. Customers may be either internal or external recipients of products or services. Suppliers, again, may be internal or external. a. Tips and Pitfalls The number one rule is use mapping tools that best capture and communicate the information needed to describe the subprocess. The more a set of common mapping tools can be used, the easier communication will be. Try using the blueprint tool for early drafts where less detail is needed (provided it works with the subprocess). Campaign Team members will find blueprint maps easier to understand and, given that they will have several tactical teams running at once, the less work needed to understand what each one is doing, the better. Final subprocess maps should be directly transferable into training materials used when testing and implementing the changes (as well as into process documentation such as ISO 9000). As the team explores the subprocess in greater detail and begins designing changes, different mapping tools will be needed that allow for more detailed information. Beware of too much detail. Apply it only where and when it is needed. How much detail is needed? Just enough to train people to work with the changed or new process (as well as to implement any IS support and to meet documentation requirements). The first two or three process map drafts will represent a sharp learning curve for team members, on how the process works as well as how to use mapping tools. Take sufficient time for the learning to occur, and pay extra attention to this if it is a mixed group where some have worked with mapping before; otherwise newcomers will get left behind.



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Step 2: Survey the Subprocess Environment The environment will look different from the subprocess perspective than it did from the Campaign view. Even though the subprocess environment is a subset of the strategic process environment, it will feel different. It will be more specific and more “personal” to the people whose jobs are affected by it. So even if the Campaign Team did a pretty good survey, the tactical team will still need to complete one for the environment that surrounds the subprocess. a. Tips and Pitfalls Campaign Team members will have a lot to add to the survey. Middle managers deal with the process environment daily. Getting them involved can also help to raise Campaign Team awareness of environmental issues that may have an impact on the tactical project that they hadn’t thought of before. There can be very different perceptions of environment issues voiced by the different levels of managers and employees. To an employee, a policy may be seen primarily as a delimiter, a boundary, a day-to-day pain in the butt. To management, the same policy may seem to have little or nothing to do with the subprocess. It may take some detail work to sort through the different perspectives. Step 3: Consider Subprocess Performance Measures Subprocess performance measures are used to: • Track the overall level of subprocess performance against different process characteristics, and • Assess the impact of changes made

Where Campaign measures are set against the strategic objective and reflect whole strategic process performance, subprocess performance measures give the tactical team objective, localized indicators of change. Subprocess monitoring measures must align with the strategic objective in the same way that tactical objectives must align with the strategic objective. While defined in the same way, subprocess measures are different from strategic process performance measures in that: • They will vary greatly in shape and style depending on the tactical project objective • They may be temporary: just used long enough to verify change impact and to validate the change with the strategic process and its performance measures • They may have to be manually gathered given the short life and nature of the tactical project


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a. Tips and Pitfalls Process performance measures, creating, implementing, and making them permanent (or semipermanent) represents considerable work and energy. Carefully consider any options to creating measures from scratch. At the same time, it bears repeating that there must be some means of monitoring performance of subprocesses and assessing the long-term impact(s) of tactical change(s). Subprocess performance measures, while only one of the tools for assessing tactical changes, are essential if strategic process measures do not effectively reflect the results of changes made. The steps for developing and implementing subprocess performance measures are essentially the same as those for strategic measures. Use expert resources to assist with establishing measurements to ensure as best as possible that measures will be created and used and not bog the tactical team down. Subprocess measures will need to align with the strategic objective measure(s). Alignment means that if the subprocess measure shows change then the strategic measure should reflect some degree of change as well. If there is no alignment, the subprocess measures are useless. The Campaign Team will need to review and sign off on the subprocess measurements. If the Campaign Team doesn’t feel the measures reflect the tactical objective, adjustments will have to be made. The discussion of performance measures in this chapter applies to the design and test of changes. Additional measures may be needed during the full implementation of changes.

V.

DESIGN AND TEST CHANGES

This section, perhaps more than any other in this chapter, is a brief overview of the actions necessary for the tactical team to complete its project. It is kept brief for two reasons: • The different tactical objectives and different tactical approaches call for very different paths to be taken. Each path is worth a dedicated chapter if not an entire book. • The Campaign Team is not involved to any great extent in the internal tactical team actions at this stage.

The design and testing of changes results in specific documented changes to the existing subprocess or the design of a new subprocess along with necessary changes to its environment. Design and test changes must be carried out methodically enough to gain buy-in from management and employees. They must be documented in enough detail that technical, systems, and mechanical changes can be made and training materials can be created. Employees new to the changes will need to be



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trained to be capable of implementing the modifications or the new process. Each employee must be able to understand his/her role, responsibilities, the input he or she is to receive, the actions he or she is to complete, the output(s) expected to be delivered, and to whom and to what standards. A. Recommendations for the Design and Testing of Changes Move as quickly as understanding allows. If the effort bogs down, step back and look for more effective, quicker ways to gather information, to create team knowledge, and to move ahead. Data will make a stronger basis for understanding and for decision making. Of course getting data, even small amounts, was a huge part of getting the team to be more objective and to moving them along, especially at first when people tended to be pretty fixed on what they thought were the biggest problems and the best solutions. Sometimes someone would be so fixed on a solution they would have forgotten the problem. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

Project management will be essential for the team to move smoothly and efficiently through these steps. The team leader carries responsibility for tactical project management. If he or she is not strong in this area, take all necessary actions to add to their proficiency level or make additional resources available to the team to help with this critical activity. Ongoing review and understanding of the tactical effort by the Campaign Team is critical. Whether by proxy through the team leader or through reports made by team members, or a mix, steps taken and decisions made should be reviewed and considered a variety of times by the Campaign Team (and the Executive Team) before the tactical project reaches completion. There should be no surprises in the final proposal and recommendations. Acceptance should be almost a foregone conclusion because understanding, feedback, and correction will have been given and taken across the life of the project. Positive feedback was important. We kept reporting back what we were coming up with and the managers would give us constructive feedback about where we were going. Sometimes we corrected our direction; most of the time we realized we were going in the right direction. You work better with that feedback. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling OR Booking Clerk Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre


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B. Steps for the Designing and Testing of Changes Step 1: Locate the Subprocess Change Area(s) This step is perhaps the one that will vary most widely across the different tactical approaches, ranging from: • A full-scale cause analysis to locate the vital few changes • Locating areas where specified changes will be incorporated • Locating the parts that should not be replaced or eliminated when the whole subprocess is being redesigned or replaced

In all cases, the understanding created of the subprocess and its environment will serve as a strong framework on which to: • Build the exploration, analysis, and identification of change areas (or areas not to change) • Identify and expand on the interface points where the subprocess connects with other processes • Decide on which aspects of the existing process and its environment must be carefully preserved or dealt with carefully, when making changes • Identify existing external customer, supplier, and other stakeholder contact points • Identify intersection points and hand-offs with other subprocesses or systems

a. Tips and Pitfalls Subprocess analysis is a step the Campaign Team is least involved in. A great deal of work will be done and decisions made by the tactical team working on its own. However, the tactical team leader will be a very active proxy for the Campaign Team (in this step as well as across the entire tactical project); he or she will fill an essential role: • As a communication link to and representative of the Campaign Team. This includes keeping the Campaign Team informed of the logic and conclusions of the analysis effort, securing Team member support to deal with challenges and barriers as needed, and carrying Campaign Team information and feedback to the tactical team. • To assure that the analysis carried out and the change areas located do not stumble over, bump into, or shoot another subprocess or tactical change effort in the foot (or even somewhere else more painful) • To continually verify that the tactical project team’s analysis effort is working toward the strategic objective

Identifying and separating the parts of the process that “must be kept” from those that are simply “done that way” in order to meet an existing policy or regulation



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can be tougher than it sounds. Both team members and management tend to use the excuse of “but we’re mandated to do it that way” in order to avoid change. Middle and even senior management may have to be involved with this in order to help sort out the differences. Step 2: Designing and Testing Changes Designing and testing involves creating and verifying either modifications to the process, or the wholly new process and its environment, so that the tactical objective is met. Most design efforts will follow a common path starting with a broad concept of the changes to be designed and then working to refine and solidify the concept, to ground it in specifics of technical, mechanical, and work process details. In the tactical team we identified a lot of detailed areas where waste was going on, where paper was being printed and being thrown away. We thought it was being used in another area but they ended up throwing it away. We really had to get to a fairly fine level of detail — and some people, you could tell, felt like this wasn’t what they wanted to do, but that was where we really started to learn about how the process worked. Team Member — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Medicare Claims Administration Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

The design will need to be completed in enough detail to allow for: • Specific, clear standards of process and employee performance Each department has standards and certain criteria that they have to meet when they hand something off. So when my section now completes its work we understand that it has to meet the criteria before we hand it off, and by then the patient is in and the process is finished. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Unit Secretary, Pre-admission Clinic Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Training employees on their roles and responsibilities under the new process, the inputs(s) they can expect to receive, the actions they should take, and the output(s) they are expected to deliver, and to whom and to what standards. Training and documentation must create a consistent level of understanding across employees • Informing internal and external suppliers of changes to process inputs • Informing customers (internal and external) of the changes they will see in outputs and how they should be dealt with • Explaining how stakeholders’ needs and requirements will be met, e.g., regulatory agencies, etc.


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a. Tips and Pitfalls The managers and employees who will be implementing the changes are the final customers of the design. If the design documentation and training don’t work for them, it doesn’t matter whether the Executive or Campaign Team members loved it. Use mock-ups of changed or redesigned processes, to develop as well as to carry out initial tests of concepts and ideas. Mock-ups can be used throughout design and test to develop concepts or ideas, smooth rough edges, and develop details. How mock-ups are set up and implemented will depend on the nature of the subprocess. They can range in form from a new process being put on large sheets of paper and the entire team “walking” through the flow, to computer modeling and simulation. Computer models are excellent for work processes in complex environments with high-volume systems and that have varying processing requirements, standards, or conditions.1 Additional support may be needed to create the necessary documentation that must result from the design stage. Add auxiliary members such as customers, suppliers, stakeholders, training, etc., to the tactical team during the design and testing steps to help identify areas where greater details are needed and to assist with creating and reviewing documentation. Shift to a process definition tool that will support, cope with, and encompass the needed detailed information. One tool, the Eight-Column Format (ECF)® map (see Figure 9.1), works well for this level of detail: The [ECF map] was essential for us, really. It caused us to appreciate what it took for each area to deliver the outputs. Also, for us it was a way to reach a common ground. Things were so political it helped us to get past the politics. Also, in designing the new process it was absolutely necessary to get to that level of detail; who is handing what off to who and what steps are they taking. Team Leader — Product Design and Development Director, Systems Support Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

The ECF map combines large amounts of complex information into a relatively simple model. While backup documentation may be necessary, it presents a great deal of the information necessary for suppliers, employees, and customers/recipients to recognize their roles in the process.1 The teams must get down to that level of detail; it will absolutely fail without that level of detail. Internal Consultant Vice President, Finance Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Customer information on problem

Customer information

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Figure 9.1

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¥ I.D.# ¥ system changes ¥ problem summary and priority code

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An Eight-Column Format (ECF) process map deals with tactical-level details.

¥ software release

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Step 1 through step 8 should take less than 45 minutes for a normal call, 10 minutes for a priority call

customer call handling

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Engineers must be trained in: ¥ prod. area

Process must resolve call in priority time frame

MACRO REQUIREMENTS


TACTICAL PROJECT MECHANICS 201


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Testing is not a single step, done at the completion of design. It should be carried out at various stages as the design moves from broad concepts to more and more specific details. Mock-up and modeling should be used to carry out tests across the life of the design effort.

VI.

PROPOSAL AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The final proposal and recommendations summarize the changes created, the outcomes of tests, and final recommendations. It is a thorough description of the changes designed and the expected resources and support necessary to implement them. We were aware that for management to seriously consider our recommendations, we really had to be thorough. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Patient Care Coordinator for Pre-admission Clinic and Day of Admission Surgery Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

It should contain: • An implementation strategy and recommendations around timing, logistics, and other information necessary to plan and optimize success in full-scale implementation of the change(s) • Actions that will need to be taken to customize changes to fit the variation across implementation sites • Estimates of costs, resources, facilities, equipment, capabilities, etc., needed to carry out implementation of the change • Documentation of new process designs • Recommended changes to the process environment required to support or respond to process changes • Recommendations for measurements that should be put in place to monitor implementation • Issues and challenges that will have to be dealt with in full implementation

The information contained in the proposal and recommendations should carry few or no surprises for the Campaign Team. Team members should have been informed of and even assisted with developing the contents across the design and test efforts. Completion of the proposal will usually represent the completion of the tactical project. Or perhaps a portion of the project if more than one major change is required to be designed and tested.

REFERENCES 1. Carr, D. and Johansson, H., Best Practices in Reengineering: What Works and What Doesn’t in the Reengineering Process, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995.


CHAPTER 10 To Serve, Protect, and Cajole: The Ongoing Role of the Campaign Team There is a critical need for a strong Campaign Team that can let go, that is willing to let the tactical team go. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development

I.

ABOUT THE ONGOING ROLE

The Campaign Team is responsible for the success of the Campaign, for managing it and for assuring that the tactical pieces come together to meet the strategic objective. While the tactical teams are the primary actors during this stage of the change effort, the Campaign Team moves into an essential support and evaluation role. The character of their tasks change but the members do not get a break. Their role deals with: • • • •

Project management, adapting and adjusting the Campaign Plan Maintaining the focus on the strategic objective Supporting, understanding, and adjusting the tactical efforts Preparing the Executive Team for their role in reviewing and implementing permanent changes • Leading and facilitating tactical teams

To fulfill these ongoing roles and responsibilities, the Campaign Team members will continue to work across all three contexts of knowledge:

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• Day-to-day context: this context will be used most often in the leading mentoring tactical teams. While the other contexts are used, Campaign Team members who work directly with the teams most often cope with the teams and team issues they face via their own day-to-day authority* and capabilities. Without these, they will have a difficult time fulfilling this role. Changes under development will be evaluated using each team member’s own day-to-day values, priorities and common sense. • Cross-functional context: the design and test changes as well as the changes themselves must be evaluated within the context of the “big picture” process. This will be an essential role of the Campaign Team. The tactical teams won’t be able to do it. Tactical team members, including the team leader, must, by the very nature of their task, immerse themselves in the details of the subprocess. It will be difficult if not impossible for them to put their ideas and knowledge into the broader context. • Campaign context. In the end, each tactical decision, action, and result must be evaluated in terms of whether and how well it is moving the Campaign toward meeting the strategic objective. Also, the Campaign Plan must be reviewed continuously, revised if necessary, and adhered to.

Without a strong ongoing Campaign Team role the tactical projects, and in turn the Campaign, can easily stumble and fail. Tactical projects only have full value in the framework of the Campaign Plan. Without that framework they become a bunch of independent projects vying for scarce resources. Even if change designs result, they will likely remain local at best. If they don’t fit into local goals or priorities, they will disappear. For all of its apparent importance, carrying out their ongoing role is far tougher for the Campaign Team than it seems it should be. The actions themselves are not as difficult as overcoming the challenges and barriers that get in the way: • The Campaign Team members themselves can be the greatest challenge. Often, after the intense effort put in to get to this point Team members may feel they need a break. They can be anxious to get back to their regular jobs. Also, the change between what they have been doing and what is to come can be so great that members can find it difficult to recognize the importance of the upcoming tasks. • There can be a pervasive sense both inside and outside the Campaign Team that it has completed its role, that it is up to the tactical teams to develop and implement the changes. • Tactical team leaders will get wrapped up in the details of tactical projects. They will have a new role and responsibilities and an extra context of knowledge, the tactical project context, to deal with. • The Executive Team can begin to lose focus on the priority of the strategic objective as the tactical projects work to meet it. Tactical change activities are often below the Executive managment’s level of vision; the change effort can seem to have disappeared. It can appear to be a good time to get on with other priorities.

* While some authority may be derived from the Campaign effort it is not usually substantial. Tactical team leaders may need to turn to the Campaign Team and Executive Owner for assistance and support where additional clout is needed to overcome barriers.


THE ONGOING ROLE OF THE CAMPAIGN TEAM

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Perhaps these are not so much challenges as they are signals that the organization is just trying to get back to its same old way of carrying out strategic change. The Campaign Team members are more comfortable with handing off projects to firstline teams and then getting back to their “real work” of getting products and/or services produced and delivered. In any case, a strong and active effort will be needed to keep the Campaign Team vigorous and active while the tactical teams are working. The Executive Team will have to carry part of this responsibility. Other things started to take priority; we started out meeting every Friday but then it shifted to every other Friday and then dropout started to occur. People started to think, “If this isn’t important enough for the President to come to, then we wouldn’t go.” And then middle managers noticed we weren’t meeting as frequently and they started to lose the priority. Group Vice President, Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — WELLMARK BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF IOWA: GROUP ENROLLMENT The strategic objective of this Campaign was to shorten the amount of time to enroll a new group customer. This priority was established based on customer survey data gathered. Honestly, with the process we had in place the customer probably thought we were idiots because we were constantly asking for the same information over and over again. Sometimes as many as two or three times, different people each time. Executive Owner Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired We brought the group enrollment time span down from 180 days to 10 and 20 days. It didn’t take too long to do that either, about 6 months. Team Leader President, Wellmark Financial Services Blueprinting, really getting to know the process, was the best thing we did: actually understanding how the work flowed and then looking for opportunities to improve it. Team Member Group Leader, Enrollment and Membership We didn’t have any data to tell how well the process worked, how long different parts worked; we had to design software to get it. Team Leader President, Wellmark Financial Services


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It was a good success in spite of the limitations. The biggest barrier was that no one was there to say, “You have to.” Some functional groups dropped out. As a result we changed things within our own areas. We made things better, but not on the broad horizontal scope that we had hoped. Those changes were better than they might have been because of the Team we pulled together. We had some good people involved; they did some great work in spite of the limitations. Executive Owner Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired

A. Recommendations Keep Campaign Team members active and accountable for: • Supporting tactical project teams and team leaders as facilitators and challenge solvers, as well as to assist with documentation, measurement, and the logistics of carrying out design tests • Refining and assessing strategic process performance measures • Strengthening and continuing formal and informal communication efforts (don’t think it is over just because the Campaign Team got this far). The work done to date will usually need to be better documented and communicated and preparations for the work to come need to be made. The tactical teams questioned the dedication of the Campaign Team. They would check on the attendance of the members and raise it as an issue. And they would recognize a lack of consensus among the Campaign Team. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Manager, Provider Service Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota • Developing, implementing, and evaluating quick-fix recommendations that came out of the strategic process analysis

Proactively identify and “pull” information from the tactical teams. Tactical team members will not know at first what information the Campaign Team needs or wants (nor will the Campaign Team, for that matter). It will take practice and learning for both teams. Go after it aggressively. Once the tactical teams were created it was more difficult to stay connected with the Team. Getting reports became more difficult. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

Plan and schedule ongoing activities into the future to give clear evidence of what must take place:



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• Milestone reviews of tactical team efforts • Briefings to the Executive Team, communication actions with the whole organization, customers, suppliers, stakeholders, etc. • Preparation and launch of the upcoming tactical teams • Preparations for full implementation of changes

Never underestimate the tactical teams’ abilities to wander from objectives. Perhaps it is the details, the “one removed” from the strategic objective, who knows; but wander they will. Keep both the strategic and tactical objectives up on the wall. Establish review schedules early, start them early, and diligently continue them. They will be needed. Vigilance will be required on the Campaign Team’s part. Challenges and barriers can slip in silently or come up quickly. The tactical team may not know they are there or may even initiate a challenge themselves. Executive and local managers may sense that it is a fine time to pursue a new priority. It will take an effort to just keep the Campaign on track and progressing. Don’t let tactical projects drag on. A sense of urgency is important. Even if meeting the objective is not urgent, getting the members back to their day-to-day work is. Local managers will be less inclined to give up employees if they feel that they aren’t working expeditiously on the tactical projects. B. Working with Individual Tactical Projects Throughout its life, the Campaign will have a variety of tactical projects. Each one will be unique and will present singular challenges and learning opportunities. A solid level of understanding of the tactical projects will be essential to the Campaign Team carrying out its ongoing responsibilities. In particularly members will need to see: • Process maps, measurements, and analysis results • Changes selected and/or designed • Results of the tests completed

This understanding will need to go beyond simple recognition of the forms used and steps completed. It will need to be sufficient to proactively evaluate whether: • The tactical team’s actions are reasonable and credible • These actions will produce the required results • Perceived challenges and barriers require action or not

A cosmetic understanding will result in ineffective advisories and adjustments. The Campaign Team carries the responsibility for developing and maintaining an in-depth understanding. Failure to do so cannot be blamed on the tactical teams’ lack of reporting (tactical teams will most certainly fail to report if allowed to do so). Team members need to be proactive in their pursuit of information and updates on tactical activities. The seven actions discussed next represent a checklist of things to consider.


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1. Project Management One of the things I will be stronger on next time is project management. We allowed several tactical teams to take long breaks, due to one priority or another. It slowed everything down; priorities lagged and we lost momentum, not just for the tactical teams but for the Campaign Teams as well. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

2. Ongoing Review and Feedback They told us if things were getting in the way, if they could not meet their goals. And there were things that they could not do, such as allocate resources; money, positions. Those decisions were sent up to the Campaign Team and other senior management to deal with and I was held accountable by the team. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Often I didn’t know teams were in difficulty until way into it; until I asked. Sometimes they would rush something through that would produce poor results and they would be afraid to come forward to show the results. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre Mostly we were monitoring their effort, how they were doing, and looking for any action items we should be looking at and/or supporting them on. Team Leader — Patient Flow Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre It was important to give them feedback. There were lots of checkpoints in the process; we verified that they were going in the right direction; they wanted to know, “Are you going to be able to support this?” We made sure that they didn’t get so far ahead that management couldn’t support it. We were trying to keep the support evident and to recognize the tactical team for the work they were doing. Team Leader — Patient Flow Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

3. Maintain Focus on the Tactical Objective For the tactical team, the focus must remain on the tactical objective. People and projects are not mechanical objects that, once set up, automatically carry out



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their tasks to rule or standard. Distractions, misdirections, digressions, human foibles, fear, and lack of interest can all cause tactical teams to wander, to lose their objective, or reinterpret it. Tactical team members (including the leader) may not notice since they are so close to the effort. It will be up to the Campaign Team to verify that the tactical team remains targeted on the tactical objective and that their interpretation of it remains aligned with the strategic objective. One very important ingredient was keeping the team focused on the issue and within the boundaries of what we can do; we aren’t going to redesign the golf course to fix a problem, at least not until we have tried everything else. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort

4. Maintain Optimal Conditions for Tactical Success Prior to launch, the Campaign Team planned for support as well as for challenges and barriers that might be encountered. Reality is something else entirely; challenges come out of the woodwork, agreements unravel, understandings are overlooked. Recognizing and addressing these challenges can take up a large part of the Campaign Team’s time and energy. Generally challenges will be of five types: • Priority conflicts with team members’ time. Extraordinary projects can easily take secondary status in the day-to-day reality of getting the work out. It will take time for managers to adjust to losing a major part or all of an employee’s time and employees can discover once into the project that there are a lot of other things that they would rather be doing. • Problematic team members, ones who can’t work effectively on a team, or aren’t willing to complete the work necessary for meeting the team’s objective. • A dysfunctional tactical objective, one which team members discover makes no sense, or where there seems to be no reasonable means for its completion. • Missing support, people, facilities, budget, etc., turn out to be unavailable, overbooked or underfed • Lack of know-how. Team members will simply not have the necessary knowledge of tools or techniques to complete some part of the task. This is a corollary to missing support; the tough part is recognizing the symptoms and acting on them. While there is a risk of hurting people’s feelings, it is better to err on the side of caution in this case. Challenges to progress need to be addressed and resolved quickly. The team leader should be able to resolve some of these by him/herself but may have to turn to the Campaign Team for support. The quicker that the team leader is able to assess the situation and solve it, the better. Challenges left too long can drag the project down and break its momentum.

Tactical projects will be the toughest testing ground for maintaining the priority on the Campaign. They will take front-line resources directly away from the normally


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number one priority of getting the work out, and those resources will not be given up without a struggle — as they shouldn’t be. Priority conflicts arise in the day-to-day context and can only be resolved in that context. While the signs of conflict may arise during tactical teamwork (and may have to be sent up to the Campaign or Executive Team to be given a high priority for resolution), these challenges and barriers will have to be addressed through normal management channels. One of the toughest aspects of dealing with these challenges is that everyone will be watching. Any signal that the project or the Campaign is secondary or waning in importance will be quickly translated into actions that will directly affect the tactical projects and the Campaign. Sometimes a project may have to be delayed, but emphasis will have to be strongly placed on getting it and the Campaign back on track afterward. There was a power struggle going on in the Campaign Team with one of the managers; we spent quite a bit of time getting the one manager to back off and let the tactical team do its work. Team Leader — Patient Flow Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

However, priority conflicts are not the sole property of tactical teams. They can come from any level in the organization, executive management to first-line employees. Signals to look for are: • Action assignments not completed or left undone • Project meetings unattended (chronically or unannounced because of other priorities) • Executive Team meetings and/or review sessions canceled • Challenges disregarded or left unaddressed

The Campaign Team (including especially the Executive Owner) will have to watch for these challenges and respond to each as it occurs. Priority conflicts will have to be negotiated and resolved one by one (and sometimes by mandate). 5. Ensure That Tactical Project Work is Thorough and Complete Before the Tactical Team Declares Itself Done We had at least one team that did not get the support they needed to wrap up that final ten percent and a lot was lost, primarily intangible things in this case. The pride, the celebration, the status that comes with doing something well is lost, and that reinforcement causes others to recognize that this is behavior that is valued by the organization. The project tends to linger as unfinished. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Representative Blue Mountain Resort



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When a tactical team completes (or decides it is finished with) its objective, a variety of “closure” steps have to be taken by the Campaign Team. For most projects, these actions should be just “bookkeeping,” but sometimes, especially if something is missing, they can prove essential. They include: • Ensure the project and the resulting change designs and tests are sufficiently documented to get support and for full implementation. • Verify the content of the tactical teams’ proposals and recommendations, that sufficient thought has been given to permanent implementation of the change.

If documentation is not complete, special efforts may be needed to finish it. These may range from simply pointing out missing information and gaps, to interviews and debriefings to “extract” the information from tactical team members. As drastic as the latter suggestion may sound, without project documentation the knowledge gained and changes developed will be lost. A lot of time, energy, and resources will have gone into the tactical project and there is no way to ensure that the results are held onto other than documentation. 6. Ensure That the Work of Participants is Recognized Recognition means simply that participants, team members and others are given credit for the work completed and effort put into the tactical project. Recognition should take on a variety of forms, ranging from informal (i.e., individual thanks, to a mention in work or project team meetings), to formal (recognition in performance evaluations), to extraordinary (i.e., a gathering or luncheon in the team’s honor). We didn’t celebrate their accomplishment; they were not congratulated on what they did. Management did not make it clear to them or other managers and employees that this was the kind of thing we wanted them to do and that was a demotivator. Senior Manager Anonymous by request Celebrate as you go. A lot of senior managers, if asked, might say that this approach didn’t work well here; they’d be wrong. We learned a lot from it and we continue to learn a lot. We have, as a result, developed some excellent skills. Internal Consultant Coordinator, Process Support Services Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

Recognition will need to be given continuously as well as when work is completed. Tactical teams should not just fade away. When the project is complete it is important to formally recognize the project as finished and to thank the members for their work.


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a. Tips and Pitfalls Even if the team did not accomplish its objective, recognition for individual efforts should still be made. It may be more limited, but even if the team erred in its judgment, remember that there were members who tried, who wanted the project to succeed. They should be thanked for the work they put into it, especially if you ever want them to participate again. Recognition is best if it comes from sources both internal and external to Campaign Team membership. Both Campaign Team members and local managers should be prompted to give recognition. Don’t get carried away with recognition; keep the form and style comparable to those normally used in the workplace. If the form of recognition is extraordinary, it will tend to draw cynicism rather than appreciation. 7. Plan for the Role of Tactical Team Members in Permanent Implementation of Change Tactical team members do not normally implement permanent changes; however, they are the de facto experts on the tactical change(s) designed and they may play a very active role in: • • • •

Training materials development Work process documentation such as ISO 9000 or standard operating procedures Assisting with customizing implementation to various operations Debugging and improving the process after implementation

Because the tactical team was so intimately involved, they really understood the changes better than anybody. They had a clear vision of what needed to occur. So with our support they were the best ones to oversee implementation. Team Leader — Patient Flow Manager, OR Recovery Room Nursing Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

Campaign and tactical team members often mistakenly assume that team members will be available for these important implementation tasks, only to discover that they are not; line management has alternative plans for them. 8. Draw Closure on Tactical Projects, Whether Complete or Incomplete Tactical teams are not “forever.” When the tactical team has met the objective and documentation is complete (or when the Campaign Team decides the team is finished), the project is done. It then needs to be drawn to formal closure. The members can regroup under a different title and continue working on various projects but they do so outside of the Campaign.



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Anyone trying this needs to know that they need to be able to bail out at some point if it is not reasonable to continue on. Don’t beat a dead horse. Team Member — Customer Communication Campaign Customer Service Representative Blue Mountain Resort Have a clear ending point. A clear starting point is pretty easy but ending is hard. We let ours go on; it almost took on a life of its own. We finally had to say, “We are going to end this.” Vice President, Quality Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

C. A Discussion on Dealing with Tactical Projects that Fail Inevitably, a tactical project will have to be ended even though the team has not met its objective. In this situation formal closure becomes even more important. If a team has: • Consistently not made progress against their project plan • Failed to make progress even when challenges are removed or addressed • Repeatedly not raised visibility of challenges but has allowed progress to be halted by them

it should be ended. This task is always the responsibility of the Campaign Team (although the Executive Team may instigate it). If allowed to continue or to “fade away” a chronically faltering or failed project can throw off an entire Campaign by lowering morale, by forming or reinforcing opinions, by giving the impression that the Campaign as a whole is not working, and by throwing a wrench into the Campaign plan. A decision to halt a project has to be made carefully. A single falter or even a couple of falters does not constitute reason to end a project. In each case the team leader should act to identify the causes, i.e., challenges and barriers — ask for assistance and/or act to resolve them and then reestablish the project plan. Three lapses should be a solid warning signal. But even that makes it sound too clear-cut. It will often be up to the Campaign Team and tactical team leader to decide. Once the decision is made: • Act assertively. Clearly and definitively end the project. Do not let a team fade away. • Do not keep it a secret. Diplomacy is called for in terms of communication but be very open about the situation, causes, and resulting actions. Everyone will hear about it anyway; if the Campaign Team does not supply information, people will make it up (remember that rule?) and if people make it up, it will be in the worst possible scenario. • Recognize members for their work. • Reconfirm the priority of the Campaign and the tactical projects ongoing or upcoming. This should come from the Executive and Campaign Team members. One


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aborted project must not be perceived as being indicative of the state of the Campaign or the priority on meeting the strategic objective. • Learn from the experience — determine if there are common causes (shared across all tactical teams) and take corrective actions. Corrective actions will probably have to be taken outside as well as inside the Campaign. Granted, that last sentence could win the “oversimplification of the year” award. However, if an organization is going to develop the capability to bring about strategic change it will have to face up to challenges and barriers systemic to the organization.

Without an understanding of why a tactical team failed and clear actions to resolve the causes, the same outcome will likely happen again and strategic change will remain a problematic undertaking in the organization.

II.

LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE

Tactical teams, by their very construct, membership, and nature of their task, are myopic. Their field of attention is narrow and their span of knowledge specialized to the project at hand. It is up to the Campaign Team to put tactical actions and results into the context of the full strategic process, to understand and interpret their results and effects in the “big picture.” The cross-functional context is essential for this. A. Steps for Looking at the Big Picture 1. Resource and Support Management Change consumes resources. The Campaign Team is charged with managing resource use and conservation and with ensuring that the Campaign and its tactical projects do not overburden the organization’s resources. This can be a tough task. While tangibles such as budget, facilities and equipment are relatively easy to estimate and govern, labor time, from support personnel as well as team members, human energy, and other “soft resources” are more difficult. Yet if they are overextended they can equally limit or stop a change effort. 2. Managing the Large-scale, Sequential Change Effort The Campaign approach has the capability of having multiple “modular” tactical projects running at one time. The playing field becomes a theater for change and the Team takes on the essential role of director and stage manager. Multiple projects running coincidentally and sequential projects building on the results of one another are common scenarios; either or both will be present in most Campaigns and will require recognition and understanding of the interactive and cumulative effects between the projects and the changes designed. The use of full strategic process mock-ups or computer models may prove very helpful or even essential in this task. They will probably be essential for high-volume processes as well as for highly complex manufacturing and service processes.



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In all cases, when the Campaign Team is evaluating ongoing projects and their results, it must keep the full playing field in mind. While the cross-functional context was important to locating high-impact change areas, it is essential to effectively manage the ongoing projects and to optimize their results. 3. Assess the Ongoing Tactical Projects and Recommended Changes This action has a threefold objective: 1. Ensure that tactical project activities, exploring, designing, or testing changes, are not bumping into or interfering with other tactical projects or having unrecognized effects on day-to-day work. 2. Assess Proposed Changes in terms of their “reasonableness” and their effects on the whole process and its environment. As a leader there are times that you will have to say, “We can’t buy 10 more golf carts; we can’t build a new club house in order to solve that problem.” There are times the leader will not be able to give the team what they want and you have to handle that carefully: to get over that hump without leaving them feeling that what they are doing isn’t wasted, or just set aside the minute management disagrees with a recommended solution. Team Leader — Golf Slow Play Director, Golf and Tennis Blue Mountain Resort 3. Evaluate and understand the interactive effects of the changes designed by the various tactical teams. The opinions of managers and employees from areas where changes are to be implemented or where effects may be felt may be tapped as part of this evaluation.

D. Recognize Potential or Planned Effects on the Organizational Structure and on Other Strategic Processes While the Campaign Team has worked hard to develop an understanding of the strategic process without functional borders, the organizational structure is still very much in place and the potential effects of changes under development must be carefully considered — carefully, because structural changes can be a “best and worst” situation; they may be the best solution for the issue but they may be the worst in terms of the resistance they inspire. Intransigence of management to changes in the organization structure and/or the power and prestige tied to it are recognized as a primary challenge to many strategic change efforts.1 Decisions to make structural changes will most likely have to involve the Executive Team or some subset of its members. Integral to the “big picture” management role is consideration of the effect on other strategic processes. No strategic process is an island; ongoing tactical projects and their results may have significant effects on other processes. This will be


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especially relevant where modifications to the process environment is modified are made, such as: • • • • • • •

Information or communication systems Data-gathering systems Union contracts Regulation and policy interpretation Supplier agreements Employee compacts Organizational structure, etc.

Some effects will be obvious, some will not. Either way they will need to be checked for, evaluated, and the pros and cons considered BEFORE the tactical teams submit their final recommendations.

III.

MAINTAINING THE CAMPAIGN CONTEXT

The Campaign context deals with meeting the strategic objective. Up to this point all actions have been taken under the guidance of “what has to be done to meet the strategic objective?” Now, with tactical projects under way, the mantra changes slightly to “is what is planned and being done sufficient?” Tactical projects and their results only take on full meaning, value, and relevance in the Campaign context. The actions taken and final results of each project have to be considered and evaluated in terms of whether they are building toward accomplishing the strategic objective. If any tactical action does not, either directly or derivatively, work toward the strategic objective, stop doing it. The Campaign plan was laid out by the Team as a “best guess” set of guide posts by which to direct and pace the effort. No plan should be considered complete or final until the Campaign is over. It is only a draft to be adjusted and adapted as the realities of tactical experience and results sink in. On the sales and enrollment process it worked in the beginning. We looked at the whole process; we identified areas that needed change. But then we bumped into some barriers; not everyone in the company was willing to change, and no one was there to say you have to. Some entire functional groups opted out. As a result we changed things within our own areas, things we could change. Perhaps we worked more with functional change than cross-functional. We did implement change; we did make things better, but not on the broad horizontal scope that we had hoped. I have to add that those changes were better than they might have been; because of the team we pulled together and the improved understanding of what we were doing that came out of it. We had some good people involved; they did some great work in spite of the limitations. Executive Owner — Sales and Enrollment Vice President, Benefit Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa



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Ongoing reviews serve for more than just firefighting and damage control. The information gathered is used to adjust Campaign Plan where needed. These adjustments may include: • Revising the required results from tactical projects • Modifying the tactical approaches in use or recommended. The tactical approach may not be working: resources may not support a reengineering effort, incremental changes may not approach the results required, borrowed best practices may not apply. Don’t be afraid to back away and correct the approach you are taking. For example, with discharge planning we were trying to do process improvement but we realized that we didn’t even have a process to improve. So we had to take a different tack. We are going to have to design a new process. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Changing momentum, priorities, project sequence, or schedule • Modifying selected high-impact change areas, e.g., dropping one and possibly replacing it with another. • Modifying the strategic objective (with due caution). Changes in strategic priorities can be brought on by a variety of “nonelective” sources. While the Executive and Campaign Teams are tasked with maintaining the priority and focus on the strategic objective, changes happen, and the Campaign must be flexible enough to shift with them.

The plan continues to grow to include full implementation of changes. While Campaign Teams cannot implement permanent change — that must be done through the normal line of management — they are responsible, along with the Executive Team, for planning and coordinating it. As the tactical teams finalize their designs, the Campaign Team will extend their Plan to cover the implementation phase.

IV. THE ONGOING ROLE OF THE EXECUTIVE TEAM Executive managers can do things that middle managers and the Campaign Team cannot. They can: • Direct cross-functional reorganization and authority restructuring • Resolve political issues that strategic change inevitably stimulates • Propose solutions or refinements that may not be seen by Campaign or tactical teams.2


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The executive team has to take the lead in allowing stakeholder groups to react to the changes, get the issues out on the table, let people vent. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Even with our flat organization, paying attention to the vertical management of change is still important. Our strategic processes, such as OR, require a variety of departments, including medical staff, to work together. The Executive Team actually had to focus more on the vertical integration of the priority and whether we were going to complete a change than the horizontal component. Within the patient flow process, which is a classic example of a big horizontal process, we found that when we picked the hot spots and put tactical teams on them, we had to be very careful of the vertical management; the conflict was definitely there. Vice President Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Reset or adjust strategic priorities • Address systems such as capital budgeting, career planning, and job rotation • Continuously watch for mismatches between the campaign effort, the strategic objective, and the larger strategic plan in general • Watch for and address barriers to change within their own ranks and their reports • Assess potential impact of Campaign-sponsored changes on other strategic processes and on the strategic plan as a whole

The three primary responsibilities of the Executive Team in their ongoing role are: • To make the necessary ongoing change development decisions, e.g., whether to continue with developing specific changes, whether to allocate budget and resources for eventual implementation As an Executive Owner you have to be willing to give things up in order to make the changes work. The Vice President of Hospitality Services and I both gave up some big areas of responsibility; he gave up reservations; I gave up guest services. These were big, incredible changes. The changes had to come from all departments and all levels of all departments. As Executive Owners we had to lead the giving up. If we hadn’t shown our commitment, the changes wouldn’t have been as effective as they were. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort The Executive Owner should take the lead on assuring that funding and other resources are available to support a proposed change before a lot of development work gets under way. A management team is fooling itself about change if it doesn’t provide the means, financial and otherwise, to implement the change in a professional



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manner. It’s doomed to failure otherwise. The call center is a good example of that. It just would not have worked as a low-budget operation; we needed to set it up right. Executive Owner — Customer Communication Campaign Vice President, Sales and Marketing Blue Mountain Resort • To support the Campaign, to maintain focus on the strategic objective and its priority We needed the CEO to show interest in it, to support it, to favor it. To say, “This really is a big deal,” but that wasn’t going to happen for various reasons. That behavior came through pretty loud and clear. Executive Owner — Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds Vice President, Medicare Claims and Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa I had a President that would show up in my office or he’d track me down out on the floor to find out what was going on, what were we doing to meet the order fulfillment objective. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation • To take ownership of the changes under design and oversee the permanent implementation of those changes. Once they take ownership, they need to be prepared to take the actions necessary for implementation to succeed. Implementation is done through normal lines of management. Let’s face it, process changes involve costs; you have to figure out a way to redesign things, to pay for it when you’re done. The team can have wonderful ideas, but they can’t do a thing in the end if they don’t have that executive management push to get it approved. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre One thing any Executive Team interested in using this approach has to do is to have that final top-down commitment to the changes developed, to be able to say, “This is the way it’s going to be; everybody has a chance for input, but when we walk out of the room everybody understands what it is we are going to do.” Group Vice President, Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa

To meet these responsibilities, the Executive Team cannot be passive in its role. In times of strategic change, process-based organizations need more “top-down”


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management, not less.4 Even “limited” to a leadership position, Executive officers have a variety of critical tasks to fulfill to support and mentor the Campaign effort: • Deliver a clear, consistent message to the Team and the organization that the strategic objective has a high priority in the organization. Executive managers will be watched for signals that the change effort is not a priority, that other issues, other objectives, are to take precedence. Executive managers must be consistent, clear, and straightforward in their message. Executive management commitment to the Campaign tends to get lost when you get into the details. In order for the effort to be successful it needs to stay at the top of the list. To help people to be successful it has to be there right to the end and beyond. If it isn’t there in the end, whether to approve resources or to give recognition, you really lose. It’s very easy at the front end to launch the Team and say, “We’re behind you all the way and here’s why it’s important,” all of those wonderful things. But if that commitment isn’t there in the end to say, “Yeah, let’s put our money where our mouth is,” it’s not going to work. That commitment at the front must be there at the end, too. Executive Owner — Patient Flow Director, Patient Care Services Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre • Watch for and address political turmoil, turf wars, and “tender toes” that can result from change analysis and design. I worked with the Campaign Team more when the tactical teams were active. Sometimes members of the Campaign Team were barriers to the tactical teams’ achieving what they needed to do. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre • Address and resolve challenges and barriers systemic to the process or its environment,2 that the Campaign Team or other managers bring to them or that the Executive managers proactively uncover. The biggest barriers we bumped into were those that are endemic to our overall operation. The extent to which I was able to cajole, coerce, and otherwise face up to those issues, I did it and had some success; but it’s the same for a lot of other projects, no matter what the priority. Although I probably had better results with this strategic effort. Executive Owner Anonymous by request

To prepare for taking ownership of recommended changes the Executive Team will require information about the Campaign plan and the logic to it: tactical change designs and test outcomes, implications for the strategic objective, barriers and challenges to progress, final tactical proposals, and recommendations for implementation.



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One Vice President really didn’t understand what we were doing. He hadn’t been paying attention to what the change was that had been planned, that he had apparently agreed to. But when we got to the test stage he got a complaint. Then he reacted to the change by expecting that the test be ended. Executive Owner Anonymous by request The Executive Team has to endorse the change. They have to go out and talk to the group that is going to be impacted by the change, get everything out, especially the rationale for the change. To do this they have to be aware of the benefits and the costs of the change. They have to be pretty knowledgeable about it. Internal Consultant Manager, Regional Planning and Development Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

They should also be briefed about ongoing tactical efforts. These briefings can include a review of potential results of the changes being designed, costs, resources, potential impacts on other strategic processes, etc. Briefings should include whatever it takes for them to feel comfortable in the end, with their saying, “This is the way we are going to do this now in this organization.”

REFERENCES 1. Hout, T. and Carter, J., Getting it done: new roles for senior executives, Harvard Business Review, Nov.–Dec., 133, 1995; Champy, J., Reengineering Management, The Mandate For New Leadership, Harper Business, New York, 1995. 2. Hout, T. and Carter, J., Getting it done: new roles for senior executives, Harvard Business Review, Nov.–Dec., 133, 1995.



SECTION IV Beyond Tactical Projects PREFACE The completion of tactical projects does not end the Campaign. Tactical projects typically produce tested changes. It is the responsibility of the Campaign Team to plan for full-scale implementation of the changes and it is the responsibility of the Executive Team to champion the implementation effort. The changes themselves have to be implemented through normal line management. The Campaign is ended when the strategic objective is met; usually this is when the changes have been fully implemented, at least at one site. The next section, Section IV: Beyond Tactical Projects, examines the issues involved. A set of recommendations for implementing permanent change is reviewed in Chapter 11. After the Campaign the organization should have recognizable gains beyond the strategic changes. A mobilized middle management and improved capabilities for future strategic change are two. These are discussed in Chapter 12.



CHAPTER 11 Implementing Change . . . 75 percent of all improvements are lost? That’s a ridiculously optimistic number; it is more like 99 percent. Vice President, Operations International Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturer

I.

ABOUT IMPLEMENTING CHANGE

Improvements, solutions, changes, whatever they are called, have one thing in common: they are hard to implement and to make permanent. The actions up to this point have been about understanding and analyzing the playing field and developing and testing changes. Implementing them, making them a permanent “way we do business now” represents the next major step. Campaign and tactical teams cannot usually implement changes; as extraordinary teams they lack the authority and resources (except in limited situations and small organizations, and even then caution is required). Team members must fall back on their day-to-day authority and this often is not extensive enough to take all actions necessary to make the new process permanent. Changes, especially large-scale changes, must be implemented through normal organizational lines of authority and responsibility. If these channels are incapable of effectively supporting change, then these challenges must be dealt with. Avoiding them or trying to replace them with extraordinary means will not work for very long. The work to this point has laid a strong foundation for overcoming many of the common barriers to change. A strong coalition of executive and middle managers, vertical and horizontal alignment of the change objective, objective analysis built on a careful understanding of the strategic playing field, have all laid a foundation for success. In addition to these, several other best practices have been integral to the Campaign effort:

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• Executive management leadership and ownership of the change objective In the lessons learned category, it has to be said that there was a lot of lip service at the officer and senior officer level. I don’t think there was ever any gut-level passion for this change effort at the senior officer level. There was never a feeling that anyone’s job depended on meeting this change. Executive Owner Anonymous by request • Middle management leadership of and active participation in the change effort • The Campaign strategy of developing changes with an understanding of the full cross-functional process • Careful attention to the details of change(s) • Alignment of responsibilities and accountabilities

But it would be optimistic to think that these will remove all barriers to implementation. Many of the barriers are not logical; they are human emotions and they deal with basic fears and dislikes such as job insecurity, loss of control, loss of esteem and status, and loss of belonging and social ties. Because many of these challenges are based in emotions, not logic, logic will not overcome them. One-on-one basic trust building is needed. The answers will be different for each organization and the people in it, but one fact is clear — you will never know the answers until you meet the challenges head on by working to implement change. This chapter is presented as a set of recommendations; a checklist. “How to” steps are not used because differences are so great across organizations and change efforts that there is no one set of instructions that would work. However, there are best practices and guidelines that most certainly have to be considered in order to maximize chances of success, in getting changes implemented to begin with, and in holding onto the gains. These recommendations generally deal with implementing strategic changes into larger, more complex organizations. Some of the recommendations will not apply to smaller companies. In smaller organizations, tactical teams that develop changes often can implement them into their own processes, then Campaign Team managers can make necessary changes to documentation, training, and HR documents, and it is finished, (although not as often and usually requiring far more support and management authority and commitment than most seem to recognize. Even in a small company, first-line employees cannot enforce change on their peers without management support, nor can they usually take the actions necessary to ensure that the change is made the “way it is done here”). In bigger companies the design and test are usually separate from full implementation. Implementation puts senior management support to the test. Even the strongest champion through the design and test stages can fade and fail when the time comes to implement. Failure of management to support proposed changes is considered one of the greatest causes of reengineering failures;1 incremental changes equally fall prey to this same carnivore.


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My impression is that a lot of good ideas were developed and did stick, in those areas where the people could make them stick. But when it came time to take a broader perspective, move outside of their work areas, or move beyond incremental change into bigger, more expansive change, to get change where our customers needed us to go — we had neither the capacity nor support to do that. Vice President, Human Resources Anonymous by request

There are no simple answers to the challenges that hinder implementing change. Some of the learning can come from training, but much of it has to come from experience; setting an implementation goal and then doing everything necessary to accomplish it — including uncovering major barriers and learning how to deal with them. It comes back to change being slow. It should get easier with time, though. We will hopefully get better at this, and the strategies and tools for bringing about change, what we have to do as the Executive. A lot of this is new to everybody, the learning is difficult. Vice President, Hospitality Services Blue Mountain Resort

CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN — BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT: SKIER RISK REDUCTION AND SNOWMOBILE USE AND MAINTENANCE Skier risk directly affects both guests and the resort in very direct fashions. For the guest, the impact is pretty obvious. For the resort, it can mean an increase in insurance rates, which can take a major bite from profits. Blue Mountain Resort has been a long-time leader in ski area risk management, but with ski industry insurance rates on the rise, a Campaign Team was launched to look for ways to improve management and reduce risk. One tactical team worked with guest information and signage. This, along with other efforts, helped the number of skier accidents* to go down. Blue Mountain’s rates remain among the lowest. Another area taken on by a tactical team was snowmobile use and maintenance. A few of the tactical changes put in place by this team were: • • • •

Standardized, mandatory snowmobile operator training Daily logs to record any problems noticed with the machines Maps of the resort showing snowmobile-restricted areas and speed limits Stringent policies on who was allowed to operate a snowmobile on resort property

Wear and tear on the machines was reduced. This resulted in reductions in maintenance costs and the average life per machine went up by a year. While this * As a proportion of total skier visits.


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team was not directly charged with reducing skier risk, a significant outcome of the changes put in place was that incidents involving snowmobiles went down which, in turn, decreased risk. We got clear standards set and after a while they took on a life of their own. Once everybody knew what the speed limits were and what snowmobile drivers were supposed to act like, employees started reporting occasions when they saw someone not conforming to what they expected. When we got calls we would talk to the people using the snowmobiles and they became aware that people, more than just the managers, expected them to be followed. Everybody was watching. The strategy gave us a much better understanding of the bigger picture. If we had just dealt with the specific problem areas themselves, we would have lost the broader picture. The measurements we put in place were critical for people to see the results of their work. Incidents went down and it was recognized across the resort what it was we were trying to do and what it was we had accomplished. Executive Owner Vice President, Recreation

There are three fundamental ingredients that by necessity are included in any change implementation effort: • Thorough project management • Flexibility: realizing that major change is not always implemented in a clear, methodical fashion, it will often seem haphazard and disorganized • Senior management support and accountability for its implementation

Without these there will be no implementation effort; change will be just a good, passing idea. The recommendations given below overlap with the various phases of a Campaign. There is some redundancy in the information given; I hope the importance of the subject will bear its repetition.

II.

CHANGE DESIGN AND TEST

A. Plan Implementation Budgets in Advance of Need Develop rough cost estimates early as part of the initial review steps. If a solution looks good, consider what it will cost. If the organization cannot afford it or if there will be budgeting delays, be open about it; tell the Campaign and tactical teams early. The team put a lot into this and they expected the same from their managers. Now if we had said up front that these solutions would have to be considered in light of our overall capital equipment process, “We think they are excellent but we need to


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prioritize them now,” maybe that would have been a message better accepted by the group. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre There is no use in putting people into an effort for 6 months without planning ahead for the financial side of it. Team Leader — Diagnostic Test Director of Laboratory Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre We went through the analysis and solution development fairly quickly. But at that point we didn’t have the authority to move ahead, so it bogged down. We had to bump it up to Executive management for approval and that was frustrating. Executive management has to think ahead and realize that the solutions are going to take some money and allocate it in advance. Team Member — Diagnostic Test Manager, Hospital Information Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

B. Design for Implementation “Design for manufacturing” is a concept commonly used in production; engineers can design a product that is more efficient and less error prone to manufacture if they keep the limitations and capabilities of manufacturing firmly in mind as they design the product. The same holds true for tactical teams developing changes. The goal is to design the resulting change(s) so that they will: • Have less impact on implementation site facilities and/or equipment by adapting to what is currently there or what can be readily accessed • Have less impact on work social relationships • Have less impact on hierarchy and work structure • Make it easier to learn given the current employees’ skills, training, and background • Make work processes simpler, less complex • Make it easier to transition from the current process • Have minimum (negative) impact on the customer(s) and make it easier to get the customers’ support in making it work • Have minimum (negative) impact on supplier(s) and make it easier to get supplier support in making it work • Have measures built into the process in order to make it easier to assess impact and hold onto • Make the change hard to avoid or to forget The teams designed changes that couldn’t be avoided. Systems changes included codes that would not allow erroneous entries to be made at different places in the


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order-fulfillment process. The systems would correct errors or catch errors as they occurred and stop the order from continuing. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation

To do this the Tactical Team (with active participation of the Campaign Team) will need an understanding of where the change will be implemented and who is going to implement it. This knowledge comes naturally if the team is designing it for themselves, but if the process change is to be implemented at other sites or other departments, team members may have to go out and get it. C. Document the New Process Document the process, including work and process standards, to the detail necessary to train managers and employees — both existing and future hires. The senior officers don’t know if the changes are in place. That’s a fundamental weakness. They’ll say, “Yes, maybe.” But they aren’t sure and we’re right back to where we were before, the oral traditions. The opposite of an oral tradition is written documentation, measurement and process definition; without these things a company is a mess and will remain a mess. If you don’t know through the numbers, then you don’t know. And if process documentation isn’t there, it leaves it up to each person to make it up. Executive Owner Anonymous by request

If adequate training and documentation are not available, employees will have to make them up. And if they have to make them up: • The changes can’t be very important (if management doesn’t think they are important enough to make the “how to” details available, why should employees think they are important enough to make them work right?). • The final outcome won’t be what the Tactical Team designed or tested or what the Campaign Team expected. • Major variation will be introduced into the changes that are implemented, the way the work ends up being done and, in turn, the products or services being delivered to customers. • It will give them more than enough reason drop the “new way” as soon as possible (for all sorts of reasons, three to four flip-charts’ worth). People need to know how their departments are running. Having that basic knowledge, made up of flowcharts, measurement, standards and other information is essential. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation


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D. Recognize and Clearly Identify Modifications Changes that will be needed to affect decision-making capabilities, responsibilities, accountabilities and authority brought about by the change(s) need to be documented. This is different from documenting changes to the work process. Necessary authority does not show up on most process flowcharts. Simply put, ensure that all managers and employees affected by the change know what the changes are to their jobs and are given the capability(s) and authority to take the necessary actions to meet the responsibilities for which they are going to be held accountable. A clearly defined and tested process will make this task much easier. Employees and managers will be able to “see” where authority and capabilities are needed; they can ask themselves in advance, “Am I going to be able to do that?” For example, implementing self-directed work teams means significant changes to decisionmaking capabilities, responsibility levels, and the authority required to complete those responsibilities. Actions once taken by supervisors will need to be spread to certain or all members of the team so they can get the day-to-day work done. The redesigned work processes as well as the training designed to implement it will have to enable participants to accomplish their role in the process. We had just finished implementing new work teams; each group of equipment operators were to manage the day-to-day operation of their equipment. Implementation seemed to be going well, but across the first week we saw production decrease. During a walk-through one Monday morning, we saw at least half of the operators standing beside idle machines. When asked why his equipment wasn’t running, the first operator explained that quality control had just verified the operating specs of his machinery that morning; the policy was that following recalibrations, operators were to wait for an OK from the shift supervisor before starting. With the new teams there was one manager per 30 operators; the manager on that morning shift was still busy with other operators and would come eventually. Senior Consultant Manufacturing Organization

III.

PREPARING FOR IMPLEMENTATION

A. Establish a Change Champion Implementing changes is most often a human effort: human decisions make them go or not go; humans have to accept them into their working arrangements. Decree, memo, or threats of “breaking kneecaps” do not usually motivate people. Large, extensive changes need a “sales rep,” a champion, to take ownership of and accountability for their implementation.


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This was an important part of my role as Executive Owner: being the champion for the recommendations made by the Tactical Teams to make sure that they made it through the approval process. Executive Owner — Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

The champions shepherd change implementation through the organization. They add a human side to the effort at sites where the change was not designed and may have had no input into its development. Champions are especially important in geographically dispersed organizations. In addition to an HQ champion, possibly the Campaign Executive Owner, there should be a, champion in each implementation site, e.g., district, region, operation, etc., to assist with overcoming local variation and resistance as well as to maintain close partnership with HQ. Local change Champions are responsible for: • Implementation of project management • Logistical support for the change i.e., facilities, equipment, training are planned and complete • Human side of implementing changes, selling, working with fellow senior officers to gain acceptance and to remove obstacles Of course the President supported it, but I knew if I had just once said, “The president said to do this,” to get one of them (the Vice Presidents) to do something, I would have lost them. I had to get them to come along because they wanted to or at least because they couldn’t find a reason not to. Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada Wesley Jessen Corporation

Each local Champion should report to the local senior manager and draw his or her authority from local management. The senior manager for each site is held accountable for final implementation. The local Champions support the local manager and are accountable to him/her for change implementation. If the support isn’t there, the Champion cannot do his or her job. B. Plan and Develop Training as an Integral Part of Change Design and Test Count on training to be an essential and integral part of implementing change. The level of quality of training will have a direct impact on the implementation of the change. Training will be needed (and will be different) for everyone whose job is changed or modified by the new process: managers, first-line supervisors, and employees. Simply put, each person needs to know what the performance standards will be and how to do their job after the change has been made.


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We made a heavy investment in training our customer service reps. Prior to the start of this effort, each rep was expected to learn “the basics” on the job. We learned that we have to do better than that. We conducted a total of 45 hours of customer service training per employee in the first 12 months and it was an excellent vehicle to make the transition to professional customer service representatives, versus “order takers.” Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

Managers will need to be educated (1) on what their reports are to be held accountable for, and (2) how the new way to do the work process is to be recognized, assessed, and appraised. Customers and suppliers may need training as well. When we implemented the changes to the booking card, we set up an auditorium presentation where we invited all the surgeons’ office staff. They came in and we presented the redesigned process to them, their role in it, why it had to be that way, so they knew the process. They knew if they didn’t do this it would come back. By contacting and training the surgeons’ offices we have a much better rapport with them. If we get a new surgeon in, I invite their office staff to come in and I take them around and tell them about the process. Tactical Team Member — OR Booking/Scheduling Patient Information Centre Admission Clerk Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre

C. Get a Human Resources Representative Involved Early On Do this both in headquarters and local areas where the change is being implemented. Ideally there should be an HR auxiliary member on the tactical team. HR needs to know enough about the change that is being designed to understand and the effects of the change on recruitment profiles, job performance criteria, and development planning. D. Get Union Representation Involved as Early as Possible How soon will depend on the nature of the change and the attitude and perspective of union representation. Ideally they will act as auxiliary members to the tactical teams during early stages of design; they absolutely need to be involved in local implementation. E. Recognize and Deal with Variation across the Organization Some of the toughest challenges to change implementation come from variation — differences in work processes and environment between divisions, regions, sections, even shifts. These differences will have major effects on how the new process will have to be both designed and implemented. Variation will be dealt with to some


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extent by the Tactical Team when it designs the change, but it will have to be considered again in planning for implementation. The big questions will be: • Which differences will affect implementation of the changes? • Should the variation between sites be eliminated (or minimized) so that the change can be implemented consistently, or should the implementation plan be modified or adjusted to deal with the variation, or somewhere in the middle?

F. Set Criteria for Opting Out People opted out. People in the different groups were allowed to retreat back into their silos. “Our job is to sell, we’ll do this piece of it you guys do your piece.” Senior Management Anonymous by request

Is the change mandatory in all departments, divisions, or sites using the process? Or can management opt out of implementing the change? If they can opt out: 1. What are the criteria for opting out? 2. Who can make the decision to opt out? 3. Who will handle incorrectly made decisions to opt out?

These are questions that only the Executive Team can answer. Neither the Tactical nor the Campaign teams should be put in a position of attempting to enforce implementation: it won’t work. Get the answers to these questions early in planning. Ensure that the answers and the logic behind them are communicated to all senior and middle management. If local sites understand the reasons why the change is not optional, they resist on the grounds that it is being forced on them and are less likely to. G. Align Accountabilities, Adjust the “Formal” and “Informal” Compacts between Managers and Employees A major change can have far-reaching effects on the workplace, beyond just the process that is being modified. The formal compact between the organization and managers, supervisors, and employees will need to be adjusted to reflect changes in responsibility and authority. Terms of employment, pay, and all other formal aspects need to be carefully considered. Again, well-defined processes will make this easier. Union input, if applicable, is very important in this action. H. Ensure that Managers and Supervisors Will Be Able to Fulfill Their Roles Under the process, they may need different means to verify employee performance and adherence to new standards or procedures.


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ROLLOUT OF IMPLEMENTATION

A. Clearly State Commitment to the Change Reinforce the priority, the sense of urgency, for “this is what we are going do and why.” Clear decisions have to be made, communicated, and people have to be held accountable. It takes somebody, the Executive Officer, to say, “This is the way it is going to be” and everybody saluting it. That is what we lacked before. We walked out with a hodgepodge discussion and nobody understood if a decision had been made, let alone what the decision was, what they were expected to do and what they would be held accountable for. Group Vice President, Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa No matter what the change effort you will always have people that are against it, that like the status quo for whatever reason. To get them to move you may, senior management may, have to look at the people in those middle management roles and ask, “This is the way we are going to deal with change; are you the right person for this position?” And each functional manager is going to have to ask that of his or her own people too. That is why I ended up with a reduced head count, both of firstline employees but also supervisors and trainers. When you have committed people it is a lot easier to get things done. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

B. Communicate the Benefits as Well as the Drawbacks for Each Employee, Supervisor, and Manager Communicate to those affected by the change in terms that each can appreciate and value. Address drawbacks openly and up front. Perceived benefits and personal needs are different at each level of an organization and may differ by site if the organization’s geographic spread is very great. You have to get initial buy-in or it won’t work. You have to implement change by getting the people to want to do it. Internal Consultant Vice President, Human Resources Blue Mountain Resort

The “costs” of the change will also be different for each group and must be recognized. For example, in one case a Tactical Team decided that an optimal work


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Figure 11.1 Leadership support for changes is essential for success. © The New Yorker Collection 1977. George Booth from cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved. Group Vice President, Administration — Retired Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa


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process meant working in teams of two; this would improve efficiency of process as well as minimize lifting and other physical exertions. But it also meant that employees could not take breaks when they wished to with their friends, as they did when they worked individually. They would have to take breaks with their partners at assigned times. It took considerable work to overcome this perceived cost. You had to have very good communication with people. There is a distinction between having good communication and being well liked. First we had to understand the employees; we had to find their motivation points for change. We spent a lot of time talking to groups of five or seven, explaining changes we were considering — for example, why we might be considering increasing the call standard — and then we’d listen very carefully to the feedback and ask their advice on how to implement. We knew that a memo saying, “This is what we are doing” would raise resistance. They all have different motivations for why they are here doing the job; let’s make sure they understand what it is we are trying to do, why we want to do it, the benefits both to the company, and then to them for what we are trying to do. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

C. Train Employees and Managers on the Change Planning for it is one thing, doing it is another. Taking managers and employees off line for the time necessary for training, to have them learn something new, can be one of the steps where resistance to change will be most tangible. There will be many reasons why people will not be able to afford the time to take the training. If they are not trained they will not know the new work process. If they do not know it, they will have every reason to not implement it. Implementing an effective training effort is an essential capability in carrying out effective change. It is a capability that will be used over and over. Training has taken on a very big role in our growth effort. When you’re expanding you must train new people; if you’re not, things are just going to get worse and worse. We learned that from our initial effort. If people don’t understand the process, they are not going to help the company succeed. Growth in this organization, like most service industries, means hiring people. We learned just how important it is to make sure that new people understand processes. It’s the same with introducing a new process: it’s just the process that is new. Team Leader — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Taxation Services MD Management One of the greatest challenges we have faced here in getting changes implemented is communicating ideas and getting them implemented consistently. We continued to communicate with the managers and staff during and after the changes were put in


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place to make sure that they knew what we were trying to do and what their part was in implementing the changes. Team Leader — Purchasing and Receiving Accounts Payable Blue Mountain Resort

D. Make First-line Supervisors the Primary Change Communication and Implementation Link with First-line Employees Do not put senior managers in the position of introducing (large-scale) change to first-line employees. Also avoid mass media, video links, or mass meetings to introduce strategic changes to the workplace. The most effective way is informally, face to face, one-on-one. Supervisors worked one-on-one with the people that reported to them; they handled follow-up questions, worked through individual issues or questions, and that was good for them to make sure that they understood the issue. But it was my role [as the functional manager] to say, “This is what the company is going to do and why” and deliver the information with enthusiasm. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

First-line supervisors are in the best position to fill this communication role. In general they are: • The preferred information source and opinion leaders for their reports • Credibility leaders • Important allies to have in a change effort

Take specific actions to enlist them as allies in the change effort: • Brief them first on the coming change, the logic behind it, the benefits, the costs, in terms they can work with. • Get their input to the change (not permission, input) at each implementation site and respond to the input openly. Communicate the question, the answer, and the reasons behind it to all supervisors.2 • Educate supervisors first on all aspects of the change so they can assist with supporting their reports during training and implementation. Make extra education and two-way communication available to supervisors during the implementation period, at least until the new processes are consistent and stable. If supervisors understand their own and their reports’ new roles and responsibilities, and the changes in specific activities and performance standards, and if they consider themselves a part of the change (rather than outside observers or “one of the


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victims”), you are more likely to get both supervisor and employee participation in implementing a long-term application of the change.2

E. “Beta” Test the Change at Each Implementation Site* To assure proper fit and to build trust and buy-in, test the change. Not all glitches or local site variations will be able to be recognized and corrected beforehand. Both the change and the training that goes with it may need to be modified to adjust to local conditions and variations. We did a trial rollout of order entry in the regional offices. We chose four offices and did a trial where they did their own order entry. That represented a much bigger change for those offices; it took a real change in mind set. And there were many differences in the processes they were working with. Team Member — Daily Funds Evaluation Manager, Fund Administration MD Management We rolled it out in phases and the reps in the first areas saw the results right away and gave strong testimonials that we used to continue rolling it out. They would say, “Hey, this process really works; it’s something that is really going to help us to get the job done.” Team Member — Product Implementation Assistant Vice President, Communications Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

Beta tests can range from limited testing to simply designating the first week (day or month, depending on the process life cycle) of the implementation to be a trial period. It is a period of intense education, observation, data gathering, and twoway communication that allows: • • • •

For a thorough understanding of how the change works at the local site Early resolution of bugs and implementation quirks Input of first-line employees and management Consensus building

Be careful to go into local site beta tests with clear knowledge of what can be modified in the new process and what cannot. This will be important when responding to suggestions for adjustments. Also make clear to participants that “let’s not implement this at all” is not an option (if indeed it is not). F. Verify Changes Verifying that the change has taken place will need to be done in two stages, short and long term. How long the stages take will depend on the type and complexity * This is in addition to the “alpha” testing carried out by Tactical Teams prior to implementation.


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of the change being implemented. There is considerable overlap between the two. Most changes require some type of modification to human behavior; estimates of the length of time to change human behavior range from six to nine months (optimistically). 1. Short Term: For the First Three to Four Months (or So) Never assume a change is in place. Mistrust data that show that it is. Go look to see that: • The employees are actually using the new process steps and methods. A simple, and admittedly cynical, rule is if people can decide not to use the new process, visual verification will be required. Be very careful to position this verification as coaching and assistance, not policing. The question is, are managers and employees changing the way they do their work? • The changes are having the expected results. Look at the results, talk to customers, and look at process performance measures. In Medicare we were able to see the full impact of our effort. When employees made a change they were able to see print go down, postage go down, pages go down: very specific things. They were able to measure clear per-unit costs and savings and then go back and verify them. Internal Consultant Manager, Product Development Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa • Realize that initially there may be an actual worsening in performance. This can show up in visible results as well as performance measures. While employees are going through the initial start-up learning and the new processes are being debugged, there will probably be a slump. The most important thing to watch for is that the slumps go away after a short amount of time and the gains from the changes come into place. If they don’t, go look to see that the employees are actually using the new process steps and methods. Do not assume that the problem is with poor process design until you are sure that the new process has actually been implemented per the design; it probably hasn’t been.

2. Long Term: From Six to Twelve Months Continue process measurements to make sure that the gains were not lost. Use audits to verify that: 1. Management and supervisors are comfortable with the change and recognize it as permanent 2. Current documentation is available and being followed 3. Training is available to employees new to the process 4. Training is current with process documentation


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process characteristic change implementation

learning and cost of startup

objective

TIME

Figure 11.2

Change “learning curve.”

The change Champions and/or peers from other sites where the change has been implemented (or beta test teams) can complete the audits. Audits should be positioned as friendly coaching, not policing — improvement, not enforcement. If any results of the audits show weaknesses, corrections should be made through coaching and education of employees and managers. Enforcement should come through performance evaluations and appraisals, not the audits. If audits are perceived as enforcement, then they will lose their value as an implementation tool. People will simply figure out how to lie to the auditors. G. Use Both Formal and Informal Lines of Communication for Ongoing Status Reports Formal lines of communication include presentations by managers, town-hall meetings, working sessions with first-line supervisors, as well as mass media such as newsletters and bulletins. Formal communication covers the results of the implementation stages. Communicate progress using simple measures of success (like the United Way thermometer) that all levels of managers and employees can understand as signs of progress. Informal lines of communication may include • Informal discussion groups with employees • Working with key opinion leaders

Informal communication is a very strong medium; it is face to face, one-one-one and usually directs itself to the issues, fears, and “pulse points” much more effectively than mass media. The only drawback is that it is usually inaccurate. The goal of an informal communication effort is to build on informal communications strengths by adding accuracy.


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Another major part of our communication effort was that on an ongoing basis we went out of our way to involve the people that were most interested in participating in the change effort. We went out of our way to involve them and make sure they were ambassadors. Tactical Team Leader — Order Fulfillment Manager, Customer Service Wesley Jessen Corporation

H. Actively Enforce the Change and New Standards This is the way “we do things here now.” Letting them go one time will open the door to changes disappearing. We got clear standards set and after a while they took on a life of their own. Once everybody knew what the speed limits were and what snowmobile drivers were supposed to act like, employees started reporting occasions when they saw someone not conforming to what they expected. When we got calls, we would talk to the people using the snowmobiles and then they became aware that these standards were expected to be followed. Everybody was watching. Executive Owner — Risk Management Campaign Vice President, Recreation Blue Mountain Resort

I. Celebrate Successes You bring the changes before the employees, you keep it focused and you celebrate each step, each success. Make sure that you have the support of the employees, keep it fun and, most important, show that you’re getting somewhere. Vice President, Hospitality Services Blue Mountain Resort We didn’t celebrate their accomplishment, they were not congratulated on what they did; management did not make it clear to them or to other managers and employees that this was the kind of thing we wanted them to do. Why should any manager or employee work hard, work to do something extraordinary, when it is just going to be a “ho-hum” when they finish? That is a demotivator. Senior Manager Anonymous by request

REFERENCES 1. Champy, J., Reengineering Management, Harper, New York, 1995. 2. Larkin, T. and Larkin, S., Reaching and changing front-line employees, Harvard Business Review, 47, 101, 1996.


CHAPTER 12 Conclusions The things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Aristotle

The success of a Campaign, especially a first one, needs to be evaluated by more than whether the strategic objective has been met or not. Granted, that is the first priority of any strategic change effort, but even if the objective was met success should also be considered in terms of what else was gained, what else was left behind. If the only accomplishment was that the strategic objective was met, then something went wrong; the extra effort required to develop and tap middle management, to create a more capable organization, was lost. Case study participants suggest that around 75 percent of the effort in a first Campaign is spent on learning and building capabilities. We discovered just how difficult learning and doing at the same time can be. First, we had to learn the tools and strategy of Campaigning. It was a tough project. Taking on something, a process this complex, while learning the strategy and tools was tough. We probably used up six months just learning. Team Member — Customer Inquiry Assistant Vice President, Medical Management Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota

It will always be tougher and take more time than the second Campaign. A major part of the criteria of judging success, then, should be what and how much was learned and what capabilities were gained for both the participants and the organization. Give the team time to learn on the first project. And remember that it is a first project. Don’t give up using the approach when it seems slower or more cumbersome. This approach is learned. Executive Owner – Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management 243


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Learning and doing take time. Organizations often lose sight that the first project takes longer due to learning. It differed, but easily 50 percent was due to learning time. Executive Owner – Diagnostic Test Vice President, Hospital Services Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre

So what is left behind besides changes made and strategic objectives met? A mobilized and enabled middle management resource, which was likely skipped over and avoided in the past, has been made capable of leading and managing change. Organizing and enabling middle managers has opened up an entire source of knowledge and change leadership. These managers have expanded their purview beyond the walls of the silos, to recognize both the full horizontal flow of strategic processes and the power of linking strategic planning to tactical action. They have seen how to make change work, how to make their jobs work, for the full organization rather than just for just a part. Managers involved in the effort have been given the skills and ability to: 1. Link strategic objectives to tactical projects 2. Create organizational knowledge from the individual knowledge each of them walked into the Team with 3. Create the different contexts of knowledge needed for cross-functional strategic change 4. Manage and support ongoing tactical change design and development It has changed the behavior of the two managers that report to me, in a very positive way. They are using the tools, the flowcharting, in other projects to a very good effect, such as their ability to cope with change in a more organized manner and trying to avoid knee-jerk responses to problems. In this one upgrade project I doubt that I or the other managers on the Team would have had the strength to stand up to a doctor, a senior member of a department, that was determined to sign a purchase order with an equipment company about halfway through the first meeting. The rest of us thought the decision shouldn’t be made any sooner than in a couple of months. We wouldn’t have had the confidence to do that had we not been through a Campaign effort; to say, “Look, believe it or not, there are more issues out there than immediately meet the eye; we are not signing the purchase order.” By being able to approach it constructively with a strategy and a sense of logical approach, we got his buy-in. If we hadn’t, he would have gone over our heads to try to get what he wanted. Executive Owner Anonymous by request


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• An operational level of strategic change management, and the direct linking of strategic objectives to tactical actions • A recognition that a variety of tactical approaches, carefully considered and applied, gives more flexibility, and power to a change effort • A cross-functional perspective of the full organization, of how it works to create and deliver essential products and services. Even if this concept had been worked with before, it is made far more real after it is actualized in a strategic change effort

It is hard to say how well these perspectives, skills, and capabilities will be developed in the first Campaign. Learning is a difficult taskmaster, especially when a second master — meeting the strategic objective — is sharing command. However, two rules seem to apply in all cases: 1. More was learned than most people realize or recognize. 2. It is always better, faster, cheaper, and easier the second time through. . . . the second one will go much faster. Now, we don’t notice the time it takes because the projects are going so much faster overall. Executive Owner – Daily Funds Evaluation Vice President, Finance and Administration MD Management


SL2953_Index_frame Page 247 Wednesday, August 9, 2000 2:45 AM

Index A As is process, 193

B BCBS, see Blue Cross Blue Shield Benchmarking, 32, 65 Benefit communications, 82 Beta tests, 239, 241 Big hitter projects, 144 Blinders, 18 Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), 140 Blueprint process mapping tool, 109, 110 Bootlegged information, 148

C Campaign analysis, differences between TQM and, 136 context, 204 plan, creation of, 142, 143 wandering, 51 work, logbook of, 98 Campaign, establishment of, 75–98 Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, 81–82 Blue Mountain Resort, 76–77 establishing of ground rules and expectations, 93–98 getting established, 75–77 Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre, Diagnostic Test Campaign, 91–92 refining of objective, 77–92 about refining of objective, 77–79 recommendations for refining of objective, 80–82 steps for refining of objective, 82–89 verifying process scope, team membership, and support, 89–92

setting of process vision, 92–93 Campaign, planning of, 125–146 about campaign planning, 125–130 Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, 140–141 creation of campaign plan, 142–146 recommendations for creating campaign plan, 143 steps for creating campaign plan, 143–146 defining of tactical project objectives, 138–141 recommendations for defining tactical project objectives, 139 steps for defining tactical project objectives, 139–140 locating of high-impact change areas, 130–138 purpose, 130–131 recommendations for locating high-impact change areas, 132–133 steps, 133–138 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, 131–132 Wesley Jessen Corporation, 128–130 Campaign communication, 147–154 about communication, 147–151 communication with whom, 152 how to communicate, 153 roles of, 151 what to communicate, 151–152 Campaign Team, 38, 41 communication link to, 166 members, selecting, 54 play-through time, 112 sign-off, 191 Campaign team, creation of, 35–72 campaign team, 35–42 Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre, 45

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planning for team support, preparation, and launch, 60–72 changes to formal and informal work compacts, 66–67 preparation and launch, 71–72 recommendations for planning team support, preparation, and launch, 61 support briefing and training, 68–70 support budget, 65–66 support facilities, equipment and applications, 64–65 support people, 61–64 selecting team members, 43–60 recommendations, 43–45 steps for selecting team members, 46–60 Wesley Jessen Corporation production yield and efficiency campaign, 53–54 Campaign team, ongoing role of, 203–221 about ongoing role, 203–214 discussion on dealing with tactical projects that fail, 213–214 recommendations, 206–207 working with individual tactical projects, 207–213 looking at big picture, 214–216 recognizing potential or planned effects on organizational structure and other strategic processes, 215–216 steps for looking at big picture, 214–215 maintaining campaign context, 216–217 ongoing role of executive team, 217–221 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, 205–206 Canadian Medical Association, 17 Capital outlays, 7 Case study organization Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Assistant Vice President, Actuarial and Membership Services, 31, 81 Assistant Vice President, Communications, 7, 82, 135, 239 Assistant Vice President, Medical Management, 243 Manager, Customer Service, 85, 139, 140, 141, 163 Manager, Medical Affairs, 62 Manager, Membership Services, 81, 82 Manager, Provider Service, 81, 141, 166, 206 Manager, Quality Improvement, 68, 69, 73, 163 Team Member, Customer Inquiry, 166 Vice President, Development Business Strategy, 56, 81, 84, 96, 156, 175

Vice President, Marketing and Customer Service, 28, 29, 51, 53, 68, 126, 148 Vice President, Quality, 213 Blue Mountain Resort Customer Service Representative, 76, 96, 121, 158, 167, 170, 210, 213 Director, Golf and Tennis, 17, 55, 59, 95, 108, 134, 136, 137, 166, 167, 169, 197, 209, 215 President, 1, 5, 11, 167 Team Leader, Purchasing and Receiving, 130, 158, 173, 238 Vice President, Hospitality Services, 227, 242 Vice President, Human Resources, 77, 177, 235 Vice President, Recreation, 121, 219, 228, 242 Vice President, Sales and Marketing, 43, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 58, 65, 76, 87, 218 Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre Director of Laboratory, 70, 102, 229 Laboratory Director, 91 Manager, CQI Coordinator, 31, 84, 124, 172, 179, 192 Manager, Hospital Information Services, 104, 149, 157, 229 Manager, Laboratory, 91, 105 President, retired, 45, 142 Senior Secretary, Pathology Lab, 159, 174 Tactical Team Member, OR Booking/Scheduling, 106, 202 Vice President, Finance, 10, 101, 156, 191, 192, 200 Vice President, Hospital Services, 32, 46, 52, 91, 168, 206, 208, 220, 229, 232, 244 MD Management Manager, Fund Administration, 4, 40, 78, 79, 101, 155, 239 Manager, Taxation Services, 8, 17, 37, 39, 42, 54, 56, 57, 97, 100, 107, 120, 127, 237 President and CEO, retired, 5, 41, 58, 102, 147 Senior Systems Analyst, 61, 77 Vice President, Finance and Administration, 16, 17, 19, 20, 56, 101, 243, 245 Vice President, Information Technology, 15, 19, 21, 99, 103 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre Clinical Coordinator, 95


INDEX

Director, Patient Care Services, 65, 109, 131, 132, 142, 208, 217, 219, 220 Manager, Booking/Admitting, 131 Manager, Customer Service, 233 Manager, OR/Recovery Room Nursing, 102, 131, 156, 208, 210, 212 Manager, Regional Planning and Development, 63, 103, 166, 168, 218, 221 Tactical Team Member, OR Booking/Scheduling, 50, 128, 159, 165, 171, 176, 179, 194, 197 Tactical Team Member, Patient Information Center Admission Clerk, 187 Unit Secretary, Pre-admission Clinic, 157, 186, 187, 199 Vice President, 2, 16, 22, 23, 33, 41, 53, 80, 218 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa Campaign Team Leader, 161 Coordinator, Process Support Services, 97, 161, 168, 211 Director, Medicare Claism and Administrations, 160 Director, Payment Safe Guards and External Relations, 77, 113, 122, 157, 160 Director, Systems Support, 6, 18, 119, 200 Executive Owner, Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds, 219 Group Leader, Claims Administration, retired, 44, 60, 96,105, 115, 119 Group Leader, Group Enrollment and Membership, 58, 205 Group Leader, Individual Markets, 44, 67, 99, 168 Group Vice President, Administration, retired, 11, 12, 32, 205, 235 Manager, Accounts Payable, 63, 123, 178 Manager, Product Development, 88, 155, 193, 240 Medicare Claims Administration, 93, 134, 162, 199 President, Wellmark Financial Services, 62, 137, 205 Team Leader, Medicare Operations, 160, 161 Team Member, Medicare Electronic Transfer of Funds, 162, 199 Team Member, Sales and Enrollment, Marketing Administration, 132 Team Member, Sales and Enrollment,

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Product Control, 20, 36, 114 TQM Coordinator, 39, 79, 136 Vice President, Benefit Administration, 48, 206, 216 Vice President, Benefit Administration, retired, 79 Vice President, Human Resources, 11 Vice President, Human Resources, retired, 6, 33 Vice President, Medicare Claims and Administration, retired, 133, 159, 160, 219 Wesley Jessen Corporation Director, Corporate Analysis, 28, 34, 62, 104, 123, 129, 138, 149, 150, 152 Manager, Customer Service, 18, 38, 130, 134, 143, 148, 150, 151, 219, 230, 233, 235, 237, 238, 242 Manager, Pilot Plant Production, 54, 100 Manager, Technical Services, 36, 44, 53, 54, 56, 79, 94, 169 Tactical Team Leader, Order Fulfillment, 230, 233 Team Member, Production Yield and Efficiency, 41, 126, 131 Vice President of Sales, U.S. and Canada, 12, 16, 42, 47, 120, 121, 125, 129, 132, 133, 135, 150, 230, 232 Challenge, establishing of, 3–14 assessing organizations’ readiness and capabilities for change, 8–10 Blue Mountain Resort, 5 creation of compelling mandate for change, 10–12 definition of strategic objective, 4–7 understanding , 7–8 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, 12–13 Champion(s) change, 241 local, 232 Change areas, high-impact, 107, 130, 132, 133 Champions, 241 commitment to, 235 common barriers to, 225 communication, primary, 238 design, 228 development decisions, 218 effort(s) executive management commitment to, 2 resistance to, 12 mandated, 135


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organization’s readiness and capabilities for, 8 Change, implementing, 74, 156, 225–242 about implementing change, 225–228 Blue Mountain Resort, 227–228 change design and test, 228–231 designing for implementation, 229–230 documenting of new process, 230 planning of implementation budgets in advance of need, 228–229 recognizing clearly identifying modifications, 231 preparation for implementation, 231–234 aligning accountabilities, adjusting formal and informal compacts between managers and employees, 234 ensuring managers and supervisors will be able to fulfill roles, 234 establishing of change champion, 231–232 involvement of human resources representative, 233 involvement of union representation, 233 planning and developing of training as integral part of change design and test, 232–233 recognizing and dealing with variation across organization, 233–234 setting criteria for opting out, 234 rollout of implementation, 235–242 actively enforcing change and new standards, 242 beta testing of change at each implementation site, 239 celebrating successes, 242 clear statement of commitment to change, 235 communication of benefits and drawbacks for each employee, supervisor, and manager, 235–237 making first-line supervisors primary change communication and implementation link with first-line employees, 238–239 training of employees and managers on change, 237–238 using formal and informal lines of communication for ongoing status reports, 241–242 verifying changes ongoing, 239–241 Chaotic realities, confronted by front-line managers, 36 Commitments, living up to, 67

Communicability, maximizing of, 105 Communication technology, high-tech, 147 two-way, 150 working definition of, 148 Computer models, 200 Consensus building, 69 Consulting, 65, 191 Contractual obligations, 116 Customer communications, 5 inquiry manager, 81 service representative, 76

D Data, 131 definition, 136 -gathering systems, 216 Decision-making process, 131 Design for manufacturing, 229 Diagnostic test, 24 Divisiveness, 6

E ECF map, see Eight-Column Format map Eight-Column Format (ECF) map, 200, 201 E-mail messaging, 22 Employee(s) first-line, 176 hire to retire process, 21 life cycle process, 23 /management organizational review, 32 opinions, 117 participation, line management support for, 172 performance, standards of, 199 Executive management, 37 Executive Owner, 46 advisor to, 48 criteria for selecting, 52 lack of progress noted by, 49 Executive team, 20 ongoing role of, 217 review by, 88 Expert consultant, 175

F Fax modems, 174 Fear factor, 123 Federal Agency Reengineering Team, 64 Federal government agency, 70 Final paperwork, 86


INDEX

Financial management, MD Management, 4, 5, 8, 15, 19, 20, 21, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 54, 56, 57, 58, 61, 77, 78, 79, 97, 99, 100, 103, 107, 120, 127, 147, 155, 237, 239, 243, 245 case study, 16–17 daily funds evaluation project, 101–102 Financial planning, 83 Financial review, 32 First-line management, 37 First-line supervisors, 238 Flowcharting, 64, 168, 177 Formal work compact, 66

G Gossip, 148 Groundwork, laying of, 15–34 Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, 29–30 identifying organization’s strategic processes, 17–19 MD Management, 16–17 picking right strategic process, 30–31 recommendations for choosing strategic process, 31–34 recommendations for identifying strategic processes, 20–30 consolidation of list, 24–27 creation of profile for each strategic process, 28–30 drafting of list of strategic processes, 21–24 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, 22–23 Gut-level feelings, 9, 91

H Health care, see Hospitals Health insurance, see also Insurance companies claims process, 83 Company, 26–27 Hospital, 26 Hospitality, see Resort Hospitals Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre, 10, 31, 32, 46, 52, 70, 84, 101, 102, 104, 105, 106, 124, 142, 149, 156, 157, 159, 168, 172, 179, 200, 202, 206, 208, 220, 229, 232, 244 case study, 45 diagnostic test campaign, 91–92 recording pathology reports on patient charts, 174

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tactical team, diagnostic imaging film library, 191–192 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, 2, 16, 33, 41, 50, 53, 63, 65, 95, 102, 103, 109, 128, 142, 156, 157, 159, 165, 166, 168, 171, 176, 179, 199, 208, 210, 212, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 booking backlog, 131–132 case study, 22–23 project booking/scheduling, 186–187 Human resources documents, 226 records, 48 representative, 233 Hypertext organization, Campaign Team as, 38

I Improvement teams, Total Quality Management, 117 Information bootlegged, 148 flow, 149 important, 186 paper, 160 Inside experts, 161 Insurance companies Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, 7, 28, 31, 51, 53, 56, 62, 68, 69, 73, 84, 85, 96, 126, 135, 139, 148, 156, 163, 166, 175, 206, 213, 239, 243 case study, 29–30 customer inquiry campaign, 140–141 product implementation, 81–82 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, 6, 11, 18, 20, 32, 33, 36, 39, 44, 48, 58, 60, 62, 63, 67, 77, 79, 88, 93, 99, 105, 113, 114, 115, 122, 123, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, 155, 157, 162, 168, 178, 193, 199, 200, 216, 219, 235, 240 case study, 12–13 electronic transfer of funds, 159–161 group enrollment, 205–206 product design and development, 118–119 Interpersonal issues, resolving team, 168 Interpersonal skills, 58

J Just-in-time concepts, 189

K Knowledge


252


context of, 39, 127 creation, 40 sharing, 95 tactical contexts of, 158

L Launch, overhyping of, 72 Leadership major test of, 11 skills, 58 support, for changes, 236 Lean and mean, as operating policy, 60 Local Champion, 232 Logic gaps, 165 Lower ranking, 193

M Management information system (MIS), 122 Mandated changes, 135 Manufacturing, 26 design for, 229 Wesley Jessen Corporation, 12, 16, 18, 28, 34, 36, 38, 41, 44, 47, 56, 62, 79, 94, 100, 104, 120, 121, 123, 125, 126, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 138, 143, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 169, 219, 230, 232, 233, 235, 237, 238, 242 case study, 42 order fulfillment team, 128–130 production yield and efficiency campaign, 53–54 Mapping tools, 194 Market research, 32 Medicare A program administration, 13 Meetings, one-on-one, 153 Middle managers, 1, 3, 36, 37, 99 MIS, see Management information system Modems, fax, 174 Myers Briggs, 71, 181

N National Management Information Standards (NMIS), 140 Newsletters, 153 NMIS, see National Management Information Standards

O Objective, steps for refining, 82 Office space, 177 On-line Information Review, 141 Opinion leaders, working with, 241

Opting out, setting criteria for, 234 Order fulfillment, 128 Organization silos, 110 Outside experts, 161 Overconfidence, 70 Overoptimism, 9, 10

P Paper information, 160 Performance measures, 99, 120 Personality typing, 71, 181 Pharmaceutical, see Manufacturing Playing field, understanding of, 99–124 about playing field, 99–107 discussion of team communication and knowledge creation, 105–107 recommendations for understanding of playing field, 103–105 Blue Mountain Resort, 107–108 mapping of strategic process, 107–119 steps, 108–115 survey of environment, 115–118 MD Management, 101–102 measure of process performance, 119–124 purpose, 121–122 recommendations, 122–124 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, 118–119 Pocket veto, 10, 163 Poles apart work environments, 188 Power and prestige rankings, 193 Preliminary training, 180 Priority conflicts, 210 maintainer, 47 Process -based organizations, 219 characteristics, 85 debugging of after implementation, 212 documenting of new, 230 environment, 115 experts, 171 front-end portions of, 144 life cycle, 24 map, working, 113 parameters, verifying of, 89 performance measures, 74, 119, 196 profile, 23 technology, 65 vision, 92 Project decision to halt, 213 management, 185, 203 lack of, 50


INDEX

skills, 8, 58, 71 Proxy warfare, 6

R Real world walk-through, 116 Recognition, 211 Regulatory mandates, 32 Regulatory standards, 115 Resort, Blue Mountain Resort, 1, 11, 17, 43, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 55, 58, 59, 65, 87, 95, 108, 121, 130, 134, 136, 137, 158, 166, 167, 169, 173, 197, 209, 210, 213, 215, 218, 219, 235, 238, 242 case study, 5 golf slow play, 107–108 promotion to room entry, 76–77 skier risk reduction and snowmobile use and maintenance, 227–228 Resources lack of, 125 soft, 214 Rumors, 148

S Search for holy grail, 104 Self-directed work teams, 140, 231 Skier risk, 227 Ski resort, 27 Skill development, 168 Skip-delegation, 55 Snowmobile use, 5 Soft resources, 214 Soft-skills training, 180 Strategic mandate, motivation of, 40 Strategic objective, 4, 74, 144 Strategic Process(es) black holes of, 126 cross-functional, 15 drafting map of, 108 examples of, 25 generic, 27 identifying organization’s, 17 Management, 42 performance measures, 206 picking right, 30 project locale in, 144 recommendations for identifying, 20 resolving claims, 84 shorthand summary description of, 28 for various industries, 26–27 Strategic war, 157 Suboptimization, 35 Subprocess(es)

253

analysis, 198 characteristics, 138 environment, survey of, 195 expertise, 170 profile, 179 understanding of, 192, 193 users of, 190 Successes, celebrating, 242 Sufficiently narrowed, 137 Supplier contracts, 117 Support personnel, 61

T Tactical objective, dysfunctional, 209 Tactical project mechanics, 185–202 about tactical project mechanics, 185 design and test changes, 196–202 recommendations for design and testing of changes, 197 steps for designing and testing of changes, 198–202 Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre, 191–192 proposal and recommendations, 202 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, 186–187 refining of objective, 188–191 recommendations for refining of objective, 188–189 steps for refining of objective, 189–191 set team ground rules and expectations, 185–186 understanding of subprocesses, 192–196 purpose, 192–193 recommendations for understanding of subprocesses, 193 steps for understanding of subprocess, 193–196 Tactical team(s) launching of, 129 membership, 145, 164 objective, 188 Tactical teams, creation of, 155–181 about tactical teams, 155–158 Grey Bruce Regional Health Centre tactical team, 174 planning for tactical team support, preparation, and launch, 174–181 preparation and launch of tactical team, 180–181 recommendations for tactical team support, preparation, and launch, 175 steps, 176–180


254


selecting tactical team members, 161–174 recommendations for selecting tactical team members, 162–164 steps for selecting tactical team members, 164–174 tactical contexts of knowledge, 158–161 Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, 159–161 Taking ownership, 75 Team briefing, 175, 178 facilitators, 62, 169 Leader frustrated, 69 selecting, 57 members, selecting, 43 membership, verifying of, 89, 90 vision, 93 Testimonials, 82 Think big perspective, 100, 101 Throwaway phrase, 94 Total Quality Management, 55 differences between Campaign analysis and, 136 improvement, teams, 117 Training /consulting company, 26 materials development, 212

Trust building, 226 Turf wars, 51

U Union(s), 59, 117 contracts, 216 representation, 233

V Vendor quality assurance, 138 Vision Executive management level of, 204 statement, 92 Visual analysis, 106

W Wait and see attitude, 7 Whisper introduction, 72 White space, 100 Window dressing, 152 Work environments, poles apart, 188 forecasts, short-term, 145 teams, self-directed, 140, 231 Worst-case scenario, 125

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