| Why do some organizations succeed in the very difficult act of making a major change while the majority fail? How do groups institutionalize and then internalize change?
Senior management must set a clear direction, involve all affiliated parties and provide the necessary resources. One key resource can be the process facilitator. Most people are familiar with the term facilitator and with people who facilitate meetings. In my consulting practice I’ve used facilitators in a much wider role. This expanded role encompasses the coaching of managers and front line employees, helping both groups develop and refine leadership skills. Facilitators, using just-in-time training methods, teach change and improvement principles, problem solving techniques and the use of specific tools. Most of all, facilitators guide the overall process within and between departments. They see to it that the change process itself stays on track and on target as groups grow and develop.
One of the biggest challenges for a facilitator is teaching “old dogs new tricks” but it can also be one of the most rewarding aspects of a very diversified job. Adult human beings learn best by doing, by participating, by becoming involved. Using a just-in-time approach to training and education, facilitators help team leaders not only learn and utilize new meeting management techniques but effective problem solving approaches as well. As the change process develops and unfolds they teach managers how to use tools ranging from Pareto charts, to communication methods, to full-blown strategic planning. Then, as a partner with the individual manager, the facilitator teaches tools like brainstorming, flow charting and run charts to departmental groups, not in an abstract or “textbook” manner but by using examples, projects and problems employees are currently working on and involved with. In this way the tools are seen as real help, not as exercises without meaning, or, even worse, as time killers which take them away from their “real” work. Facilitators are also responsible for bringing project planning techniques to managers and front line employees. They help them learn how to lay out a plan, obtain data and facts, establish a budget, if necessary, and then “sell” the idea to management.
Because facilitators work closely with experienced managers, up-and-coming informal leaders and staff employees, they need coaching skills to help people through the basics of planning agendas, obtaining the right data and making presentations. In addition, they provide an invaluable neutral viewpoint (not my boss) in post-meeting and post-project reviews that focus on topics like: Did we accomplish what we needed to? Is the group working together or holding back? Are we measuring what’s being done and not done? What must be accomplished between meetings to assure continued progress? Do we need anything from other departments or senior management? How are we doing against our change implementation plan?
Ongoing progress requires change at an ever-increasing speed and change always has the potential to produce conflict. Managers may even have to talk with people they have ignored for years. Facilitators can help managers and staff employees anticipate and deal with conflicts as they arise. By facing difficulties with support they learn to grow, change and improve. For managers and staff alike it’s easier to face real and imagined conflicts with an experienced coach by their side.
Facilitators also encourage managers to talk with and learn from their peers. They assist managers in finding development opportunities for their subordinates and they help senior managers as they coach and develop the middle managers that report to them.
In this approach to change and improvement, all affected employees participate in formal, monthly, departmental meetings. Early on, employees brainstorm ideas that will ease the implementation of the change, speed up the process, reduce errors and/or reduce hassles. With guidance from management, they prioritize these ideas and develop specific action plans for each high priority idea. They collect the necessary information or data, then plan and implement changes. While these “bottom up” changes are taking place, senior management participates and leads by identifying a limited (i.e.: manageable) number of strategic, high priority, cross-organizational issues and appoints task forces, led by senior managers, to take an organized, formal, scientific and timely approach to each specifically identified major change issue. A facilitator is assigned to each of the task forces and performs the teaching, coaching and process guide roles that are needed to make progress.
The facilitator’s ultimate role is to facilitate the entire improvement and change process itself. By being the liaison between senior management, middle management and front line employees, the facilitator improves communication up, down and laterally within the organization. By providing feedback and information on the process itself to all affected parties, the facilitator navigates toward the organization’s larger, mission orientated goals. In fact, one of the hardest things for new facilitators to do is to teach and “lead by not doing”…, to carry out the direction set by senior management and keep groups on track by asking questions and working through other people. Facilitators must be good, subtle, back-seat drivers. They, along with senior management, must provide the constant, gentle pressure to change and improve.
Under this model, facilitation is a full-time, permanent, management level, position. The facilitator reports to a high level senior manager. The position itself undergoes significant change as the organization’s change and improvement process matures.
Great caution must be exercised in the selection of facilitators. They must be comfortable with senior managers and understand their goals and needs, yet they must not be seen as a threat or a spy to middle managers or as out of touch with front line employees. They must be extremely practical and down to earth, while being politically aware of departmental and organizational issues. As time goes on and managers and employees gain experience with the change process, the facilitator’s role evolves into that of a data guru with a view of the whole picture – knowing where the organization is at present and where it’s headed in the future. To do this they must continue to review the information gathering of departmental teams, assist with task forces and measure the progress of change itself. Difficult as this facilitation job might seem, failure to make the required change a part of day-to-day life generally comes about from lack of strong senior management involvement and active participation, not from poor change facilitators. Management cannot abdicate its responsibility and duty to lead the organizational change and improvement process.
Many, indeed some would argue most, organizational change efforts are not action orientated and therefore fail. Many managers say that they are disappointed with the results of their organization’s efforts, that there has been no measurable change. Process facilitators can be the difference between passive training efforts and active involvement of all employees in the successful implementation of change. If they are led and supported by senior managers who are actively involved in m making and living the changes they require of middle managers and staff, the process has a much better chance of achieving major, measurable payoffs.
Ken Bast is a management consultant in the Minneapolis area. He has worked with clients throughout the United States. He can be reached at (952) 953-3684 or at Bast@Consultant.com |