How to capture the elusive performance edge in true transformations

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Transformations that deliver sustained, outsize improvements in performance are rarer than most leaders think. Change programs labeled “transformations” are often incremental efforts in planning, communication, or management that don’t fundamentally alter how the organization operates or how people work day-to-day.

To understand what precise behavioral shifts that organizations emphasize during transformations, the authors research find that ten behavioral themes that organizations turn to during a transformation. 

Five behavioral shifts that organizations use most, and the five “blind spots” that have unrealized potential to transform the behavioral fabric of the company. We also lay out actions leaders can take to help implement the behavioral shifts that are most important for their organization.

Leaders don’t have to change all aspects of their organizational culture, but they do have to identify a small number of critical behavioral shifts that must take root for the transformation to be effective.  The authors’s research indicates that the vast majority of companies undergoing transformation focus on some combination of five core behavioral themes: collaboration, commitment, continuous improvement, clarity of goals, and customer orientation. These themes center on aligning people with a clear direction, engaging and empowering employees, breaking down silos, and driving continuous innovation and improvement.

While it’s important that companies readily invest in the five widely adopted themes above, they often underinvest in other critical behaviors that are equally important for long-term performance improvements.  These five “blind spots” are all about performance discipline—looking outward to winning in a competitive marketplace, making tough decisions, pushing for results, building strong teams, and upholding standards. The fact that they appear so infrequently in transformation plans is striking. We believe many transformations underemphasize the behaviors that are essential to most successful performance transformations because of the discomfort they create.

Once they choose the most important behavioral shifts for their organization, leaders consider five actions to move into implementation:  focus on the teams that matter most, use decision-making as a cultural accelerator, rewire performance routines for ownership and learning, view culture through the eyes of employees, and make cultural practices observable and peer reviewed.

True transformation—not just a performance boost—requires leaders to transform the behavioral fabric of the company. Organizations must shift from overindexing on “soft” behaviors that build engagement to the harder aspects of change, such as accountability and competitiveness, that open uncomfortable yet necessary conversations. When choosing from this menu of ten behavioral themes, organizations can prioritize how to lead, how to manage, and how the work gets done day-to-day in ways that support their highest aspiration.

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