Improving processes and their enabling technologies is a linear thinking problem for which a rich body of work already exists, and with which many technical professionals are already quite skilled. As a result, we realize that many IT organizations may have their process rimprovement effort well in hand.
But remember, durable organizational improvement necessarily requires that you address both your technical system and social system—the whole system. When changing a process and/or enabling technology, complimentary change must also be made in the culture, and vice versa. Too many leaders have invested great amounts of precious time and scarce money in changing their processes and/or enabling technologies without making the requisite changes in their organization’s culture, only to find that their organization rejected their changes like a body can reject a transplanted heart.
Unlike process improvement, leading cultural change is a non-linear problem best served by qualitative thinking—the type of problem solving that is typically not among an IT organization’s strengths, and often is an object of their ridicule.
For these reasons, and because process improvement needs to happen in concert with cultivating the requisite cultural change, Windward Leadership can help with your cultural change effort even if you are doing the process improvement work yourself.
Leading, For a Change
Our approach for cultivating the requisite cultural change is a little different; we call it, “Leading, for a Change” (comma placement is intentional).
Leading, for a Change, includes a set of models and principles for diagnosing your culture and prescribing change therapies to help you close the gap between what is technically possible and what is culturally doable. With these tools and our process, you will be equipped to plan, do, check, and adjust changes to your organization’s culture, beginning with an understanding of:
- What an organization's social system, or culture is.
- The organizational and individual habits that lead to competitive advantage.
- Principles and practices for cultivating those habits.
- The lifecycle of organizational cultures.
- The integration of your social and technical systems to create the larger ecosystem that is your organization.
- The leadership necessary to pull it all off.
A Leading, for a Change engagement consists of an iteration of steps following our Plan-Do-Check-Adjust, or PDCA, cycle.
Engagement Structure
We offer our process improvement and leading cultural change services together or individually.
A Leading, for a Change engagement is led by Jim Ruprecht, Founder & CEO of Windward Leadership. In a nutshell, it works like this:
- It begins with Jim making a 3-4 hour presentation to you and your leadership team at the location of your choice. This presentation will provide a detailed overview of the Leading, for a Change constructs and underlying rationale. Our preference is to conduct this presentation at the site of your choosing, in the morning, followed by a lunch that can serve as a forum for Q&A and further discussion.
- It is expected that you will also order one copy of the book, Windward Leadership: Taking Your Organization into the Prevailing Winds and Political Seas, for yourself and each member of your leadership team. It is recommended that this be done far enough in advance so that you and your team may acquaint yourselves with it prior to the presentation.
- The presentation, along with the book, will provide you and your leadership team with sufficient understanding to decide whether or not you wish to proceed with a Leading, for a Change engagement.
- If you decide to continue with an engagement, there will be no charge for the presentation, except for any travel and related expenses. If you choose not to proceed with a Leading, for a Change engagement, you will be billed for the presentation plus any travel and related expenses.
- A Leading, for a Change engagement consists of a mutually agreed upon number of days of consulting per week, provided by Jim Ruprecht, at your facility. Again, it is imperative that the leadership and change effort come from you and your team—not from Windward Leadership, nor from your HR or OD department, but from you and your team. Windward will provide consulting and coaching in regards to the models, principles and their application, and will be happy to collaborate with your HR and/or OD department in doing so. However, you and your leadership team must lead the effort.
It is not our intention to build a 5-year plan to stay in your wallet. Rather, our intention is to teach you what we know, get you off to a good start, provide you with the consulting and coaching you need to become self-sufficient, and have the good grace to leave when you’ve achieved self-sufficiency.
The duration of a Leading, for a Change engagement will vary depending on the dimensions of your organization, and the caliber or your change effort; typically, the minimum is 6 months, but can range to 12 months or more.
As you approach self-sufficiency, and because it is our intention to empower you, not to abandon you, you also have the option to retain us for regular, but perhaps less frequent, reviews to checkpoint progress, plans, and issues. The fee for such a retainer will, of course, vary depending on the desired arrangements.
