Defeating Your Change Ambassadors? Rethink Your Learning Network Organization for Success

Shifting the Organization From A System Integrator to A Learning System

It's a shared goal among leaders to build a network organization that fosters learning, collaboration, and accelerates innovation. But, “empowering individuals” to "do things differently" and collaborate cross-functionally is not enough.You need another approach.

Why? People have been working in what we call ‘system integration’ organizations (see nr. 5 in graph). People work in departments and deliver against set KPIs. When people deliver against those metrics, they get promoted.

Now, people are asked to transition into a network organization (see nr. 6 in graph), where they are supposed to collaborate cross-functionally to make use of synergies and leverage the expertise that resides in different areas of the organization.

A Shared Vision Alone Doesn’t Enable Change, Either

Cross-functional collaboration may begin with a shared vision, but challenges arise as teams face conflicting departmental metrics.

Picture this: I was tasked to collaborate cross-functionally to launch a new game-changing offering for eMobility that was to include services, hardware, and software components. Despite agreeing on the portfolio vision, individual departments' margin KPIs hinder alignment, causing delays due to endless alignment calls, and margin stacking. The people in charge of selling the offering turned to the competition’s portfolio to avoid outcompeting themselves on the market. This mismatch between the desired vision and organizational realities leaves individuals feeling defeated and leadership questioning their teams' performance.

Pay Attention To Structural Changes For Successful Change

To enable effective collaboration and break down silos, organizational structural changes are essential. Consider implementing cross-functional teams or project-based structures that allow seamless collaboration and knowledge sharing. Embrace customer-centric, shared metrics that dissolve silos and leverage synergies across teams. By rethinking the organizational structure, you lay the foundation for a network organization that embraces collaboration, innovation, and accelerated time to market

Set Your Change Ambassadors Up For Success

While an empowered change community with early adopters can generate initial momentum, efforts may dwindle if progress isn't experienced or observed throughout the organization. I’ve experienced and led many culture change initiatives that failed for this reasons. It’s heart breaking and highly demotivating, because these initiatives are typically picked up by the most motivated and talented people inside the organization. Don’t let their energy go to waste! It's crucial to define a strategy for scaling change and ensuring your change ambassadors remain engaged and committed to the transformation journey.

Address Behavior Change Because People Rarely Activate Themselves

It’s not that people don’t love your vision—you may have even included them in your process of creating it—but people rarely activate themselves for change. And unfortunately for those hoping the quick wins will create “a movement”, it rarely does. Our CEO, Tirza, always says, you can’t teach kids manners by showing them presentations.

Think back to that time you took on a new job. You’re exhausted because of the changes to your routine. It’s similar when you want people to change how they collaborate and learn.

Leaders should invest in supporting individuals through habit change and understanding how people learn and motivate themselves. Foster psychological safety by encouraging risk-taking, embracing mistakes as learning opportunities, and promoting open dialogue for feedback and growth. How do you do this? Ask for feedback. At every opportunity, ask your team how you could be a more effective leader.

Offer professional development programs, workshops, and coaching sessions that equip individuals with the necessary tools to thrive in a networked organization.

Merge Your Top Down And Bottom Up Change Approaches

Activating structural changes and habit change requires a dual approach. Implement a top-down strategy that addresses structural problems, such as reevaluating metrics and aligning incentives. Simultaneously, embrace a bottom-up change approach to penetrate middle management and empower teams and individuals for habit change. Balancing these two approaches ensures that change is implemented effectively at all levels of the organization.

Embrace the Future: How Far Are You Willing To Go?

Having said all of this, I do realize how demanding this is. I can empathize with leaders who are asking for bottom-up change without wanting to touch the organization’s structures, especially if the business is still profitable. But holding on to old structures is no longer a viable option, particularly if it hinders top talent and stifles growth.

Have an honest conversation with yourself and your team about how you want to step into the future. What do you need to give yourself and your team to go all-in? And define what it means to go all-in and provide the necessary support and resources to enable a transformative journey.

-Helena

I will be talking about this with LUMAN cofounder of LUMAN over at LUMAN LinkedIn's Live today: https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:7062522133351985152/