Whole Systems Transformation: An Effectiveness
Paradigm Shift for Strategic Change
Roland L. Sullivan, William J. Rothwell, Louis Carter, Mary Jane B. Balasi
I.
Today’s Transforming World
The “wow” future is here. We are in the midst of a social and economic
revolution. New requirements confront our fast-paced, flexible and global
businesses. Many corporations need help transforming their organizations to be
better prepared to make the most of the incredible opportunities opening before
their leaders’ eyes. Some will be “future shocked” and will become more
dysfunctional. Others will wake up, make the right judgments and will take a
positive leap to reach global excellence.
Warren Bennis, one of the most senior living founders of Organization
Development (OD), wrote for the third edition of Practicing Organization
Development: A Guide For Leading Change (2009) that “most of our
organizations are in the crucible. Crucibles are utterly transformational
experiences from which one emerges either hopelessly broken or powerfully
emboldened to lead in excellence.”
Where are you personally? Are you changing? What are you doing as a change
agent to help those that you influence to be ready for what is coming? Are you
braced for more change occurring during the remaining years of your life than
since the beginning of recorded civilization about 4,500 years ago?
Nano-technology and globalization are two major field forces impacting
transformation of our organizations today. The ramifications of Nano-technology
will amaze us beyond belief in the next decade. Globalization will continue to
produce complexity, chaos, and opportunity.
Organizations have used the art and science of Organization Development (OD)
for the past 50 years. Recent evaluations have revealed that something in this
current process is missing. What isn’t happening is the engagement of the whole
system in the encompassing change. The whole organization must be
transformed in record time--not in lengthy change projects that may take years to
bear fruit. We now need to bring the original theory of whole systems and
enterprise-wide change back into play. We must focus on integrated change and
transformation for the total enterprise, not just its component parts. Richard
Beckhard first coined the phrase, Organization Development (OD), in
Minneapolis. Before his recent passing, he said that we must bring back the “O”
in OD. The whole system must be the focus of OD’s primary drive. Burke and
Bradford support Beckhard’s confrontation of the current state of OD. They note
in the Rothwell, Sullivan and Quade Practicing Organization Change and
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Development Series book titled, Reinventing Organization Development,
“Many OD consultants claim the title of “OD consultant” but do not engage in the
practice. It may be that they use various OD techniques. This is good but it does
not make them OD consultants. We are in all favor of people doing teambuilding,
third party intervention, conflict resolution, appreciative inquiry, organization
design, visioning, and the like. These are all valuable approaches… but it does
not mean that they are developing organizations.”
Whole Systems Transformation (“whole” being the key word) indeed has a focus
on changing and on developing the whole organization and not just component
parts or processes. WST facilitates change that is all-inclusive, comprehensive in
nature, and addresses the challenges of the entire organization, whole based,
while paying attention to separate but related aspects of the organization. We do
coaching, teambuilding or other fragmented interventions integrated with change
of the entire organization. Mainstream OD, and especially cascaded change
management, lacks the ability to engage all in confronting the salient aspects that
will transform the organization to the core.
CEOs that experience their organizations in a crucible are concerned about
developing their entire organization, not just the parts. They are ready to employ
a fresh, best practice and theory of wholistic and systemic organization change
and transformation. Certainly, they are fed up with a change management
approach that dictates and cascades change. They realize it is impossible to
manage change if people and an organization are transforming. Transformation
is unpredictable like the start of a virgin river steam flowing from a mountain-top.
One cannot predict or manage the flow.
In sum, we believe whole system transformation (WST) is one of the emerging
solutions for “developing organizations” to thrive in these exciting times.
II. The Practice of Whole System Transformation.
“Whole System Transformation fosters deep change. It requires personal
change. It requires courage to take an organization through this type of change.
The impacts are tremendous as well as the capability for change in the
organization. The employee engagement that results is an unbelievable thing to
see. It is worth it! It is hard work! It's emotional! It's draining! And yes very
rewarding!!”
John, executive sponsor of WST and special award winner for being a “
Champion Change Agent” in a Fortune 100 USA corporation”.
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What is WST?
WST results in an enterprise-wide breakthrough led by aligned leaders engaging
the critical mass to join in strategic accomplishment. More specifically it is:
 A methodology for the organization to reinvent itself with the latest social
psychology. Small and large groups technology using organization
dynamics is foundational.
 A process for breaking down borders so participants can create business
intelligence from diverse data and establish collaborative relationships
across boundaries and between levels in the organization.
 A search for common ground and clear focus for the organization to be
effective in an external environment that is perplexing, quickening, and in
flux.
 Based on the premise that effective change must come from within rather
than from external experts or change managers.
 An enabling journey whereby the critical mass creates a new more
effective culture and meaningful customer experiences in real time.
 Philosophically based, utilizing appreciative inquiry, social
constructionism, positive social psychology, applied behavior science, and
polarity management depending on the situation.
 The use of microcosms that transcend borders and represent the entire
range of levels, functions, geography, and ideas in and beyond the
organization--that is, customers, industry experts, supply chain entities,
and so forth.
 Engaging and empowering the whole system to put into use evolved
twenty-first century action research to sustain a change journey
embedded in an agile organization.
WST is a complex journey made simple by best practices and theories
developed and integrated into a single approach that enables and empowers
human talent in organizations to accomplish faster, cheaper, and sustainable
positive change. It involves and engages the entire system, allowing
ownership of the process (people support what they co-create), suggesting
the solutions, and focusing on the alignment rather than segmented change.
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Elements of Whole Systems Transformation Model
Figure 1 below shows the model of WST
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Element 1. The Outcome: Organization Agility
“This is now a continuous feedback kind of world, and
we need the organizational nimbleness to respond.” From: IBM 2012 Global
CEO Study
There is no doubt in our mind that all organizations today will significantly benefit
from transforming themselves into a more nimble and agile system.
Worley and Lawler say that the “new normal” is requiring organizations to have
an amazing amount of nimbleness and agility just to survive, let alone thrive.
They define agility. “Agility is a dynamic organization design capability that can
sense the need for change from both internal and external sources, carry out
those changes routinely and sustain above-average performance.“
An agile system has four essential features:
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A robust strategy
An adaptable design
Shared leadership and identity
Sustainable ability to change and learn
It has been our experience that, in WST, all four of the above features naturally
and spontaneously arise and are dealt with. Still, we insist that the starting point
is the priority concern of the CEO or top executive leading the transformation.
Although we suggest using the Worley and Lawler diagnostic approach, often we
encourage the executive team to frame a data gathering process that they feel
the most passionate about collectively.
Element 2: Pre-launch
As we enter a client system, it is essential that the internal, and external change
agent collaborate with the core executive (traditionally known as the top
executive) in establishing a psychological and non-psychological consulting
contract.
A unified understanding of the WST model is reached. It is customized to the
unique business needs and national or local cultures. The transformation effort
begins with transforming the leadership of an organization. Secondly, the
leadership identifies with the design team a critical mass that will be transformed
toward nimbleness. The result is increased organizational excellence. Several
event scenarios are custom created that will lead to the creation of a new
corporation that usually requires client’s commitment for a minimum of two
events, an executive team building and an initial critical mass meeting of 300 or
more. Why do we orchestrate at least one large interactive meeting? The client
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system needs to experience the power and the shift so people can make a
judgment call to determine if they wish to take the full journey to sustainable
agility or nimbleness. In many cases, that means organization survival.
How many events are needed will depend on the size of the organization. One
client held one large event of 300 to 500 employees for three days monthly for
four years. The CEO and her team attended all summits.
A corporate-wide strategic transformation team under the guidance of an internal
change agent is necessary with the “developing organization” (as Bradford Burke
have said above). We like to call it the “transforming organization.”
The initial thrust of the change effort is often a pilot effort that focuses on a
function or division that demonstrates a high state of readiness for becoming
different. Word-of-mouth success interests others in joining the movement. In
one case, a new CEO secretly attended the last day of a summit in a room of 700
people. To our surprise, the next day he announced on Good Morning Africa, a
national TV program, that he would use WST as the way to introduce himself to
the corporation. In his first “Big System Event” (BSE), as he named it, with over
325 leaders, his assistant executive announced in the closing that, we had just
accomplished in three days what the organization had been attempting to do
over the past four years.
Four large financial institutions realized that they must genuinely become one
mind and brain. They committed to knocking down the borders and became one
brain and one heart.
Pre–launch ends when contracts, relationship connecting, and clarification of
expectations are completed. There's an old adage in the OD field that says that,
if anything goes awry in a change effort, it is usually traceable back to inept
contracting.
Element 3: Leadership Transformation
Two of the authors recently were with top HR executives from a dozen Fortune
300 companies. When asked what their number one challenge was, most agreed
that issues existed in their corporate top team. When asked what they should do
about it, they didn't have a clue. Not only do we have a clue, we have a solution.
It is WST.
WST is a research-based, time tested transformation model that always
generates transformation in any large or small team including the CEO’s team.
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Key aspects of shifting the leadership team are:
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Building trust with the CEO or division VP while conveying confidence that
this process will indeed achieve extraordinary results.
Clearly understanding the future state that the CEO has for his or her
organization. The following WST star is suggested for consideration.
Generating significant conversations in the team that must occur for the
team to catapult the organization forward.
Creating a data-gathering approach and valid data that will surface in a
safe manner from which free choice of action and commitments can be
concretized.
As that process is carried out, each core/top team member is engaged in the
creation of a common, robust strategic direction. This underpins three domains:
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Individual: Personal change futuring so there is an increase in individual
performance.
Team: Providing a positive leap forward toward becoming a higher
performing, aligned team.
Organization: It becomes clear about how the organization that they
collectively lead needs to transform.
In the Leadership transformation module, the executive team will:
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Vent feelings of appreciation for and dissatisfaction with the current state
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of the team and organization. Their dissatisfaction with their current state
enhances their yearning to create a preferred transformative state.
Build and strengthen relationships among themselves -- but especially
with their leader.
Gain understanding of -- and provide input to -- the organization’s foci of
change.
Unite themselves and their direction in a unified vision for a compelling
future in the development of the organization.
Create agreements on leadership behaviors such as committing to
walking their talk and exhibiting trust among themselves and with the
entire system.
Determine what they need to do to become smarter about leading the rest
of the developing organization.
Create shared meaning that will generate hope that will empower each
member to unleash power beyond his or her imagination, and to believe
that a preferred future can actually become a reality.
One of our favorite clients, Rod Sando, experienced the unleashing of
energy in a magical and mysterious way. Suddenly, Rod yelled out, “We
have just “BLURTED!” All laughed and said, Yes. Yes, and guess what
happened? All returned to their organization in T-shirts that said,
“BLURT!!!” Months later with about 300 employees off site, Rod leaned
over to me on the last day and said, “They will never, ever be the same.
They just BLURTED!!” And sure enough, at a system wide leadership
meeting the next year, the 300 employees had self-organized themselves
to deal with a system wide issue that had frustrated them all for years.
They faced the issue and reinvented the entire budget and management
system of the organization. The executive team watched with amazement
as they could now focus on more important strategic matters. As our
associate, Kathleen Dannemiller often remarked, “When the magic is
unleashed, executives need to get out of the way or they will be run over.”
By this point in any WST, the culture is in motion to reinvent and adjust
itself to its impending challenges and successes. The team must learn
how to enroll and defuse the direction and energy in other ways than
cascading. They want to give support and direction to the design and
implementation of large group interventions targeted to create a critical
mass supporting the change. They have transcended beyond the common
organization plague that is sometimes called resistance to change. A
natural and excited commitment occurs as organizational members look
forward to leading the next element into “Wow Sweeping Change” for a
more secure future.
Only after the team members have experienced their own shift can they
truly perceive the possibilities that lie ahead for the organization. One
exciting conversation is to determine who should represent the larger
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organization in designing the transformation summits or conferences. Element 4: Critical Mass Transformation
To achieve an extraordinary transformation, it is essential that critical mass is
created to actively engage in a current state assessment, a future state creation,
and a planned change execution.
Helping the internal change agent facilitate a diverse design team is most
significant. Vital to success is the gathering of a max mix design team made up
of 8 to 15 people that will work in a borderless manner representing the gestalt of
the organization and customers. One role of this group is to create an innovative
script that will be followed in the large meeting.
The authors’ experience indicates that the interactive event must be a minimum
of 2.5 days. As Weisbord and Janoff often say along many noted large group OD
specialists, participants need to sleep on the data twice before the collective
breakthrough is assured to happen.
For an organization to sustain its agility, the critical mass first must experience
the shift. This is an unprecedented unleashing of human energy resulting in
increased organizational performance. It is a shift. It is a breakthrough. It is a
permanent metamorphosis. It is a “blurt”. It is a paradigm leap. The caterpillar
must become the butterfly. There is no return to the former state.
This shift changes behavior, attitudes, values, and mindsets. The long-term result
is an increase in an organization’s ability to execute business results with a live
spirit of excellence. Collectively, human talent creates an innovative business
system-wide business intelligence that generates hope, shared meaning, and
organization success.
The selected design team, plus one representative from the executive team, will
meet 3 to 5 times over 2 to 3 months. In some cases, in the 3rd or 4th large
meeting, the design team insists on more time. They have experienced an
empowerment that has made a big difference. They are inspired to again, “get it
right”. Once we heard an executive team say, “We will never be able to repeat
the success of our first large meeting, so let’s not have a second one.” Well, they
did, but not without hard work by the design team. They worked evenings and
weekends because they knew their effort would make a difference.
Design teams remember the challenge put to them. We do not want them to go
into the big meeting until there is absolute consensus that the transformation or
next wave of transformation will take place. They must believe that extraordinary
results will occur. We recently witnessed a mega organization in Germany
unanimously agree that their third event was “the best ever.” And guess what?
We were told that the WST external consultants, who initiated the effort, were
there in spirit.
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The purpose of the design team is to plan in detail the most compelling meeting
that their corporation has ever experienced. They must design the meeting in
such a way that creates a safe environment where everyone feels empowered to
speak and act. If so, all will be able to engage in a transparent conversation that
moves the group forward. The environment must be so safe that even a dialogue
centered on the “elephants” (sacred cows) in the room can be facilitated. Ideally,
by the third day, the elephant just may be ready to begin to dance.
The design team takes the identified outcomes from the executive teambuilding
session to determine the content for potent processes to move forward. Kathleen
Dannemiller, often said that magical results are not due to charismatic
consultants or executive, but come from tailor-made, robust processes to
address the issues. Canned programs, tools and techniques do not get to the
heart of the matter.
The design team plays a key role in readying the system for change by keeping
their fingers on the pulse of the organization and informing the internal and
external change agents about what will work and what will not work in the
organization. They share deep information necessary to construct and facilitate
the activities that occur. We are well-known for co-creating detailed scripts. They include all the
messaging and group work instruction, as well as logistical actions to support the
work going on in the room. At times, the design team will craft remarks to be
made by the CEO because they know what the room needs to hear to
experience a breakthrough. It is not unusual for the script to be a 40 to 80-page
document that will be revised 15 to 30 times.
When we are initiating the first ever-large group in an organization, the design
team often believes that they will have one shot at making a paradigm shift
meeting, a historic moment in the history of the company. If they do not succeed
in grandeur, most likely engagement of people from the system will dissipate,
only to set back their change making. The script is reviewed for guidance from
the top executive. Often, for the first time post conference, they feel others are
enrolled with the same passion that they have for the success of the company.
Facilitating the conference or summit starts with a staging day that occurs the
day before the event. At this time, logistical support is carried out by a team.
They begin to set up the room, including organizing the many handouts. The
design and executive teams review the script, understand their roles and, if need
be, rehearse their presentations on stage.
On the day of the event, a big meeting room is filled with round tables to
accommodate hundreds of people meeting in groups of six to ten. Exercises link
the work of individuals to their table group and from this small group
(divergence), to the whole group (convergence). The key is to get participants
talking and working with each other rather than listening to presenters. There are
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no speeches lasting over 20 minutes. Each table group is the result of carefully
assigned seating. We want to assure a maximum mixture of participants allowing
each table to be a borderless microcosm of the organization. Every table has a
mailbox, easels, and other supplies at hand, ready for use in the coming few
days. The mailbox facilitates incoming and outgoing communication and links the
table group with the whole organization.
Samplings of the myriad of powerful activities or agenda items that may occur
are:
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Doing a whole system scan to check in on what is and is not working.
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Drafting the aspiration for the transformative state, created by the CEO’s
team. This includes providing feedback. They will need to work late into
the night assimilating input from everyone in order to present back to the
plenary at the beginning of morning two. It is not uncommon that, after a
similar presentation, the CEO team will receive their first standing ovation
in the history of the company.
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Establishing commitments and/or action plans for individuals, functions,
trans-border or trans-country ad hoc groups, countries, and the whole
system. This may include specific behavioral, attitudinal, or relationship
changes required by specific individuals and or groups. It always includes
the first steps that must occur to bring alive the shift.
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Clarifying relationships and expectations across functional divisions and
organizational levels.
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Establishing business goals that are most needed right now to increase
profitability.
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Attending to empowering associates to be more creative and engaged in
creating an agile organization while mobilizing collective business
intelligence for innovation.
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Tightening up operational and financial control to ensure compliance,
avoid waste, and enforce standards.
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Collaboratively judging what to centralize or decentralize worldwide and/or
determine what to integrate (borderless) and what to differentiate (border)
between business units.
Environment of the room evidences:
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Taking calculated risks, reducing fear, and trust building within the context
of the event.
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Fostering candor to create open communication, especially across
borders.
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Stimulating innovative thinking about how to do business dramatically
different.
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Discovering shared attitudes and feelings.
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Testing new work processes, organization structures. or HR
transformation wishes.
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Tasting the new culture of trust, positive conversation, and cooperation
while learning to be effective in a new borderless and agile experience. Depending on the size of the system, the conference may be used once or
several times to fit organizational needs. The events can be serial or sequential.
In serial events, members divide into groups and experience the same event at
different points in time — the first group one week, and the second group the
next week. In sequential events, the design team defines a broad set of tasks
and one event starts a task that is continued by the next event. In large
organizations, it is not possible to include all the organization’s members in a
single event, so planners develop several events, scheduled close enough
together to keep the organization moving forward together and creating a critical
mass for change.
A power company in the western US held four transformation sessions or events
with 500 participants in each event over a one-month period. A former participant
from the power company, now an executive with the Red Cross twenty years
later, said on video that he uses what he learned in our WST experience every
day.
One large organization in India planned two large-scale events at the top of the
organization and then eight events in its business units. A large company in the
US held four large-scale events that built on each other and then held one-day
transformational meetings of 100 to 400 people for just one day throughout the
organization. That was done against our advice because we felt transformation
could never occur unless people slept on their data for at least two nights. We
were proven wrong. Now, we do believe that those transformational experiences
would not have occurred in one day unless the critical mass had first shifted in
the initial four large meetings.
-Element 5: Sustained Development.
After the initial efforts of WST, a new culture is destined to emerge. In an
organization, a new culture has to be supported and built upon. To strengthen
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the new culture, an internal change agent is chosen and developed. A change
agent is someone who will advocate, role model and practices the new culture.
They will lead the way until the members of the organization sustain and
institutionalize a comprehensive and perpetual positive change process.
.Kathleen Dannemiller once referred to WST events as an “Unleashing of the
Magic” because an unbelievable confidence emerges that enables everyone to
overcome the challenges that have surfaced.
We have taken Kathleen’s initial work and refined it to new levels. We have
systematized her approach and have focused on extensively and intensively
training an internal change agent. We have learned to help the internal agent to
establish an official and unofficial political network to build the right relationships
for gaining commitment to sustain the journey. It is essential to build a business
case for change as well as to transfer confidence to the organization that
sustainable agility will occur.
Element 6: Transform Internal Change Agent
Transforming an internal agent and setting him or her up politically with the CEO
in the organization is critical to success.
We believe the best way to learn OD and WST is through an apprentice model
We like to have at least one internal consultant “velcroed to our hip.” They help
us plan and de-brief each meeting. They are given success roles and while they
facilitate from the front seat while the externals coach from the back seat. These
internal agents are true co-facilitators, if not leaders in every micro intervention.
With a sense of urgency, we transfer more and more of the consulting role to
them as the journey matures. We like to be the elf behind the scenes pulling the
magical strings when the timing is right. We are also a fallback to prevent failure.
We always guarantee transformation. Sometimes, we need to pull a little magic
out of our hat, but that is our job. Recently, the top CFO of the organization came
up to us at the end of large group interactive event and said. “We work with large
consulting firms often. We pay them an extraordinary fee for expert ideas and
advice. We may or may not use their suggestions. Working with you was
different. You helped us find the best ideas from within our organization. Your
process generated a remarkable business intelligence from which the whole
system collectively determined what would work best. Thus, your process was
more effective than what we could get from the big league advisors for the huge
compensation” The key to bringing the wisdom alive from the participants is the
transference of the process to the internal change agent.
As few as two professional facilitators -- one external and one internal -- can
effectively manage groups of up to 1,500 participants.
Rothwell and Sullivan have championed the competency research for internal
and external consultants. They also have identified the competencies that are
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needed to facilitate large groups. We coach extensively and intensively according
to the competencies that we have published. Unlike other expert and traditional
change management consultants we co-plan and debrief for learning each micro
and macro intervention. Additionally, we spend extensive virtual time assisting
the internal consultant to carry on without us. Our interest is to break the
dependency on the external consultant’s role as soon as possible.
Ideally, as in the case of Boeing, the internal change agent reported to the CEO
for years. Realistically, in most organizations today, the change master reports to
the HR executive in charge of OD, Organization Effectiveness (OE), or Talent
Management.
Element 7: Establish a Real-Time Strategic Transformation Team
Schmuck and Runkel in the 80s were the most prestigious OD professors and
practitioners for change in education. They conceived of a team called the “cadre
of internal change agents” or sometimes called the “OD specialists.” The notion
has been resurrected by the work of Ackerman and Anderson who term it, "The
Strategic Change Office.” We have preserved that longstanding tradition and
have upgraded it as it has evolved into an indispensable role. Some of our client
organizations call it the strategic transformation team. In general, the team
consists of passionate high-level change influencers in the organization. It is their
responsibility to advise the CEO on the transformation as it evolves. They give a
periodic analysis of the current and desired future state related to transformation
and the business. They recommend to the CEO the desired next steps.
We insist that one member of the team is the best change champion from the
executive team. In some cases, where all members of the executive team are
known for championing change, the role of top team representative may rotate.
And it is obvious that the internal WST agent should lead the team. Typically the
team also will include the top HR and strategic planning officers. We have found
the top IT person to be increasingly critical. Why? First, today IT drives more
change than nearly any other function. Second, CEOs have a great fear that if
they do not stay current or ahead of the technology curve, the corporation will be
at great risk.
Element 8: Change Foci
It is critical to have the CEO or the executive leader of their division initially
identify the change focus. Often change foci mutate as the whole system
becomes engaged. In days past, in command-and-control organizations like
Honeywell in the 1980s, the foci was dictated. WST still worked well because the
engagement process focused on realizing the set direction.
Our experience doing WST and research tells us that CEOs today are requesting
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the focus of change to:
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Thrill the customer with an experience beyond their belief.
Become a borderless organization where walls and silos are reduced
between functions, levels, the supply value chain, diverse culture, and
geographic locations.
Engage and enroll the entire organization in co-creating strategy and
strategy execution.
Establish a leadership culture in a way that goes beyond traditional
leadership development training from the outside to a self-aligned
leadership speaking with one heart and one brain.
Receive competent help in successfully becoming an agile, nimble
organization to have a long term sustainable, yet real time, pro-change
work environment.
Utilize technology to drive organization change, including the new cloud
computing trend and the use of social media and virtual connections.
Take a positive leap toward excellence while innovating the whole
enterprise.
Reduce fear and enhance trust by empowering employees through
values.
Replace command and demand leadership with style-based leadership
grounded on influence and dialogue.
Surface a clear and priority driven focus among complex business
challenges.
Enhance effectiveness, performance, quality, and productivity.
Help in disrupting their business as usual while configuring and mastering
a more results-oriented business model.
Create a more effective social architecture that creates an optimum
culture and learning work place environment that is driven by values.
Assimilate global standards of excellence and integrity while becoming
globally connected.
Ignite and engage their people to do their absolute best.
Win the continuing war on talent so that they attract, transform, and retain
great people.
Build an organizational environment known for stellar execution.
Transforming HR and Talent Management so that they, in return, lead the
transformation for the rest of the company.
We believe that now is the time for HR to play a new role, a strategic role
to lead ways to develop their organizations to excellence, agility, and
increased profitability. Some say HR is notorious for not caring about the
bottom line. We find that, when HR is emerged in a WST agility journey,
they become converted to learning competence to be a real business
partner. HR begins to be sought after for help.
Our experience evidences that the needle moves upward on many of the
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above variables, but especially when the CEO and his or her team
determines what the change foci will be.
Element 9: Communication
Margaret Wheatly, who has observed our large meetings, says in a video that
one of our clients made WST work because of three forces. One was the free
flow of information, the second was the enhancement of relationships; and, the
third was communication. In our experience, communication was the most
frequent corporate wide issue during the 60s to the mid 90s. Today, trust is the
biggest challenge. Whatever the case, a communication plan implemented by the
corporate communication office is key to spreading the good news. In two of our
largest clients, the executive in charge insisted that the internal change agent be
the communication professional. Why? Because that person intuitively
recognizes the absolute importance of getting message out to the whole system.
Throughout the process of transformation, it is important to have effective and
multi-directional communication. Success stories, decisions, data, descriptive
shifts, and results have to be published. We have seen the successful use of:
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Instant messaging by texting and “tweeting”.
Short “TED” videos being created.
An electronic card that goes to the rest of the organization that
summarizes a day from a large group.
Multimedia flash presentations go out on the internal web site.
The CEO made a video real time addressing the entire organization at the
front of the room that summarizes the three days of a whole system
conference.
The professional video department had two cameras going non-stop only
to be edited overnight and sent to the entire organization in the morning.
One large event created a summary video of an event to start the next
event so the next group of participants could get in the flow.
Communication come via the internal website hooking up similar meetings
in different countries.
A top team had a professional moviemaker direct a ten-minute movie to
communicate the breakthrough to the entire company.
A professional photographer shot video and stills of the entire three-day
session. He made a 15-minute video presentation with humorous captions
for the last hour of closure.
The list goes on. We wonder how long it will be before guests come into the
meetings in holograms? For example, we would love to bring a famous
athlete to address a large meeting where the focus is youth and sports for the
entire country.
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Element 10: Thrill the Customer
We are increasingly hearing that the border between the customer and
corporation is transforming into a seamless partnership. We hear the customer
experience is more important now than ever. As soon as an organization has its
dirty laundry cleaned, we like to recommend inviting a customer to be at each
working table.
In one case, customer satisfaction was increased 77% to 84% in a division of a
Fortune 100 company. An estimated yearly half billion internal and external
customer transactions transpired. Never before had the customer thrill index
moved more than 1% up before it went down again.
In another case, we asked the customers in a breakout room to answer three
questions: What did they appreciate about the service they were getting? What
did they expect in the service from the organization and, What could they do to
enhance the relationship?
When they returned to report out, they had NOTHING positive to say. This was
quite a wake up call to the organization
We challenge the client to go beyond their expectations, the extra mile, show
commitment, and challenge people involved to role model for the rest of the
organization how customers should be treated. We challenge them to be
innovative, to think out of the box, to think beyond borders, and to show how they
care. The customer experience becomes the new standard of excellence.
Element 11: Results
We have been writing about difference and being different. Allow us to challenge
the status quo and spout a measurement of results.
In most contracts, we strongly advise the client to spend time with us setting up a
valid measurement method to evaluate process and business results. Rarely do
they spend the time to set up a solid research methodology. We even suggest
bringing in our expert measurement associates. So far, in all cases but one, they
have rejected our suggestions.
Upon reflecting upon why they do so, we became aware that the CEO or
business client intuitively knows whether the time and resources pointed toward
our WST intervention were worth the effort.
Kathleen Dannemiller often said, “If you feel the need to measure, you have just
failed.” She would go on to say that it should be so obvious to all how unleashing
of the magic was value added. We know of no case that failed, including from the
many practitioners that Kathleen has trained. Our experience tells us that when
we go back to clients years later, there is still positive impact from the
interventions we created. One sign is that, when we walk into the company, on
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first sight people have a huge smile. This reminds us of a client who said that
when he manages by walking around, his people come up all smiles, want to
give him a hug, want to pull him into their meetings to show him what the are
proudly doing. They want their picture taken with him. They have his picture as
their screen saver. Before the transformation, he reported that people would turn
around and walk the other way or duck into an office just to avoid having to greet
him.
Here is another true story from a major airline. After three months, when we went
to do a checkup, we asked if perhaps we could set up a better measurement
procedure. Bob, in return said, “I don't care. My boss, the CEO, is ecstatic with
what we have done. We knew before we started the transformation work that
there was a risk of our entire IT department becoming outsourced. After working
with you, there is no doubt in our mind that we will ever be outsourced. What
more evidence could I want that my boss, the CEO, is pleased.”
In that case we remember showing a Dannemiller video conveying what a large
meeting is like. (It still can be viewed on her website, sourced in the references.)
The letter I received from the client recounted that, when he saw Kathleen’s
video with a standing ovation, he said to his team that there's no way that their IT
people were going to express emotion or get on their feet. The outcome,
however, for each of the three events was five standing ovations.
Speaking of standing ovations, one client with a series of events, stopped
counting the standing ovations after 25.
By the way, Nash Finch with our internal change agent, Ed Timberlake, has the
world's record, as far as we know, for the most standing ovations in a large group
transformation experience with eight. We surpassed Dannemiller’s record when
she opened up a Marriott hotel in the Middle East. Edgar emailed us recently to
say that his organization had received a prestigious national award. He wanted to
thank us because he said the award was due, in large part, to what he learned
from our work with him regarding engaging the entire system when he was the
HR VP at Nash Finch.
Because WSG facilitates movement with an organization in motion, both process
and business results vary widely.
Here are a few selected process results:
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Enthusiastic participants demonstrate their commitment as they continue
their involvement beyond the events. In the case of a state department,
approximately 300 of 350 volunteered to be available to take on change
assignments post-conference. In another IT function, all 300 divided
themselves into 12 teams for execution. Each team took the direction
from the large group and worked as a sub-group for the next 12 months to
resolve complex business issues.
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Participants utilize robust group processes. Often participants want to use
the techniques they sampled in the large event and embed the practice in
their units. The most popular transfer is what we call an open forum. It is a
time tested unique activity that reduces lengthy lectures. A dialogical
format is set up to have a conversation with the expert or executive.
Repeat the large group three day meeting process in divisions without any
internal or external consultant help.
Most transformation experiences end with the creation of action plans.
These are the first steps to real process change. Immediately following the
event, borderless working groups are primed to work on those action
plans. Such implementation teams can ensure coordination of follow up
activities. We have learned a great deal over the last 30 years on how to
use extraordinary project management capability to ensure astute
execution.
Because of the nature of the experience, new cultural values and practice
transfer at a remarkable rate into the day-to-day operation. We believe, as
does our mentors Schein and Burke, which if one has a program only
focused on culture, the risk of failure is high. WST builds a desired culture
indirectly in powerful ways.
Structures for sustaining change are set up. An organization will not come
out of a transformation the same it went in. Magic has happened. A
tremendous energy has been unleashed. The organization may need to
modify or create new processes while major processes will require
integration.
Resources become freed up to implement and carry on the
transformation. In one case, a corporate finance officer spontaneously
stood up and said, “I will give you US$1.5 million to support your ten
change projects (the killing of the skunks) that we've just initiated.”
Measured business results:
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While large and dramatic changes will be apparent, it is strongly
recommended that cost effectiveness and efficiency be measured
regularly. People are more apt to execute if they know what will be
measured. These evaluations will reinforce change momentum, show
areas that need more work, and will determine future steps.
Here a just a few samples of business results.
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Six million USD was spent on the WST effort. Measured return was 100
million over a two-year period.
A bank was noted for having a bad image in the community. They started
a WST transformation effort. A couple of years into the journey, an outside
independent research firm from Europe was hired by the country to
identify the most loved brand in the country. They were number one.
Coca-Cola was number two. Before, they were one of the most disliked
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companies in the country. It is a long story as to how they changed their
image around.
The Woodbury Public Safety organization in Minnesota shut down their
entire service for the city pulling together the police division, the fire
division, and the emergency management services division. After initial
resistance, on the third day most were committed to breaking down the
borders between their divisions. Since then, we can document many
results. The greatest is the saving of lives because a decision was made
to train police as first responders to enter burning houses to rescue. Also a
national award has been given See annotated resource list for link to
testimony video.
A 50 million USD manufacturing company reduced cost of quality in six
months following their 25th annual WST residential. It can be annualized to
millions per year.
A fortune 250 distribution company’s board challenged the executive team
for flying 300 executives from around the USA to join the top 50 corporate
leaders on several occasions. The second person in charge said. “You
have been challenging us to raise a metric before you. Look, it just jumped
millions of USD. We believe our transformation process made the
difference.”
A division of a large European bank had 27 people hand in their
resignations to corporate HR. Post conference 25 of those who wanted to
resign, re-signed up. The reason was the tremendous cultural
transformation that occurred. They wanted to be a part of the new exciting,
engaged, and involved workforce. Numerous employees from other units
wanted to be transferred into the new culture when they heard about the
transformation.
A division of one of the largest defense companies was about to close a
seven-person business unit. The director, whose job was at risk, engaged
70 employees from around the larger organization. The bottom line is that
the unit produced an 18 million USD increase in revenue in 18 months.
The director is still fully employed.
We have never had an event that was not dramatically successful. Change
occurs in how participants interact with each other. For example, a change that is
barely perceptible at first may become resoundingly clear as the conference
draws to a close. People start to believe in each other and gain ways of
understanding and working together. Personal lives change. Professional
relationships change. Relationships between levels, divisions, and customers
change in a positive manner.
The organization acquires the capability to become agile. Rational linear planning
is a less important outcome. Participants tear down borders where it makes
sense, and put in place a rich web that weaves the organization together in a
profound and fundamental way. Confidence emerges that participants
themselves can overcome their own challenges. Successful events affect a
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paradigm shift of the first magnitude. Learning new ways of interacting with coworkers and conducting better meetings become part of the organization’s new
culture.
We brought Philip Condit in on video to address one of our clients when he was
CEO of Boeing. He made a video to help the participants know what to expect
following each of the three days. He shared with us that Business Week wrote
that he was selected as CEO because the guidance of our mentor, Kathleen
Dannemiller. He used employee participation and strategic visioning and WholeScale Change work as part of daily operations. Boeing, still to this day, has
internal experts facilitating large groups.
Talent not only develops ... it transforms. It transforms in context of a developing
organization becoming more effective than ever could have been imagined.
Element 12: Action Research
We have simplified the classic organization development action research
intervention process. It has four facets. They are scan, plan, act, and re-act. This
is the underlying conceptual framework in every meeting, module, and micro and
macro process and events.
Scan an assessment of what is or what is not happening. It is making sense of
what one is observing. Essentially it determines what the current state is followed
by an analysis to influence what should happen in planning.
Plan is imagining a future state and what needs to occur in order to achieve it.
Act is the intervention. This is performing what is ever is necessary in order to
achieve the desired outcome.
Re-act is the solicitation of feedback in the evaluation and measurement of what
just occurred. Was the desired outcome achieved? Was the intention realized?
What have we learned from the previous three facets and now what do we do as
we repeat the cycle?
Action research is the change agent’s essential principle. It researches an
individual, team, or organization’s action in order make a difference.
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Roland Sullivan is one of the original 100 change agents. Mentored by Bennis,
he has led change efforts with over 1,000 organizations in 30 countries and
taught in over 14 universities, including the most recognized change program in
the world, Pepperdine University. Roland coined the phrase, “Whole System
Transformation” in the early 70s. He is known for "actually" transforming whole
systems in large group, engaging events as he trains internal change agents to
lead sustainable, agile organizations.
With his associate, Dr. William J. Rothwell he:
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Initiated, in 1994, the annual Asia OD Network Summits in Dubai
(www.AODN.org).
Supports Dr. Rothwell in launching the Penn State OD Certificate in
multiple countries around the world.
Is working on the 4th Edition of “Practicing OD: A Guide for Leading
Change” with fellow editors, Dr. Jackie Stavros and Arielle T. Sullivan.
Leads a 30-year global competency research for Change Agents.
Many of Roland's great consulting cases on the Best Practice Institute can
be found at: (www.bestpracticeinstitute.org/).
Links to a plethora of change resources can be found at
(www.SullivanTransformationAgents.com)
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Louis Carter founded Best Practice Institute in 2001 after completing one of the
world's first studies on high impact leadership development with Warren Bennis.
Since then, BPI has become one of the top associations for leadership and
human resources development in the world. He has written 10 books on best
practices and organizational leadership including Change Champions, which has
been translated into 8 languages and the Best Practice book series published by
Jossey Bass/John Wiley and Sons including Best Practices in Leadership
Development and Organization Change. He is a highly regarded authority on
learning, talent, leadership development and change.
William J. Rothwell, Ph.D., SPHR is Professor of Learning and Performance in
the Workforce Education and Development program, Department of Learning
and Performance Systems, at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
campus. In that capacity, he heads up the #1-ranked (in 2012) graduate
program in learning and performance. He has authored, co-authored, edited, or
co-edited 300 books, book chapters, and articles—including over 78 books. He is
also President of his own consulting firm, Rothwell & Associates, Inc. (see
www.rothwellandassociates.com.)
Before arriving at Penn State in 1993, he had 20 years of work experience as a
Training Director and HR professional in government and in business. He has
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also worked as a consultant for more than 40 multinational corporations-including Motorola China, General Motors, Ford, and many others. In 2012, he
earned ASTD’s prestigious Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning
and Performance Award (only 1 per year given to people in the field of learning
and performance-it is the Nobel Prize of the training field); in 2004, he earned the
Graduate Faculty Teaching Award at Pennsylvania State University, a single
award given to the best graduate faculty member on the 23 campuses of the
Penn State system (like the Oscar Award for a Professor). His train-the-trainer
programs have won global awards for excellence from Motorola University and
from Linkage Inc. His recent books include Talent Management: An ActionOriented Step-by-Step Approach (HRD Press, 2012), the edited three-volume
Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management (Pfeiffer, 2012), Lean But Agile:
Rethink Workforce Planning and Gain a True Competitive Advantage (AMACOM,
2012), Invaluable Knowledge (AMACOM, 2011), Competency-based Training
Basics (ASTD Press, 2010), Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership
Continuity and Building Talent from Within, 4th ed. (AMACOM, 2010), Practicing
Organization Development, 3rd ed. (Pfeiffer, 2009), The Manager’s Guide to
Maximizing Employee Potential: Quick and Easy Ways to Build Talent Every Day
(AMACOM, 2009), Basics of Adult Learning (ASTD, 2009), HR Transformation
(Davies-Black, 2008) and Working Longer (AMACOM, 2008). He can be reached
by email at wjr9@psu.edu and by phone at 814-863-2581.
Mary Jane B. Balasi is completing her Masters Degree in Applied Social
Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University. Currently she is an apprentice in
Organization Development with Sullivan Transformation Agents out of Singapore.
Her experience as a facilitator in transforming systems in different sectors like
youth, women, faith-based organizations, schools, and non-government
organizations (NGOs) for more than 16 years helped her become a natural
change agent.
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Having lived with a Canadian origin international religious community for more
than 10 years, Mary Jane has been immersed in the principles of interpersonal
relationships, group process and developing organizations. She has grown in
understanding the dynamics of planned change in a multicultural context. She is
trained in the theory and practice of facilitation, life coaching, team building,
collaborative appreciative inquiry, strategic planning, leadership development,
women empowerment, and innovative strategies.
One of her great accomplishments was serving as an Assistant Diocesan Youth
Director in one of the dioceses in the Philippines where she supervised 32
parishes and 65 Universities/College and schools for 5 years. In this role, she
practiced systems transformation through collaborating, coordinating, networking,
resource generation, community organizing and advocacy works.
Mary Jane is committed to researching and mastering Whole System
Transformation™. The largest interactive group Mary Jane facilitated was
30,000. She is an active member of Philippine Society for Training and
Development (PSTD), the International Society for Organization Development
(ISOD), and the Asia Organization Development Network (AODN).
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
References for Learning to apply Whole System Transformation.
Beckhard, R. (1997). Agent of Change: My Life, My Practice. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Richard Beckhard offers the original and basic formula for our transformation.
It is Dissatisfaction X’s Vision X’s First Steps reduces Resistance to Change.
Dick was one of the first to facilitate a large interactive group when he worked
with Lippitt in supporting President Eisenhower's all nation youth conference in
the 50s with 5,000 participants.
Burke, W.W. (2002). Organizational change. Foundations for organizational
science, Sage Publications.
For everything that is performed in Whole Systems Transformation, the
theoretical foundation can be known from this book. Burke has identified 4
phases in organization change: prelaunch, launch, post-launch or further
implementation and sustaining the change. We essentially have embodied our
model within Burke’s model.
Cady, S., & Dannemiller, K. (2005). Whole System Transformation. In W.
Rothwell, Stavros, J., Sullivan, R., and Sullivan, A. (Eds.). Practicing
Organization Development. 3rd ed.
Rothwell, Cady, Quade and I were writing a book with Dannemiller on Whole
System Transformation. We started by researching competencies with the 50
most competent large group facilitators that we were aware of. Unfortunately
Dannemiller left this life before we could conclude the writing of the book. This
reference is essentially the summation of our initial research. And yes.
Dannemiller was so bold to say that we have found “Truth” in changing
organizations.
Cummings, T.G., & Worley, C.G. (2008). Organization development and change
(9th ed). Cincinnati, OH: South-Western.
This is the essential textbook of organization development. One of the largest
ever transformation groups has been a case in it. Currently we are writing
about one of the largest corporations in the world on our 4 year WST
case. It will appear in the 10th edition.
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Dannemiller, K. & Levi, R. (2003). Collective resonance in Whole System
Transformation. The Resonance Project.
http://resonanceproject.org/pagegroup.cfm?pt=0&id=191&pg=Stories%3A%20Co
rporate
This is one of the last interviews of Kathy before she left this life. She talks about
the transformation that occurs most often on the 3rd day. She also describes the
history beginning at Ford.
Dannemiller Tyson Associates, Inc (2000). Whole-scale change: Unleashing
magic in organization. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
This is the classic work: written by Dannemiller’s team. We quote one of the
most credible OD educator and practitioner ever to live. “An essential source for
organizational consultants and their call clients involved in facilitating change in
large systems. The authors know in their hearts and heads that there is magic in
organizations, and they share with us what they've learned about facilitating its
actualization. They must addition to your professional library. Bob Tannenbam.
Emeritus Professor Graduate School of Management, UCLA
Dannemiller Tyson Associates, Inc (2000). Whole-scale change toolkit. Ann
Arbor, Mi: Dannemiller Tyson
Whole System Transformation is an evolution of the Whole-Scale Change. This
is a hands-on guide to our process.
“No practitioner will want to be without this invaluable, detailed account of how to
do large-scale designs, work with playing committees, and orchestrate
logistics It includes helpful design used with real clients, sample handouts,
and logistic charts. A must have” Barbara Bunker and Billie Alban who
are the known experts of all the large group interactive methodologies.
IBM., Global Chief Executive Officer Study: Leading Through Connections.
(2102). IBM Global Business services, Sommers, NY.
http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03485usen/GBE03485USEN.
PDF
We believe that this is a must read for any practitioner of change. Over the years
the update of this research has continued to be, for us, the most valid
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picture of what CEOs around the world are thinking. We find that WST
naturally surfaces the challenges and solutions mentioned in this
research.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. New York: Harper & Row.
The original social psychologist. Most organization change theory and especially
Whole System Transformation is rooted in Kurt Lewin.
Rao, T., & Rothwell, W., R. (2010). Using the HRD Audit to Build Convergence
Between Human Resource Management and Organization Development. In W.
Rothwell, J. Stavros, R. Sullivan. R,. & A. Sullivan. (Eds.), Practicing
Organization Development: A Guide for Consultants. San Francisco. Wiley.
We believe that a great place to start in transforming the entire enterprise is with
the HR function transforming itself. HR then can be the lead in helping the entire
organization and all its functions to transform. This is a great assessment model
to utilize in getting a valid grasp of where a HR function is.
Sullivan. R., Gopalkrishna. S., & Rothwell. W., (2011). Organization
Development (OD) Now and Beyond In, S. Ramnarayan and T. V. Rao, (Eds.)
Organization Development: Accelerating Learning and Transformation. New
Delhi: Sage Response Books
A good theory and best practice for WST in Asia.
Todd. J., Parker. J., & Sullivan. A.,(2009) Whole System Transformation:
Becoming dramatically different. In W. Rothwell, J. Stavros, Sullivan, R., and
Sullivan, A. (Eds.), Practicing Organization Development.3 rd ed. San Francisco.
Pfeiffer.
A classic case researched thoroughly by Dr. Worley from USC. One result of the
intervention described is the creation of a corporate function now employing 20
internal organizational effectiveness and transformation agents to support this
Fortune 100’s grasp of the future.
Weisbord, M., & Janhoff, S. (2010). Future Search: An Interview with Marvin and
Sandra. A video available at www.RolandSullivan.com , go to resources then
video or www.FutureSearch.net.
Future Search is a similar methodology to WST that has a focus on the whole
system. In this video, Marv and Sandra talk about the importance of the client
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system sleeping on its data twice before the transformation occurs on the 3rd
day.
Worley. C., & Lawler. E. (2009). Agility and Organization Design: A Diagnostic
Framework. CEO Publication. G 09-12 (566). Center For Effective OrganizationsMarshall School of Business. USC. Los Angeles, CA. www.ceo.usc.edu
One of the more solid pieces of research that supports the need for a theory and
practice as a Whole System Tansformation. Our clients have been involved in
the research and indeed transformation has been evidenced. While Dr. Lawler
has been one of the world leaders in change research over the years, we see Dr.
Worley becoming one of the most significant conceptual and best practice
applied behavioral scientists in the future. Stay tuned for his upcoming
publications.
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