Implementing Strategic Change

Danny Samson is Professor of Management at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and he is also Director of the Foundation for Sustainable Economic Development there. He spent ten years working on corporate strategy with the CEO and top team of an international bank with branches in the UK, USA, New Zealand and Australia. He regularly provides industry and executive seminars.Tom Bevington is a partner in Bevington Group and its sister company Bevington Process Management Tools. He was CEO of an international computer services organization with operations in 49 countries. His clients have included GE Capital, ANZ, Commonwealth Financial Services, AMP, AXA and Tower.

One of the key success factors for any organization is effective strategic change - to ensure adaptability and increase productivity. Despite its importance, most change management projects fail or only partly deliver on their promise, the missing link often being the conflict between boardroom strategic initiatives and the working process design of the company. Implementing Strategic Change shows that most of this conflict occurs during interfacing activity - the seemly small activities such as chasing, following up and seeking permission to proceed that help drive a process forward can make up to 80% of many employees workload. This book will show that business strategy and change implementation rely on deep and close process knowledge and help develop the framework for understanding and improving these activities in any organization.

Written from a joint academic and professional perspective

ForewordPreface IntroductionOrganizational impact of toxic interfacesThe failure of strategic changeInterfaces are not the problemBest practice using interface mappingToo good to be true?How much will this cost?Does it work in practice? 01 Business strategy - rigorous formulation, routine underachievementObjectivesIntroductionOnly half a solution?Two parts to the strategy - an uncomfortable truthA need for a change in thinkingIncreasing criticality of managing interfacesUndocumented interfacing activities make up over 50 per cent of routine work stepsInterfacing activities' invisibilityInterfacing activities and strategic impactCentury-old practices aboundSummary 02 Strategic outcomes from best-practice management principlesObjectivesIntroductionA complete set of management principlesUnderstanding the management principlesLink between best-practice principles and interfacing activityUsing principles to achieve staff and management alignmentSummaryAppendix 03 Making the change needs obvious - the critical role of interfacing activitiesObjectivesHow it all startedExploring interfacing activityMapping reality - the paradoxSearching for an approach to mapping interfacing activityDocumenting what really happensImportance of missing interfacing activitiesConfidence from interfacing activity dataThe management challenge quantifiedSummaryAppendix 04 Interfacing activities, business strategy and business process innovationObjectivesThe need for strategic activity categorizationRelating value-added activities to a strategic frameworkSupport and core activitiesRelationship between core activity and noiseInterfacing activity noise drives process innovationNoise as an indicator of potentialSummary 05 Interface activity noise - the foundation of strategic change capabilityObjectiveThe dataA huge opportunityOutcome achievementSituational dependencyDiscretionary activitySummary06 Increasing performanceObjectiveContinuous improvement or strategic process alignment?Value revealed by interface mappingDifficulties in addressing noiseAnalysing noise drivers to achieve strategic outcomesSummary 07 Organizational 'genomics' - strategic process analysis focused on implementationObjectivesIntroductionNeed for a new 'genomic' framework - summaryThe real issue with interface mappingOrganizational 'genomics'How interface mapping meets the needAnalysing and using interface mapped dataStrategically defi ning business process changeSummary 08 Principles by which leading organizations drive changeObjectivesIntroductionNeed for the deployment culture management principlesExploring the deployment culture management principlesContrasting approachesMulti-organization process managementSummary 09 Using interface mapping to deliver performanceObjectivesIntroductionRelationship between interfacing activities and the management principlesInstalling the principles and aligning business processesConclusions 10 Staying on top: maintaining business outcomesObjectivesIntroductionCommon approaches to business process change do not lastContinuous, strategic business process alignmentInterfacing activities continually changeUp-to-date interface mapsEssential features of an ongoing interface mapping programmeMonth 1 deliverablesDetermining change priorities strategicallyDelivery of the required changesLocking in the changes - BCIsThe last stepConclusions 11 Definitions and an example of an interfacing mapping toolDefinitionsInterface mapping tool References and Literature ResearchedIndex