Many organizations have periodic strategic planning meetings, management offsite retreats, or house-wide communication meetings to try to get everyone on the same page, build their teams, or just get to know each other better. Some hire the best consultants to facilitate and guide these sessions, or they enlist their internal HR folks to help design and run them. It can be a useful exercise to step back from the daily grind from time-to-time to discuss critical business issues like new markets, new products, quality improvement, or “culture change.” It can also prove costly in time, money, and lost productivity, but as Stephen Covey says in 7 Habits, sometimes you just need to stop and “sharpen the saw.”
As a CEO, business owner, or Executive Team, it is important to think through your purpose, objectives, and agenda for these kinds of meetings to make the most of them. I have facilitated or participated in dozens of these types of retreats, management meetings, sales force gatherings, or training programs, from strategic discussions to team building, and even to papering the walls with ideas, assembling widgets, and performing silly skits.
Some are pretty good and some are a waste of time, and often the best part is just an opportunity for people to get to know each other better, put faces with names, eat, and maybe relax a bit and have some fun. Did someone say “eat”?
You can certainly seek out help from an expert in planning and constructing something, but frankly, there is a lot you can do as a “Do It Yourself” project when it comes to strategic change management. Following is a suggestion for a day or half-day large group intervention that you can do with minimal outside assistance with just some basic information that most executives and managers already know, like goal setting and action planning, process analysis, and leadership principles. Plus, it’s much more meaningful to develop your own approach rather than use someone’s off-the-shelf solution – you can tailor it, focus it on your situation, and actually engage your senior managers or employees in the process of putting it together.
Before I get into details, here are some questions in checklist form to ask yourselves as a management team when you are considering a management retreat, a strategic planning session, or an organization-wide intervention.
What are you doing for your company retreat this year?
Nothing
A management team offsite meeting to discuss your strategic plan
A company picnic
A golf outing with the management team
A pizza party
A company-wide communication meeting
Ropes challenge course for team building
Go-kart racing
Bowling
Holiday party
Other:__________________________
What are your objectives for your company retreat this year?
Get to know each other better
Improve communication, coordination, and teamwork
Have some fun
Engage in some friendly competition
Reward for a team project
Develop or update the overall company strategic plan
Improve efficiency and quality, and reduce waste/cost
Share and clarify a common purpose or mission
Improve work processes and streamline the operation
Recognize the hard work of employees
Set a course for the future culture – behavior, attitude, expectations
Identify and solve problems
Introduce a new product, service, or process
Learn some useful management theory, tools, or techniques
Engage everyone in charting our course
Other:_____________________________
What performance symptoms do you want to address?
Quality problems – scrap, rework, rejects, returns, errors
Efficiency problems – cycle time, through-put, missed schedule, down time, inventory
Safety problems – lost-time injuries/illness, incident reports, fire code issues, OSHA regs
HR problems – grievances, turnover, absenteeism, staffing, coaching, labor relations
Customer satisfaction problems – low survey scores, complaints, feedback
Compliance problems – regulatory, employee safety, product safety, reporting, audits
Communication problems – infighting, complaints, listening, blaming, conflict, trust
Leadership problems – improve coaching, motivation, teamwork, and culture
Other:______________________________
Once you have clear idea of your purpose and objectives for your retreat or meeting, you can develop the agenda and process. Rather than sticking to a traditional and safe plan, try something substantive, fun, and relevant that also recognizes and engages people in the process of discussing the real work in a practical workshop format. The following retreat idea integrates many of the typical approaches and objectives in a comprehensive and strategic way, and just about any variation on it may work for you and your organization. This proposal is meant to get executives and business leaders thinking about different ways to approach change and improvement. While some aspects may not be practical for your organization, the process can be customized to work for any organization in just about any setting. Get creative with it!
With this large group intervention approach, you can expect some of these outcomes:
Bring current management science principles and methods to the planning process
Build a foundation for sustaining continuous performance improvement and culture change
Develop broad general management knowledge and skill across the organization
Learn, practice, and teach coaching, communication, and feedback skills
Engage in meaningful discussions about real-world issues and improvement opportunities
Discuss important topics of interpersonal behavior, conflict, teamwork, and communication
Clarify functional roles, responsibilities, and processes
Empower people to be accountable and work together better
Engage everyone in planning, problem solving, measurement, and goal setting
Work together to create a culture that supports quality, safety, and customer satisfaction
Develop internal capability to lead continuous improvement activities
Cascade the learning process from the top down and “walk the talk”
As I said, I have been involved in many typical kinds of retreats and management meetings in a variety of organizations – for example, a Tenneco Automotive management meeting at PGA National Resort in Florida, an Owens Corning Fiberglass management retreat at TPC Golf Resort in Scottsdale, and a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western NY sales meeting at The Sagamore on Lake George, to name a few. Interestingly, a common theme in these three examples is they all take place at a high-end golf resort – clearly, a major investment in time and money in the future of the organization, but unfortunately, it is hard to calculate any real impact on actual performance.
Somehow, large organizations are willing to have faith in major retreats like these to bring about change with no real way to measure return on the investment, so if executives and business leaders can justify these major expenditures in the HR budget, then I would think that a meaningful smaller intervention that may really help improve performance back on the job would be a no-brainer. I understand that it’s a nice way to recognize people or the management team for their hard work, but personally, I would prefer to split the cost with my associates in our pay checks. So, “we just don’t have time” to plan doesn’t fly with me. Sometimes you have to make the time to improve your organization, but it does not have to be extravagant or far away.
So, here you go… let’s say you’re interested in getting the management team or whole organization together for a strategic planning meeting or a large group intervention. You could rent out your local high school gymnasium for a day, or if that’s not available, find a suitable venue with bleachers and plenty of floor space (maybe the local YMCA or community college). Perhaps you even have a large auditorium, gym, or meeting space on your company premises; the point is, you’ll need some space to meet with at least your entire management team, if not all employees, and some floor space to create a convention-style atmosphere. Preferably, the venue will have some bleacher-type seating.
My suggested meeting agenda would flow like this:
Step 1 – Organizational Structure
Start by assembling everyone on the bleachers to simulate the organization chart, with the Top Dawg on the top row, the senior team with CFO, COO, Marketing VP, HR VP, Engineering VP, and so on, on the next level, and all subordinate directors and managers down the chain of command. The worker bees will then all sit beneath them in their appropriate functional “boxes” on the lower levels.
This gives everyone a graphic view of the “organizational structure,” or chain of command, reporting relationships, and the fundamental power and authority relationships in the organization. Be sure to provide appropriate seating for the Executive Assistants next to or near their respective CEO and other C-Level Executives (since we all know that they run the place anyway!). Ultimately, after some arranging, you should have some semblance of a “live” org chart. Now, look around… above, below, and across, and think about the current structure, imagining the traditional hierarchy depicted on the org chart with real people sitting in front of you. Now, get ready to throw it out the window!
Next, have everyone get up and rearrange themselves to “flip the org chart upside down,” with the CEO or Owner alone on the bottom rung, the Executive Team just above them, and so on, until the Front-Line Supervisors are arranged by functional department near the top of the bleachers, and actual workers sitting at the very top. This serves as a powerful and symbolic visual reminder to every manager about what their role really is in the organization. The message is that every member of the management team is there to support those who really do the work every day.
Now that every manager begins to understand the critical aspect of their jobs and their “changing role,” you can make the point that people are our truly our “most important asset,” and that management’s job is to help everyone succeed in the performance of their responsibilities.
Step 2 – Presentation by Senior Management
The second part of the agenda is a presentation by the Senior Manager, along with the rest of the Top Management Team, that is basically a “State of the Company” address. It can include a snapshot of the organization’s history and background, mission, goals, and priorities, some performance numbers, how the organization did over the past year, and the external forces driving the need for change and improvement. It is also a great time to talk about the direction the organization is headed, the values and vision that we espouse, and any philosophical principles, including some guidelines for how people should treat customers and each other, i.e., our desired future “culture.”
Management can use this as an opportunity to communicate any number of messages to the workforce, and to clarify expectations of the organization as a whole. Each functional head executive can also speak about their department’s role in carrying out the organization’s mission, including specific, high-level goals by functional area. For example, the CFO can highlight the financial picture and performance, the Quality VP can discuss customer feedback, scrap and rework data, and performance measures, and the Human Resources VP might present some basic information on headcount, turnover rates, and employee satisfaction surveys. In other words, communicate the current state of affairs.
At this point, it may be a good time to discuss goals and goal setting specifically, including the criteria of a good goal statement (specific, measurable, time phased, moderate risk, etc.), as a part of teaching people a common language on continuous performance improvement. You can use your favorite goal setting and action planning model or methodology, and be sure to encourage everyone to use the same tools at every level, as teams and as individuals, and make the point about vertically aligning goals to support the goals above (or below, if you prefer). If top management wants the organization to use any goal-setting, problem-solving, or continuous improvement processes and tools, then they should also practice, teach, and model those methods and tools.
Step 3 – Organizations as Systems
Part 3 of the agenda is a continuation of the presentation by top management, but with more of a training flavor on “systems thinking.” This can be based on any number of experts or theories, but a good reference is the work of Geary Rummler and Alan Brache on process improvement. They discuss “organizations as operating systems” where every organization, function, department, team, and individual its “Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, and Customers.” A key concept for Rummler-Brache is "managing the white space on the org chart."
A “SIPOC” analysis is one way to understand how every organization turns inputs into products or services, and has external and/or internal customers that they must satisfy with first-time quality. An important aspect of this set of concepts and tools is feedback – both an internal feedback loop (e.g., internal inspection) and an external feedback loop (e.g., customer satisfaction level).
The Rummler-Brache tools include an assortment of process maps and relationship maps to visualize work flow graphically, and compare the actual and ideal state to identify ways to improve and standardize work processes. If you need assistance with these concepts, there are plenty of consultants and materials available, including your internal Quality Manager or Six Sigma/LEAN Management Sensei, but for this meeting, you can find basic information on the internet or in literature. You may already have an existing quality manual or set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on which to build.
The objective is to get people to understand that they are all here to accomplish an overall mission and, ultimately to satisfy the organization’s end-user external customers. There is an inter-dependent nature of the work they do across functions from product design, to manufacturing, to sales, to customer support, and everyone has a part in it. Cross-functional communication and coordination is critical to the success of the organization.
Step 4 – Set Up Departmental Booths
Part 4 moves onto the venue floor where each function, department, and work group sets up a table and some chairs, and creates some simple convention-style displays, bulletin boards, and materials that convey basic information about their purpose or mission, products and services, customers and suppliers, and primary work processes, including a basic SIPOC flow chart. Some of this may be developed ahead of time as pre-work, or it can be created by each work group as a workshop activity. Either way, the focus is on the real work, not on a simulation, exercise, and hypothetical scenario. The top management team might prepare some high-level materials to provide a context and to use as examples, but they should expect to teach and facilitate the activity by departmental teams as a part of their roles as process consultants in this endeavor.
The purpose is for everyone to be able to visualize where their work fits into the overall operation, and to identify opportunities for improved coordination, communication, and process improvement. Think of it as an “intrapreneurship” exercise where everyone can describe their products and services, features and benefits, and develop marketing and sales pitches to promote those products and services.
This is not an exercise to justify their existence, but to demonstrate how their department adds value to the process, and why their internal and external customers should use them as their preferred provider!
Step 5 – Visit the Other Departmental Booths
Once each of the functional and departmental entities have laid out their basic mission, work flow and procedures, people and contact information, roles and responsibilities, performance measurement information and data, then managers and employees can begin visiting the other booths. There should be individuals assigned to “stay home” and represent their departments, and be available at the booth to explain the work they do and how they do it, as well as to solicit feedback from their internal customers on their department’s performance. Their colleagues can visit other booths while they “mind the store,” and then go out and visit when others return.
The objective is to improve the inter-departmental dialogue and communication, ask questions of the other departments with whom they interact, understand what the other departments do and the challenges they face in carrying out their work, and to provide customer feedback to their supplier departments on the products and services that they receive from them. I have found that one of the greatest benefits of most management retreats or house-wide meetings is that people get to meet and communicate with other department that they might otherwise only know on the phone or by e-mail. This not only accomplishes that, but people also get to discuss real work issues face-to-face, and possible even resolve some on the spot.
Step 6 – Summarize and Conclude
Once everyone has had a chance to represent their department or work group to the rest of the organization, and to visit all of the other booths, the Senior Management Team can provide a summary of the day and encourage an ongoing dialogue back on the job. It serves to set expectations that this is how we need to think about the work we do in the context of the larger team and for the good of the organization at-large.
The primary objectives are to reinforce that we are all one team, and that the work groups that we associate with every day are there to serve a larger purpose so that we can all succeed together. It sets the stage for ongoing work on aligning goals with the mission, measuring performance and customer satisfaction, to streamline processes and improve efficiency, to improve communication and coordination, to improve quality, and ultimately to create a culture of respect, teamwork, and cooperation.
In conclusion, the CEO and Senior Team can emphasize that this work will be continued back on the job with the help and support of management. From there, the organization can learn and apply additional management concepts and more specific tools and techniques related to continuous improvement and culture change.
It is just a suggestion as a starting point, but the key lies in developing a foundation upon which to build with more specific training, coaching, and learning together as an organization. What really matters is whether it changes behavior and develops a mutual understanding across the organization about change and improvement. Even if you choose not to conduct a large group intervention such as this, there are hundreds of other ways to accomplish these objectives in smaller bite-sized pieces depending on the needs and abilities of the organization and management team.
The big question for executives and managers is whether you are willing to think differently about your change and improvement approaches and your roles in facilitating and leading the change process. Think creatively and step back once in a while to sharpen your saw!
If you would like to discuss any aspect of strategic planning, employee engagement, or leadership and culture change, I am glad to speak with you anytime! Be well and good luck!