The time factor. The accelerating pace of change. In recent years, many businesses have embarked on major transformation plans in order to adapt to changing markets: the need to adapt is a widely accepted certainty. There is no longer any need, nowadays, to convince firms of the need for change. The problem lies in the accelerating pace of the changes taking place in our environment (just look at the changes brought about in recent years by Internet, social networks and digitization in the business world).
As a result, it is vital to equip businesses, and particularly the CEO and the management team, with the capacity to steer the implementation of all these changes, at an ever faster pace and without let-up. Upstream, adapting to the speed of decision-making and implementation will require changing not only the methods but also the reflexes, habits and behaviors of management teams.
The study we have established over the past two years highlights new forms of CEO behaviors: their worries and challenges have evolved. Less sure of themselves and more risk averse, they sometimes hold off on decision-making (which creates a general discontent not only within the management team, but also among shareholders and clients), and things can rapidly go awry. Worse still, they are no longer capable of rapid implementation once a certain “status quo” has set in, locking the business into immobility. Control is absent, the CEO lapses into isolation and inaction and the danger of a downturn in performance looms.
Aware that their image as a leader may suffer if they fail to find the right balance between short-term performance and successfully transforming and ensuring the long-term security of the business, some CEOs are turning to more pertinent and more dynamic concepts of collaboration. These new concepts encourage engagement by members of the management team, strengthen their capacity for taking initiatives and re-establishing trust so as to feed back to the CEO the information required for rapid decision-making. What is the goal these CEOs are pursuing? To correct/modify and rapidly adapt implementation and reach decisions with greater confidence in having made the right choice, saving themselves wasted hours spent shillyshallying around “non-problems” (those with no direct impact on a major performance driver, for example), and so on. In short, saving time that can be focused on the real challenges facing the business.
Rapidity of execution. 4 best practices of CEOs who have successfully accelerated their decision-making and implementation practices.
1. Act: don’t wait for the ideal situation. In keeping with the rate of CEO turnover – at a record high over the past five years – management teams (Management/Executive Committee) are also changing fast: CEOs no longer wait until their management team line-up is perfect before embarking on change (holding out for the ideal situation is no longer seen as viable), but rather prefer to take the time factor into account and encourage action by building a team dynamic around a nucleus of two to three core members so that newcomers can be brought on board later. They have opted for rapid action – even if it means making adjustments later in the light of results – rather than waiting for the ideal situation to present itself. Inaction is the worst of all situations because the time factor is crucial to change.
2. Facilitation to effectively remove barriers to change. When it comes to implementing their transformation plan, most CEOs know they have the in-house capacities and competencies, which is true in absolute terms but here, once again, the time factor has to be taken into consideration in this uncertain world that is changing at an ever-increasing pace. They are also well aware that implementing change takes time and triggers considerable resistance. Since they need all the help they can get, CEOs are increasingly calling on a Facilitator to accelerate the implementation of change. The first reason for this is to get them over the first essential hurdle, and that is for the CEO and management team to set the example of embracing change (because change must, initially at least, be initiated on a top-down basis to convince the whole organization of the need for and importance of change – the so-called “burning platform”). The second hurdle is removing the resistance to change that exists at middle management level (at this stage, change is bottom-up). Here, too, a Facilitator can help speed up the identification of resistances (and the reasons behind them), and this can save precious time.
Why is the Facilitator such an asset in this race against time? Because, being external to the business, they will be unaffected by any issues of power, ego or ambition within either the management team or the organization as a whole. An experienced Facilitator will swiftly access the key information and identify the actions needed to develop the earliest possible appropriation of change. This can never be the case for someone from within the organization, who will always be faced with power issues, whether overtly or otherwise.
3. No delegating the competencies and responsibilities of the CEO. Even those CEOs who have built a management team they can trust are aware of the importance of not delegating the tasks and responsibilities directly associated with their position. Only the CEO knows how they want to shift the lines. They inspire in their team the commitment necessary to achieve the objectives, but no way can this work in the other direction! The management team acts as a relay, deploying and managing the various phases until the expected results are achieved. Knowing the issues facing the business does not necessarily equate to having the capacity to take the lead on reaching a decision, risk taking or strategy. The CEO must therefore retain and even reinforce their role as leader.
4. Protect the management team from overload. In response to the massive overload imposed on their management team by the many change or transformation programs required to secure the survival of the business, a number of CEOs have decided to implement an execution steering solution for the management team. Initially, this solution helps to better prioritize the changes needed (so as to stagger them over time) and, subsequently, to anticipate the difficulties of their implementation: this is a means to greater efficiency and better management of the time factor, which in turn impacts on the performance factor and the security of the organization’s future. Steering execution provides the management team with greater clarity as to the order of priority for the points that each member of the team should focus on and directs them towards the most pertinent and highest priority levers. It also further reinforces the leadership of the senior manager who is “at the helm” and “stays on course”.
These 4 Best Practices can be implemented through a SteerVision-Center
The results speak for themselves.
80% of clients who have introduced a solution for steering change, transformation or the execution of their strategy (such as the SteerVision-Center) acknowledge that the value creation and decision-making “convenience” are such that they repeat the implementation of this solution when they go on to head another organization.
90% of businesses have seen their results improve by around 30% within two years of setting up a strategic steering center.
Does the concept alone account for this figure of 30% improvement? No: many other factors are involved.
Has the concept made a major contribution to this figure of 30%? Yes, definitely, because it has allowed adaptation and anticipation of future events.
Acquiring the means to accelerate, steer, perform and secure the future.
Any actions involving change, transformation or the execution of strategy take time, because they require individuals within the organization to alter their behaviors. Starting with the management team.
The slower the CEO is in deciding to acquire the means of steering implementation of these changes, the bigger risk the time factor will come to represent.
Conversely, the CEO determined not to be overtaken by the ultra-rapid pace of change or determined to combat the status quo will AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY acquire those means in order to steer the implementation of changes, in conjunction with the management team. And that decision will guarantee the positive impact of these changes on the organization’s performance. Last, but by no means least, the future of the business will be all the more secure as a result.