Program Success Begins with the Right Approach

Organizations are complex.  Improving measurable and sustainable organizational performance requires knowledge, skills, and expertise that typically are not resident in most businesses.  Although many organizations attempt large scale improvement programs, few actually achieve their intended objectives and ROI.  Even fewer improvement programs sustain results over time – why?  Through our research, we have found most improvement programs fail due to:

• lack of problem analysis, initial planning, and project management
• wrong or inadequate improvement strategy or solution
• not effectively managing the impact of change on people

With this in mind, we apply a methodology that assures all key components are managed properly and recommend our clients establish an executive advisory team to provide feedback at critical steps in the process.

Improvement Strategy and Project Management 

Many improvement initiatives begin without a defined, consensus-based, or measured understanding of the current business problem.  Other initiatives struggle due to the lack of a clear "to-be" state or expected outcome. Additionally, many program plans do not fully integrate solution design and implementation steps with change management and communication plans.

Our approach is to build a concise and compelling case for change, clearly articulate the business problem and envision the proposed outcome, facilitate consensus of the problem and proposed outcome among key influential stakeholders, forecast ROI and outcome metrics, and develop a comprehensive program plan and schedule defining solution design, implementation, and change management steps.  

Solution Design and Implementation 

The core of any improvement program is the creative solution design.  Depending on the scale of change, improvement teams may develop a solution based on the direction set by one or more business leaders, through brainstorming among participants, or from in-depth research and evaluation.  However, for many projects the solution is not socialized to build consensus among key stakeholders and is not tested against program measurement criteria before implementation begins.

Our strategy and solution design methodology uses an analytical and social behavior approach to ensure outcome expectations are met.  Based on the program objectives, we set design criteria supported by performance measures and evaluate each potential solution.  As solutions evolve, we work closely with key stakeholders to test the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.  We believe, even the best analytical solution will fail to meet expected results unless key stakeholders provide 100% support.

Change Management 

Improvement programs require change.  Most employees are resistant to embracing change because they have established power and influence in their current environment, have invested time in learning the knowledge of existing processes, have built networked relationships with co-workers, customers, and/or business partners, and may even fear for their job.  

Our approach to a successful improvement program manages change throughout the entire process.  We help clients manage key stakeholders that have a vested interest in the change and build plans to ensure their support. We address organization, culture, and training issues that are critical to sustained improvement success.
Our approach to a successful improvement program manages change throughout the entire process.  We help clients manage key stakeholders that have a vested interest in the change and build plans to ensure their support. We address organization, culture, and training issues that are critical to sustained improvement success.