Organizational Change

There are times when change is more top down driven and the perceived need for it may not be immediately obvious within organization, e.g. – when change is necessitated primarily by changes in environment and there’s a quick need for response.

How do you ensure that organizational change efforts stay on track during such times?

A few things can help:

·       A shared understanding of what are change outcomes being targeted. These need to be something that’s easily understood.

·       A deeper level understanding of what’s needed to change at individual level. If you feel powerless in entire change, then you just flow along.

·       Frequent communication on progress against change, and frequent re-iteration of change objectives.

·       Some celebration. Organization change can be hard. Celebrations when key milestones are reached can be a motivation booster.

 

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Sourav

Working Across Cultures!

Over last few months I have been in midst of culturally immersive experiences. I have been working with stakeholders from Germany and from a few Latin American (LATAM) countries.

I thought I was well prepared for working across cultures. I have had a deep interest in knowing how things work across cultures and have put in my discretionary time and effort over last few years in increasing my knowledge/skills around this area.

So yes, I was not overwhelmed by the things that I saw happening.  But I can´t say that I was not taken by surprise. There were quite a few times when I had to improvise my way through.

I am increasingly realizing that what is important in working across cultures are answers to:

• What do you communicate?

• When do you communicate?

• With whom do you communicate?

• How do you communicate?

Here are a few dilemmas I recently faced:

• LATAM– Who do I contact? – I hear hierarchy is respected and followed.  But what do you do when in trying to figure out the correct authority figure to be contacted, you are losing out on valuable time?  Well! I chose to write to the most relevant person I could get through to. Have I managed to make progress in my discussions subsequently? Yes, I do experience progress.

• LATAM – should I speak/write in Spanish? – Most LATAM countries, except Brazil, are Spanish speaking. I know Spanish and I can write to my LATAM counterparts in Spanish. But should I or should I not? I hear they appreciate it if I an outsider were even to make an attempt to speak in Spanish. But in initial few meetings, it is better to be safe than to be sorry. My communication with them till now has been exclusively in English.

• There was atleast once where I realized that the LATAM counterpart I was speaking to did probably not comprehend completely what I was saying. I had to make an extra effort to speak very slowly and ask a lot of clarifying questions – that seemed to work.

• LATAM – do people across LATAM countries behave similarly or differently? I am sure there must be differences but I feel I am just scratching the surface in figuring out the differences in way they have responded to me.

• Germany & LATAM – I hear building rapport/working relations is important in LATAM while in Germany interactions are more business-like. Well! I managed to translate this to an actionable item. I wrote emails to LATAM counterparts with ´how are you doing?´ introductions and ´Look forward to working with you´ endings . With German counterparts, on other hand,  I got straight to the point.

• Regards, Best, or nothing –

o   I find American counterparts signing off their emails by writing Best. In India, we write Regards. I prefer writing nothing. 

o   Some emails marked to me start off with Dear while I prefer writing HI.

What is correct way to star/end emails when I write to counterparts in Germany/LATAM? I don´t have a well formed answer yet.

• Who adapts - you or your counterpart? I don’t think there is a one right answer to this question. You must make an attempt to understand and be sensitive – probably that would make the other person be understanding and sensitive too. Well, to be frank. I am not completely surely how I have been perceived by my German/LATAM counterparts till now.

• What works – emails or phones? Well! First communication will have to over emails. Emails are necessary to ensure that there is a common acceptance of what has been communicated. But I do feel that with LATAM counterparts, communication over the phone helps more than communication over email.  I sense that response time to emails might be similar across both LATAM and Germany – not necessarily the quickest.  But then I realize that my definition of quick and theirs might be different.

• Pre-meeting agendas- I am scheduled to have a meeting with a German counterpart in next few days. I was reminded of fact that they prefer detailed pre-meeting notes. So I modified my Indian way of ´we´ll figure it out in the meeting´ and sent him as pre-meeting material, all the notes we will refer to during the meeting.  I feel he will have read through all material before our meeting.  I hear this is not necessarily the case for LATAM. A detailed introductory email note may be a necessity to a LATAM counterpart (given that you are communicating across different time zones) but expect to do a lot of explaining during the first telephonic call.

This is the first in series of my learning´s working with people from different cultures. I will post more soon.

What have been your experiences in working with people from different cultures?

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Sourav

So! What Exactly Is Different?

What is different? You have been here for sometime. How do you experience this place differently?

These are questions i have been frequently asked over last few months. 

At times I have wondered ´things maybe different but why is that important´.

When I had come in here I was clear that what´s I experience differently would just be classified as something that is different. 

I joined here with a mindset ´What´s different would be classified as something that´s just different. I won´t put a ´like´ or ´dislike´ tag against it´.  

Have I been successful in living up to my initial thoughts?  Well, Yes and No! It has not been a trouble free journey. But overall I do think I have been comfortable with non-judgmental hat I have chosen to worn.

But then experience has been different in parts.   What have these perceived ´differences´ been?

Initially, obvious ´visible´ differences struck me - Dress people wear to work, absence of formal work timings, preference for emails over phones, focus on punctuality (meetings starting/stopping on time- well, not always!), usage of quite succinct and sometimes unique terms (program manager, rhythm, decks, etc), prevalence of ´lunch meetings´, etc. 

Over last few months, I´ve had deeper realizations and insights. Am I done yet? I am not sure whether I can be ever done. I feel I am peeling off layers of an onion. I´ve peeled off a few layers. It has taken me sometime to do so. I´ve seen some visuals but then I realize those visuals itself might change tomorrow. There are a number of layers yet to be peeled.

Here are some visuals/realizations/insights I have had till now:

• Quarter Focus - I do perceive urgency in meetings and at work to meet metrics for current quarter.  This  quarter focus seems to be a double edged sword. It  does seem to keep everyone on their toes but most of focus of work is current quarter.  What in our work are we doing today for the long term (even the next quarter)? Balancing my daily work around areas that have immediate impact and areas that have slightly longer term impact does seem to be a ´tension´ I have to manage. Do I see everyone around me focusing on or being able to manage the same? Well! Yes and No!

• Metrics, Scorecards – I do perceive a focus on meeting scorecards (mostly quantitative). This focus is prevalent in HR areas too, including ones traditionally considered ´soft´ and not amenable to quantitative measurement. The principle ´what gets measured gets done´ certainly does hold true here. But there are times I observe a seeming neglect on what might be important but is not a part of the scorecard (probably because it is too behavioral/soft to be quantitatively scored).  I have perceived this organization as one that runs on scorecards.  I see challenge as ´Can we make these scorecards more encompassing? Can important qualitative metrics, that measure subtle and soft HR areas be included in scorecards too?´ I do sense we have distance to travel in this area.

• Listening and Expressing-  I sometimes observe an impatience to express oneself.  But when everyone wants to express, who listens?  I smile to myself when I hear the oft made statement ´I´ve heard you but…´.  I am tempted to ask in return ´What have you heard…?´ J.  I wonder whether the ´quarter focus´ leads to this phenomenon.  I like listening and I express in my own way.

• Disagreements and Feedback – Sometimes I realize that someone is disagreeing with me but is not saying so in so many words. The first few times I experienced something like this, I was left feeling confused. Over a period of time I have started sensing when someone is possibly disagreeing with me, even if s/he was not expressing so. I wonder whether our focus on being Respectful to each other gets probably misperceived by some as not expressing disagreements with each other. I also see this manifested in some groups where there is an aversion to having ´crucial conversations´, disagreeing, and providing critical feedback. Does it mean that individuals are not provided feedback? Sooner or later they are given feedback. Are they taken by surprise in such cases? Yes!  Do they like such a surprise? No! What has my response been? Well, when I have disagreed I have put my point forth. But I have tried to be respectful to the other person too. We can be respectful while disagreeing too.

• Confidence – I sense there is importance attached with projecting ´confidence´.  I find pockets where employees are mature to understand the implication of such a focus. I find other pockets where employees seem to misunderstand focus. In these pockets projecting confidence seems to be equated to not being perceived wrong and need to have immediate answers/solution to any situation. I remember something I had heard a long time back ´The 3 most difficult things to say in an organization are I don´t know, I am sorry, and I need help´.

• Channels of Communication – I initially perceived that it this was an email driven organization.  But then over a period of time I have observed subtle nuances too. I quite often hear ´I´ve heard about you …´. There are times when people come back and say ´Give me a call if you want to talk … ´So emails do work but I also perceive the need for ´high-contextual´ means of communication.  I sometimes wonder ´what is comfort of some of our employees with low contextual means of communication?´ This does seem to be an area of focus. Additionally I do perceive unsaid rules about who gets talked to and for what.  So yes, need for both ´high context´ and ´low context´ means of communication seems to co-exist here.

• Rhythm – I have talked about this before too.  I like the delineation of what´s in rhythm of business and what´s not. It provides a relevant yardstick to remind us whether we are working enough in taking the business to next level.  But are we fully understanding and utilizing this delineation? I think we could do more.

• Multiple Cultures/Group Norms – Is there a common overarching culture here? I perceive various sub-cultures across different businesses even within same geography.  Meeting norms (when do meetings get called and for what,  what gets discussed in meetings, what´s pre-work expected before meetings), email norms (what kind of emails with larger group get exchanged,  what gets responded to, speed of response), inter-personal norms (how frequently do people talk to each other and for what, what gets acknowledged/recognized, etc) seems to vary a bit across teams.  I am reminded of onions again. There are different onions. In many ways they are same but in some ways (maybe taste, smell, or looks) they are a bit different from each other.

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Sourav

Inter-Dependent Groups and Conflict

So here I was in a group of about 45 people. It was the 1^st day of a workshop that was to span across 2 days. The seating arrangement was different. We were to sit on mattresses placed on the floor in U shaped arrangement. There strangely seemed to be no PPT.

Most of us knew each other but still there was this anxiety and excitement on what lay ahead. I was aware that there was this group of some 10 participants who had participated in a planning workshop before. I had heard, through informal networks, good reviews of the planning workshop. I, and the other first time participants, were curious to know what had transpired there.

The facilitators found a unique way of transferring context from one group to the other. They 1^st called in the “experienced” group to sit in a circle, within the U, and share their experiences of their experience of the first workshop and Appreciate Inquiry discussion they would have had with their subordinates (a planned post workshop event). The first time participants sat in the outside U and could comment/ pitch in anytime we felt like.

After those in the inner circle were done sharing their experiences, we were called in to the inner circle to share what we had felt while we had heard the 1^st group sharing their stories.

At the end of these 2 sharing sessions, all of us were on almost common ground.

At the start of the 1^st day, there were 2 specific groups in the room. There was a need to bring them to common ground. The facilitators acknowledged this need and found a creative, experiential way to bring the groups together.

What might have happened had this initial exercise not being done? The presence of the 2 groups within the same room might have been a White Elephant- something no one speaks about but is present and influences all interactions within the room.

What are the other situations where different groups need to be brought to common ground? I can think of inter-dependent departments (e.g.- production and maintenance, sales and commercial, research and marketing). Even mergers and acquisitions would come under this realm. What seems to go wrong in these situations? Why do we frequently see friction and heartburn in these integrations/inter-dependent relationships? What can be done about them?

I think the answer lies in ‘speed’ and ‘norms’ of the different teams.

Different teams have different ‘speeds/flows’ in which they work. A simple manifestation of this would be the turnaround time for any query which flows into the team-some teams may respond in 24 hours; others may take 48 hours. Another manifestation would be what is meant by a project timeline- an IT team might be used to working on year long projects while a sales team would talk in terms of quarters.

Different teams also have different ‘norms’ – these would be in terms of decision making, communication, rituals, etc. Sales might prefer things to be done over phone, while accounts might need everything written down and documented.

Many a times these differences in ‘speed’ and ‘norms’ are not acknowledged leading to continuous and, at times, caustic friction between inter-dependent teams. Acknowledging these differences and making the teams take conscious steps towards reaching common ground on ‘speed’ and ‘norms’ would be the first step in ensuring effective collaboration.

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Sourav

Storytelling!

How do you effectively communicate your message to a group who has not experienced what you have experienced?

Do you provide an overview, or a generalization? Do you talk about what might it feel if they were to experience what you experienced? Do you create a simulation of the conditions you faced and let them respond/cope?

We can do some or all of these. But what I have found significantly impactful is “story telling”.

I remember a few years back moving from the Audio-visual mode of presentation to the “story telling” method for interactions with groups of students. A person who had experienced the company, talked of his experiences. These were not generalizations but actual experiences that were spoken about. I remember the presenters being enthused about doing this, and I remember the audiences raving about what they had experienced.

Last year, we tried communicating the importance of e-learning through “street plays”. Till then we had struggled to find buy-in for our e-learning initiatives. We had used e-mails, e-mail advertisements, presentations in conferences, etc but to hardly any avail. But the street plays seemed to strike a chord with people. Suddenly the number of site visits, course enrolments and course completions jumped up.

I remember my Mathematics teacher in School (if I remember correctly his name was McDermott) used to tell us stories towards the end of the class and he used to have us in rapt attention – Omen was our most favourite story! (any memories ? J). I actually can still recollect visuals of he telling us his stories even though I don’t remember much of the Mathematics he taught us.

A common childhood memory we cherish is one of our significant parental figures (mother, father, grandfather, or grandmother) reciting stories to us. Can you visualize such instances from your past? How does it make you feel?

The “Storytelling” parts of the Appreciative enquiry discussions, we had last year around, impacted me the most. I remember neither the details of the session structure, nor the exact details of the stories of my teammates. But I do remember the feelings I was left with at the end of those conversations. I also retain a strong bond of friend ship with my teammates.

Over and over again, the power of storytelling shines forth!

What makes storytelling such a powerful mean to communicate? I wonder!

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Sourav