What process is at the leading edge of learning organizations?

Open Space Technology, developed by Harrison Owen, provides a framework of time and space for people to self-organize their own process and work on issues they feel passionate about, and for which they will take responsibility. People really enjoy participating in an event where their opinions matter, and where everyone's responsible for raising issues they find important. Open Space enables groups of any size to come together to:

• Solve complex problems and burning issues
• Launch organizational change initiatives
• Respond to challenging and changing customer needs
• Adjust to dynamic market and economic conditions
• Become better at what they do
• Explore possibilities
• Design or redesign business processes

Open Space Events:

There are generally three time structures for Open Space events:
1-day – results in a dynamic idea exchange and summary
2-days – results in a dynamic idea exchange, summary of ideas and specific recommendations
3-days – results in a dynamic idea exchange, summary of ideas, specific recommendations and the prioritization of action plans

How Open Space Events Work:

Most Open Space events are predefined by a Single Question that will be discussed during a 1 to 3-day meeting. The question has to be selected and crafted carefully by the management team, and supported by the Open Space facilitator. It should address a burning or conflicting issue that will ensure diversity of opinions and passionate engagement of the participants. Participants then create Focus Topics to discuss the Single Question and they are placed on a Topic Wall and scheduled for discussion. Participants can then attend any of the discussions they would like to participate in, and they can come and go as they wish.

One Law and Four Basic Principles:

Open Space utilizes a very simplistic self-organizing process that allows an organization to move quickly and involve a diverse group of players from any level or function of the organization. It does this by using One Law and Four Basic Principles:

One Law:
The "Law of Two Feet" is about one foot of passion and one foot of responsibility. If a participant is not contributing or enjoying a Focus Topic discussion where they’re at, they move on to another group where they will have the passion to participate.

Four Basic Principles:
1. Whoever comes are the right people. Only those who are present can contribute. Although the invitation list might limit the number of participants, an Open Space conference is open for anyone invited that is interested in the subject.

2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. All we have to deal with is what is.

3. Whenever it starts is the right time. Follow the energy flow… when it starts it starts… just go with it. Things get started when the creative energy starts to flow.

4. When it’s over, it’s over. Although time and place are predefined in an Open Space event, clocks play a very minor role in setting the pace. The participants decide how much time is needed to work on a subject – ten minutes, thirty minutes, two hours, one day – or not at all.

In Summary:

Although Open Space Technology was developed over 20 years ago, it is still a leading edge technology for engaging employees and bringing about self-organized and innovative results in a very compressed timeframe. For more information or development and facilitation of an Open Space workshop, contact Jim Markowsky at 740.804.1354 or jcm@x-factor-solutions.com.

Breaking News - X-Factor Solutions Discovered on Mars. Now on YouTube!

Click below for details:

YouTube, Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm20OJjl5lE
YouTube, Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep1nx8YdTGw
YouTube, Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAqI8CcAR64
I used Xtranormal ( http://www.xtranormal.com/ ) to create the videos. It's free and you can upload your videos to YouTube with the click of a button.

These videos only took 1/2 hr. each to create. What a fun way to get a message across!

To learn more about X-Factor Solutions, visit our web site at http://www.x-factor-solutions.com.

Enjoy!
Jim

Survey Results: What is the single most important trait of a successful Organizational Change Consultant in todays economy? Please only list one!

Survey conducted by Jim Markowsky, X-Factor Solutions (www.x-factor-solutions.com/). Participants were members of the Organizational Change Practioners group on LinkedIn - a group of over 5,000 global OCM professionals (there were 70+ responses). Frequency shown in brackets:

1. (4) Agility – intellectual fleetness of foot; adapt on the fly; fluidity; adapt to internal and external environment; be as good at Plans B, C, D, E as Plan A.
2. (4) Listening – generative listening; discovery by listening and collaborative thinking; without it you cannot start the change journey; the client will tell you.
3. (3) Confidence – positive body language, building it with client; attitude and behavior.
4. (3) Facilitating – generative thinking with client to see possibilities; of collaborative learning process.
5. (2) Questioning – requiring client to see themselves as they are and as they want to be; asking the right payoff questions.
6. (2) Results – we are paid to produce; what the client is paying for.
7. (2) Systems Approach – wear systems glasses.
8. (2) Truthfulness – integrity; bring up the difficult issues
9. (1) All of the following:
10. Awareness
11. Billable
12. Chaos – comfort
13. Clarity – of focus
14. Communication – two way and ongoing
15. Conceptual and global thinking Dialogue – around tough and delicate issues
16. Directionally correct
17. Expectations - clarifying
18. Experience
19. Extraction – of salient points from client… reading between the lines
20. Faith
21. Flexibility
22. Gap analysis – utilization to implement needed changes
23. Influencing
24. Innovative solution – getting out of the safe zone
25. Integrity
26. Intentional – 100%, while radiating agility
27. Journey – preparation and setting expectations with client
28. Live and Practice Change – day in and day outObservation – includes active listening
29. Opportunistic – there are opportunities durin this downturn
30. Outcome – develop clear and concise with client
31. Patience
32. Perception
33. Persistence
34. Realism
35. Reflexivity - reflect and help client make sense of change
36. Saavy – navigation of the organization to get things implemented
37. Seeing – really seeing and not force-fitting
38. Sense-making – in complex situations
39. Synthesis – process and activity
40. Teamwork – collaboration
41. Tenacity – in the real value of the end state
42. Vision – ability to hold
43. Wisdom – to see the truth

A Guide to Leading a Self-Organizing Change Process

I have facilitated 6-7 self-organizing change initiatives - mainly in medium-sized organizations, or groups within very large organizations ($25 - 250M). These projects have been highly successful. Here are the steps that I used:
1. Get strong support (license) from a key leader (COO, CEO, VP... ).
2. Pull together a cross-functional team of volunteers that want to make a difference.
3. Perform a current state assessment with this team.
4. Create a vision with this team.
5. Perform a gap analysis with this team.
6. Agree on key action steps to achieve the desired state with this team.
7. Launch time-bound projects for each key action step, with a person responsible to achieve the desired result.
8. Celebrate milestone (action step) successes.
9. Stay the course - have a senior executive sponsoring the overall program (supporting, not managing).
10. Ensure a senior executive is giving recognition, providing encouragement and communicating successes.

This 10-step process works!

Copyright (C), Jim Markowsky
Copy and/or distribute with permission with credit to Jim Markowsky, X-Factor Solutions
Visit our web site at: http://www.x-factor-solutions.com

Survey Results: Major Reasons for Underperforming or Unsuccessful Large-Scale Organizational Change Initiatives

1) What are the major reasons for Underperforming or Unsuccessful Large-Scale Organizational Change Initiatives? Please rank the following factors from 10 - 1, 10 having the most impact and 1 having the least impact.
♦ Lack of executive team support, engagement and mindshare - 7.21 / 10
♦ Not articulating a "burning need" and vision for the change - 6.91 / 10
♦ Poor, untimely, unclear and/or inconsistent communications - 6.60 / 10
♦ Poor management of the transition between the present state and the future state - 5.55 / 10
♦ Inadequate resources allocated to the change initiative - 5.53 / 10
♦ Lack of trust in those leading the change - 5.28 / 10
♦ Change agents were not adequately trained/qualified to be successful - 4.62 / 10
♦ No formal plan for sustaining the change - 4.57 / 10
♦ Lack of a detailed change master plan that was managed as a project - 4.45 / 10
♦ Poor/inadequate employee education and training - 4.15 / 10

2) What else should be considered?
- Adequate Budget, in case it was not covered under resource- Focusing on change instead of change impact. Most change initiatives are doomed from the outset by this fundamental identification problem
- Failure to understand and address the core problem.
- In my brief encounter with managing change at large scale in small organisation like ours, I believe if we can answer basic questions of those, who will be severely impacted by change, like 1) the reason for change 2) the +ive and -ive of change 3) how to go about it . If these questions are well answered or it would be better if the stakeholders themselves spell the need of change and chalk out plans to go about it, there will be more chances of success.
- All too often these changes are the happen as a knee jerk REACTION to some impetus as opposed to the change being a PROACTIVE well thought out plan.
- 1) Underestimating resistance to change, even when the change is considered to be a positive one 2) 'Installing' a new structure (org chart) and expecting things to change without proper focus on new behaviours 3) Change overload
- too many initiatives
- Lack of engagement and involvement of employees in creating the change vision and implementing it.
- All down to good mgmt and leadership for me.
- Abdicating responsibility for change to the change agents.
- Getting trapped in a reactive cycle
- Not having the will to face into cultural issues
- Emotions. Instead of what is holding back the change, perhaps we need to think of what people are holding on to and why? These could lead back to issues of trust, but more often I think it is linked with timing...
- Informal leader/advocates for the new way and a compelling vision for it- Short term results and compromise!
- Too many other initiative receiving higher priority
- Too many powerful vested interests oppose the change
- Not perceived as treating people fairly
- Wrong change proposed
- Tangible short term wins on all levels in the organization
- Pace. Large programmes can be too slow and take on a life of their own where what is important is the functioning of the programme, not the intended outcomes.
- Organizational culture that embraces change.
- Strength of current processes and procedures to tolerate change.
-Currrent health of the organization. Unhealthy organizations cannot tolerate change even though they need it.
- No clear vision, different agendas and a clear leader who guides the transition. - Understand the organizational culture and the drivers that influence culture change such as: organizational structure, job design, policies, etc. also change the process
- Poor root-cause-analysis on what to change. Most often organizations try to solve symptoms of a problem and not its cause. The cause is often connected to management and please doesn’t change us...
- The need to allow people to go on the journey.
- Poor coordination at different levels and departments, shifting or putting responsibility to other teams.lack of involvement.Inability to understand the need for change.
- What is the business imperative driving the change?
- Lack of process design and based on comparison between as-is and to-be change impact analysis
- The change had an unreasonable timeline for implementation. Also too much for those impacted to absorb and apply.
- Conflicting corporate initiatives that were not considered.

About the Survey:
- Survey Participants: There were 47 global participants in the survey
- Survey Elements: A group of 12 Global change agents developed the survey elments.
- The survey was posted on the following eight Discussion Boards: Organizational Change Network, Network of Organizational Change Managers, Innovative Leadership & Change Management Expert Innovators Network, Change Agents, SAP/ERP Training & Change Practitioners, Organizational Change Practitioners, Organization Development Network, Change Consulting
- Survey close date: November 22, 2008
- Conducted by: Jim Markowsky, President, X-Factor Solutions
Visit our web site at: http://www.x-factor-solutions.com/

Survey Results: What are the Major Elements of a Successful Global ERP Business Process Transformation?

It is 1 year after the implementation of a successful global ERP business process transformation. Why was it so successful? Please rank the following elements that led to the success from 10-1, 10 being most important and 1 being least important.

1. Strong executive support 6.94 / 10
2. Successfully managed the transition and change 6.32 / 10
3. Effective communications and training 6.12 / 10
4. Allocated adequate resources to successfully manage the change 5.68 / 10
5. Significantly streamlined policies and procedures 5.38 / 10
6. Global representation in the entire process 5.29 / 10
7. Conducted a detailed global change impact assessment 5.00 / 10
8. Let go of old ways and processes 4.88 / 10
9. Became more strategic through creative use of the ERP system 4.79 / 10
10. Identified industry best practices and set top-tier goals 4.59 / 10

2. What else did we do that played an important role in our success?

• High level of involvement of partners (software, consulting, stakeholders)
• If the successful global business process transformation follows the outline below, all other ranking of priorities will fall into place. The organizational change management, data, aligned best practice processes, and measurement criteria eliminated the constraints of an unsuccessfully delivered solution.
  1) Organizational Change Management
  2) Data
  3) Best practices
  4) Key performance indicators to measure success
• We made sure that our measurement & reward systems were in alignment with the newly desired results.
• Mentoring and use of SME within the organization
• Attainable goals, established process for identifying and resolving risks/issues, and strong project management
• Local change impact assesment
• Super Users as ambassadors
• Live or die strategic approach to the global process implementation
• Ensuring transformation solutions are implementable and sustainable
• Strong cascading managerial support, having change agents strategically placed and prepared, having two way communication vehicles, a reinforcement strategy to ensure desired behaviors are multiplied, and getting employees at all levels help to design the change details.
• Produced value for impacted employees: "easier to do my job," "can do things that I could not do before."
• Won support at ALL key levels:- Executive- Middle management/functional leaders- Front-line workers/supervisors
• The overall Strategic alignment and clarity of objectives why a ERP based transformation is required in the first place.
• We also assigned sponsors to ensure that each of the industry best practices and top-tier goals was given an appropriate level of focus before, during and after the implementation.
  Prepared very good plan of whole transition. All major risks were identified, analyzed and mitigated.
• Leadership, communications, training, and transition are the key elements. The other items you have listed are from a business perspective. The question is...are you looking at it from a people transition to the system or the business (ROI) perspective. I look at it from the people transitioning. Ideally...you should achieve both, but two very differert focuses.
• Involve mid-managers
• Addressed employee organizational readiness thru development of action plans
• Got the business heavily involved early on.
• Strong dislike of the current system.
• Phase the implementation, don't try to do too much at once, don't under estimate people's need to understand the new way.
• Get benefit from all of the data and analytics.
• Simple clear messages, mantained constancy of purpose, rewarded the right behaviours
• Celebrated the successes.
• Created early wins and communicated success.

Survey Participants: There were 34 global participants in the survey
Survey Elements: A group of 12 Global Change Agents developed the survey elments.
The survey was posted on the following eight Discussion Boards: Organizational Change Network, Network of Organizational Change Managers, Innovative Leadership & Change Management Expert Innovators Network, Change Agents, SAP/ERP Training & Change Practitioners, Organizational Change Practitioners, Organization Development Network, Change Consulting
Survey close date: November 9, 2008
Conducted by: Jim Markowsky, President, X-Factor Solutions

Survey Results: What are the Top 10 Characteristics of an Organizational Change Agent?

Survey Results: Based on a 1 - 10 rating scale, 10 being highest. Average score:

1. Skilled Communicator 7.13 / 10
2. Emotionally Intelligent 6.45 / 10
3. Strong Leader 5.92 / 10
4. Excellent Problem Solver 5.81 / 10
5. Persuasive 5.41 / 10
6. Courageous 5.22 / 10
7. Strong Analytical Skills 5.04 / 10
8. Effective Educator 5.03 / 10
9. Flexible 4.79 / 10
10. Accomplished Project Manager 4.23 / 10

♦ Survey Participants: There were 159 global participants in the survey
♦ The survey was posted on the following Discussion Boards: Organizational Change Network, Network of Organizational Change Managers, Innovative Leadership & Change Management Expert Innovators Network, Change Agents, SAP/ERP Training & Change Practitioners, Organizational Change Practitioners, Organization Development Network, Change Consulting
♦ Survey close date: October 30, 2008
♦ Survey conducted by: Jim Markowsky, X-Factor Solutions
♦ Visit our web site at: http://www.x-factor-solutions.com