Move. Azzarello Patty

personally find it very frustrating when organizations fail to progress, and I want to help.

      There are answers to these chronic, systemic issues that stall forward progress – practical answers and doable things. Strategic investments actually can pay off. But the organizations that make their strategy successful do some specific things on purpose to accomplish it.

      I always seemed to have a knack for stepping into stalled organizations and getting them moving forward or turning them around. As a CEO and general manager, I have always had an ability for getting teams focused on what really matters, driving lasting change, and engaging people to join in and go with me.

      In my own career I have:

      ● Executed turnarounds that most didn't expect to succeed

      ● Transformed organizations whose morale started in the dumps

      ● Built several successful and highly motivated management teams

      ● Defined and successfully implemented new business strategies

      Through these experiences and, more recently, advising many other organizations on implementing their business strategies, I have developed a very practical view of what makes strategies stall and what makes them go. In MOVE I will share that formula for how you can get your whole organization to decisively advance your strategy.

      A Note About Change vs. Transformation

      There is much written about leading and managing change and getting through transitions – getting people emotionally bought in, motivated, and ready to change.

      In MOVE I go beyond the initial change and focus on what it takes to make a transformation really stick after you start the change, for the whole time required to make it happen. But for a moment, let's review what is important about the initial change process.

      The Change Equation

      Much of the wisdom about motivating an organization to change is referred to in the “formula for change,” created by Richard Beckhard and David Gleicher in 1969, and then refined and popularized by Kathie Dannemiller in the early 1990s. It is sometimes called “Gleicher's formula.”

      If you haven't seen it, this is useful stuff:

      D × V × F > R

      D = Dissatisfaction with Current State

      V = Vision of the Future

      F = First Concrete Steps to Get There

      R = Resistance to Change

      Basically, this equation says that if any one of the things on the left is zero, the resistance, no matter how small, will not be overcome, and the change will not happen.

      The most common takeaway from this is that you must make an effort to make sure that D is not zero, meaning if people are too comfortable, they will not change. Dissatisfaction helps motivate change.

      But the Harder Part Is in the Middle

      What I have found, over and over again, is that even if you get through that initial change and get a good start on it, progress often stalls after a short time, and people go back to what they were doing before.

      Even sufficient Dissatisfaction, Vision, and First Concrete Steps are not enough to ensure lasting transformation. Vision defines the exciting goals and end point. First Concrete Steps define the beginning.

      And then there is the great, vast abyss in the Middle.

      “Are We Still Doing This?”

      No matter how vitally important a long-term initiative is to a business, the gravitational pull for people to go back to their day jobs is enormous.

      The thoughts of not starting, stopping, going back, not changing, and not continuing when it gets tough are so much more powerful and comfortable than the thoughts of Hey, let's stick with this new, hard thing.

      To lead a successful transformation, you need to get enough of the people actively moving forward instead of asking, “Are we still doing this?” You also need them to be showing the way forward for others.

      I wrote this book to give organizations – the leaders and the whole team – the necessary tools to confront the ongoing hazards of stalled execution at every step along the way.

      Doing Something Different

      Getting your whole organization to do something different than what they are already doing, and then sticking to it through the “Middle,” is one of the most difficult things in business, and it's one of the hardest challenges a leader faces. The Middle is where you need not just desired intentions, but real, defined work to happen.

      The Middle is where change can begin to really take hold. When you get very clear about what happens in the Middle, then the whole organization can see the progress, and can believe that you really will achieve the vision at the end. The Middle is where you make it stick. The Middle is the hard part.

      The secret (which is not so secret) is that you can lead a transformation from the top, but you can't do a transformation from the top. Success lies in getting the whole organization to feel personal ownership in the transformation.

      As leaders, we need to figure out how to keep our strategic change alive and moving forward without constant management intervention. How do we make the whole organization not only own the change, but have the ability and the motivation to keep it going?

      Inspired by the Gleicher formula, I have created Patty Azzarello's model for successful business transformation: MOVE.

      MOVE

      The MOVE model is the useful shorthand for the four key elements of a successful business transformation. It defines the four steps for how you get and keep your whole organization moving forward and not asking, “Are we still doing this?”

      M Is for the Middle

      Strategies are often stated in end goals. An end goal, no matter how inspiring it is, is not enough. The “Middle” is the important part.

      A good strategy defines what you will do. What you will do describes what happens in the Middle and how you will fund, measure, and resource it. In fact, if you want to know what your strategy is, look at your budget. That will speak loud and clear about what you are actually doing regardless of what you say your strategy is.

      While you are in the Middle, without the right measures that define your strategy in a concrete way, you can't know if you are making progress. And if you can't see that you are making progress, you will most likely not keep going. Everyone will stay very busy with what they are already doing, and your transformation will stall. The leaders and the team need to get fiercely aligned on the specific, clearly defined, resourced, and sponsored outcomes that need to happen throughout the Middle to bring about the long-term success of your strategy.

      O Is for Organization

      One of the tough things about a business transformation is that when you initially sign up to do something different, in that moment you still have the same people. Usually the new thing is bigger, more sophisticated, or more challenging in some way. One of the ways I see organizations get stuck is that they try to do the new stuff with the old people. Not everyone will be capable of what the new way requires. Not everyone will be able to step up.

      Your job as a leader is not to make the best of the team you have, but to build the team you need.

      Everyone in the organization needs to personally invest in understanding what is required and how they can take personal ownership to help lead the change from their roles.

      V Is for Valor

      This part of the model is about having the grit, persistence, and guts to stick with the change when everyone is losing confidence, questioning you, and presenting emergencies that seem more important in the moment.

      As a leader, you need to demonstrate your commitment to the transformation with every decision that you make every single day.

      I