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BIG Ideas to BIG Results: Remake and Recharge Your Company, Fast ReviewFirst some background. More than 25 years ago, C-level executives from major corporations (individuals as well as members of a management team) gathered for two weeks at the Harvard Business School, met with members of its faculty, and helped each other to formulate a game plan to respond effectively to their respective organization's most formidable business challenge. Within a year, they reconvened to share what happened, after the game plan had been implemented. What worked? What didn't? Why? How could the game plan be improved? During the years that followed, as other C-level executives convened at Harvard, "a clear pattern emerged. The biggest and most common problem facing executives was in leading different types of corporate transformations. They had trouble getting their organizations to execute on their stated strategies quickly." Co-author Robert H. Miles, who chaired the Harvard. "Managing Organizational Effectiveness" Program, distilled a wealth of real-world information and began to devise what he eventually called the Accelerated Corporate Transformation, or ACT process."What we have in this single volume is a rigorous and comprehensive explanation of what the ACT process is...and isn't. Co-authors Michael Kanazawa and Miles briefly examine the typical stages of a cycle of failure, then shift their attention to the ten stages of a business success cycle and devote a separate chapter to each, providing at its conclusion a checklist of "Tips" that summarize key points. Keep in mind that ACT is a process rather than a project, best viewed as a journey rather than a destination. However, for a variety of compelling reasons that Kanazawa and Miles acknowledge, ACT requires a timeframe if the desired results (whatever they may be) are to be achieved. Appropriately, they share this caveat with their reader: "Unfortunately, there is not one `silver bullet' that will unlock success. There are a lot of moving parts. However, [ACT] is a surprisingly simple architecture and process that you can put in place to bring all of the critical principles into play."
In this context, change agents would be well-advised to keep in mind advice from two other sources. Charles Darwin's made three basic declarations: Species always breed beyond available resources; those with favorable variations have a greater chance of survival and pass along their variations to their offspring; and, adapted species force out weaker ones, producing whole new species. In other words, given the process of natural selection in the business world, companies must adapt or perish. Peter Ducker is the other source, stressing the importance of knowing where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there. In 1963, Ducker also observed "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
Presumably at least a few of those who read this review would appreciate having a representative selection of brief excerpts. I have selected three:
"In the ACT process map in [Figure 3.2], you see the steps of Confront Reality, Focus, Align and Engage, and Execute in the streamlined process architecture. These items are essential design elements, which characterize the significant difference between cookie-cutter, fixed processes that either serve as an overlay to the existing business or seek to change everything being done already just to fit the new process. The right approach to process architecture is to leverage all of the best existing elements of the management process that are currently working well, make adjustments for any missing elements, adjust the sequence of steps for impact, and then streamline the full process for speed, simplicity, and high engagement. Fixed cookie-cutter processes often require changing too much at once (even things that were working) and are rightly rejected by organizations in most cases." (Page 31)
"A word of caution on going overboard with sparking innovation across a large system is to be careful about maintaining focus. Some people have misinterpreted and misapplied the concepts around full-system change. Their concept is to `light 1,000 fires' all around the lower levels of the organization and let all of that energy boil up to the top. In their eyes, isn't that `real' full engagement? Actually, it is just anarchy. Like a wildfire, this process is out of control, lacks direction, and ultimately just creates havoc." (Page 110)
"If the organization is under-powered [i.e. `the top leaders tell their underlings what to do and make all the decisions'], the challenge is then to shift the Power Curve `up' to look more like the High-Powered curve. In this case, the senior executives engage the full organization by releasing accountability of day-to-day tactics to middle managers to create time for strategic thinking at the top, and structure time and forums to effectively vet their strategic plans with lower levels in the organization. This results in a cascading of power to all levels, which leads to breakthrough results." (Pages 137-138)
Kanazawa and Miles duly acknowledge "nobody really ever learned how to lead a transformation by reading about it." What they offer is a complete set of tools and explain how to use each. It remains for those who read this book to determine (as Ducker suggests) where their organization is now, where it wants to be, and how to get there. They can then collaborate with their associates on the selection of the tools needed to complete accurate measurements, chart a proper course, and then communicate effectively once embarked on their shared journey to transform not only their organization but also themselves.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Jim Champy's Outsmart! How to Do What Your Competitors Can't as well as Jason Jennings' Think Big, Act Small: How America's Best Performing Companies Keep the Start-Up Spirit Alive, two books by Henry Cherbourg (Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology and his more recent Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape), and Corporate Agility: A Revolutionary Model for Competing in a Flat World co-authored by Charles E. Grantham, James P. Ware, and Cory Williamson. Also Kevan Hall's Speed Lead: Faster, Simpler Ways to Manage People, Projects and Teams in Complex Companies, Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Well, and David Robertson.
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