LEA Podcast #60 | Transformation – what is that actually?

You can find the link to the podcast episode here.

Exciting times: Many organizations are experiencing the need for profound change in order to adapt to new things. Working on their own future viability is elementary for the survival of the organization. How transformation works and succeeds and why this is actually joyful work for organizations right now – in these exciting times when many things are being turned upside down – is what we talk about as guests in this episode of the LEA Podcast.

OLIVER HAAS. Has been accompanying people and organizations worldwide in profound changes for more than 20 years. As a sociologist with an affinity for systems theory, he looks at the pressure points for collective change, but also believes in the power of smart questions to get social systems moving on a small scale. Whether as a leader, internal/external organizational consultant, coach, or mediator, Oliver has diverse and deep insights into organizations of various stripes.

CLAUS-BERNHARD PAKLEPPA. Raised in Germany and South Africa, Claus is an ethnologist, entrepreneur, organizational consultant, coach and sparring partner for decision makers and bridge builder with passion. Claus is founder and co-founder of consulting companies and NGOs, managing director of p4d GmbH and as a consultant has been accompanying people and organizations internationally in a wide range of sectors during profound changes for 25 years.

More information on the soon to be published book “Transformation – Understanding, Enabling and Shaping Profound Change”.

For those in a hurry: Some insights from the podcast

Does it take a crisis scenario for the readiness for profound change to be there?

Unfortunately, it often does, but is not the only way. Even dealing with trends and frameworks can make an organization anticipate that it needs a new push in where to go.

What routines can organizations establish to identify transformational opportunities? 

You have to broaden the ways you look at yourself as an organization. Looking at the organization from the outside almost always helps (what do customers, stakeholders,…). And coupled to this is the question: How do we adapt to meet customer value? Transformation capability has the core competence to ask the question: What will be needed in the future, what is the added value that we provide? This requires a common view.

How do you get this view to last?

It is always necessary to notice and evaluate signals. The signals that are picked up have to be translated in order to decide whether there is a reason for change. Change for change’s sake does not lead to transformation, but to process adaptation.

The two worlds old and new stand side by side (ambidextry). Building a new world in the same system creates a field of tension. The organization should not be transformed in a way that destroys it – there is something worth preserving in the core values of the organization that must be taken into account.

How does transformation work in practice?

The procedure involves two steps: recognizing that change is needed and understanding where the organization should develop. It needs frameworks and resources. The first step is clarified with the picture of the future, where it should go. Then the first step is classic change (knowing and involving the players, changing and trying things out, reflecting and adapting). The difference to change is that not only the practices change, but also the paradigms and principles. This has to be consciously described, designed and communicated – a long way of keeping at it. This makes it all the more important to reflect and pause.

Why is it important and exciting to deal with the topic now?

We are used to taking a strained look at the topic of leadership. At the moment, however, there is a unique opportunity to rethink organizations. How do we want to be in the future? We are facing so many social, global, ethical and economic changes – thinking about these changes and shaping them ourselves instead of being shaped should become a fun way of working on the organization.

Understanding, enabling and shaping profound change

Unpredictable developments and radical, sometimes existential changes in politics, society, markets and technology are no longer the exception, but the rule. Most organizations react to this as they have always done in the past: They optimize. But that is no longer enough. What is needed is the ability to transform, to think and act in multiple futures, in unpredictability and unplannability. This is neither easy nor pleasant, but necessary.

Here you can order the book

 

This book is both an orientation and a guide to action in the jungle of change. Detached from hypes, trends and dogmas, the authors create an understanding for a professional approach to profound change. To this end, they reflect on their own many years of transformation experience, but also provide concrete practical insights into the diverse world of experience of people who have successfully implemented transformations. In this way, they provide impulses and concrete tools for their own transformation work. With this book, you will receive a comprehensive, practical navigation aid that will enable you to successfully shape transformation. The book is aimed at all those people who want to take responsibility for far-reaching changes and actively tackle them.

You can order the book here.

Invisible Powers – The Significance of the Ownership System for Organizational Culture and the Design of Organizational Culture Processes

An owner-managed company functions according to different principles than a listed company with a partly unspecifiable and intangible set of (co-)owners. A non-profit association functions according to different mechanisms than a state organization or a cooperative. In this context, the organizational culture, among other factors, is significantly shaped by the ownership structure.
In their article “Invisible Powers – The Significance of the Ownership System for Organizational Culture and the Design of OE Processes” in the journal “OrganisationsEntwicklung”, Andrea Joras and Claus-Bernhard Pakleppa examine precisely this ownership system and its effect on the organizational culture of different types of companies.

Here you can read the article in the ePaper of the magazine “OrganisationsEntwicklung”

Here you can read the complete articles in the ePaper of the magazine “OrganisationsEntwicklung”.

Transformation: but how and where to?

This is the answer provided by the Transformation Compass 2021!

Click here for the full study:

Many organizations are currently facing profound and accelerated changes. What are the reasons for transformation and how do they deal with them? What are the factors of success or failure in the eyes of the stakeholders involved? The aim of the Transformation Compass 2021 study was to use an online survey to ascertain the understanding of transformation among stakeholders who are currently involved in a far-reaching change process in their organization or have been involved in the last three years. The study is part of a research project conducted by Wiesbaden Business School (Prof. Dr. Klaus North) in collaboration with the organizational consultancy p4d GmbH, the organizational consultant Oliver Haas and in cooperation with SYNERGIE VD GmbH with the aim of better understanding, enabling and shaping transformation processes.

Some core results of the study can be summarized as follows:

• The dominant cause of transformation is not crisis, but future viability.  35% of respondents agreed with the statement “Our business model will no longer work in the long term. We want to reinvent ourselves to become fit for the future.” Another 32% want to seize opportunities with the transformation: “Market environment and technological developments offer new opportunities. We want to seize these opportunities before others do” Acute or latent crisis was the reason for transformation for only 9% of respondents.
• …but there is only a weak (52%) or rather no (26%) common understanding of why the organization needs to undergo profound change. Top priority is given to profound change by only 13% of respondents.
• 90% of respondents said they do not have a compelling vision for the future that gives direction & energy to the current transformation.
• Transformation pressure remains high in the medium term: 54% of respondents are under pressure to “reinvent” their business every 2 to 6 years to remain competitive. For a further almost 30%, this is every 6-10 years.
• The focus of transformation is dominated by how companies deliver their services to become more agile and digital (internal processes, organizational structures, interaction with customers). New or profoundly changed business models were the focus of transformation in 23% of cases, and profoundly changed products and services in 20%.
  Transformation goals were largely achieved: 67% of the companies achieved their content-related goals to some extent and 11% completely. Cost & revenue targets and time targets were not met in about 40% of transformation initiatives.
• Effectiveness and ineffectiveness in the initiation & conception of far-reaching change initiatives balance each other out with 50% of the answers, the same applies to the implementation.

The results are incorporated into the book “Transformation – Understanding, Enabling and Shaping Profound Change” by the authors Oliver Haas, Prof. Klaus North and Claus-Bernhard Pakleppa and will be published by Vahlen Verlag in the fall of 2021.

ZOE article on the Forum Leading. Shaping. Networking.

In its issue 2/2015, the journal „OrganisationsEntwicklung“ (ZOE – journal on organisational development) published a report on the Forum Leading. Shaping. Networking., an event that is regularly held by p4d, in cooperation with podium49.

The article introduces the format of “Forum Leading. Shaping. Networking.” and it broaches …

… and addresses the principles that have proven themselves in the design of an intensive exchange of executives across industries and organizations.

ZOE is the leading German-language trade journal for change management and corporate development. The article on the Forum Leading. Shaping. Networking. is published in the section “Perspektiven” in issue 2/2015.

Self-management: Leading successfully

In a short article in the gmbh chef. we deal with the topic of self-management.

The article introduces four principles that help entrepreneurs to manage their business successfully:

This article presents four principles that help entrepreneurs to manage their businesses successfully:

• Investing in yourself and strengthening your strengths
• Regularly press the pause button to take stock and develop your strategy.
• Using the intelligence of groups for yourself through collegial advice
• Train your own leadership techniques

The full article can be found in print in the July/August 2015 issue and online at http://www.gmbhchef.de/selbstmanagement/.

Consulting and process facilitation in trans-organisational cooperation and with multi-stakeholder initiatives

The article by Brigitte Schwinge and Claus Pakleppa was published in: “Shaping Organisations Intelligently – The Handbook for Organisational Development and Change Management” (Organisationen klug gestalten – Das Handbuch für Organisationsentwicklung und Change Management) Publishers: Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag, Stuttgart.

18.11.2016

On the ground: Leadership, change and talent development in times of internationalisation and digitisation

The host, BOGE Rubber & Plastics enabled executives and consultants, during the 10th Forum Leading. Shaping. Networking., to gain profound insight into the company’s day-to-day business.

14.04.2015

Leading and shaping cooperations

that was the motto of the 5th Forum on April 14th, 2015.
Four stimulus speakers reported on their handling of start-up and control of business cooperations and partnerships. What are the success criteria…

… for cooperation projects with external partners in the context of the Fujitsu international Alliance programme and for the coffee fair trade concept of the 4C Association? And what has been working for Telekom in dealing with internal partners for creating a unified European mobile network or for Zurich in the area of​Learning for the Insurance Industry? Despite the high diversity of sectors, markets, general conditions and volumes – all four impulse talks emphasized the importance of the creation of trust-based relationships between the cooperation partners. When organising these set-ups, the companies took care of this aspect by creating separate functions and responsibilities for which, instead of using a traditional exercise of power, the focus of activity is on a control via networking, mediating and managing relationships with and among the partners.

Uwe Schöpe emphasized that for him the design of good personal relationships with internal and external cooperation partners of Zurich is just as important as safeguarding by extensive written contracts. Melanie Rutten-Sülz pointed out that in the sustainable coffee market, it is key for successful partnerships to take time for a thorough stakeholder analysis when starting cooperation projects, and to be open throughout to the needs of partners and members of the 4C Association. The Fujitsu case example (Annette Kuhn) showed that imparting the added value for the partners involved is one of the prerequisites for successful cooperation projects. Carina Muskolus pointed out that personal motivation of internal staff with regard to participation in Telekom’s innovative cooperation and development project greatly contributes to positive collaboration. In particular in a situation where the individual partners and countries are also in competition with each other, it is important to take up concerns of participants fair-mindedly and demonstrate the overall benefit of such a project for all parties involved.

To summarize the evening can be said that the organisation of good cooperative relationships, especially in international contexts, requires all participants to deploy a large and diverse scope of professional and social expertise. Participants must be able to pursue their local interest, and at the same time, to take a viewpoint directed at and for the entire system, again and again. Doing so, they must be able to not only recognise the added value for all parties involved but also to impart this insight to the cooperation partners. Finding and training such people is the great challenge for the future, that was the Forum visitors’ unanimous opinion.

Stimulus speakers this time were:

• Annette Kuhn | Head of Alliance Program, Fujitsu Global Alliances Düsseldorf
• Carina Muskolus| VP HR Business Partner, Telekom Bonn
• Melanie Rutten-Sülz | Executive Director, 4C Association Bonn
• Uwe Schöpe | Group Head of Learning Services, Zurich Group Germany Bonn