System construction

Whether you are trying to implement a culture change programme, build a new marketing strategy, or implement a financial management system, you must be able to develop a real feel for the system under consideration. You must be able to predict with a fair degree of accuracy how the system will react to changes. Will it take the hedgehog approach and curl up into a ball at the first sign of danger? or does it become like a Labrador dog and actively welcome strangers?

In the same way that an architect will diagnose and map the stresses and strains that hold a building together before knocking down a wall. You must be intimately aware of the corresponding factors that bind an organization and allow it to be effective. Taking this analogy, you might consider the client organization in terms of its structure: what holds it together?; where are the stresses in the system?; and what prevents it from collapsing at the first sign of subsidence? In using this analogy, it can help to ask questions around the following areas:

• Stress: the extent to which the organization feels pressured by external forces.

• Strain: the tension that exists within the organization, pulling people between different choices.

• Strength: the capacity of the organization to resist external force.

• Surface tension: the ability of the organization's skin to prevent intruders from entering.

• Stretch: how far the organization can expand when an external force is applied.

By understanding and mapping these factors, you will gain better clarity and start to develop a feel for the way that the organization might respond when the change is made.

Stress

Stress is a measure of how hard the atoms within a material are being pushed together as a result of external forces. The stress at any given point is the force in a given direction divided by the area over which the force acts.

—(Gordon, 1978)

With a little effort you will be able to see how external forces can create stress for a person, team or organization. The individual being pressured by an excessive workload; the team that feels pressured by an unremitting manager; or the company that has to operate in a shrinking market. Alternatively, working with an organization that doesn't feel stressed can also be quite apparent. The simple fact that equipment is readily available; first class travel is accepted as standard; or that there is time and space in which to be creative, all indicate that time or money is not in short supply.

Neither situation is advocated as good or bad. It is simply that internal pressure of any type will affect your ability to manage change. Imagine trying to implement a new empowerment model in a company that has recently introduced a cost-reduction programme. The stress caused by this type of action will have a significant impact on the engagement, perhaps so much so that you might decide to withdraw until the issue has been removed from the system. Alternatively, consider a stress-free company operating is an expanding market. Senior management recognizes that their fortunes are likely to change in the near future so they employ you to deliver a new productivity programme. What chance of success will you have in convincing people of the need to cut costs and focus on raising quality?

In clarifying the system construction, you must develop the capability to instinctively tune into stress points. A builder adding an extension to a house will walk the job and test out different stress points in the infrastructure before taking any action. The builder needs to separate the supporting walls from those that can be modified without disrupting the stability of the building. In the same way, you must be able to walk the job and determine the areas that are highly stressed. Once understood, then you can decide how best to ensure that problems don't occur as a result of the change. Unless you develop the capability to calibrate stress levels, then there is a chance that your project will trigger problems that disrupt any benefit associated with the change.

Strain

Strain indicates how "hard" and far the atoms at any point are being pulled apart — that is, by what proportion the bonds between the atoms are being stretched. It is measured at a particular point in the cross section of a piece of material.

Strain differs from stress because it looks at the extent to which people are being pulled in different directions. So whereas stress might be having to deal with too much work, strain might be the problem associated with managing a home and work life. Unless the level and location of the strain is fully appreciated, any change will potentially exacerbate the tension that people are experiencing.

Within an organization, strain can be seen in a number of ways:

• The tension that surfaces as people are pressured to follow top-level procedures while being compelled by line manager to deliver increased customer service by breaking the rules.

• The anxiety that emerges from internal company politics as people are forced to choose between two different powerbrokers.

• The frustration that people can feel when asked to attend a workshop when they believe that it is better to stay at their post to deal with their in-tray.

The issue of strain is important because it helps determine how far you can push your client's organization before it becomes damaged. This might be at a senior level where the general manager is forced to adopt new business principles or methods that he or she believes are inappropriate. Alternatively, it might be at a line level, where the cleaner is unhappy with the imposed reduction in time he or she can spend in certain areas. Any action that pulls people away from their normal work pattern will cause some form of strain, your role is to understand the risks associated with this pull.

When a change proposition is offered to a client, you need to ask two questions:

• How hard am I pushing the client or consumer with this change proposition? Will it be too much for the system to sustain and will it spring back on my departure?

• How far am I pulling them from their natural operating position and will it take them too far from the natural point of equilibrium and cause them to lose balance?

You must recognize that pushing people into a change strategy that is not appropriate will result in tears or reversion at a later date. Your role is to understand this and be able to diagnose what type of change is appropriate for the system.

Strength

The strength of any structure is measured in terms of the burden that will break the structure. This is known as the breaking load.

Some people can give up cigarettes easily while others fight a frustrating battle for years. This internal capability might be likened to their personal strength or power to combat problems. This level of strength can be seen in organizations. Some companies have the potency to shrug off misfortune or overcome market downturn by reinventing themselves. Others seem to lose the will to live the moment they have a crisis.

Unless you are convinced that your client organization has the necessary stamina to see change through to its conclusion, then problems will occur at some stage. It might start with a flurry of flags and banging drums, but unless they have the willpower to see it through then both you and your client will be left with egg on your face.

It is important to recognize that strength is both a positive and negative factor. The positive side is an organization's ability to deal with and resolve problems that might cause other businesses to stumble and fall. The negative is the business's ability to shrug off change processes. Clearly, some major programmes might fail because the organization does not have the strength to maintain momentum. However, they might also fail because the inherent power within the organization's culture has the ability to resist external invaders. Simply diagnosing strength is not sufficient. You must be able to determine if the strength will be used to aid or oppose any change you are trying to deliver.

Ultimately, you must make a decision as to where the strength lies. More importantly you need to determine if it will be an amplifying or attenuating force. If an amplifying one, then effort should be made to map the dominant areas and use this energy to enhance the change. If the strength is deemed to be lacking or an attenuating one, then urgent action must be taken to raise the profile of the problem and make the client aware of the possible consequences of the situation.

Surface tension

Surface tension: creating a force to resist external energy requires energy to be drained from inside the structure.

Surface tension, too, is both positive and negative. On the positive side, it is shown by an organization's ability to fight hostile take-overs or resist external agents. Just consider the flurry of activity that takes place once a company realizes that it is a target for possible acquisition and break-up. With the barbarians at the gates, it is amazing how quickly a management team becomes energized. Old mission and visions are dusted off; the five-year profit forecasts look increasingly rosy and the PR agent actively campaigns to sell the idea that a break-up would not be in anyone's best interest. All of the energy and time that has previously been focused on internal issues is used to build a response to the alien invasion. The extent to which the organization can muster and co-ordinate such resources often determines the level of surface tension they can create. This in turn determines their ability to ward off the corporate raiders.

One example of this was the BTR bid for Pilkington Glass. When a bid for £1.2bn was made, few gave the glassmaker much of a chance of escaping. Though Pilkington had gone public in the 1970s, it retained the dull air of a family concern. But Pilkington mounted one of the most extraordinary defences ever seen. In addition to working institutional shareholders with a blockbusting profit forecast, it gathered local support from staff, company pensioners and councillors. Raising fear about job losses, Pilkington even had trade union leaders demanding that BTR be stopped. The campaign worked brilliantly. BTE decided to withdraw its offer rather than overpay for the pleasure of taking on so much political pain (Randall, 1999).

The downside is the ability to resist new ideas as they surface in the market. An organization is often able to build such a thick skin that it is unaware of significant changes. Companies have often disappeared because they were unable to adapt to a changing environment. In the same way that musicians, actors and authors need to be aware of changing trends and fashion, so company directors and product managers need to stay tuned to the changing business market. In the current climate where product life cycle is shortening all the time, the development of a thick corporate skin can be disastrous.

Clearly if you are about to start work with a client, then surface tension will be key. If you are able to break through the outer membrane, there is a chance that the change will be delivered. However, if the surface tension is such that you are unable to break through then there is less chance that the transformation will be accepted. As a consultant you can see this in your first presentation to the board — do they welcome you and value what you present, or is there a tacitly held view that consultants are parasites and offer little value?

Two issues will affect your ability to break the skin — the level of trust with the client and consumer and your ability to manage the marketing process. Trust is significant because it oils the hinges that open the door to the client. In cases where the surface tension is solid, there it little chance that you will penetrate the corporate skin unless people believe you are truthful, responsive, uniform, safe and trained. Second, unless you are able to position yourself and your services in an attractive way then the surface tension will doggedly resist any advances that you might attempt to make.

The first step is to determine the extent to which the surface tension will inhibit the change. Once understood, you need to create a strategy to help break through the membrane. In factoring this into the Clarify stage, it is useful to align the level of surface tension with the strength within the system. If you are faced with a high-strength system with impenetrable surface structure then change will face significant problems.

Stretch

Stretch is the extent to which something can stretch and contract in relation to its length and so store energy without causing permanent damage. This is seen in ropes, masts and trees, any structure that is capable of being flexed elastically.

This aspect is used to consider the extent to which you can encourage an individual or organization to move beyond their natural state of equilibrium. You might decide to offer ideas and suggestion that take the company into more exciting and emergent markets, thus adopting a potentially high-risk change strategy. Alternatively, you might feel that the organization is at heart conservative and hence would not be able to take on the associated problems that emerge with a radical strategic shift.

You must calibrate the extent to which the individual, team or organization is able and willing to stretch. The effective consultant will start this calibration from the very first contact with the client by talking about past change actions or problems that emerged in previous transformation projects. In doing this you are gathering both tacit and explicit knowledge about your client's ability and desire to change.

You must be wary of the gap between perceived and actual stretch. Imagine you have been engaged to introduce a statistical quality management process in a large manufacturing organization. The managing director is bullish about the company's ability to adopt the changes. As such he encourages you to set demanding targets so that the change is implemented in record time. However, the MD is relatively new to the company and does not understand the cultural barriers that exist to this type of change. If the end consumer is unwilling to accept the quality project, it might turn out that you are pilloried for failing to deliver the change and in some cases forced to suffer financially.

So in any case where stretch is being tested, you would be wise to undertake a simple triangulation exercise. Calibrate the capacity of both the client and the consumer to stretch and adapt to the proposed transformation process. You can do this by analyzing the system to be changed and mapping it against the structural factors. For the example shown in Table 7.5, the analysis indicates that the organization is in a highly stressed state owing to an impending cost-reduction and downsizing programme. As a result, the implementation of a new computer system might face problems. The combined problems of cost reduction, suspicion of a new reporting package and people's general unwillingness to help external agents means that real obstacles can occur.

Table 7.5. Structural analysis

Structure factor	Organization	Change impact
Stress	The atmosphere is one of relatively high stress as the business is operating in an increasingly competitive market, and pressure is on to reduce costs across the business	Financial pressures within the business might cause the change to face problems. Unless the system is eased in within existing budgetary constraints it might face problems
Strain	Internal politics form a major part of the company's operating system	It will be imperative to undertake a detailed stakeholder and power broker analysis — otherwise political blockages might occur
Strength	People are willing to make quite large personal sacrifices to ensure that products and services get delivered on time	If the change is positioned as a political and business imperative, then there is greater chance that people will support the change
Surface Tension	The organization has proved adaptable at resisting the recent influx of management fads. They seem content to ignore changing trends and work on their own ideas	The trick will be to sell the change as an internal transformation rather than an external imposition
Stretch	There is evidence that they are not able to stretch with any great ease. They can operate in their own confines, but outside of this, problems occur	The system should be eased in at such a pace that it does not overload the current processes
Change proposition: Implement a new MIS financial reporting package to produce a set of monthly statistics on profitability by product line.

Using this analogy, the solution is to add a restraining process that will remove some of the stress. Like the architect who uses steel beams to support a ceiling when a wall is being removed, you will need to import support forces to reduce the organizational stress. This could involve ensuring that senior managers are on hand to support and coach people through the process or offering to pay people overtime where longer hours need to be worked.

A team or organization is like a house built with playing cards. They are often fragile structures that can be toppled over with relative ease when the right leverage point is touched. The consultant's role is twofold: first, identify the areas that are able to accept and embrace the change; second, avoid those areas of the system that are structurally unsound. There is always a risk that an inappropriate change could inadvertently topple the organization by pulling out the card holding up the rest of the deck. This approach to clarifying the change situation is a simple but effective way to understand where maximum leverage is placed while ensuring that inadvertent damage is not done.

Even more, it is a powerful tool to help the client and consumers to diagnose their readiness for change. Put the client in with a group of consumers and ask them to agree where they fit against the five structural factors. Although they might reach a general accord about the factors, any disagreement will offer valuable information on potential problems. For example, the client might believe that the organization offers little resistance to change programmes and there is little chance of surface tension causing a problem. However, the consumer might offer evidence of previous local initiatives that have failed because people were not willing to change. The simple fact that you offer the two groups a shared language and metal mindset will allow issues to surface that might have remained hidden until the critical point.

Back pocket question Do I have a clear understanding of the structural make up of the system and how it is likely to react to any changes that are made to its construction?