{"id":1900,"date":"2013-03-01T07:21:54","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T07:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1900"},"modified":"2013-03-01T07:21:54","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T07:21:54","slug":"right-way-to-make-transformations-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/from-our-ma-consultants\/right-way-to-make-transformations-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Right way to make transformations work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"m&a<\/a>Right way to make transformations work: downsides inevitable but significant amount of waste and anguish avoidable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Extract from Forbes – John Kotter:<\/strong><\/p>\n

My colleague Russell Raath and I fly often for business, so we both have a particular interest in the US Airways and American Airlines merger. In what follows, Russell offers the leaders of these airlines some excellent tips for successful corporate transformation. I hope they are heeded. We could all benefit from it.<\/em><\/p>\n

I fly US Airways at least twice a week, usually more. I\u2019m a loyal customer. No, let me correct that: I\u2019m a captive customer. I\u2019d be loyal if the service were consistent, if the experience were more pleasant, and if I didn\u2019t see the airline treating people like cattle. Not surprisingly, the recent merger announcement<\/a> between US Airways and American Airlines got my attention.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When I read about the merger announcement, I headed over to the usairways.com site and was redirected to a new site<\/a> (not US Airways<\/a>, not American Airlines) where they had some of the details of the merger.\u00a0I accepted the terms (unusual since I don\u2019t usually have to explicitly accept the terms of an airline\u2019s website) and I found a promo video extolling the merits of the new (merged) airline:<\/em><\/p>\n

– \u201cCreating a new global airline that will continue to lead and transform\u201d<\/em>
\n– \u201c$40 billion approximate projected 2013 revenue\u201d<\/em>
\n– \u201cTogether, serving 187 million+ customers a year\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Impressive, I thought.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I then headed over to the American Airlines website<\/a>.\u00a0They had a different video \u2013 which I also saw on CNBC this morning. Over images of aircraft empennage, happy baggage handlers, and attractive crew in uniforms, a narrator read:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to make a change.<\/em>
\n It\u2019s time to become better versions of ourselves,<\/em>
\n To be greater than expected<\/em>
\n And more than you hope for.<\/em>
\n So starting now, we begin a new chapter.<\/em>
\n One written in passion and skill, ambition and sweat.<\/em>
\n One where two companies take the best of themselves to create something better.<\/em>
\n And when all is said and done, we will not only have become a bigger airline, but also something so much greater.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Wow. That\u2019s great.<\/em>
\n I wonder if they have a plan for accomplishing all of that \u201cgreater than expected\u201d and \u201cmore than you hope for\u201d stuff. It takes more than a cool marketing video. And it certainly doesn\u2019t happen because you have a new contemporary logo or a new name. It could come from embracing this transformation for what it is: a massive, large-scale change. This merger is an epic battle between great risks, poor odds<\/a>, and the opportunity for tremendous success.<\/em><\/p>\n

The stakes are incredibly high. The customer experience is on the line \u2013 and there are 187 million+ opportunities to prove that you got it right \u2013 or that you didn\u2019t. (As my travel agent John has told me from his first-hand experience, the United and Continental reservation system integration hasn\u2019t gone that well.) <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Whether it is the airlines or the merger of OfficeMax and Office Depot there is a right way to making transformations work. And there are many wrong ways. As my colleague Dr. Kotter wrote in his book Leading Change<\/a>, \u201cTo some degree, the downside of change is inevitable. Whenever human communities are forced to adjust to shifting conditions, pain is ever present. But a significant amount of the waste and anguish \u2026 is avoidable.\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So to Doug Parker, CEO of US Airways and Tom Horton, CEO of American Airlines, you are about to create the world\u2019s largest airline. I, and your 187 million+ customers urge you to get it right. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here are three pointers:<\/em><\/p>\n

1. What you and your leaders say is important.<\/strong> The words in the video are great. But don\u2019t assume that your employees are already behind them. You have a great opportunity here to inspire your entire organization with the idea of what you are creating \u2013 the world\u2019s largest airline. You can either tell everyone that\u2019s what you\u2019re doing, or you can include them. Take the time to build within your employees the urgency and commitment you\u2019ll need to be successful.<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Who helps you lead this is important<\/strong>. Of course you\u2019ll have the usual task force made up of senior people from both companies. But open up the opportunity to others as well. Once you\u2019ve built true urgency<\/a>, ask employees who want to get involved to apply to join this new transformation team. You know that \u201cpassion and skill\u201d and \u201cambition and sweat\u201d you talked about? Well, we\u2019re all waiting to see if you really leverage it. Remember, words without actions are worse than no words at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

3. How you lead this is important.<\/strong> You either tell everyone what they should do \u2013 or you ask them for their input and contribution.\u00a0Your employees are the experts when it comes to their jobs. They know what gets in the way, they know what works, and they see and hear your customers talking about and comparing you to others. Why wouldn\u2019t you want their input, their knowledge, their contribution? Let the change also come from the employees \u2013 don\u2019t do it to them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Get this right, and I\u2019ll be a loyal customer \u2013 not just a captive one. I\u2019ll be watching from my window seat every week.<\/em><\/p>\n

Russell Raath<\/a> is a senior engagement leader at Kotter International<\/a>, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. John Kotter<\/a> is the chief innovation officer at Kotter International<\/a>, and is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more about how organizations can develop the agility required to succeed in today\u2019s rapidly changing world, read Dr. Kotter\u2019s new article,\u00a0\u201cAccelerate!<\/a>\u201d\u00a0featured in the November issue of Harvard\u00a0Business\u00a0Review.<\/em><\/p>\n

More …<\/strong> http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/johnkotter\/2013\/02\/27\/if-you-want-an-ma-deal-to-work-read-this\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right way to make transformations work: downsides inevitable but significant amount of waste and anguish avoidable.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[40,43,41,42,94,95,35,11,10,12,98,100,32,15,44,45,106,107],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1900"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1912,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900\/revisions\/1912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaordicsolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}