17 November 2005

On the Process

As I mentioned in my last post, I'd like to cover some of the questions that came up in the team meeting we had with O1. Mr. Yogi and I went around the room and handed the mic to every team member for the opportunity to ask any question concerning the Change process they were about to undergo. Here are some of them:

1. My understanding of the process is that the consultant will come in and analyze what is missing with us as a team and provide ways to fill those gaps?

"That is not correct. Let me make it clear that you are the expert. All the answers to your own problems lie within each of you. I recently attended a meeting with the Canadian Management Consulting Organization and in their charter, they said that a consultant is the expert and provides solutions to solve team problems. I believe this definition is completely wrong. The role of a consultant is to facilitate a team, and be a guide using a systematic process where the members of the team themselves are inspired by it to come together and seek answers out of their own minds. This is the future. The beauty of our process is that you are the experts and are in total control over your action plans."


2. You talk about aligning the top executive team together so that their workload is reduced. Why would you do that since they are the driving force of the organization?

"We talk about reducing the workload and transferring it out to you the team. The advantages are that you get increased responsibilities and decision-making powers, and the top executive team has the luxury of seeking out new business markets, new strategies for the organization, and can map out their vision for the company. That is their job. They do not want to be bogged down by signing cheques and taking care of administrative duties, that steal precious time they can use for significantly increasing core business results."


3. What would happen if in the middle of our Change Process, a key member of our team decides to resign from our organization?

"What a great question! Now we certainly don't want resignations at your organization. This is a perfect example of one of the things we can talk about in our retreat. Let's plan on making everyone aware of each others' work so that the next best person is ready to take over if a person leaves. However, our process up until the retreat serves the function of preparing the team to make long-lasting changes to themselves and for the organization and their team. In my experience of 40 years, the excitement of imminent long-lasting change usually motivates team members to stay throughout our process. I once had a case where 20 executives had already handed in their resignations. They all decided to stay after the Change Process I facilitated. That's how excited they became."


After this meeting, I read all the team member comments about the changes they would like to see in (i) the top team (ii) the organization as a whole, and (iii) customer relations and satisfaction. I then highlighted the common issues and created a questionnaire, which will be the interview questions making up the individual interview for each team member. Come interview time, each team member gets their questions in advance so they know what's coming to them. There will be no surprises.

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