Empowering employees to drive change
“I used to complain a great deal about management insensitivity to operational challenges at the line level, sometimes to the point of discouragement” said an interviewee.
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“My mind-set betrayed a certain deep-seated assumption that management is responsible for almost anything that has a name about my work life.
Job specifications, job enrichment, service quality, customer relationship success and the like. Sometimes I think, albeit on a subconscious level, held management to account for my work-life balance and career progress.
Suffice to say that work became a prison of necessity, designed to be tolerated than appreciated or even celebrated if you dare. These are the thoughts of a much respected corporate executive who shared his experience on how he managed to climb the corporate ladder.
Following a quick poll of close friends and associates, it became increasingly obvious to me that frustration with bureaucratic corporate hierarchies, unresponsive middle managers and slow decision-making structures were widely shared but closely held secrets of 21st Century corporate Ghana.
Not a single day goes by without a low level employee, mumbling out restrained invectives at the “top people” for problems faced whilst discharging their daily duties.
My curiosity was peaked to its zenith when even, an associate pastor of a local church, grumbled away, during a consulting session, about how too much emphasis is placed on the choir to the neglect of other departments.
So I began an inquiry into the phenomenon of change management from a bottom-up perspective. Solving problems in a practical manner given due consideration to all the formative forces and influential variables at play within that environment. The questions that have guided this inquiry are threefold:
1. Why do so many people experience this kind of frustration in a structured corporate environment?
2. Are there any tools and techniques that provide a remedy?
The ensuing text would focus on addressing the questions above and would end with an anecdote related by a professional associate on the issue problem-solving and managing change in a corporate environment, from the bottom against all odds.
The frustration – What the survey says
Metis Decisions in its recent online survey of professionals (266 respondents) sought to understand the motivations behind occupational mobility in Ghana. Respondents were drawn from Banking (43 per cent), hospitality Services (14 per cent) and others (retail, media, logistics and aviation) – 43 per cent. Male respondents constituted 71 per cent whilst female had 29 per cent. Several critical questions were put, two of which are relevant for an exposition of the current topical issue.
After establishing the respondent’s frequency of job change, a follow up question sought to clarify the push factors that motivated career change. Of the sample selected, only 7 per cent indicated that management showed respect for their opinion. 21 per cent thought management pay lip service to the importance of feedback.
Notwithstanding a clear majority that thinks favourably of management attitude, a sizeable 36 per cent thinks otherwise.
To help measure the effect, another question was put to assess the contribution of various push factors that influence the respondents exit decisions. Out of the 266 respondents 79 per cent who had changed careers, at least once, in their career spans. 63 per cent identified poor work/life balance and career stagnation as reasons for leaving their last job.
Managing Change — Empowering the base
A business associate narrated his experience with a global brand as a manager in charge of operations. He indicated how he discovered, by chance, a useful key to bottom-up communication, whilst venting out his frustration with management attitude towards a dilapidated agency under his control.
Fortunately, his gift of clear articulation, aided by his skill in connected thinking proved useful as he wrote a lengthy email to vent out his frustration. Fraught with restrained anger and moderated with fear of authority, he made a compelling argument for intervention (infrastructure facelift) in the interest of protecting brand reputation and restoring customer confidence.
Clear, detailed and rational arguments with supporting data he advanced in order to justify his recommendations. To his pleasant and unexpected surprise, the response was immediate. Long story short, every single recommendation saw the light of day.
Beautiful conclusion to a story of perseverance and possibilities in an environment of rigid corporate structure and slow decision-making. Here is how he stated his lessons learnt, “I found out that the top speaks only ONE language; Business Case.
What is the problem (opportunity statement)? What does a solution look like? What is the business impact of your proposed solution? Why is that the optimum solution (cost/benefit, pros/cons, before/after)?”
Business case is the language for any employee that seeks to communicate with top management in order to influence decisions and create change. Enabling one’s sense of control requires a systematic effort at building capacity
Speaking the business case language compels one to think in terms of data, hard facts and not sheer sentiments, which is usually what a lot of line staff (and sometimes middle managers) engage in. This is one way that a company can reinforce employee’s confidence and bolster their inner sense of control.
As the survey findings show, the broader cultural environment and the Ghanaian educational system promotes a philosophy that runs contrary to the tenets of structured problem solving as is required by the discipline of building business cases.
Companies that seek to engage the full potential of its people must therefore appreciate these nuances and set-up mechanisms to mitigate its negative impact whilst creating opportunities for leadership development.
I strongly recommend the process map below to institutionalise business-case presentations as a standardised problem solving technique for middle managers and line staff.
1. Create a comprehensive policy document covering the subject matter.
2. Delineate clear processes and procedures to follow.
3. Provide structured templates to minimise variability.
4. Outline an inventory of possible business scenarios that merit use of templates.
5. Define eligibility thresholds and clarify data requirements for each heading on the template.
Any corporate management team that seeks to grow a pool of remarkable leadership talent with strong change management skills must compel adoption of this practice through formal policy. — GB
• The writer is the founder and director of Metis Decisions Limited, a professional services company that offers B2B value propositions such as; Mystery Shopping, Employee Opinion Surveys, Corporate Training and Strategy Advisory. For further info please visit www.metisdecisions.com or email to [email protected].
