In the last article, we discussed the situation of acquisition of
Alstom by GE and analyzed the reasons for its failure.
Here we will continue with our
discussion by analyzing possible models of Large System Intervention in
the context of the above-mentioned acquisition.
But before we delve into
the hypothetical analysis, It would be interesting to have a look at the
intervention that was led by Jack Welch (most prominent Ex-CEO of GE) in the
early 1980s.
After a period of corporate
restructuring, retaining businesses which will be profitable and letting go of
unproductive ones, Welch understood that the slash and burn technique won't be
enough.
"Work-out" was
created by Welch’s insistence where the Front line sales who were the drivers
of change would be empowered to make decisions and their bosses will align
themselves to it.
Work-out was launched in
large-scale setoff with the help of few facilitators, HR folks and top
management. The process was such that hourly and salaried employees from different
teams would come together for a meeting for 3-5 days to identify issues and
come up with possible solutions.
Even though top management
didn't participate in the process, actions were taken on each and every
identified issue.
What started as an event, turned
into a process. Later, vendors and customers were also involved in the process.
Work out turned out to be critical for creating the kind of culture needed for
continuous improvement.
The example shows that GE has
never shied away from a challenging situation, although the leadership has
played a major role in the shaping up of processes and business.
Moving on to hypothetical
solutions for the situation at GE Power currently, we will be looking at two
models of Large System Intervention i.e. Participative Design and Open Spaces.
Search
Conferences/Participative Design
In contrast to future search,
search conferences assume that organizations must actively adapt to their
environments. It is assumed that there is a known environment in which an organization
exists. Often this environment is characterized as very turbulent and
unpredictable and must (can only) be managed via democratic processes.
Organizations need to first clearly define their environment (via the search
conference); then they must learn how to organize democratically (via the
participative design workshop) to develop active adaptation processes.
In the current situation, since
it’s a clash of the culture of two different countries, the organization will
first have to decide which components of which culture they wish to retain.
After the decision, they will develop an action plan for adoption.
Open Spaces
The open space technology
assumes that change occurs when human energy is focused and unleashed. To
accomplish this an open forum is created where individuals are invited to share
their ideas and opinions provided they are willing to take responsibility for
them. They do this by becoming advocates for their position and inviting others
to join them in the discussion by introducing themselves to all participants
and explaining why they believe in what they do. These advocates then manage
the process by convening to a specified location where they take responsibility
to organize and discuss their issues with other interested participants. If
energy and interest exist for an advocate's position, other participants will
join and together they will accomplish whatever they want to do. What results
from such meetings may be specific action plans, the initiation of a new
interest group, simply talking for the sake of it and venting emotions or
building rapport, etc. The open space technology is unique in that it demands
the least amount of restriction on who or how many participants are
present and how they interact. People come to these interventions because they
choose to and they advocate their ideas in a manner that all participants can
hear openly, develop advocacy and support, and exert influence on the whole
system.
This is similar to what Welch
did in 1988 to drive productivity and create a culture of continuous learning.
Similarly, this initiative can
be driven by top management, HR team and a fleet of outside facilitators who
would enable and empower employees to come up with their problems and build
solutions to it.
Feel free to suggest more
methods to the discussion thread.
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