Transformational
change can be a very difficult, but beneficial opportunity for many
people. On a personal level for me,
transformational change is something that can be scary and intimidating because
the future is unknown. There is a
nagging worry that you may fail, which makes putting yourself and your ideas
out there that much more difficult, but if understood and carried out
correctly, the process can be an enlightening and beneficial experience that
not only improve the current situation, but also encourages growth and
development as a strong leader. The
experiences depicted in both Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale and Stanley
McChrystal’s stories really express well the the various struggles and
challenges within individual situations when going through transformational change. The biggest takeaway I had from these videos
was the acknowledgement for people, and the importance of understanding the importance
of the relationships, encouragement, trust, and support that people can benefit
from. Both videos showed different
approaches to how transformational change can be successful through strong
leadership. The leaders were both very
different, battling different situations and cultures, but both had one major
characteristic in common, which was a recognition that the strategies need to
be consistent with the culture (Brown, 2011).
In Gallery Furniture’s
transformational change experience, they were dealing with a culture that had
been around for quite some time in the furniture world. The company hadn’t
needed to make any major changes in their structure or strategy until the
housing market crashed and the company experienced a devastating fire. This caused a drastic change in their environment
and in turn, the strategies needed to be reevaluated. McIngvale recognized that the biggest focus
for this change needed to be on reworking the culture to better match the new strategy. McIngvale focused on developing training
opportunities for the employees that encouraged them to approach their customer
service in a different manner. He
understood that with a drop in customers, customer satisfaction was now going
to be more important than ever. Instead
of forcing the employees to do things that they did not want to do, and forcing
the culture to change, McIngvale instead taught them how to love what they
hated through education, training, encouragement, and incentives. The training program focused on motivation
and ability within the structural aspect of the company, the social challenges,
and personal challenges. By focusing on
training and encouragement, the employees learned to build confidence in the
areas where they were not as strong, while in exchange, learning to appreciate
the new strategy and change. The results
of this process ended up being a huge success for the company.
In a different type of situation,
Stanley McChrystal gave an exceptional TED Talk on his experience with a changing
culture in a stagnant strategy. He began
to recognize through successes and failures, that the environment and culture
was shifting. People were all over the
world, coming from all different types of backgrounds and experiences and it
was up to McChrystal to communicate and lead them effectively. He did this by taking his understanding and
knowledge from his past experiences and molded those experience to fit the new
environment. He was able to do this
because of the culture within the military.
There is a strong, well developed culture that is not a culture that can
be easily changed (Brown, 2011). McChrystal
understood the core values of the culture, but also recognized the new perspectives
and environment from the new generation and realized that working back to the
foundation of the culture and developing a strategy that blended well with that
culture and the environment would be the best method for success.
When McChrystal asked “where were
you on 9/11” and a young man responded with “in 6th grade”,
McChrystal realized that while these people are vastly different in everyway,
they shared a common vision. McChrystal
then developed a plan and strategy that still focused on the common vision and
the goals, while also adapting to the changing environment. To do this, he focused on the people,
similarly to what Gallery Furniture did.
McChrystal continued to build and work on developing trust and
relationships with his team and made that his main focused, instead of the old
strategy of listing commands. He used
his own personal experiences to deliver a similar message of inspiration,
understanding, and reassurance that resonated with his team because his message
shared a common vision with them.
These experiences from both
McIngvale and McChrystal highlight an important factor in transformational
change and that is an understanding of people and their relationship to the
change. When thinking through my own experiences, I faced my own opportunity to
grow and strengthen as a leader by working through transformational
change. When I was in high school, I
decided to compete in the local science fair for a class instead of taking a
test. I was never very strong at tests,
so the science fair seemed like a better option for me. Looking back, it ended up being one of the
most influential experiences for me because it put me in a lot of positions
where I was uncomfortable, faced with unknowns, people who didn’t want change,
and most importantly, it was an experience that forced me to make a decision on
whether or not I wanted to put myself out there and try knowing that I could
fail, or decide to go a safer route, knowing nothing will come of it, neither failure
or success. Making that decision was a
very tough choice for me, but it helped me grow a lot and I am glad I did
it. My project was focused on bringing a
successful recycling project to the local schools. We had recycling bins, but we only used them
as trashcans and I never understood why.
While I was doing research and investigating potential reason, I
(without knowing it at the time) saw that I needed to focus on the people, not
the action of recycling. It was up to the
individuals within the school to make it work and be successful and if it was
going to be successful, I needed to understand the culture. My research
highlighted a lack of interest in recycling related to a higher level of need
for the individual student’s focus to be placed on more important issues, such
as safety, food, and survival. I found
that most students at my school were in extreme poverty and they had no need to
care about recycling. It seems like a
small action or inaction to think about your actions, whether or not you are
putting a can in a recycling bin or in a trash can, but to these students, it
wasn’t a small action; I found that it wasn’t even on their radar as an option
because they were facing vastly different problems.
I will never forget this experience,
as it continues to be one that highlights a lot of experiences that helped me
develop as a leader. The experience of
recognizing and seeing a different perspective and culture forced me to think
and understand people differently, which in turn helped me to learn how to
develop better relationships with people.
It was a project about recycling, but also people and the importance of
understanding people and how that understanding can build a successful change
within an environment and the people in that environment.
References
Brown, D. (2011). An
experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Boston:
Prentice Hall.
Gallery Furniture: Case
Study. (n.d.). Vital Smarts. 2014.
Stanley McChrystal: Listen,
learn…then lead. (2011). TED: Ideas worth spreading.
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