Measuring the Characteristics of an Organization Primed and Ready for Change

When outsiders to the industry think of manufacturing paper, innovation might not be the first word that springs to mind. At Mead Paper, they set out to change this notion. They wanted to create a corporate culture that is not only ready for change, but also welcomes it and thrives in it.

But, how did Mead Paper know if they had a culture ready for change? What characteristics does an organization need to be ready for change? How does an organization know if they have these characteristics?

Mead Paper forged ahead to determine and measure critical characteristics and conditions that create an organization ready to capitalize on today’s ever-changing world.

Responding to Change

In any industry, the successful organizations will be able to respond to changes quickly and decisively. Everyday, new technologies and business solutions emerge as we move closer to becoming a true global economy.

“If you believe what you read, the next decade in the business world will be even more tumultuous than the last. In fact, most futurists say change will be tomorrow’s steady diet. About the only thing that will not change very much is the importance of good people. How well employers capture the ‘hearts and minds’ of their workers will define how well they do in the new world of change.”
-B. Jackson Wixom, Jr., HRMagazine

The paper business, an established, traditional industry, must be especially responsive to change in this new economy. Some of the most prevalent trends in the paper industry have been consolidation within the industry and global competition, which means change across the board.

Most organizations simply cannot decide to be more responsive to change and be ready immediately. Resistance to change must be overcome with a structured change management model. An Internet search quickly reveals the large number of change management models that exist. Mead Paper needed a model that best fit the goals of their organization. They chose an Emergent Change Model.

According to the model they chose, emergent change differs from change driven from the top down, where corporate executives decide change should occur and tell management how to implement the change. An emergent change culture is one where change can and should come from within the organization, at any level, and employees feel comfortable and are compelled to offer ideas that will improve the business.

Readying for Change

The Emergent Change Model Mead Paper chose to initiate, developed by Milleman & Associates, operates from the premise that the most effective route to drive change in an organization is to put into place a certain set of conditions, and the behaviors that are desired will then emerge.

“The Mead Paper Division felt it was important be ready to change in an industry is changing rapidly. We wanted employees to share their ideas and to become ‘partners’ in our business,” said Scott McKenzie, human resources director, Mead Paper Division.

According to this Emergent Change Model, five conditions must be in place for an organization to have a culture ready for change:

Shared Strategic Context-
Employees need to understand the organization’s vision, its goals, industry trends that affect it, and their customers and competition.

Line of Sight-
Employees must understand the impact their job performance has on the critical drivers of the business, such as financial performance and customer satisfaction.

Discretion to Act-
Employees need to feel they have the authority to make the day-to-day decisions necessary to be effective in their jobs.

Culture of Constructive Disagreement-
Employees must feel comfortable in challenging management ideas and decisions, as well as offering ideas that may run counter to the usual manner in which business is done.

Emergent Change Leadership-
Leaders need to behave in a manner consistent with the conditions of this Emergent Change Model. That is, leaders should discuss business strategy with employees, explain the line-of-sight to the customer, allow employees the discretion to act, and must encourage and be tolerant of different ideas.

After Mead Paper decided to implement this model, their next step was to benchmark these five conditions and to identify the areas that needed improvement.

Developing a Baseline

Before Mead Paper began implementing programs to create the readiness for change conditions, management needed to know how the organization was currently doing with respect to the five conditions of this Emergent Change Model. They needed a baseline from which to measure their future success.

According to Ed Cornelius, president and founder of Cornelius & Associates, “this Emergent Change Model was effective and fit the goals of Mead Paper. Conceptually, it just made a lot of sense. The challenge was figuring out how to measure these conditions.”

Staying true to their progressive nature, Mead Paper decided to use the innovative FACTSurvey™, a unique employee assessment tool, to measure the presence of the conditions necessary for an emergent change culture.
(Click here to read more about the FACTSurvey™.)

The FACTSurvey™ produced scores, or “grades,” for each of the necessary conditions. From these scores, the management of Mead Paper began to understand they needed to focus their efforts on two areas for improvement: shared strategic context and emergent change leadership, specifically focusing on the role of front-line supervision.

Solutions and Development

The FACTSurvey™ results showed management that their employees were exposed to information about the business environment, but their employees were unable to correlate this information to their day-to-day jobs.

Mead Paper realized they needed to analyze their communication efforts. While many efforts had been made to communicate business information, it became clear it was not relayed to the employees in a way they could relate to or understand. In addition, management realized the need to communicate more effectively and directly with the front-line supervisors, the key influencers in any organization. Management also recognized the need for front-line supervisor training and skills development in communicating this information in a meaningful way to employees.

Mead Paper has already begun to initiate action based on these survey results.

“We have communicated the results of the FACTSurvey™ with our key personnel and have outlined logical next steps. In addition, we are exploring division-wide initiatives in the communications and education areas to help improve our shared strategic context and leadership effectiveness, especially the effectiveness of our front-line supervisors,” said McKenzie.

Mead Paper has developed a system to guarantee their culture is always ready to respond to change and is welcome to change coming from within their organization. Last year, they created a baseline for this Emergent Change Model. Over the next few years, they will continue to assess their organization’s readiness for change and identify any new areas that may require attention.

This Emergent Change Model, the FACTSurvey™ and Mead Paper’s innovation ensures their organization will be ready for the challenges and opportunities our new economy and their ever-changing industry will bring.

**This article refers to the business practices of Mead Paper. In January 2002, Mead Paper merged to become MeadWestvaco.