Our client recently became the CEO of a 300-person organization. He was ready to turn things around. However, there was a lot to fix, and his time was limited. He knew that if he wanted to bring about positive change, he needed to find focus and pick the right battles. Luckily, he knew in partnering with us, he’d have his wing-people on this journey.

The first move in his leadership could make or break his impact on the organization. Therefore, he needed more than following his gut feelings. We brought in the #SixChangeBlockers Intelligence to enable him to make data-driven decisions and showed him how to use our insights.

To support the CEO’s next move, we analyzed how his company performs on four Change Blockers.

Network Fragmentation: The overall network illustrated that the organization worked as one entity, communicating and transferring knowledge across units and teams. Within this network, we identified the organizations’ Informal Change Catalysts who were ready to become the sounding board for the entire organization.

Leadership Cohesion: The organization’s informal leadership network was 19% better than the Innovisor Benchmark. A strongly connected network of leaders sounded promising. But we needed to ensure that they were listening to the rest of the organization.

So far, so good. It seemed as if the organization was ready to tackle any change initiative. A strong network is, however, not enough. We needed to assess how people feel within these networks.

Key Stakeholder Support: We assessed how Leaders and Change Catalysts feel about upcoming changes. While leaders were confident in upcoming changes, Change Catalysts were overwhelmingly negative. It was not enough to have a well-connected and positive leadership. The leaders must listen to and communicate with the rest of the organization. Successful change requires having your people on board.

Organizational Commitment: The CEO was not surprised to see sub-optimal results. He suspected that the commitment of his workforce needed improvement. We were ready to show him how.

We provided the CEO with an action plan on how to move forward. He had to get the most out of his strong networks and Change Catalysts to improve Stakeholder support and Commitment. We showed him how to do so:

1. See the full picture:

The Stakeholder Support analysis revealed that leaders did not share their positiveness and information with the rest of the organization. With the list of Change Catalysts in his hand, the CEO knew who to activate and listen to if he wanted to see the full picture.

2. Nurture Commitment:

Commitment is crucial for success. Committed employees are ready to go the extra mile when it comes to the quality of their work. They feel they belong to the organization and therefore, they will be more innovative in their job. Nurturing commitment is, however, not an easy task. The CEO needed to listen to his Change Catalysts, understand their perceptions, and work on new ways of working.

We provided the CEO with the ability to focus on the most important issues in his organization. He could commit his time and pick the battles that make a real impact.

We are still on his side throughout the journey, providing him with data-driven insights into change and looking forward to seeing the positive change he will bring about in the organization.

Are you in need of a wingman in change? We are here to help you focus and make the right decisions! Check out our Ready-to-Go and Co-Created Solutions!