A635.8.3.RB - Transformational Strategies

This week blog is review a few videos about organization transformation and leaders discussing how they led during transformational times. My favorite video featured Army Brigadier General (BG) Stanley McChrystal, who led before and after September 11, 200, the day everything changed in America and how people actual lead is changing.

McChrystal Story

McChrystal shared his story of a typical training day from preparing to the actual jump out of an aircraft. He walked us through the typical emotions and thoughts he was experiencing throughout the process, to include asking himself why he does what he does. He talked about how the psychological training steps were embedded in all the troops and over the last 27 years, he knew what he had to do, standard culture. However, on September 11, 2001, the team ventured out on a typical jump to return to a non-typical day in America.  He reflected on how he came from a military family and todays’ military is very different than when he entered. He realized his need to communicate with his troops would change because his typical preferred approach of talking on the phone or reaching out to touch them would be changed due to his troops were deployed across the world.  He talked about how information was transmitting faster than people could respond and he would have to learn to lead differently. He shared to it was important to develop strong relationship and a culture of trust where no one is left behind. (McChrystal, 2011)

Strategy-Culture Matrix and Strengths

In our text this week, The Strategy-Culture Matrix is “one way of understanding the relationship between the organizational strategy and its culture” (p406) As a leader, BG McChrystal culture changed dramatically after 9/11 because the attack actually generated an increase in patriotism and a culture of angered Americans. Anyone serving in the military, leader or not, knew the culture changed instantly overnight. McChrystal had a very strong military committed to the Army values, vision and commitment to what the country was getting ready to endure.  In understanding the relative strength of the corporate values, the military would fall within the quadrant of strong culture. I chose the strong culture because the military, no matter which brand of service, is committed to their “shared vision” of serving their country. Before 9/11 and after, military strong culture did not change and and the attack itself fueled the increase of commitment, no matter the approach. (Brown, 2011)

When it comes to the Strategy-Culture Matrix, the military would need to “manage the change” due to the dynamics of the of how McChrystal would need to adjust the way he communicated and build relationships with his troops. McChrystal would need to “reinforce the new value system” meaning he would to share the “overall goals and mission of the organization and build strengths and make any changes legitimate to members” (p 407) (Brown, 2011)

Overall, the general realized he needed to make a change to be an effective leader to support his ability to communicate and I think he did that very well. At the end of the video he made a statement “I came to believe that a leader isn’t good because they are right, they are good because they are willing to lean and willing to trust” Change is a common norm in the military and I can see a leader fall within any of the four quadrants of the Strength-Culture Matrix depending on where they are on in their personal development journey or assignment.  The key would be knowing where you fit into the organization and making changes that support a positive culture and being able to transform based on needs will allow the leader to be successful. (McChrystal, 2011)

Gallery Furniture Company

The Gallery Furniture company is a company that had been in business for a very long time and had a strong traditional core system. The company struggled after the stock market crashed and the reduction of home sales, but managed to hang on until the tragic fire at one of their locations. The fire caused over 30 million dollars in damage and the company tried to rebuild. (McIngvale, 2012)

In the Relative Strength of Corporate Culture matric, I would rate the company as having a weak culture, due to the amount of changes required to rebuild the organization. The company had to provided influencer training to all the employees as an approach to win customers back. The company had a sales strategy that had not changed in over 30 years and this training was to provide them tools to rebuild relationships. The company also provided opportunities to incentivize and recognize people.  Overall the training changed the behavior of the team and it was what was need to increase customer confidence and job satisfaction. In the Strategy-Culture Matrix the leader is in the quadrant of change the strategy due to what he had to due to shift the culture. (Brown, 2011)

Conclusion

I think the two leaders are opposites when it came to where they aligned in the The Strategy-Culture matrix based on their specific culture dynamics. The vision and goals of the military is and has always been about serving their country, however, our strategic approach will shift based on the needs of the organization. The events of 9/11 were tragic and it events, alone, reinvigorated the culture of honor and duty. What I enjoyed about the generals’ story is that he realized the culture may change and his inability to communicate by traditional means would change.  The mission changed that day but the culture remained constant.

The furniture gallery was also constant in their culture and did not make a change until a tragic event of a fire occurred. I feel they had a weak culture and although “culture strength does not necessarily guarantee corporate effectiveness” I think customer perception was a key play in their need to change their strategy. (Brown, 2011)

When I think about these two situations, based on instant communication and consumer perception, I reflect on this past week of the National Football League (NFL) and the kneeling while the national anthem being played. This reflection is my opinion is from being a 20-year veteran and my direct loyalty and commitment to the flag and anthem. Using the relative strength of corporate culture model, I saw a strong culture of people who had basic values toward our military and veteran culture and their support of banning watching football and not purchasing products from sponsors did have an impact on corporate effectiveness. We don’t know the true impact of the costs associated with this effort, however, this week they appeal to be standing in unity when the anthem is being played. When it comes to the Strategy-Culture Matrix the NFL is changing the strategy based on the need to not disrespect the anthem and they need to be united in their effort, using a different approach. Basically the NFL is reshuffling their approach to get their message across. Again this is my perspective, but both of these models can be used in just about everything we do and I think the veteran culture of communication set the tone for what is happening this week. Military has a strong culture that never changes, however, how we do things do change to reflect a transformational culture.

References:

McChrystal, S. (2011, Mar). TEDTalk: Listen, learn…then learn. [Video File].  Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal/transcript?language=en

McIngvale, J. (2012, September 17). Influencer | Gallery Furniture video case. [Video File].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4

Brown, D.R. (2011). Experiential approach to organization development. (8^th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall