Is your HR initiative a Sinking Ship?

By Verity Bissett-Powell

I am fascinated by a recent story which emerged from the granddaughter of Titanic’s Second Officer. Louise Patten has declared that confusion about steering orders was responsible for the ship’s sinking.

According to Mrs Patten, the tragedy occurred due to a change in shipping communications from sail to steam. Two steering systems were in operation at that time and they were the complete opposite of one another. Rather crucially, a command to turn ‘hard a-starboard’ meant turn the wheel right under one system and left under the other. The result of which was a helmsman turning Titanic towards the iceberg, with tragic results. The transition from Rudder Orders (steam ships) to Tiller Orders (sailing ships) had not been executed and communicated effectively.

Of course this is a very extreme example, but I started to wonder - how many times has a change been poorly implemented and had cruel consequences? My friend put petrol in his diesel car because the owner’s manual has “one size fits all” ambiguous text. A hotel worker taking several reservations before being told that the system was out of date and new software was being launched shortly. I was without an ATM card for a month because my bank was merged with another and the admin staff was overwhelmed. Just think, how many times have you personally experienced a poorly executed change?

None of you need to read another blog talking about the tough economic years we’re recently “enjoyed”, and I am sure you’re all encountering the knock-on effects…work smarter, do more with less, etc. Whatever the slogan, it all means changes to the talent within your organisation. If you are the one executing such transformations, just take a few minutes and ask yourself: Is your change implementation smooth sailing or a sinking ship?

Okay. Now take a deep breath and read on. Here are 5 recommendations for smoothly and successfully implementing a new talent management initiative:

1. Communication. Plan in advance how the initiative be communicated and consider how to sustain interest. How can you involve key stakeholders? How will you get the message down to the front-line in a personal way?
2. Accountability. Clearly identify roles and accountabilities for all key stakeholders. This means defining what each individual is accountable for, establishing measures of success, and creating a plan to cascade the accountabilities down to those who will be expected to make things happen.
3. Skills. Develop the skills of each key player in the implementation.  Realization often falls short because those who are accountable for execution don’t have the skills for implementation.
4. Alignment. Ally existing processes and systems to reinforce the desired outputs of your change. Is there a development or training system in place to support the initiative? What systems are in place to recognise and reward people during the life cycle of the change?
5. Measurement. Consider why you are doing this in the first place. How will you know that you were successful? Provide clear lead and lag measures on the desired outputs of the change.

Please note: these are not “nice to have” considerations, they are essential items which should appear on every planning agenda, for every change initiative, in every organisation. Don’t let poor change execution tarnish, what should be, a fantastic journey.

For more information on the Titanic revelation, click HERE.

 

Verity Bissett-Powell is a Business Development Executive in DDI UK.