Training Magazine - June 2008 - (Page 34)

CASE STUDIES Communications. “But choosing the program was somewhat serendipitous. We were putting together the TAG, and I had seen a New York Times article on Leading Bold Change. So I and a peer traveled to one of the trainings to see if there was anything we could use. One element we liked was the sense of fun, that this was for ordinary people and not necessarily an academic model that couldn’t be followed. This was important because we were pulling people from operations who hadn’t heard of Kotter or the model. It gave us a common language.” Soon after leaving the two-day LBC workshop, the KP managers decided to use Dr. Kotter’s 8-Step approach to help IT navigate through its transformation. KP employed LBC workshop designer/consultant ISB Worldwide to train the TAG team members in late summer and early fall 2007 with the assistance of the original KP leaders certified through the LBC program. In a series of three one-day workshops ISB Worldwide and KP staff took groups of approximately 35 KPIT TAG team participants through the training. A first step was to get support and approval from the highest echelons of KP. As such, “there was at least one executive sponsor at each of the trainings,” Yolton says. “This participative support from executives is vital, particularly for folks who have been with the company for a while, because we have to overcome their cynicism and make them still feel safe.” During the sessions, participants reviewed the “Our Iceberg Is Melting” parable interactively, then had fun fishing sessions in which participants caught Gummi bears in their mouths. “This was done to break down barriers and loosen up the room before identifying their iceberg and figuring out what success would look like around each of the 8 Steps,” explains Yolton, who admits to identifying with Buddy “because he took on the role of helping wherever he needed to be and didn’t need to be at the top” and also with Alice “because she’s a pragmatist, looking for the ‘how’ and looking to solve the problem.” Within each workshop setting, the groups were separated into teams that could work on specific team-scaled elements of the overall KP transformation process. At the end of each session, these teams were charged with completing the Leading Bold Change Action Planning document included in the participant guide. The teams were given a 30-day window to report back to their leadership with an action plan for their team’s role in the larger initiative. The monthly TAG team meetings kept the LBC process in motion by discussing each team’s progress and success. Today, the TAG meets on bi-weekly calls (which the chief operating officer, as the executive sponsor, sits in on) that are 34 One Kaiser Permanente Transformation Advisory Group used Kotter’s 8 Steps to align goals with the top of the organization and see how desktop employees’ jobs, for instance, connect to the organization as a whole. designed to “pull” information from the organization as a sounding/feedback council; to “pulse” the organization and surface hot issues; and to “push” key messages into the organization through active, informal channels. “It is an investment of time,” Yolton cautions. Occasionally, employees have trouble balancing TAG responsibilities and their jobs, Yolton acknowledges. “We’ve had folks drop out because they have projects to complete, but there’s no judgment. And most of them come back when they can.” One of the best parts of the change initiative and the TAG, Yolton says, is that “within the IT organization, there now are a group of folks who are not management but are seen as being able to provide feedback to executive teams and to get things done. They serve as a pipeline to the powers that be. That’s changing our culture.” 8 STEPS IN ACTION Some TAG members already have worked through the 8 Steps. “One group used the 8 Steps to align goals with the top of the organization and see how desktop employees’ jobs, for instance, connect to the organization as a whole.” Here’s a look at that 8Step application: Step 1: The group made it clear that if the business objectives aren’t made for 2008 it will impact folks from a professional standpoint: performance plans, compensation, pricing plans, etc. Step 2: The group got its regional leaders to make the goals relevant. This included supervisors and managers—the people doing the work. Step 3: The vision of the organization: Be competitive, provide the best health care at low costs, incorporate IT. Step 4: To communicate, the group used the Intranet, publications, and cascaded the message (managers sat with staff to talk about what the goals mean). Step 5: Everyone had to create a set of goals and input them. Everyone had to have a conversation with their manager to create these goals. Step 6: “We plan to put the successes on the Intranet and celebrate them,” Yolton says. Step 7: It’s an ongoing method.“You have to be fairly prescriptive about aligning goals and managing performance,” Yolton notes. “It’s not a one-shot deal.” Step 8: “We talk about goals on a quarterly basis,” Yolton says. Yolton says KPIT already is facing yet another iceberg: becoming more adept at forecasting and budgeting. “We’re having a meeting to determine that team,” she says. “I think using the Kotter change principles could be beneficial to all of KP—not just IT as people are feeling much more empowered.” w w w. t r a i n i n g m a g . c o m | JUNE 2008 t r a i n i n g http://www.trainingmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Training Magazine - June 2008

Training Magazine - June 2008 Contents Online TOC Editor’s Note Live & Online Training Today Soapbox How-To World View Changes With Penguins Keeping Forced Ranking Out of Court Across the Board Certify Me Meetings CPR How Secure Is Your Data? Training Leadership Summit Wrap-Up Tools of the Trade Inprint Questions for Covey

Training Magazine - June 2008

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