One of our longest standing clients is a retail Jewellery company that has a rich heritage spanning over 150 years. They have transcended and evolved over time, keeping themselves up to date and contemporary as an organization. They have housed talented and capable people over the years and are currently on the quest to groom successors for important positions within the company. Along with this, they required our assistance to make their people processes more efficient and enhance employee capabilities. We are currently engaged with their largest showroom, with over 350 employees. Just having finished a yearlong talent management project, we are now looking to develop their competency framework.

Situation

Our client had a practice of using regular reviews and monitoring systems to clarify roles and enhance accountability. Due to this, multiple approvals were required to execute even simple processes, many of them going all the way up the line to approval by the senior team and even to the MD. While this model of decision-making was appropriate initially, it was not suitable for the organization that was now positioned for explosive growth. The consensus culture was too slow and jeopardized their growth. Making this change required that people at much lower levels of the organization be allowed to make decisions, the senior leaders needed to let go, and middle managers needed to be willing to accept the accountability and risk that comes along with decision making. It was a significant culture shift for the company to change the way it made decisions.

Action

Currently we are using a participative design process by creating a shared understanding of the problem and the current state. This is an approach that seeks to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g., employees, partners, customers, and users) in the design process to help ensure the result meets their needs and is usable.

We have invited one person from each department that would be affected and we involved them in designing the change from the beginning. Having a change agent present in each department could amplify the communications created, by having a representative there. The champion could transmit important information to their group and also bring valuable information back to us since they are change agents reaching into every corner of the organization.

Outcome

The desired outcome is to make everyone accountable without monitoring. We have created a comprehensive competency framework to hold them liable and help them recognize their strengths and assess their weaknesses. We have also conducted workshops to help them understand the importance of accountability, which has led them towards achieving it.