Organizational Deja Vu?

The first PDMA/IIR Corporate Portfolio Management Conference in Clearwater, Florida in February had speakers from the financial services, medical device, computer, and consumer industries sharing their portfolio management experiences. It was full of great speaker presentations and opportunities for me to network. Reflecting on my experience there led me to a curious observation. Have you ever noticed the commonality of business stories regardless of industry? It got me thinking about that famous quote from management guru Yogi Berra, "This is like déjà vu all over again."

The challenges are so similar in fact that you could replace the company name and industry with just about any other one. For example, "Company XYZ was faced with faster business cycles due to globalization, commoditization, and aggressive competitors. Our current way of doing things wasn't getting it done. To drive the new change we had to make business improvements and change the XYZ culture. We fought and succeeded after a lot of hard work and support from senior management. Now company XYZ is performing better than ever!" Turn the crank and the cycle seems to repeat itself. Those that don't make the next turn of the crank become fodder for the press. Over and over again. Does this sound familiar? Shouldn't we have learned how to do this better by now? After all we have the insight into solutions for organizational change. The same can be said with respect to voice of the customer, stage-gate (tm), portfolio management, quality improvement, project management, etc. There's not that much new under the sun when it comes to process, methods, and tools for quite a while. So why is it always like major life-threatening surgery versus a routine medical procedure?

I believe there are many factors to be considered. The first is that business and product development are socio-technical systems and very complex ones at that. It is difficult to understand all the unintended consequences of change despite what we know (Murphy's Law is alive and well). Second, we can't ignore the human factors. We are unpredictable beings who need boundaries (such as process and discipline) but still want to do things our way (the famous "Not Invented Here Mentality"). A third point is that the corporate culture and reward systems focus on the short term results and not on taking the long term view. I heard someone once refer to this as organizational ADHD. Fourth is that while automation is an enabling element for change it has been known to trip up many an implementation. One has to avoid changing the focus from fixing the business problem to managing another IT project. Last, but certainly not least, organizational change requires leadership which is a quality that cannot be bottled and mass produced. It’s been chronicled in books, magazines, and case studies time and time again where good or bad senior leadership has changed the fortunes of an organization.

Despite all this we still seem to succeed (sometimes in spite of ourselves). The common themes for success companies share at these conferences regarding their journey to implementing change are often what we come to conferences to hear. They include senior management commitment, getting others buy-in to the vision, piloting efforts in an interested group, providing the right incentives, and lastly making sure there some recognized business benefit to the organization (though this is often hard to get results in the short term). The most important thing I want to know is "will it stick?” That part can't really be answered by any presenter.

So why do we come to conferences? I think the success of others gives us hope and inspiration that we can also succeed in our own efforts. The business of change taxes our resolve and energy at a personal level. It's comforting to draw some hope and inspiration. Such significant undertakings require both insight and inspiration to succeed. Those that have succeeded are also great to commiserate with because they have the same battle scars.

Do you agree or disagree with me? Please share your real world experiences…