The First 90 Days (20 page)
Authors: Michael Watkins
Tags: #Success in business, #Business & Economics, #Decision-Making & Problem Solving, #Management, #Leadership, #Executive ability, #Structural Adjustment, #Strategic planning
It is important to understand these cycles. You cannot figure out where to take a new organization if you do not understand where it has been and how it got where it is. In a realignment, for example, it is essential to understand what made the organization successful in the past and why it drifted into trouble. To understand your situation, you have to put on your historian’s hat.
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Identifying Challenges and Opportunities
In all four of the STARS situations, the eventual goal is the same: a successful and growing business. But each type of transition presents a distinct set of challenges. If you are succeeding the leader of a high-performing business, the challenge will be to take charge in your own way while preserving what is good about the organization. If you are in a start-up situation, such as getting a new product off the ground,
you
will be responsible for creating the organization. If you are in a realignment situation, you will have to build awareness of the need for change.
Each situation also presents characteristic opportunities that you can leverage to build momentum. In a turnaround situation, everyone realizes that changes need to be made quickly. That group awareness can help you move forward.
In realignment situations such as Claire Weeks’s, the organization is still likely to have strong people, products, and technologies. By finding these islands of excellence, you can marshal the building blocks to make needed changes.
Although every situation is unique, each of the four types of transitions exhibits distinct challenges and opportunities, summarized in
table 3-1
.
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.
Table 3-1: Challenges and Opportunities of Transition Types
Transition Type
Challenges
Opportunities
Start-up
Building structures and
You can do things
systems from scratch
right from the
without a clear
beginning.
framework or
boundaries.
People are
energized by the
Welding together a
possibilities.
cohesive
high-performing team.
There is no
preexisting rigidity in
Making do with limited
people’s thinking.
resources.
Turnaround
Reenergizing
Everyone recognizes
demoralized
that change is
employees and other
necessary.
stakeholders.
Affected
Handling time pressure
constituencies (such
and having a quick and
as suppliers who
decisive impact.
want the company to
stay in business)
Going deep enough
may offer significant
with painful cuts and
external support.
difficult personnel
choices.
A little success goes
a long way.
Realignment
Dealing with deeply
The organization has
ingrained cultural
significant pockets of
norms that no longer
strength.
contribute to high
performance.
People want to
continue to see
Convincing employees
themselves as
that change is
successful.
necessary.
Restructuring the top
team and refocusing
the organization.
Sustaining success
Playing good defense
A strong team may
by avoiding decisions
already be in place.
that cause problems.
People are
Living in the shadow of
motivated to
a revered leader and
succeed.
dealing with the team
he or she created.
Foundations for
continued success
Finding ways to take
(such as the product
the business to the next
pipeline) may be in
level.
place.
