Managing transformation: how to get teams on board

Between tech­no­lo­gic­al evol­u­tions, dif­fer­ent approaches to work­ing meth­ods or the energy trans­ition, the busi­ness world is increas­ingly sub­ject to major changes. Such situ­ations imply numer­ous trans­form­a­tion pro­jects with­in com­pan­ies, cor­res­pond­ing to a need to rethink their func­tion­ing from both an organ­isa­tion­al and stra­tegic point of view. Suc­cess depends on the people who are at the heart of these com­pan­ies – the employ­ees – and their com­mit­ment. So how do you get your teams on board? 

Ali Armand, ped­ago­gic­al dir­ect­or of the Lead­er­ship & Man­age­ment divi­sion at École Poly­tech­nique Exec­ut­ive Edu­ca­tion, exam­ines vari­ous issues related to mobil­ising teams and their com­mit­ment, in order to know how to bet­ter involve them in a trans­form­a­tion pro­ject. Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net is con­fron­ted with these issues in the field as a trans­form­a­tion expert at Alaska Con­sult­ing. Their expert­ise on the sub­ject gives us some hints on how to ensure the com­mit­ment of the people involved.

Trans­form­a­tion pro­jects are large in scope, affect­ing busi­nesses from top to bot­tom. “The reas­ons for busi­ness trans­form­a­tion vary greatly. They can be purely eco­nom­ic, or truly soci­et­al,” explains Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net. But in all cases, these trans­form­a­tions take place in a con­text of urgency, i.e. when the company’s sus­tain­ab­il­ity is at stake, and when there is a need to com­pletely review the company’s mod­el. All of this makes their imple­ment­a­tion dif­fi­cult, espe­cially since it is neces­sary for all stake­hold­ers to get involved for them to be truly effective.

“Today, if 80% of com­pan­ies carry out a trans­form­a­tion pro­ject, 70% of the pro­jects fail,” adds Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net. The reas­on? Lack of stake­hold­er involve­ment: that’s why get­ting them on board is fun­da­ment­al. To do this, dif­fer­ent strategies can be put in place. These must take into account the desires of the team mem­bers, without lim­it­ing them­selves to their sat­is­fac­tion. “The first factor of dis­en­gage­ment of employ­ees, all sec­tors included, is the lack of recog­ni­tion, and not at all the lack of money,” main­tains Ali Armand. “Money will only gen­er­ate a mer­cen­ary mentality.”

The two experts high­light 6 levers to build on to achieve this neces­sary engage­ment: trust, inclu­sion, belong­ing, import­ance, mean­ing and self-worth.

There is no hier­arch­ic­al order in these levers, but organ­isa­tion­al trust depends fun­da­ment­ally on the oth­er five. “To have organ­isa­tion­al trust, you must gen­er­ate a feel­ing with­in the organ­isa­tion that the frame­work and the object­ive are clear, where there is a shared vis­ion,” explains Ali Armand. “And most import­antly, in which we are not afraid of things that are harder to be open about, because they should be brought for­ward, with trans­par­ency, for dis­cus­sion.” Thus, this trust is the res­ult of the prop­er applic­a­tion of the oth­er levers.

“Nearly 70% of employ­ees in France con­sider that their opin­ions are not taken into account by man­age­ment,” insists Ali Armand. “This is a fun­da­ment­al ele­ment in design­ing a trans­form­a­tion pro­ject. This affects a second lever, inclu­sion. Inclu­sion res­ults from the par­ti­cip­at­ive nature of the trans­form­a­tion pro­ject,” says Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net. “How­ever, it can quickly turn into a night­mare, because in a large com­pany, includ­ing 50,000 people can be com­plic­ated.” The imple­ment­a­tion of a shared net­work, link­ing all the divi­sions of a com­pany, can, for example, fuel this feeling. 

A third lever to focus on to improve the well-being of its employ­ees in its team is the feel­ing of belong­ing. “We can reach people as soon as we talk about the spe­cif­ic interests of the com­munity, of the team to which they belong,” says Ali Armand. “It is there­fore a ques­tion of build­ing and devel­op­ing a feel­ing of cohe­sion with­in the team itself, gen­er­at­ing mutu­al respons­ib­il­ity and close rela­tion­ships between its mem­bers.” This feel­ing is essen­tial accord­ing to Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net, and is sought by “every indi­vidu­al, because when we belong to a com­munity, we are able to recog­nise ourown status, while bene­fit­ing from the strength it gives us.”

Once cohe­sion has been built among team mem­bers, it is import­ant to ensure that they find mean­ing in the trans­form­a­tion pro­ject. “The pro­duc­tion of mean­ing is, for me, really the most fun­da­ment­al lever,” says Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net. “It is what will provide a vis­ion for the future, based on the com­pany’s val­ues.” Thus, no mat­ter what obstacles are present on their path, team mem­bers will always have that clear vis­ion that will allow them to keep mov­ing for­ward, even if it means tak­ing a detour.

An employ­ee’s com­mit­ment also comes from their aware­ness of their import­ance. “If employ­ees think they are inter­change­able entit­ies and that any­one could do their job,” says Ali Armand, “they will not be as com­mit­ted and at the same level as if they have real­ised their import­ance, as indi­vidu­als, to the suc­cess of the project.”

The last lever, self-worth, becomes even more import­ant with the new gen­er­a­tions. “Cre­at­ing value for one­self means allow­ing the indi­vidu­al to under­stand what the pro­ject will bring to him or her,” explains Domi­n­ique Pois­son­net. An indi­vidu­al will be all the more com­mit­ted to the suc­cess of a pro­ject if he or she is aware of the bene­fits it will bring. 

These six levers are not in any hier­arch­ic­al order, as they must all be put in place to ensure the suc­cess of a trans­form­a­tion pro­ject. “We notice, in fact, that the main cap­it­al in organ­isa­tions is human cap­it­al,” con­cludes Ali Armand. “So, we need empathy, prox­im­ity, human­ity. With all these ele­ments, we will have the neces­sary mat­ter to be able to build a real com­mit­ment on the part of the employ­ees with­in the organisation.

Pablo Andres