Case Study
Changing the IT Division…in a hurry
Paul (all identifying information has been changed) was a newly appointed CIO, heading up an IT division of about 400 people.  He had been brought to replace the previous head of the division because cost of service was unacceptably high, prompting the company’s senior management to consider outsourcing its IT services. In his first few months, Paul had taken several drastic actions to get costs and quality of service under control:
 
  1. ★He laid off over a quarter of the staff, reducing the head count to less than 275 people.
  2. ★He fired some of the division’s Directors and brought in people he knew as well as executives recruited from other companies.
  3. ★He implemented a drastic redesign of the division’s systems and processes, with a very challenging deadline for putting new operations in place.  The remaining staff were putting in extremely long hours as they scrambled to virtually recreate their systems and procedures without an interruption of service to their customers.
 
After he had been in his position for several months, I was asked to do a study of the organization, evaluate the management team, assess the culture of the organization, and recommend a series of interventions to improve the leadership of the division, open up communications, and improve morale.  My assessment interviews produced the following findings:
 
  1. ★Though Paul was a brilliant IT professional, he needed to moderate his top-down style of management in order to encourage more communication up from a staff of people who were looking over their shoulders waiting to see who would be next one to go.
  2. ★One of the Directors he had brought in was an abusive and frightening senior executive who needed to be replaced immediately, given his negative impact on a large segment of the division.
  3. ★Although his staff was already seeing improvements in quality of service at lower costs, most people below the Director’s level of the division lacked an in-depth understanding of Paul’s vision and change strategy.
  4. ★There were pockets in the division that had adopted a “This, too, shall pass” approach to the new CIO and his initiatives.  The division had had several CIO’s over the previous three to four years, all of whom had failed to make the necessary changes and were quickly replaced.  Some were slow in implementing changes, expecting that Paul’s tenure wouldn’t be long enough for them to bother investing energy and time in responding to his initiatives.
  5. ★The company had recently purchased another company, bringing in a group of IT professionals who were used to a much more casual pace of work and more participation in decision-making.  They were suffering from culture shock.
  6.  
  7. My organizational development strategy included the following steps:
  8.  
  9. 1. Individual feedback, developmental planning, and coaching for the Directors, middle managers, and supervisors.
  10.     After administering the Simmons EQ Profile to members of the management team, I met with them individually and reviewed what I had learned about each of them in the interviews, including strengths as well as developmental needs.  I also interpreted their EQ Profiles, leaving each person with a Personal Development Planning Workbook.  The workbook provides people with the opportunity to reflect on what they learned from the interview feedback and EQ Profile interpretation.  The exercises also provide an opportunity to start working on a developmental plan.
  11.  
  12.     I returned after giving them a week or so to reflect on my findings.  We met privately for the first part of this meeting that included creating an agenda for a meeting with their boss.  As soon as we were ready, the person’s manager was invited to join us. The discussion included the manager’s reactions to the interview findings and EQ Profile and a review of the developmental planning we’d accomplished up to that point.  The agenda items ranged from discussions of current issues and roadblocks and discussions of strategies for accelerating the pace of change.  
  13.  
  14. 2. An all-hands meeting was scheduled for the division.
  15.     I started the event with a presentation on organizational change and its potential for damaging trust, communications, and morale.  I had asked that two tall director’s chairs be provided for the meeting.  At the appropriate time, the CIO and I sat in front of the group so that he and I could have a “conversation.”  (This informal conversational format allowed Paul to address the group without “giving a speech.”  We had planned what broad topics I would ask him about but the informal, conversational format allowed me to ask follow-up questions to draw out further details of his thinking.)
  16.  
  17.     My questions allowed him to talk about his professional background and his vision for the division.  He also talked about what it took to “make it with him” as a manager or IT professional and his style of management.  He also talked about how pleased he was by the progress that had already been made and made clear that, as far as he could tell at this point, no further layoffs were to be expected.  
  18.  
  19.      After the twenty-minute “conversation,” people were assembled in small groups to identify questions to ask and issues to discuss.  A “recorder” was identified in each group to list the items for discussion, providing a measure of anonymity, given that the list were a group product.
  20.  
  21.       We ended the gathering by using a large group process know as “The World Cafe.”  Tables were arranged with each one having a placard identifying a technical or cultural issue identified in the interviews.  People rotated between tables in ten-minute intervals, choosing the topics that were most of interest to them.  A facilitator sat at each table, recording discussion points and suggestions generated by the various groups who assembled to discuss the items.  We reviewed the ideas generated at each table, looking for “low hanging fruit,” that is, actions that could be taken immediately.  We also prioritized the remaining issues and small group volunteered to look into the top five, with the promise to report back to the group in within a few weeks.
  22.  
  23. 3. Performance management training for all members of the management team.
  24.       The interviews revealed people were very unsatisfied with the ongoing coaching being provided by the management team.  Praise and recognition was almost nonexistent.  Developmental coaching was all too often too harsh and punitive or, conversely, too indirect to be effective.  
  25.  
  26. 4. Training in team development and skills for managing challenging conversations for manager and line staff.
  27.       Paul wanted people to be raising issues up the management structure for resolution.  Buy in an environment with a new leader and layoffs, people were reluctant to address problems in need of attention.  Everyone in the division attended one of several presentations of a workshop in team development and the dynamics of conflict.  Participants learned how to “professionalize” issues that are easily taken personally and learned how use a structured method to prepare for and conduct challenging conversations more comfortably and effectively.  
Who Should Be The Next President? Next_President.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0
Contact InformationContact_Information.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0
Return to Site MapSite_Map.htmlshapeimage_3_link_0