Transformation is the new constant. Organisations are re-imagining themselves in response to unprecedented global events. They are transforming their structures, revenue models, ways of working, customer engagement and supply chains.
These changes often need a key team to drive the implementation and lead the change. But who do you involve and how wide do you cast the ‘trust’ net in a transformation effort? How do you manage wider involvement particularly when there are complex industrial relations structures and other drivers that require sensitivity when moving forward with a change.
Recent research on employee involvement in transformation by McKinsey answers some of these questions
McKinsey’s research tracked data from 60 organisations who were undergoing transformation. They found that transformations, where there was at least 7 percent of staff involved, were twice as likely to have better total returns to their stakeholders than those with less people involved. And in fact, those companies that had less than 7 percent of their staff involved had less total returns to stakeholders.
This is a music to the ears of those of us who continue to advocate for human-centered design approaches to change. We know that leading change well requires involvement from larger proportions of the organisation. Supporting the anecdotal data that we have, McKinsey’s research found that, on average, positive excess total returns to shareholders grow as employee involvement in transformation increases.
Spreading the responsibility to change to a wider group pays off
The lesson here is that using a participatory approach to transformation and spreading the responsibility to change across a wider group in the organisation does pay off in relation to stakeholder returns… wow! And I won’t say I told you so…
For more information read the McKinsey Report.