Appendices for the article: “Crossing the Chasm, Part II”
Appropriate Contexts and Cultures for Method 1:
When:
1. The organisation’s culture is control-oriented.
2. Some senior stakeholders are external and profit or value-add-oriented.
3. One or several stakeholders have the budget to explore new sources of benefit.
4. The company is profitable and stable.
Inappropriate Contexts and Cultures for Method 1:
(The opposite of the above and)
When:
1. The organisation has conflicting personalities or functions that can sabotage or unconsciously prevent culture change.
2. There are other major and potentially conflicting projects in progress.
3. The treasury team members do not support the change.
Actions Needed for Method 1
1. The new function must be physically separated from other control-oriented ones until the external- and customer-focus orientation is embedded.
2. Fresh external resources must be brought in to create the new culture.
3. Internal resources must be brought in to learn the new culture.
4. The external resources must already have the relevant technical and soft skills. They must learn about the organisation from the internal resources.
5. The internal resources must learn the technical and soft skills from the externally hired resources.
6. Positive results must be achieved fast to justify the sponsors’ willingness to do something that defied conventional wisdom in the organisation. In order to realise these fast results, the overall project must be broken down into smaller parts that, ideally, can be implemented quickly but still be seen as impressive when successful.
7. Management must not only fund the above but also provide political cover at high levels so that inappropriate ways of thinking are not brought in.
Recommended Project and Change Management Techniques for Method 1
Project, change and cultural change management techniques are not all the same. Some are more people-oriented, others are results-at-all-costs, and others are flexible. “Culture eats [change] strategy for breakfast]”. The techniques must match the initial culture of the company or the end culture wanted, depending on the circumstances.
In situations where method 1 is culturally and contextually appropriate, techniques emphasising results, flexibility and speed are needed:
Project management:
Best: Agile or similar
Possible but not optimal: Lean, Critical Path, or similar
Inappropriate: Waterfall or similar
Change management:
Best: Deming Cycle (PDCA) or similar
Possible but not optimal: ADKAR, Kotter’s Theory, or similar
Inappropriate: Lewin’s Model or similar
Appendix 2: General Framework for Method 2
Appropriate contexts and cultures for Method 2:
When:
1. The organisation’s existing culture is control-oriented
2. There is or are senior stakeholders who are external and profit or value-add-oriented
3. The organisation is being restructured to be external- and results-orientated
Inappropriate contexts and cultures for Method 2:
(The opposite of the above and)
When:
1. The company is already external-oriented. Key people leave.
2. The company’s restructuring strategy is poorly thought-out or detailed. Chaos happens.
3. The company is facing external pressures that distract management from effectively restructuring.
Actions Needed for Method 2
1. Senior personnel with strategic treasury experience must replace the previous treasury leaders.
2. Other personnel who don’t embrace the new culture must be replaced
3. Budgets for systems and infrastructure change must be made available
4. The change must happen fast
Recommended Project and Change Management Techniques for Method 2
In situations where method 1 is culturally and contextually appropriate, techniques emphasising results and speed are needed. Flexibility is an advantage but not a necessity:
Project management:
Best: Critical Path or similar
Possible but not optimal: Agile or similar
Inappropriate: Lean and waterfall and similar
Change management:
Best: Kotter’s Theory
Possible but not optimal: Deming Cycle (PDCA) or similar
Inappropriate: ADKAR, Lewin’s Model and similar
Appendix 3: General Framework for Method 3
Appropriate contexts and cultures for Method 3:
When:
1. The cultures empower staff to innovate and give them time to work on individual projects
2. The external environment is good, and the business itself is prosperous and stable
3. There are already skilled people in the treasury function, or the organisation is willing to buy in expert support when needed
Inappropriate contexts and cultures for Method 3:
(The opposite of the above and)
When:
1. The company is not yet at the stakeholder-oriented level. Treasuries focused on control above anything else will not walk the talk on empowering personnel.
2. The staff does not feel like they are in a safe environment to propose ideas or be supported to overcome obstacles.
3. Unreasonable expectations and timelines in which to show success are set.
4. Management doesn’t plan for and communicate what will happen to the employee projects if organisational priorities change, making what should be a morale-enhancing effort morale-destroying instead.
Actions Needed for Method 3
Taken from the analogous situations
1. Management determines how much time per week will be allocated to self-guided improvement projects.
2. Strongly recommended: Management creates charters of intent and holds pre-mortem meetings (“If the projects fail because of us, it will be because of … and the responsibility will be … ’s”). A ‘no-fault’ project-ending process must be in place for employee psychological safety.
3. Management regularly educates employees on strategic challenges at cascading levels relevant to the employee’s position.
4. Employees self-organise into groups, preferably cross-functionally, to brainstorm and find solutions to propose to management.
5. If a proposal is accepted, the employees work on it, bringing in new people or getting trained on what is necessary if a colleague is unavailable to join the group.
6. One person in the group takes on the role of project manager, or this role is rotated between the team members, ensuring the project progresses and appropriate stakeholders are updated on the progress.
7. After each strategic update meeting, the team members decide whether to continue with their existing project or change to another, which is currently more critical regarding the organisation. This meeting and the decision-making must be managed carefully to make sure time and resources are not spent uselessly.
8. The projects progress until success is achieved, or, if it isn’t, a post-mortem is held to determine how to do better next time.
9. Repeat
Recommended Project and Change Management Techniques for Method 3
In situations where method 1 is culturally and contextually appropriate, techniques emphasising people, results and flexibility are needed:
Project management:
Best: Lean or similar
Possible but not optimal: Agile or similar
Inappropriate: Waterfall, Critical Path and similar
Change management:
Best: ADKAR or similar
Possible but not optimal: Deming Cycle (PDCA) or similar
Inappropriate: ADKAR, Lewin’s Model and similar