Managing Change
Research shows that a significant number of change programmes falter, fail or do not achieve the desired results. Inspired Partners goes beyond the theory to find real, practical ways to change processes, organisations and behaviours, achieving successful and sustainable outcomes. Each bespoke solution is based on proven change management tools and uses visual working to engage staff at all levels.
Changing the Culture of a Large Defence Company
When a well-established defence company needed to respond to its changing market with a more innovative approach to project delivery, progress was hampered by the prevailing business culture. Inspired Partners used the Integrated Performance Model© to introduce a collaborative working environment, which both addressed the underlying issues and supported new project mobilisation.
Planning Organisational Change for a Team of 100
After several change initiatives had failed to achieve the desired outcome, a client wanted an alternative approach to deliver a complex change programme. Inspired Partners used Active Planning and Post-It Plans to help integrate the multiple change activities and implement a master plan.
The client needed to implement a number of organisational changes involving several different stakeholders with different points of view. As previous change activities had nearly always failed to achieve the desired outcome, they turned to Inspired Partners for an alternative approach that would look and feel different to the methods discredited in the past.
Using Active Planning techniques, Inspired Partners helped the client to integrate the initiatives and develop one master change plan. The resulting 3 metre wide by 2 metre high Post-It plan was displayed next to the coffee machine, where it prompted a great deal of interaction between staff and the change team, facilitating the communication of change. The plan was reviewed weekly at a ‘Stand-up’, with progress marked directly onto each Post-It. This sent a strong, positive message to the team that progress was being achieved.
Improving Processes for a National Recruitment Agency
While the Agency was good at creating processes, it struggled to implement them consistently across its national network of branches. Inspired Partners collaborated with internal teams to provide clarity and leadership, bringing a better structure and a greater effectiveness to many parts of the business.
This £60m turnover recruitment agency wanted to develop their processes to build a consistent set of foundations on which all other business activities could be based. Inspired Partners helped them create a business strategy for process improvement and build a team to plan and deliver process into the business. After a six-month programme, the team are now self sufficient with only limited ongoing support required.
“As a Company, we were not bad at creating process but we identified we had a real problem with consistent, successful implementation and the subsequent reinforcement. This was particularly damaging to the business as we operate from a large branch network of small offices and failure meant we lost the application of best practice across the Company, became increasingly inefficient and accused by staff of being “faddish”.
We used Inspired Partners to help us introduce “process” into the day to day vocabulary of the business and to establish an internal team to ensure the future sustainability and efficiency of the work we were undertaking. The two areas that have greatly impressed me about Inspired Partners have been the way in which they have engaged our people and the level of technical competence they have brought to this initiative.
They have successfully collaborated with our existing teams, provided motivational project leadership both directly and through equipping internal staff with new skills, and by supporting and coaching staff in their new responsibilities. This passion for their subject is infectious and their style of approach has ensured they achieved acceptance for the work and changes being undertaken. As a consequence, we are now seeing the introduction of much more effective processes.
Inspired Partners have been instrumental in helping us provide clarity within our processes and how they interconnect with other processes. By helping the Company create a process map and design systems that will help us measure our progress against plan, they have brought better structure and greater effectiveness to many parts of the business. Importantly their independence and objectivity has meant they have not been afraid to challenge operational managers to look differently at problems and to engage the wider stakeholders. Through the help and support of Inspired Partners we can now look forward to delivering better solutions efficiently and effectively to our customers." Managing Director
