The fire of success can start a prairie

How successful can a change program be? No one can give a definite answer, but one thing is for sure: at some point, some of the changes in the change plan will work for some employees, and others will have little or no effect; some employees will be successful because of it , some employees will be frustrated.

Let's look at the example of the beer wholesaler Bulltoad Company. Like hundreds of similar businesses, Bulltoad is licensed by a national brewing company to sell beer to retailers such as supermarkets and convenience stores. The brewing company requires each wholesaler to adhere to certain quality standards and regulations, and has launched a campaign called "fresh date stamping," designed to reassure customers of the freshness of their products. The campaign requires all wholesalers to keep beer refrigerated throughout the day, but one of its major wholesalers, Bulltoad, disputes this.

Prior to the event, beer truck drivers (also salespeople) drove trucks full of beer to various retailers to sell as much beer as they could. After the day is done, drive back and park in a guarded parking lot. The next day, warehouse loaders remove beer from the cold storage, refill the truck, and the driver continues to drive out to sell.

According to the new preservation activity requirements, beer that was not sold that day must be unloaded, put back in the cold storage, and reloaded the next day. Bulltoad's bosses are skeptical, even annoyed, at the new requirement, which could raise costs significantly: not only would electricity for refrigeration increase dramatically, but moving back and forth could also increase breakage rates.

She is right. On average, nearly 40% of beer is not sold every day, and the new regulations have increased handling times and refrigeration costs. What's more, more than 80% of sales drivers returned with at least 30% of their beer unsold. As a result, more warehouse shippers will need to be hired, and breakage rates will almost certainly rise.

But there is no solution at all. Inspection of truck shipment records revealed that several drivers (only three out of 52) were able to return empty nearly every time. The secret to their success is actually quite simple. First, they work closely with warehouse employees to form a partnership. They often have heart-to-heart with warehouse shippers, telling them what works and what doesn't; and encourage and support shippers to get things done. Second, the three salesmen worked hard to understand the market of key retail customers. For example, they all read the local newspaper to see if there was an upcoming event, such as a college homecoming or a sports game, which often required a lot of beer.

Based on this discovery and clear direction, Bulltoad's owner launched a training round to teach all drivers and haulers about the success of these drivers. Coupled with new incentives to reward employees whose actual sales matched projected sales, the problem quickly eased. Two months later, the amount of beer left in the car dropped to an all-time low and kept decreasing. The feared increase in cost and breakage rates did not materialize.

Discover Success Stories

Companies like Bulltoad are relentlessly seeking to optimize their own processes, constantly finding new ways to be more efficient and competitive. Employees at all levels are always faced with an endless stream of new technologies, new methods, new training, new positions, and so on.

Leaders who make the success of their change programs accountable face enormous difficulties. They must determine as quickly as possible what works and what doesn't; which innovations work and can be kept, which need to be modified, and which need to be discarded.

The "Success Case Method" is designed for this situation. Partial success of a change program, no matter how trivial and small in scope, is success, and success is the goal of the organization. The success case method is all about finding these success stories and presenting them with convincing examples that serve as models to inspire and emulate, so that employees can better understand why programs are successful or not. On this basis, the probability of success of the change plan will become higher and higher, and the instability of the implementation results will be improved or even completely eliminated.

The success case method can answer four basic questions:

What happened? Success case law can be used to illustrate what will and will not happen in a new program. For example, a company experimented with a new approach to team selling, only to find that only parts of the plan were actually implemented. Almost all of the reps meet together weekly to discuss plans to call customers together based on their work schedules, but hardly any of the reps join together to call customers. Competition remains fierce, as concerns about sharing commissions outweigh the desire to collaborate.

To change this situation, ask these specific questions: Who is using the new method and who is not? Which parts of the new innovation plan were implemented and which were not? Is the scope of the implementation broad? Which employees are using the new technology the most and which are using the least? When is the new method used and for whom?

What will be the results of the new program? Even a simple success case analysis can quickly reveal the characteristic, convincing results of an innovation program, providing a vivid picture of these "best case" outcomes.

A company is experimenting with a new approach to development planning, but research finds that few employees actually have a formal development plan. At the same time, however, the communication between managers and employees that the program promotes has been found to be constructive. With few exceptions, employees feel valued and understood when managers involve them in planning discussions. In fact, these managers implemented only a small part of the plan, but the part that was implemented was extremely effective.

What is the value of the results? In many cases, if necessary, the success case method can be used to estimate the value of the results achieved. For example, a pharmaceutical sales rep used new sales leadership skills to win a new customer with more than $5 million in annual sales. If the economic value of the outcome is estimated, it can be compared to the planned cost to derive an ROI or a cost/return ratio. In the case of the pharmaceutical sales representative, it was clear that the increased sales would more than offset the cost of his and his colleagues' participation in the sales effectiveness program.

How can I improve the program? On the basis of evaluating the success factors in the plan, further analysis of how to improve the plan will make the implementation of the plan have a higher probability of success and a wider scope of success. Often it is not the method or tool in the plan that has a major impact on success, but the way the work environment factors are used that determines the success of the plan.

For example, in a training program, certain departments in the organization offered additional incentives, and this combined with the training program produced impressive results. This analysis helps uncover factors that increase success rates so that the new program has the greatest effect among all participants.

Improving Change Effectiveness

From a strategic perspective, the success case method can be used to improve the effectiveness of organizational innovation in six ways:

Find the brightest success case method Can be used to identify and describe the best results produced by a program. Once you have identified a few of the most effective measures in your program, you can support them to make the program even more successful. This strategy is extremely effective for long-standing comprehensive programs.

For example, American Express Financial Advisors has been running its prestigious emotional intelligence program for many years, and many employees in various roles have participated in the program. The evaluation showed that the program was ineffective in some cases and effective in many cases, with valuable results. Therefore, the plan organizer can make certain changes to the plan to produce the most effective results, and discard or modify those parts that do not work. By identifying the most valuable specific measures in the program, organizers can intervene more effectively and in a more targeted manner.

Adopting Rapid Prototyping Rapid prototyping as a marketing method was developed by leading companies in the high-tech industry. For example, in the highly competitive personal computer industry, if a manufacturer develops a product that has all the functions and features that customers need, it may cede the market to competitors who can launch similar products faster, even after The author's product does not have all functions or features. Launching a product as quickly as possible helps win customers who can provide valuable feedback so designers can make improvements based on their experience. In this way, although it cannot meet the needs of customers perfectly, it can also be satisfied in a timely manner. At the same time, manufacturers can continuously improve the feedback information from early customers, so as to better meet customer needs.

Organizational change advocates can do the same. For example, internal performance consultants know that if they do not respond to a need to improve performance in a timely manner, unpleasant consequences can ensue. For one, customers will find another provider that offers faster service. Second, the need to improve performance cannot be met, which will have a negative impact on the company's business. Third, internal advisors will be seen as ineffective, thereby losing trust and authority to perform their duties in the future. In turn, if they take a rapid prototyping approach, providing faster services or tools that solve even part of the problem, that negative consequence may be changed.

Finding value from failure While a plan is seen as unsuccessful by most people, a small minority see value in the plan. In such cases, success case law can be used to quickly and efficiently determine whether these minorities are justified. It's as simple as asking them what the program has achieved for them. While the plan as a whole is a failure, if the results can indeed be confirmed, it is possible to document and analyze whether there are parts of the plan that are worth keeping or learning. In the best-case scenario, there are measures in the plan that are valuable and can be retained and continued.

A study evaluated the effectiveness of a major oil company's personal development planning system and tools. This development planning process is designed to create a personal development plan for each employee of the company. Managers at all levels of the company were provided with the necessary tools and trained, but evaluations revealed few examples of success. Very few employees (less than 8%) go through the entire process with their manager and have a full personal development plan in place. However, a step in the system's program that discusses employee growth goals was widely used, albeit far below the plan organizers' expectations.

The organizers eventually gave up on fully implementing the development planning system, but received support for measures to advance manager-employee communication. A follow-up survey of the program shows that this positive communication is widespread and has a positive impact on retention, employee morale and productivity. Senior management is also more aware of the reasons behind the brain drain and the general distrust of management decisions by employees. While the plan failed, its focus on miscommunication reminded leaders to address it.

Improving ancillary programs When many organizations choose a new strategic direction that is radically different from the previous one, because of their importance and scope, ancillary programs are simultaneously implemented to facilitate a strategic shift. For example, some established insurance companies, known for their existing lines of insurance products, are now launching new products (such as wealth management plans and mutual funds). Such a change would require a major shift in the company, with certain ancillary programs such as training, new information systems and marketing channels. These important ancillary programs should naturally be valued, because if these programs are not implemented well, the success of the entire strategic transformation may be threatened. In this regard, success case law can assist in the implementation of these supplementary programmes.

Using Role Models to Motivate Employees It is certain that in the implementation of any new program, some employees will be able to use the tools and resources in the program more effectively, while others will be less effective and may be discouraged and give up . To make matters worse, they may also encourage others to give up or even try. A certain number of these unsuccessful or unhappy employees could quickly jeopardize the implementation of the plan. Conversely, more successful employees will contribute to the success of the plan.

The benefit of the success case method is the ability to spot the most successful change initiatives before the less successful ones disrupt. The experience of the winners can be recorded and used as a guide and example for other employees; more people are encouraged to attend and specific guidance on how to do better can be provided.

For example, a case study of a pharmaceutical sales representative examined the effectiveness of interpersonal communication skills training. It was found that only one sales representative successfully used the skills trained. But the training program later turned out to be of great value, as it gave the company an important opportunity to positively influence numerous sales activities.

Publicizing Success Stories Some companies use the success case method to identify and document success stories that employ a program or innovation, and then use these success stories to encourage more employees to try the program. For example, a large telecommunications company tried the services of an online training provider in one department. Some employees became skeptical, not convinced that training could be delivered remotely, with only a phone or email communication between trainers and managers.

In the early days of the program, the company conducted research on training using the success case method and found some success stories that significantly improved performance. The company documented these cases in detail, first explaining how a manager used the training service, and then using specific examples to illustrate the valuable results of the training.

The company offers these examples to employees who want to try this training service, and promotes them at job conferences for new clients. Because these success stories are not just encouraging, but are backed by real performance, they are convincing enough to motivate more employees to try out this controversial service. These cases also help clarify and establish what rules the service user must follow in order to benefit from the program. For example, successful trainees always report honestly about the actions they take, complete the tasks specified in the training and treat others' feedback with positive attitudes and actions.

No matter what kind of change program, one thing is for sure: it can neither be completely successful nor completely fail. Anything new has good ingredients. If a new program is reasonably successful, the difficulty is how to distinguish between the good and the bad, and use the ingredients of success in the hope of making a bigger difference. Success case law is a useful tool to help change advocates get the information they need to more effectively guide the execution of their plans.

The original text is adapted from The Success Case Method by Robert O. Brinkerhoff with permission. This book is copyrighted in 2003 by the author and Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Translated by Dai Fenghua.

Robert O. Brinkerhoff is a professor at Western Michigan University. He is a well-known expert in evaluation and effective training. He has provided consulting services to large companies in many countries.