Watching
both of these gentlemen, Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale and Stanley
McChrystal, I was inspired and motivated by what that they each had to say.
They didn’t sit back and let changes overcome them, they took the change “by
the horns” and did their best to adapt and get their followers on board as
well. In the first video I watched about
Gallery furniture I was impressed with Jim’s drive to want to make changes the
right way. “I could do as much
blubbering, cajoling, screaming, and hollering as I wanted to try to get my
team to change behavior, but I knew it wouldn’t get us where we needed to go,”
says McIngvale. “I was looking for a process that would get my people to want
to change their behavior and act in ways that give the customers what they’re
looking for” (McIngvale, VitalSmarts website).
When the
housing market dropped drastically in 2008 Gallery Furniture was affected along
with many other companies. In 2009 the company suffered another blow when their
store had a fire that caused $30 million in damage. He knew he had to do
something and do it quickly. They needed
innovation and they needed it now. After reading a review in the Wall Street
Journal McIngvale knew that Influencer would be the one to help. He wanted to be influenced on change and how
he could do that with his employees. After getting training for him and management
he made sure that everyone in his company from the furniture loaders, drivers
and sales team got the same training.
One of
the biggest challenges McIngvale faced was changing a 30 year sales process that
involved two big changes in how they conducted business including changing the
“how can I help you” to “I am disappointed you are not going to buy anything”
and becoming prospectors instead of sales people so that they could follow up
with the customers who didn’t buy right away.
This way they can touch base and hopefully bring them back in at a later
date to purchase furniture. He also implemented a wellness program to bring a
great work-life balance to the employees.
One of the things I thought was interesting was that McIngvale put a bell
up so that each time a team member got a sale they could ring the bell and the
other team members could encourage and congratulate them. He also made sure
that all members were taught how to use technology as he felt it was important
that everyone was brought up to date.
This
ties into the chapter and showing the strength of corporate culture as well as
figure 15.4 that reflects members’ commitment to values and shared values as
being high (a good thing). “The more
members share the basic values and the greater their commitment to them, the stronger
the culture” (Brown, 2011). I was
impressed that McIngvale was open to change and willing to do whatever it took
to bring his company where it needed to be. It also goes along with figure 15.5
in the Manage the Change quadrant where change is important to the organization
and they are compatible to the existing culture of the company which makes it
easier to move forward with major changes using the power of the cultural
acceptance (Brown, 2011).
In the
video, Listen, Learn…then Lead, Stanley McChrystal did an amazing job of
explaining how leadership has changed through his years in the military and
what that meant to him as a leader and those that he led. McChrystal walked us
through a jump touching on things he had been taught when he was first starting
out and watching those young men and women around him performing the same
skills exactly the way he himself had been taught. “And I realized that, if
they had to go into combat, they would do what we had taught them and they
would follow leaders. And I realized that, if they came out of combat, it would
be because we led them well” (McChrystal, TedTalks 2011).
With so
many changes in the way people communicate, he had to learn how to do this on many
different levels. Making sure all the
key leaders are on the same page and understand what is at stake is not easy
when your leaders are spread out in different parts of the country. The thing that stuck out for me was that he
mentioned how different it was not be able to look into the leaders eyes to
build their confidence and get that trust back from them to know that they
understood what they needed to do and that they would do it with success. This required different techniques. “I've got
to use video teleconferences, I've got to use chat, I've got to use email, I've
got to use phone calls -- I've got to use everything I can, not just for communication,
but for leadership” (McChrystal, TedTalks, 2011).
He
realized that he was dealing with a new type of leadership here. Not one of eye to eye contact, a hand on the
shoulder for support, the ability to build that trust and confidence that is so
vital for what they do. Leadership, no
matter the age or gender of the person leading change, must have a shared
purpose. McChrystal pointed out that you have to become more transparent, be
more willing to listen and to be “reverse-mentored” from the bottom.
One of
the statements he made that really stood out for me was this, “I came to
believe that a leader isn't good because they're right; they're good because
they're willing to learn and to trust” (McChrystal, TedTalks, 2011). This is so
important for leaders to keep in mind that being good doesn’t always mean you
are right, it is about making mistakes and being able to learn from them and
trusting your followers and them being able to trust you. These also tie into both figures on the text
when it comes to strategy and culture. “Implementing
strategic changes can be done more effectively when the culture of the
organization is taken into consideration” (Brown, 2011). This is a big part of what McChrystal was talking
about, taking the culture (the leaders, location, and mission) into
consideration when making changes. Both videos showed how leaders can make changes
for the better during transformational change and I know that I have learned a
lot from both of these videos.
References:
Brown, D.R. (2011). An
experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.).Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall
http://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal.html
No comments:
Post a Comment