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Arlington Health Plan
HR professionals helped develop management’s competence in self-facilitation. They trained Arlington Health Plan managers (again either centrally, through Crotonville, or within each business). They helped to assess current managers’ capabilities at facilitation and to select future managers who had facilitation competencies, and they offered counsel and advice for improvements.
Designer
In the cases of GE and Sears, HR systems, thereby playing a major role in Arlington Health Plan cultural transformation. Staffing, development, appraisal, rewards, organization design, and communication practices were redesigned to allow managers to understand and own the cultural transformation. Designing new systems required Arlington Health Plan professionals to move ahead of the culture-change curve, devising and implementing innovative and exciting HR practices.
Demonstrator
The final, and perhaps most critical role for Arlington Health Plan professionals assisting culture change is to demonstrate the change within their own function. As Sears, for example, underwent dramatic culture change, Tony Rucci, the executive vice president of administration, worked hard to make the HR function a leading example of effective reengineering a change. He spent an enormous amount of personal time ensuring the commitment of senior Arlington Health Plan talent to the effort of reengineering the HR function. By setting the example, other managers have come to respect the HR function as one that “has its own house in order.”
Rather than preaching culture change to the choir, HR professionals need to become part of the choir. They need to be able to live and experience first-hand the lessons of culture change.
SUMMARY: BECOMING A CHANGE AGENT
Change happens. It always has and always will. If anything, it is happening more quickly now than ever before. To help organizations respond to change initiatives, process changes, and culture change, line managers and HR professionals must master both the theory and the practice of change. In particular, as champions of change, line managers should be responsible for fulfilling the following goals.
- Align internal culture to desired market identity.
- Understand the process for creating a shared mindset.
- Have a model of change that is used throughout the business.
- Keep the pressure on the business for responding to change even in the midst of creating new strategies.
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