Create Your Own “Agent Force” to Prepare for Transformation. Now and in the Future.

At the recent ManuChem Conference in Berlin we asked more than 100 industry leaders what they saw as the biggest challenges to their transformation missions. These were the answers they gave to our online survey:

As you can see from the word cloud, many of the responses are related to “soft” factors and not to technical methods or solutions. The elements that were mentioned the most (i.e., in the bigger font) were around the need to create organizational alignment and trust, creating the right mindset of openness and empowerment to make transformations successful.

Many chemical companies still put a lot of their focus on technical improvements or solutions, and less on the development of skills needed to deal with the human, “soft” side of transformations. Those organizations which actively invest in roles like internal change agents, prove to be more successful in sustaining changes.

So what’s the best way forward?

Context, history and possibilities will differ for each organization (and even site), so you will need to develop your own perfect recipe for how to create this transformation force.

However, based on varied project experiences from across many contexts, which proven ingredients are most likely to lead you to success?

1. Look for the hidden gems in your organization. You will be surprised by the change talent you have in your organization if you search them out and give them the license, space and authority to act.
2. Invest in the development of your change talent — it will not happen accidentally. Equip them with practical methodology that can be used on the job. You will also need to invest to provide them with the right change toolkit and let them experience the real effects of applying it to deal with real challenges.
3. Engage your leadership for the change agent idea — talent is the scarcest and most in demand resource in every organization. Give leaders the confidence to allow their talent to act as change agents because they will get something even more valuable in return.
4. Keep things real — avoid a loose group of coaches with no clear scope or topics. Assign them to real activities and improvements, and give them traction and support. To quickly see the real impact they are having will be such a confidence and efficacy boost for the change agents, as well as the best argument for your organization.
5. Integrate your change agents into the local transformation infrastructure. Allowing all responsibility for transformation to fall on the shoulders of change agents is unrealistic and a recipe for failure. Instead, see them as catalysts — closely linked and integrated into local leadership teams and change infrastructure.