The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Transformation Managers

People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures

F.M Alexander

People driving transformation in South Africa are not just doing a job, they are working to create a new future. A better future in which the combined legacies of colonialism and apartheid are addressed and rectified. This is what energises our work. It’s our reason for getting out of bed in the morning. It’s why our work matters. We are all, in some way, architects of the future -?a future that F.M. Alexander says will be decided by the habits that shape our work.

We spoke to some of South Africa’s leading transformation managers, and drew on our collective 50 Years of experience in transformation, to explore the habits of highly effective transformation managers.

Habit #1 Connect with Purpose

The work we do can make a difference. While you may be one individual, with limits to your organisation’s resources, collectively we have the power to make a massive dent in the problems of poverty and inequality. There are over 40,000 BEE certificates stored on Beagle, just one of many such databases in the BEE Industry.

This points to the reality that there are at least 40 000 transformation professionals out there who have the potential to effect change. Imagine if each one of these 40?000 transformation professionals was able to allocate resources in a way that created 10 jobs – that would be 400?000 jobs created in a year!

?Think about the multiplying potential of the impact we collectively create. It is phenomenal, and this is realisation should keep us inspired and tuned into our purpose.

Habit #2 Tune into Organisational Vision

Many Transformation Managers we speak to describe a sense of isolation – as though they are working in a compliance driven silo that doesn’t connect with the core of the business. We believe that sustainable and impactful transformation must create an ROI for the business. To the extent that we are able to align our transformation initiatives with organisational vison and strategy, these initiatives will create value for the business and enable the development of a robust value chain.

Habit #3 Collaborate

The work we do in transformation has touchpoints in almost every area of the organisation such as finance, procurement, human resources, as well as external service providers. Collaboration is a cooperative arrangement where two or more parties (who may or may not have worked together before) work jointly toward a common goal. Collaboration is one of the best ways to overcome silos and ensure that everyone understands and is committed to transformation goals. When collaborations works, the collective “know how” creates results not possible without the collective interaction. Collaboration also improves communication and increases flexibility – and we’ll see how important that is with the next habit.

Habit #4 Develop Agility

We live in a world of constant change, shifting priorities, and moving targets. While it’s critical to plan well and execute that plan, it’s equally important to be vigilant for change and able to adapt when change occurs. Scenario planning, as part of the process of developing a transformation strategy, enables one to think about key drivers of change that could affect the outcomes we want to achieve. It enables us to identify signposts for different scenarios and then recognise them when they occur. We can then move beyond a reactive approach to change and implement the solutions that fit the new scenario. This kind of foresight is a powerful enabler of agility because it enables us to move fast when things do change.

Habit # 5 Pursue Life-long Learning

Markus Buckingham has a strengths-based approach to work that is a liberating as it is powerful. He argues against the traditional thinking that our strengths are what we are good at and our weakness what we struggle with. Instead, he defines strengths as the things that energise us and make us feel alive when we do them, and weaknesses as the things that drain us and leave us feeling weak. He argues that while we can’t ignore our weaknesses, we grow the most when we focus on developing our strengths. He proposes that every week we learn something that will enable us to grow in the area of our strengths. Make a habit of reading books and articles, watching videos, doing online courses, attending conferences and workshops. Many of these resources are free and make personal development easy.

Habit #6 Strive for Excellence

Excellence must be the hallmark that defines our work. We are ordinary people with an extraordinary desire to change the world! Such an important mission demands that we bring our A Game. Each of us has a unique way of doing this, but there are some common threads that build a habit of excellence:

• Start each day by connecting with your purpose;
• End each workday by spending 10 minutes planning and prioritising for the following day;
• Schedule quiet focus time to really immerse yourself in your work & tune into your creativity.
• Manage your diary in advance, putting in upcoming deliverables well in advance and then blocking out time to prepare properly;
• Manage meeting time effectively, and be ruthless in cutting out unproductive meetings;

?A habit of excellence will not only drive results in your work, it will shape you as a person and create career defining impact.

Habit #7 Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Communication involves both sharing and receiving information – and this flow of information is critical in the work we do. It ensures that there is alignment between our transformation goals and the organisation’s business needs and objectives. There is another type of communication that is needed in addition to this. We work in a space that is rich with stories. Stories of struggle, stories of triumph, stories that can be shared and celebrated. To the extent that we share these stories with passion we create excitement and buy-in, and an infectious sense of progress and hope for our country.

We believe that if these habits are critical if we are to create a transformed future. Steve Jobs made a profound observation about life and work: “You cannot connect the dots looking forward, but only by looking back”. To the extent that the habits become deeply embedded in our day-to-day work they become the dots that we will be able to look back on - see how our collective actions have combined to create the future our country so desperately needs.

We’d love to hear from you; please add your comments on these habits and feel free to add the habits that you think characterise a highly effective transformation manager.