Storytelling for Stakeholder alignment

Challenge

I lead a team of 50+ people and we are an inhouse shared service team for finance planning and analysis  for the busines. We have been traditionally organized exactly like the business. - If there is a business  group A, we have a team for A, within A if there is a sub-group AA, we took have a sub-team within A for  AA. We saw that the work distribution was not equitable- there were sharp peaks and valleys. Some  people were burning the midnight oil while some had large periods of nil activity. Also, we observed that  the same things were being done in multiple formats across teams. It was imperative that we re- organize ourselves, so that we could rationalize resource allocation, standardize work, remove  duplication and replicate best practices. The challenge was to first make this re-organization and then  get alignment from the business and from our own people that this is the best thing to do. Also, we  were moving into the unknown- will this org design work or blow up in our face?

Selection

We collected all data- people's day jobs, number of hours, graphically represented the peaks and  valleys. We mind-mapped an organization design which would be completely functional- for example if  there is an Activity X, 1 person would do it for all businesses. That we figured is the ideal state we  wanted to be- our wow state. But then the practical problems started showing up- the penetration was  not equivalent across domains, meaning an activity X was not done to the same extent for all  businesses. To take this to a workable state, we decided to start with small changes- only people  managers to be functional, individuals remained business aligned. We built a story around better service  delivery to the business and better career development for the people. We spoke to each business  leader, pointed out what great things (example touchless digital reporting on cost) we were doing for  the other businesses and how this new structure will enable them to take advantage of the skills of our  people and make themselves digitally savvy or obtain insights for decision making. Next was to socialize  it with our internal team- we told them about the enhancement of their portfolio, increased learning  about other parts of the business, becoming a Center of Excellence in a function.

Insight

Any number of facts and figures about people's disproportionate engagement would not have enabled  us to get this Re-org done amicably. Its the story we built on "what's in it for me". Different stories for  different sets of people. Everyone felt involved and gave us their views and suggestions which helped in  making a more robust organization, since people felt invested in the success of this re-org

Approach

We spent a lot of time in the initial stages just playing with the data, visualizing it in various ways,  assuming that this is what we needed to present to make our stakeholders understand. I will use the  same tool of story-telling, but sooner.


Storytelling for Stakeholder alignment Challenge I lead a team of 50 + people and we are an inhouse shared service team for finance planning and analysis for the busines . We have been traditionally organized exactly like the business . - If there is a business group A , we have a team for A , within A if there is a sub - group AA , we took have a sub - team within A for AA . We saw that the work distribution was not equitable- there were sharp peaks and valleys . Some people were burning the midnight oil while some had large periods of nil activity . Also , we observed that the same things were being done in multiple formats across teams . It was imperative that we re- organize ourselves , so that we could rationalize resource allocation , standardize work , remove duplication and replicate best practices . The challenge was to first make this re - organization and then get alignment from the business and from our own people that this is the best thing to do . Also , we were moving into the unknown- will this org design work or blow up in our face ? Selection We collected all data- people 's day jobs , number of hours , graphically represented the peaks and valleys . We mind - mapped an organization design which would be completely functional- for example if there is an Activity X , 1 person would do it for all businesses . That we figured is the ideal state we wanted to be- our wow state . But then the practical problems started showing up- the penetration was not equivalent across domains , meaning an activity X was not done to the same extent for all businesses . To take this to a workable state , we decided to start with small changes- only people managers to be functional , individuals remained business aligned . We built a story around better service delivery to the business and better career development for the people . We spoke to each business leader , pointed out what great things ( example touchless digital reporting on cost ) we were doing for the other businesses and how this new structure will enable them to take advantage of the skills of our people and make themselves digitally savvy or obtain insights for decision making . Next was to socialize it with our internal team- we told them about the enhancement of their portfolio , increased learning about other parts of the business , becoming a Center of Excellence in a function . Insight Any number of facts and figures about people 's disproportionate engagement would not have enabled us to get this Re - org done amicably . Its the story we built on " what 's in it for me " . Different stories for different sets of people . Everyone felt involved and gave us their views and suggestions which helped in making a more robust organization , since people felt invested in the success of this re - org Approach We spent a lot of time in the initial stages just playing with the data , visualizing it in various ways , assuming that this is what we needed to present to make our stakeholders understand . I will use the same tool of story - telling , but sooner .