Navigating change over the next six months

Navigating change over the next six months

'Coach Kriengsak, I want to discuss this year’s business plan,” Dumrong tells me.

“Khun Dumrong, what do you have in mind?”

“Last year we anticipated that the political conflict would end soon, and that 2014 would be business as usual. But we were wrong. As a result, for the first half of this year our results have been far behind the plan,” he explains. “Consequently, in the next six months we’ll have to do much more than the original plan in order to achieve our goals.”

“What do you plan to do differently?”

“I think I’ll announce that everyone needs to review how they work. They need to identify work processes that they can change in order to make a significant difference.”

“Khun Dumrong, before you announce this, perhaps you should carry out this exercise yourself first?”

“That’s right, Coach. I need to be a good role model.”

“Great. Which processes could you change to yield a significant result?”

“I don’t know.”

“All right. I remember that during the Bangkok Shutdown earlier this year, you and your team worked from home for few weeks. You told me you were more productive then. Why was that?”

“There were a couple of reasons. For a start, we modified how we organised our work. As a result, we reduced a lot of meetings, travel, and entertaining guests. I estimate we saw a 30-40% productivity improvement.”

“How could you apply that experience for the next six months?”

“I can reduce meeting time by 50% and use that time to visit key customers more. I plan to work from home once a week. It will give me more time for thinking and planning. I can cut back the time I spend entertaining by 80%.”

“That’s great. What else can you do differently?”

“I need to coach my team about their thinking. They are capable but have a tendency to do the same things over and over. But we have to think about new ways to work.

“In order to help them think differently, I need to spend time with each individual. I have to learn and really understand how each individual thinks, then find ways to help them to think differently. This will require me to spend at least an hour per person each week.”

“Good. What else?”

“I need to align them to be more united. My 10 direct reports are very capable and experienced, but most of them work in a silo manner. They have a tendency to set boundaries in each of their functional areas.”

“In what ways do you want to see them work together?”

“I want them to work in a ‘borderless’ way. I want them to be one big team not 10 separate small teams.”

“How do you do that?”

“I think I will start by making them feel that they are the one big team first.”

“One big team is great. How will you make that happen in a practical way?”

“I will change the incentive scheme. We have paid each of my direct reports based on individual performance for a few years now. But this year we will pay everyone the same percentage based on the company performance. Hence, they have to help each other to achieve the same goal and for the same reward.”

“That sounds like a good plan to me. Why didn’t you do it in the past?”

“We did. But we changed a couple of years ago because there were two team members who didn’t perform as well as the others. But now they have left and I think the team here is more accountable.”

“What can you do to ensure the team has great team spirit?”

Dumrong explains that he’s been impressed, and his staff should be too, by how the country’s seven main business organisations have responded to recent events: the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Thai Industries, Thai Bankers Association, Tourism Council of Thailand, Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations, Stock Exchange of Thailand and the Thai Listed Companies Association.

“Since the political conflict last year, they have united and proposed several initiatives in order to help national economic reform,” he says. “This is the first time in Thailand that I have seen the private sector really jointed hands in taking an initiative at the country level. They’re doing this because they feel that they are all in this together. I want our leadership team to have this kind of spirit.”

“That’s great. Let’s follow up in our next session.”


Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at coachkriengsak@yahoo.com. Daily inspirational quotations can be found on his Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/TheCoachinth. Previous articles are archived at http://thecoach.in.th

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