Registered as an electronic newspaper ISSN 1684-5722

In This edition

1. Unfinished Business: Mastering HR Business Design
2. Case Study: Connecting the Energy of People - KeySpan Corporation Transforms HR Service & Delivery
3. How To Be A Strong Leader In The Face Of Uncertainty
4. The Power Of Leverage
5. Complimentary HR Tools/Downloads:
6.Case Law & Legislation Review
7. Book Reviews
8. Unsubscribe & Moving Soon

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# We have had a number of requests recently from visitors to our website to provide additional information on a variety of legal issues such as the drafting of general business contracts and the Promotion of Access to Information Act which has its new deadline on 31st August 2005. If anyone is found guilty of non-compliance they can be fined an amount of up to R10 million or 2 years imprisonment.

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1. Unfinished Business: Mastering HR Business Design*

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1. Introduction

Over the past 10 years, the HR function has made significant progress in gaining a strategic voice. Today, the most respected HR leaders are business executives first and HR specialists second. These executives – from BP Amoco, DuPont, Home Depot, Pfizer, Siemens, and many more – are partners with and confidants of their CEOs and leadership teams. They often find themselves at the epicenter of corporate change, and many of them get credit for enabling the toughest of business transformations. It is a remarkable feat given today’s volatile markets and the maelstrom of increasing global competition.

These premier HR leaders not only occupy coveted seats next to their CEOs, but they are also being recruited by progressive domestic and global boards of directors. Responding both to the intense focus on complying with new cor-porate governance legislation and increased investor scrutiny, boards are retooling to ensure they have the right mix of highly qualified specialists – including human resource experts. The growing interest in HR’s con-tribution to business performance is also evident in the prevalence of transformation efforts and companies’ increased investment in them.

Mercer recently released its suite of regional research on the state of HR transformation around the world. The findings are clear: HR transformation has momentum. And it is increasingly recognized as an important factor in overall organizational performance

2. Current state of HR transformation

Of the nearly 1,100 companies Mercer surveyed worldwide, at least 75 percent have already com-pleted, are planning to complete, or are in the process of an HR transformation..In many regions, the figure is as high as 90 percent. Everywhere, the foremost objective for HR transfor-mation is to align the function with the organization’s goals – making it a strategic contributor and more responsive to today’s dynamic business climate. Despite this promising picture, there is evidence that key challenges still face the HR function in its quest to be aligned integrally with the organization’s strategic plan-ning and leadership. Increasingly, signs point to a significant gap between what is expected of HR leaders and what they deliver. In a recent CFO Research Services/ Mercer report, only 16 percent of 180 senior finance executives said they have anything more than a moderate understanding of the return they are getting on human capital expenditures. The same body of research also suggests that, while some progress has been made, nearly 60 percent of finance executives still view HR as more of a cost center than a strategic partner. Interestingly, though, data from many of Mercer’s regional HR transformation studies reveals that HR has a much different view.

The CFO report also found that 38 percent of finance executives say they now have an "important" or a "leadership" role in human capital decisions, but 62 percent think they should have one in the future. While HR executives may perceive that they are spending more time on strategic partnering activities, the incremental gains – and de-monstrated impact on business performance – do not reflect two decades of effort. Despite all efforts, nearly 30 percent of the HR func-tion’s time is currently spent on administrative activities. Compliance and administration absorb nearly half of the function’s available time. Meanwhile, HR specialists are striving to invert time spent on administration and increase time spent on strategic activities from about 13 percent to nearly 30 per-cent globally. The function remains driven to achieve a strategic focus, but our evidence suggests this has not yet been achieved. What has caused the apparent dis-connect? Why have at least four out of five HR functions globally embarked on some form of transformation but have yet to be credited with driving business outcomes?

The HR function cannot continue as it is. Until HR leaders complete he unfinished business of execut-ing the strategic demands of the business, the function will continue to underdeliver. A few true HR pio-neers have shown that execution is the true performance differential.

3. Connecting strategy to execution

Dennis Donovan describes effective HR execution this way: "It is the difference between plans that become reality and those that go nowhere." We couldn’t agree more. Donovan is Home Depot’s HR chief and HR Executive magazine’s 2003 Executive of the Year. He and a coterie of other HR leaders have mastered how to connect HR strategy and execution. Donovan main-tains that the "value added of any HR initiative is the result of the quality of the effort, the acceptance of stakeholders, and its execution."

This paper sets forth Mercer’s point of view on how to accomplish the level of business contribution that leading executives like Donovan have mastered. It reflects our expe-riences worldwide and describes an HR function business design. Our regional transformational sur-veys demonstrate progress made and challenges ahead for the function around the world. Yet for each global conclusion we draw, there are corresponding issues of cultural fit, organizational context, and speed of change that factor significantly into the successful design and implementation of transformation efforts. Our model for HR business design comprises four broad, yet interre-lated, dimensions. When properly aligned, each dimension flows predictably to the next. More importantly, each dimension plays a critical role in formulating a comprehensive strategy – and by extension, in maximizing the function’s contri-bution to business performance.

4. First, it’s always a matter of context

Around the world, businesses must contend with vastly different social, political, and economic climates – from one region’s financial stability and local culture to another’s volatile politics and state of tech-nological sophistication. Yet while operating within their unique regional environments, HR executives the world over face some common challenges:

>> Globalization’s unrelenting pace has widespread impact on economic activity and labor markets. Ever-stronger shareholder demands for increasing returns on investment have placed sustainable growth – and the human capital strategies needed to drive it – on the top of corporate agendas.

>> Given the rapid pace of change, companies must shift focus from delivering current products and services with specific technologies, processes, and people skills to building capabilities to deliver new value to customers.

>> Technology will continue to affect dramatically how and where work is done through teleconferencing, telecommuting, expert databases, and other shared data sources.

>> Demand for leadership at all levels continues to increase – particularly as supplies of top talent dwindle.

We have found that managing through these challenges – particularly while accommodating regional differences – is made easier by adopting an explicit framework for evaluating strategic context. We believe it is the third and fourth dimensions of HR business design (see Exhibit 4) that represent the greatest opportunity for HR to address its unfinished business and fulfill its strategic promise.

The third dimension, the HR function strategy, includes defining which overarching effectiveness and efficiency objectives must be met – and within what period – in order to deliver required business performance. Connecting this strategy to the HR operating model requires engaging busi-ness leaders in the development of an explicitly defined value proposition that clearly defines HR’s future priorities, roles, and deliverables.

The fourth dimension, the HR operating model, articulates what is required to "finish the business" and deliver exceptional performance by translating strategy into actions.

5. HR function strategy

The development of an effective HR strategy is accomplished by engaging business partners early in the process to collect and validate strategic business context. These discussions often unearth opportunities for developing a richer, more nuanced human capital strategy that integrates the real drivers of workforce and economic performance – ultimately a critical component in shaping what the HR function should be doing. Most organizations believe they have established an HR strategy once they have created a "mission" or "vision" statement. These statements – often ambiguous and lofty, and sometimes empty – fall woe-fully short of specifying clearly what value the function will deliver and how it will deliver it. As we view HR business design, strategic context leads to the development of an explicit HR strategy – an unambiguous definition of functional priorities, the services that will be provided, key changes to be made or initiatives to be carried out to improve the

6. Finishing the business: inside the details of execution

Change occurs at the point of execution. So say former AlliedSignal CEO Larry Bossidy and management consultant Ram Charan in their popular book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. In Mercer’s view, the fourth dimension of HR business design, the HR operating model, is what puts strategy into action and

enables HR to complete the job. The HR operating model includes three interrelated components. Sourcing, Infrastructure, and Governance.

*Reprinted by permission

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Workshop Notice: PricewaterhouseCoopers HR Academy Presents

‘A Master Class: Moving HR Into Line For The New Economy’

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A MASTER CLASS FOR HR PROFESSIONALS: The competitive pressures wrought by the New Economy & New World Of Work call for a change in the role of the Human Resources (HR) function. No longer is being a Strategic Partner sufficient!
 
In today's business environment, HR professionals must become business leader in their own right to identify new business opportunities, define business strategy, and company priorities, and prepare the organisation for discontinuous, and often disruptive change.

REGISTRATION FEE: Inclusive of lunches & teas, parking, and learning materials:

OUTCOMES OF THIS LEARNING OPPORTUNITY: The Master Class will help you develop a Change Project (for your own company situation) to begin to move HR into Line. Each learning unit is geared to produce measurable outcomes that will have an impact on the way you perform as an HR professional.

>> Update your knowledge base about how to position HR as a line function in the context of World Class in a developing economy.

>> Strategise how to implement the 12 practices, tactics and methods used by HR in winning companies to deal with being 'caught in the middle' of the competing demands of CEO's to deliver ever-increasing levels of service on a diminishing budget!

>> Take stock of your present situation, and chart a way forward to move HR into Line as a strategy to transform and reposition HR for the New Economy.

>> Develop a high-impact mind map to present to your CEO and CFO immediately after the Master Class with recommendations for transforming & repositioning HR into Line.

DATES & VENUES: A maximum of 15 delegates will be accepted for each class. The Master Class is also available as an in-company workshop for groups of not less than 10. Fees on application.

>> 21-22 July 2004 (Starts @ 07:30 for 08:00)
Venue: Pricewaterhouse Coopers Sunninghill; only 5 places still available

>> 4-5 August 2004 (Starts @ 07:30 for 08:00)
Venue: Pricewaterhouse Coopers Sunninghill

>> 19-20 August 2004 (Starts @ 07:30 for 08:00)
Venue: Pricewaterhouse Coopers Sunninghill

>> 6-7 September 2004 (Starts @ 07:30 for 08:00)
Venue: Pricewaterhouse Coopers Sunninghill

>> 22-23 September 2004 (Starts @ 07:30 for 08:00)
Venue: Pricewaterhouse Coopers Sunninghill

FACILITATORS: Andre Parker**, a seasoned HR Executive & Jeff Sacht Publisher-Editor of Equity Skills News & Views, founding partners of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers HR Academy will present an intensive 2-day Master Class for emerging HR Professionals. Andre Parker & Jeff Sacht are accredited Master HR Practitioners with the South African Board For Personnel Practice (SABPP).

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2. Case Study: Connecting the Energy of People - KeySpan Corporation*

Transforms HR Service & Delivery

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1. Introduction

The time had come. With a large merger in 1998 and an acquisition two years later, KeySpan Corporation was now the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern United States. It had expanded from a 3,000-employee, two-union company to a highly complex organization with 20,000 employees and retirees, 25 companies, 13 unions and more than 180 benefit programs.

But KeySpan's human resources department wasn't structured to handle the new, diversified needs of the company. It was time to transform HR.

Elaine Weinstein, senior vice president of human resources, faced a major challenge: reorganizing HR to keep up with the growing, changing business. Failure to do so meant that HR would further lag in its service delivery and risk the dissatisfaction of internal clients. For Weinstein, that was not an option.

Weinstein and the HR leadership team aimed to transform HR into an organization that could support KeySpan's goals: to become the premier energy company in the Northeast by growing the core business through acquisition, strengthening the focus on customers, reducing costs and becoming a great place to work. HR's vision of itself as a catalyst for change, a partner in success and a champion of people drove the transformation, which a team of Watson Wyatt consultants helped the company achieve.

2. An Evolving Industry

The energy industry has undergone sweeping changes, with recent trends toward globalization, deregulation, privatization, and mergers and acquisitions. To meet market demand and remain competitive, energy companies are updating heavily entrenched and bureaucratic ways of doing business. For business leaders in the energy industry, the challenge is to produce earnings, improve productivity, manage risk and strengthen customer relationships.

3. Building the Case for Change

"With 12,000 active employees dispersed over several states and 8,000 retirees across the country, HR needed to be more responsive and to improve our level of accuracy," says Weinstein. "The design side of HR was progressive; employees were happy with our creative benefits programs. But they rated our service as average to below average, and we didn't want to be average."

Due to the complexity of KeySpan's environment, HR was not structured to deliver high-quality services efficiently. The benefits plans were complex; the technology did not support call/case management and performance metrics; employees had limited self-service access to web-based applications; and most transactions were manually handled and paper-based.

Another challenge was that HR functioned in a silo. "We were very much an island — an isolated department with no HR customers," explains Weinstein. "But senior management wanted HR to be a business partner and to play a more strategic role within the company, to focus our energies on understanding the business and drive change within KeySpan."

To enable HR to set priorities and to allocate resources focused on value added and strategic activities, they needed to redesign HR's service delivery model. The new model would delineate roles, responsibilities and clients among the HR groups to enhance service delivery, leverage resources, increase efficiency and streamline work.

And there were cost pressures. For every dollar spent on operations, another was spent on support services. This heavy internal cost structure, which detracted from the company's competitive position, was no longer acceptable. "It wasn't enough to improve service delivery. We were under intense pressure to reduce our costs," says Bill Fibkins, director of employee services. "For senior management to invest in the transformation, we had to demonstrate the return on investment."

Solutions came in the form of a business case developed by Watson Wyatt. It included an assessment of current organization structure and processes, a new operating model for the delivery of employee services, an implementation strategy, and the quantification of anticipated costs and benefits. A comprehensive financial analysis showed a total investment (facility upgrades, technology, implementation support and severance) of $4.2 million with a payback period of 2.7 years.

"The resulting business case was compelling and convinced senior management of the need to invest resources in HR's transformation," says Fibkins.

4. Creating the Road Map

Once the business case was approved, KeySpan needed a way to turn HR's vision into reality. With a team of Watson Wyatt consultants, they developed the transformation blueprint — a project milestone.

5. Overseeing the Transformation

Given the complexity of the HR transformation, Watson Wyatt recommended that KeySpan establish a program management office (PMO) to coordinate and oversee the project. Originally developed for the IT sector and typically used in large-scale technology projects, a PMO is charged with high-level, multiproject management oversight.

KeySpan's PMO has many functions. It provides oversight and guidance to the various project teams and brings discipline and standardization to the processes, communication and reporting. The PMO fosters integration across teams and tracks their progress, ensuring that the teams are meeting their business objectives. In addition, it is in charge of communication and change management strategies for the transformation, including producing and distributing the monthly HR Transformation Newsletter.

"The newsletter is distributed to HR employees to keep them abreast of the initiative's progress, and we've received very positive feedback about it," says Margaret McCann, project manager, PMO. "Employees feel in the loop and can knowledgeably speak about the transformation because the newsletter explains the many changes in one integrated, unified voice."

With the HR transformation well under way, McCann thinks that the PMO has met its objectives. "One of the most valuable contributions of the PMO is that it has enabled HR senior leaders to focus on the big issues, without having to worry about the day-to-day transformation efforts. This creates a sense of comfort that someone is overseeing the initiative."

The blueprint included a new organizational design, design principles and a portfolio of HR products and services. A vital component was the integrated service delivery model, which assigned roles, responsibilities and clients to the three groups that composed HR. The Center of Expertise, responsible for policy design and development, serves executive leadership. The Business Partner Consulting Group acts as liaison to business leadership. And Employee Services, responsible for HR service delivery and transaction processing, owns the employee relationship. The blueprint also defined the critical jobs within each group, as well as their required competencies, and mapped out a project plan for implementation.

Developing the blueprint allowed HR leadership to help design the new organization and paved the way for change. The process encouraged communication among the groups, planted seeds for future collaboration and greater integration, and laid out the HR cultural changes necessary to make the transformation a success.

Once the new organization structure was put in place, the three HR divisions set to work to understand their unique value to the business, how their work processes would flow and how they needed to collaborate with the other parts of HR. Then the entire HR organization began to realize the true implications of moving to the new model.

6. Building a Service Center

Since the HR service center was an important component of KeySpan's HR service delivery model — and a key enabler of reducing costs — developing and implementing Employee Services (ES) became the cornerstone of the transformation.

At the same time, ES faced daunting challenges: establishing the leadership team, defining positions within ES and selecting individuals for each role. In addition, decisions concerning union employees required ongoing discussions and agreements, and the group had to find a new service center location and build a facility. All of this before ES could open in six months.

One of the first steps was to establish the guiding principles of ES: its mission, vision, culture and brand. These elements were based on five key traits — accessibility, customer orientation, results-driven programs, knowledge and a positive work environment — that KeySpan leaders kept at the top of the priority list as they developed the new organization.

To accomplish its objectives within the six-month period, ES formed project teams. Process teams refined and defined business processes; technology teams handled call routing, case management and knowledge management technology requirements; and people teams defined organizational structure, roles and responsibilities, conducted capability assessments, developed and implemented training, established a change management and communications strategy, and redesigned the service center.

"Our old facility was outdated and in need of a facelift," Fibkins says. "We had to redesign the layout because management sat on one side and employees on the other, which was not a team-oriented setting." To solicit employee feedback, ES held focus group meetings where staff members were asked not only to describe their ideal workspace but to draw it. HR looked at the suggestions during subsequent design meetings, and eventually incorporated many of them into the final plans.

The resulting service center fosters a comfortable and collaborative environment. It features enabling technology to support service delivery; fulfillment areas to maintain efficient processes; upgraded workstations for employee service representatives and case workers, with ergonomically acceptable furniture and equipment; and a dedicated training area. It also includes a quiet room for staff and a spacious lunch room.

7. The Critical Pieces

With two-thirds of KeySpan's employees unionized — many working in HR roles — it was also critical for HR to manage union relations. "We had a labor relations expert lead the people team due to the many employment issues involved in the implementation," says Watson Wyatt consultant Mike Esposito. "Because there was a great deal of job refinement and responsibility realignment, it was important to consult with the unions from the beginning. Improving service delivery helps HR and the unions achieve shared business outcomes, which in turn supports positive union relations."

"We had to be certain that all stakeholders…were completely clear on how the access to and delivery of services would change," says Bill Fibkins, KeySpan’s director of employee services.

In addition to becoming a reliable, single point of contact for all HR service needs, ES establishes performance targets and expectations, and monitors workflow and customer satisfaction. "To ensure the metrics remained a focal point, we hired an effectiveness manager to gather and interpret the metrics, monitor progress and make improvements as needed," says Fibkins. "If we were going to play a strategic role in the organization, we needed to be sure that we were aligning our resources with the company's needs." Tracked performance metrics included volume of inbound requests, call duration, number and types of escalated cases, time to close a case and levels of customer satisfaction.

Also critical to ES' success was the communication and change management strategy. "With so many employees and retirees spread across the country, we had to be certain that all stakeholders understood the HR vision and mission and were completely clear on how access to and delivery of services would change," says Fibkins. To make sure the necessary communication went out at the right time to the right people, the team implemented a detailed, rolling communication plan using e-mail, leadership meetings, newsletters, posters, intranet postings, user guides, postcards and banners.

"One of our greatest challenges was the change management piece," Weinstein says. "We spent a great deal of time identifying potential obstacles and developed a proactive approach to address these challenges. A change-readiness survey, alignment sessions, scenario planning and simulation sessions were conducted to prepare the HR team for real-life business situations. Overall, the feedback was very positive, but without our clients on board, the transition would not have been a success."

8. The Next Phase

Once Employee Services was operational, the Center of Expertise (COE) and Business Partner Consulting Group (BPCG) began preparing for the transformation. Similar to the work undertaken by ES, each group conducted a session to articulate its vision, mission, culture and brand, and to define its products and services.

Staffed by subject-matter experts, the COE designs and develops HR programs and policies in response to KeySpan's strategic needs. Under the new structure, the COE concentrates on compensation and benefits, in addition to health services, external recruiting, talent management, workforce compliance and diversity.

"Aligning all of these areas supports the shared services model, as these groups work together to create integrated and innovative policies and programs that help the line businesses succeed," says Justin Orlando, vice president, COE. "Additionally, we hope to leverage the collective knowledge within the group to build a strong employee-valued portfolio of HR programs and practices that will continue to attract, develop and retain a high-quality workforce."

BPCG staff members act as liaisons to the lines of business, providing services to all strategic business unit officers and managers company-wide. Bill Bollbach, vice president, BPCG, says: "Our focus as a customer-driven organization is to support the business units in achieving their objectives through efficient employee management and to make client priorities our priorities. Paramount is finding solutions to client needs and wants, and acting as coach, advisor, change agent and architect."

The new BPCG contains two centers of expertise. One focuses on an enterprise-wide labor relations strategy providing progressive labor relations services and solutions; the other concentrates on organization effectiveness.

9. The Transformation Continues

"Collaboration of all three HR divisions is key to the success of the transformation," Orlando says. "If this structure is going to work, employee services, the BPCG and the COE will need to maintain open, two-way communication with our clients — and with each other."

This communication includes transferring information from the COE on all employee programs. Also, Employee Services and the BPCG must provide feedback on how these programs are being implemented, perceived and accepted by business areas and employees. HR must analyze the feedback to address priority issues and must develop and change programs to keep pace with the needs of the business.

"For the transformation to be successful, HR needed to move from a functional to a process-oriented operation," says Watson Wyatt consultant Barbara Spitzer. "The work that was once performed by a deep specialist — everything from design to administration — was now divided across three new HR divisions. This called for much greater collaboration and an appreciation for how to work in a process organization."

10. A Work in Progress

"We've certainly come a long way since last year, but the transformation is a work in progress and will evolve over time," says Weinstein. "HR is well on its way to meeting our business case, but I see this as an evolutionary process."

So far, feedback has been extremely positive. Opening on schedule this past June and under budget by about $.7 million, ES received more than 4,100 calls in its first month of operation; it resolved 93 percent of all cases and earned customer satisfaction ratings of 91 percent. In addition, ES has achieved the cost savings it committed to in the business case — a major accomplishment for HR.

The business units also have reacted positively to the changes. They can now depend on HR to assist with business issues and help facilitate business unit strategies. Says Bollbach, "They get more value from HR, administratively as well as strategically, which helps us form a stronger partnership."

Adds Wally Parker, president, energy delivery and customer relations: "HR plays a critical role at KeySpan. By helping to solve the business issues, as well as the people issues, HR supports the corporation — and all of its employees — through the business transformation."

"When KeySpan employees think of HR, I'd like them to view us as an organization that progressively plans for their future and advances the company's corporate culture, making it a great place to work," Weinstein explains. "When executives think of our organization, I'd like to hear them say that HR pushed them to make difficult decisions and helped them through the process.

"And when employees within HR think of us, I hope they are proud to be part of a group that stepped out ahead of the rest of the company to reinvent HR as a catalyst for change, a partner in success and a champion of people."

* Reprinted by permission.

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Ithemba Integrated Learning Workshops: July-August 2004

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# Measures Of Combating White-Collar Fraud & Corruption In The
South African Corporate Arena: assisting organisations fight
crime and corruption.
>> 21-23 July 2004 at the Bedfordview Conference Centre, Bedfordview

>> For all levels of management, Supervisors, Personnel of the Public and Private Sectors

# International Risk Control Conference 2004: Total Disaster Management for Business Continuity and Service Delivery
>> 27-29 July 2004 at Caesars Palace - Johannesburg
>> For CEO's and Directors, Financial Managers, Risk Managers & Consultants,
>> Disaster Management: Early warning systems; The health impact during a disaster
>> A Master Plan for Disaster Management: The capital City approach; The disaster identification process: Emergency Response

# Management Skills Enhancement Through Self-Evaluation

>> 4-5 August 2004, Johannesburg
>> Generate a detailed profile of your management skills; Increase self-understanding and commitment to your own development
>> Develop a personalised development plan; Develop insight into the practices followed by excellent and respected managers.

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3. How To Be A Strong Leader In The Face Of Uncertainty*

By Linda Ackerman Anderson and Dean Anderson

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1. Introduction

A common assumption among leaders and managers is that their success is dependent on having the right answers at the right time and providing clear direction to their people amidst the clamor of day-to-day operations. This may have been historically true when the pace and complexity of change were moderate, but is far less so in times of large scale, high-pressured transformational change.

Transformation is a very uncertain and unpredictable process that requires a new leadership approach: 1) the outcome is unknown at the start and must be figured out as you proceed; 2) this "figuring it out" process requires constant course correction; 3) this journey is only semi-controllable and largely erratic; and 4) given the magnitude of uncertainty, people get mentally and emotionally triggered with feelings of fear, anger, and confusion. Attempting to control the process and pre-determine the outcome, while an admirable desire, is just not possible in transformation. And trying to do so makes things worse!

No control? No ready answers? No trust-worthy plan and timetable? What’s a leader to do? In this article we will help you answer these critical questions and find comfort, strength and success in a new leadership style. We will outline six key actions that you can take to stay on top of the bucking bronco of change and continue to provide guidance and stability. We will demonstrate how these actions provide sound leadership in times of uncertainty, as well as debunk the faulty assumption that you, as the leader, should be all-knowing.

2. Engaging People in the Uncertainty You Face

For your transformation to succeed, you must engage your people in the change in ways that empower them to respond in real time to their chaotic reality. They cannot wait for you to figure things out individually, they must do so on their feet in real time – collectively. The constant course corrections required in transformation are most successful when you have accurate information, and the more eyes you have on the ball, the better. Engaging your people to gather information and strategize with you will increase the speed of your change because your course corrections will be far less severe and more direct to your target.

This requires a far different leadership style than relying solely on you, the leader, for the answers. Your leadership strength will need to come from a different place. Instead of providing the answers, you will need to develop the correct questions. Instead of directing the outcome, you will need to guide the process. Instead of being the hero, you will need to become the supporter of others. This is not to suggest that you hold back when you do know the answer or have clear guidance. However, when things are unclear, turn to these actions.

Personally, you will need to become very comfortable with uncertainty. You will have to learn to sit in your own fear without automatically jumping into action in an attempt to take it away. You will need to develop great trust in others to come through in times of stress and challenge. And you will have to develop inner satisfaction in "holding the space" for your people to collectively generate the desired outcome rather than being the one individual that provides it.

In other words, you will have to demonstrate great strength as a human being.

3. How to Address Uncertainty with Your People

Where you once felt responsible to your people for taking uncertainty away, your new role is to engage others with you in the uncertainty. This will produce a better "answer" for your organization’s transformation, and your people will build their commitment to the change at the same time.

When you face uncertainty, follow these six steps for successfully navigating it:

Tell the truth about the change: what is happening and what is known. Of equal importance, share what is NOT happening or is NOT known about the change.

The operative words here are "tell the truth." People usually know when things are afoot, or amiss. Since you are without a clear future state or rock solid plan, you can only communicate what you know to be true at this point in time. This will inevitably trigger a conversation about what can and cannot be shared at this time, what is politically safe to share, and what the repercussions will be for leadership credibility. This last point is especially important if you have cultural norms like, "The leader knows all," or, "People should depend on the leader for clear next steps." You can begin to impact these limiting norms by how you deal with uncertainty!

When facing uncertainty, fill in the blanks you can for people, or at least name the blanks so that people will not create destructive rumors about their worst fears. Sometimes the most powerful communication is telling people what the change is NOT, and what is NOT occurring in the change. The last thing you should do is not communicate at all, for the lack of clear answers. Leaders who are uncomfortable demonstrating their lack of answers do more harm by keeping people in the dark for too long. People will fill this void too easily with fear-based stories. Instead, show your leadership, compassion and courage by sharing truthfully what you know and do not know!

Share your own reactions to the uncertainty, and make it OK for people to express their real feelings about what is going on.

Imagine the impact of a leader who says, "I wish I had all of the answers figured out, but I don’t. I fear that we don’t have all of the information or the right information yet, and, honestly, I am concerned about rushing ahead because getting it wrong would be too costly for all of us. I need your help. Collectively, I believe we can do it. When I think about what is possible when we put our collective brains together, I get excited. So, right now I am both nervous and excited. How about you? What are your reactions to what is going on?"

This set-up can be followed with discussion about how people are feeling, and how their reactions are helping or hindering getting the change figured out. Emotional sharing, done in a safe and productive atmosphere, can serve to clear the air and open up creative juices. It sets the stage for learning and innovation.

4. Frame up the key question(s) you have to answer.

Identify and communicate the "question of the day." Transformational change will never roll out the way you plan it. You will be getting more intelligent by the day, if you are open to it. Knowing the right question is more than half the battle, and can have the same effect as having the right answer. Consider these examples of framing up key questions:

"What we need to figure out now is which technology platform can best suit our complex set of requirements. We thought we had a clear solution, but we have come to realize that our needs are not that simple. We are reviewing our requirements and should have a conclusion next month."

"We need to design the best structure to deliver our business strategy before we can name the next round of leaders and their staff. We started to think about people before we knew what roles we need to be successful, and so now we will get our structure clear first, and then fit the best people to the right jobs."

"Although our proposed structure looks good on paper, we cannot finalize it until we fully understand the scope and cost of the changes it triggers. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs around the initial structure. So, now we know that if we don’t have the revenues and skills to support it, we will have to redesign it so that we do."

In the absence of answers, these statements intelligently and realistically present the key issue at hand. When you frame the current key question, be sure to include any information you have learned that is enabling you to be more precise or realistic. Declaring your learning is powerful modeling, especially since you need everyone to keep getting more and more intelligent as things proceed.

Describe the process to address the question at hand, including the specific steps being planned, the people directly involved, and the timetable for this piece of work.

If there is a plan already in place to answer the question at hand, give that information to the people who are either waiting or involved. Be as specific as possible. If there is not yet a plan, describe how it will be created and communicated. When you share the timetable, stick with it, or when necessary, communicate that you are extending it, and why. You may need to alter your process a number of times. Just keep telling people the status, what you are learning, and why you need to proceed differently than previously planned. Keep celebrating what you are learning and how it will produce a better outcome!

If desired, engage these people to provide input to the question at hand. Set clear expectations from the beginning about what will be done with their input.

Request people’s clear-headed reactions, ideas, and out-of-the-box thinking. Communicate what input you need, how it will be gathered, who will consider the data, and how it will be used to shape key decisions.

Be sure to make the decision-making process overt (i.e., leader decides, majority vote, consensus, etc.) You do not need to respond to or act on everyone’s individual ideas directly. Simply give people the opportunity to have a say, then communicate how you will take their ideas into account.

Commit to communicate back to your people at a specific time (or regularly) about what is happening, whether or not the "answer" has been found, or what next steps are now required to move the inquiry further along.

Announce the process going forward so that everyone knows how the answers will be generated. Also, it is very important to "close the loop" when you invite input. Let people know what you did with their input, what impact it had, and how you will proceed. These respectful gestures will demonstrate your sincerity and encourage people to continue to contribute in the future.

5. Increase Your Credibility with Your People

You might worry that people will think that you are a bad leader if you reveal that you do not know what to do next and involve them in figuring it out instead of doing so yourself, but this is usually not the case. If you have an entrenched cultural expectation that leaders must direct and employees can only act when the leaders tell them to, people may have some initial doubt. Stay with it. On a personal level, you will find that people respond favorably to you when you tell them the truth of the uncertainty you face, which is inherent in transformation. They will trust you more and find you more credible.

6. Summary

These actions can be very powerful mindset and culture changing strategies. When you are facing critical unknowns in your organization’s transformation, be it early or late in the journey, you have a great opportunity to engage your people by inviting them into the uncertainty with you to figure out the best course of action. The alternative, keeping them out of the process and deciding next steps yourself, actually causes less than optimal solutions. It also makes for uninvolved, resistant, and resentful employees.

By being authentic and telling the truth of the uncertainty you face, you will engage the desire of your people to contribute like never before. You will find them being a part of the solutions, not makers of the problems, and far more committed to your change effort’s success. These six steps will assist you to engage your people in this journey with you, in a way that everybody wins.

"Reprinted with permission

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman Anderson are well known experts on organizational change, and the authors of "Beyond Change Management" and "The Change Leader's Roadmap," two highly praised books about how to lead and consult to transformational change successfully.

RESULTS FROM CHANGE is written by Linda Ackerman Anderson and Dean Anderson, and is published by Being First, Inc., http://www.beingfirst.com/, 1242 Oak Drive, DW2, Durango, CO, 81301, 970/385-5100.

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4. The Power Of Leverage*

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1. Introduction

Almost all successful individuals understand the power of leverage. And that success in any endeavor is accelerated by using leverage. You may become successful without using leverage but, you if you aren’t using it, that means you are willing to compromise the level of success, speed, and time necessary to get to each level.

2. Leverage is an action or mechanical effect to help achieve a purpose.

Leverage has been used since time immemorial. In fact, each of us has experienced, used, or witnessed leverage, but we are not all aware of the importance and the incredible power of leverage in everything that we do. The cost of not utilizing leverage in your personal life and business strategy is huge. We need to get intentional and strategic in the use of leverage in every part of our lives.

But first, let’s discover where we did not use leverage and thus experienced limited results.

Here is my example. In the late ‘80s, I became involved in the training and speaking industry by buying into a sales-training franchise. It seemed to make sense. I was a top sales performer and this transition was one where I could bring immediate credibility to my programs.

One major item was missing, however. Yes, leverage . . . in the area of marketing. I look back at this now and shudder at what I did. As franchisees, we were instructed to have four appointments a day and hold public programs for our sales training. The method taught by the franchiser was one without leverage: simply pick up the phone and start calling people — anyone, one-on-one. Don’t bother to profile the potential clients — just call.

Even though I was in the Top 5 of all the franchisees, I was still losing money. There simply was no leverage. Within a couple of years, the franchiser lost all its seed capital and went bankrupt, no leverage was just one reason.

So let’s go the other way and describe where leverage is being used by successful individuals every day.

In the TV show The Apprentice, Donald Trump was expounding about his large real estate and development projects, including the almost $1 billion new Trump Tower in Chicago.

Do you think for a moment that he’s using is own money? Not a chance; his projects are being built with other people’s money. What about the design? Would he be using other people’s experience, expertise, and ideas to design and fulfill his project objectives? Of course. Who is going to build this tower? It will be the work of other people. In fact, Donald’s projects are impossible without leverage. Yes, some will argue he is leveraged (has borrowed) too much, but that is not the point. Without leverage, none of this would have been possible. The greater the amount of leverage (if done correctly and soundly), the greater the speed to achievement.

The key to leverage is to be aware, strategic, and intentional in its use everywhere, both personally and in our businesses. To best illustrate leverage, here are examples of the contrast between using it and not using it.

>> Buying a home

Purchase home with cash: No Leverage

Mortgage: Money Leverage

>> Learning a new computer program

Teach yourself with help books: No Leverage

Hire an expert to teach you in half the time: Expertise Leverage

>> Determining your personal purpose and career

Do it on your own without help: No Leverage

Complete an assessment to accelerate the process: Time & Expertise Leverage

>> Building a successful business

Do it on your own: No Leverage

Create strategic alliances and JV partnerships: Contact & Credibility Leverage

Of course the list can go on forever in every aspect of our lives. In some cases, using leverage is not appropriate, but it should be considered in most situations.

By going it alone, you are without leverage. You will have to rely on your own time, contacts, experience, expertise, money, and other resources. This is a painfully slow way to proceed and it will limit, hinder, and reduce your success.

Interestingly enough, we tend to react in the opposite direction when we are under stress or pressure; we contract (to save money or resources) using fewer contacts and less leverage at the exact time when we need to expand our reach and impact via leverage.

If you embrace leverage as a foundational strategy, you will feel release and freedom because you no longer have to be everything to everybody all the time by yourself.

3. Action Steps

Apply this summary of leverage points to all of your activities. Identify where you can intentionally implement more leverage:

>> Connect with someone who is already a master at leverage and get his or her feedback/coaching on how to expand this concept in your life. (By the way, this strategy is leverage in itself)

>> To maximize the strategy of leverage, you will have to give up your ego. If you want to be the center of attention, designer, and creator of all that you have, this process will not be as successful.

>> Be intentional about creating Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures, but only JV with individuals or organizations with like-values. (Use the CRG Online Values Preference Indicator as a starting point.)

>> I want to challenge you to double your expectations around your objectives in life — by the end of this week. The only way you can achieve that is by outside resources (leverage). Force yourself to think of all the ways, relationships, and processes that would help you achieve that goal.

>> Continuously be on the lookout for enhancements and new opportunities to increase your leverage. What started out for me as a one-on-one coaching business has lead to seminars (50 people per session) to tele-seminars (hundreds of people) to training company and e-zine (thousands) and a Website (millions).

*Reprinetd by permission

5. Complimentary HR tools/downloads: Change Leader’s Roadmap?

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# What is the Change Leader’s Roadmap? A comprehensive change strategy consists of three areas: 1) Content (the organizational and technical areas you must change); 2) People (the mindset, behavioral and cultural changes required to deliver your content changes); and 3) Process (the actions required to plan, design, and implement ALL of your changes (content and people) in an INTEGRATED and UNIFIED manner).

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6. Book Reviews

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# Trust and Distrust In Organizations: Dilemmas and Approaches

By Roderick M. Kramer and Karen Cook, Russell Sage Foundation, 2004

The issue of trust has seemingly never been more on the forefront, thanks to a wave of corporate scandals from Enron to Martha. But recent scholarship in the social sciences on this issue of trust points to a wide range of perspectives on this elusive yet pervasive theme.

Part of the Russell Sage Foundation Series on Trust, Trust and Distrust in Organizations: Dilemmas and Approaches is a compilation of recent research and theory on issues of trust and distrust across a diverse range of organizational settings including the doctor-patient relationship, social work relationships, geographically dispersed teams, virtual teams, and the Internet. Additionally, the studies in this volume include a diverse representation of quantitative and qualitative research methods from sociologists, social psychologists, and political scientists.

The first part of the book focuses on trust relationships that are hierarchical such as employer-employee and doctor-patient, while the second part examines the impact of trust in collective situations such as teams and networks.

Part three presents challenges of trust in various settings such as managing images of trustworthiness in organizations and the effects of betrayal when trust is broken.

# Ready to Lead? A Story for New Leaders and Their Mentors

By Alan Price. Jossey-Bass, 2004

The protagonists of most business books have names like Welch, Gerstner, or Drucker. In Ready to Lead, our hero is Mark Gibson—and he doesn't exist.

Author Alan Price combines a fictional character with real-life business situations to get at the issue of what is needed for a talented manager to grow into a leader. The book begins with Gibson's performance review on his third anniversary, at which his boss delivers a complimentary evaluation and ends with a question: "Are you ready to lead?" There begin his first steps toward thinking about and eventually becoming an effective leader.

The issues dealt with here are familiar including developing the right mindset for advancing from management to leadership, incorporating the customer's perspective, focusing on the mission, dealing with conflict, and mentoring. But viewing these challenges through a fictional lens allows Price to offer these lessons in an entertaining and relatively brief (148 pages) parable.

Price is president of INSPIRITAS, and former director of the Global Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School.

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# STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING

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7. Case Law & Legislation Review:

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# NUMSA & others v Greenfields Labour Hire CC & another: Procedural fairness in dismissals based on operational requirements

SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE: It is common cause that some consultation did take place both between the trade union and employees and also with the assistance of a facilitator appointed in terms of Section 189A. The trade union alleges that the consultations were abruptly and unfairly ended. The process commenced when management sent a letter to the union indicating the need for the retrenchment of all general workers based on operational requirements, and lack of contracts due to a financial situation that prevails. A meeting was held where management informed the trade union/employees of the failure to secure contracts which had resulted in management having no further work for the employees.

A letter was sent out detailing various proposals as to selection criteria, severance pay and other issues relating to the contemplated termination. An alternative to retrenchment "in the short term" was stated to be "that of a lay-off for one month and then to reassess the situation as to whether to continue with retrenchment or not". The CCMA appointed a facilitator who chaired a meeting where it was agreed that the employer could lay off employees for the period of a month, and that they would reconvene at the end of the month to assess to employer’s financial situation. Various other issues relating to the retrenchments were also discussed at this meeting, including that some workers may want to take a voluntary retrenchment package.

A further meeting was held to discuss the practical issues relating to the layoffs, and arrangements were agreed to that regard. At a later meeting, management indicated that the financial situation had improved slightly and that they could retain the services of 11 employees. A further letter from the trade union indicated that there were employees that would volunteer for retrenchment and stated their conditions. In the CCMA facilitator’s final meeting both sides agreed on the selection criteria. In the following meeting, the final list of names, severance pay, recall procedure, company assistance and the selection of the 11 retrenchees was discussed. A final list of retrenchees was submitted by the employer (which included some of the names put forward for voluntary retrenchment), as well as a notice to retrench. The employer stated that the employees would have a financial statement at the end of the month to prove that management could not pay more than the statutory minimum. The trade union then replied that they were in dispute over the selection criteria for the retrenchment, including the need to retrench. In management’s answer, they informed the employees that management might reconsider retaining the original 11 employees as well as its offer of reemployment. Both parties agreed that the matter should be referred for arbitration, which was aborted when the employer notified the employees that they would be paying the retrenchment packages the next day.

SUMMARY OF JUDGEMENT: The Court held that here was a full consultation process in relation to the severance package applicable to retrenchees in general. Any complaint that individuals may have had in relation to their selection for retrenchment was capable of being referred to arbitration, which the trade union elected not to pursue. The only issue before this court is whether there was an adequate opportunity to consult. In the court’s view there was such an opportunity and it was adequate. It was submitted by the trade union that had there been further opportunity to consult, it could have yielded acceptance of voluntary retrenchments so as to avoid compulsory retrenchments. Only eight indicated an acceptance of voluntary retrenchment. Management agreed to retrench most of those, while electing to retain the minority in the interests of skills retention. The Court found that there was accordingly a process of consultation, allowing the union to make its proposals and representations. Management was then entitled to take its decision. The Court considered that it would be difficult to see how any further consultation was either necessary or appropriate, or could have affected the final decision to retrench. Therefore, the court was satisfied that the consultation process was adequate in the circumstances, and complied with the requirements of the LRA. Accordingly, the application failed and the union was directed to pay the costs.

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