• Log in
• Sitemap
• Privacy statement

• Contact

• Introduction
• Achieving congruence
• Applications
• Markets
• Business Cases
• FAQ
• Contact

Getting a bogged-down change process moving again

Many years ago a semi-public agency was set up to interpret complex legislation and regulations in terms that could be understood by the general public. The immediate financial consequences of the legislation and regulations for the government and the general public gave cause to the need for the agency to carry out its work with extreme accuracy. Consequently it is hardly surprising that the agency recruited managers and staff who had an empathy with rules and accuracy. However, in recent years society has increasingly shifted from an attitude of “Explain the rules to me” to “Tell me how much I’m entitled to, and what conditions are attached”.

For this reason the semi-public agency needs to make the transition from product-oriented to customer-oriented operations. The agency will need to abandon the one-to-one translation of legislation and regulations into understandable language; it will need to assess which combination of the elements of legislation and regulations are applicable to specific social situations – and the determination of the concomitant financial consequences.

From a “rule culture” to a “solution culture” The Executive Board drew up a plan for the achievement of this culture change. However, it is anything but easy to change an organization which has for many years been required to translate act for act and rule for rule into terminology that could be understood by the general public and which was totally free of errors into an organization which adopts a creative and results-oriented approach to the legislation and regulations. The staff need to learn how to view the subject matter from a different perspective, and they require different form of management – and this can’t be achieved simply by prescribing new procedures or appointing new managers; a show of strength isn’t going to work either.

Fundamental changes of this nature can be implemented only with a knowledge of people’s characters and the form of management they will need. The Management Drives test provides the necessary information; the six colors used in the analysis indicate their drives.

The breakthrough
Ultimately virtually all managers and staff took the Management Drives test. All individuals could then see their primary drives; for example, were they largely driven by rules, figures and accuracy – or by complex issues, and by getting results.

This information about the drives (‘colors') of the managers and staff was then used to draw up teams with drives most appropriate for the specific tasks. For example, a “Blue” team is ideal for checking tasks and an “Orange/Yellow” team for result-oriented tasks. Moreover excellent results could also be achieved by mixtures of value profiles; for example, an “Orange / Yellow / Green” manager with an excellent feeling for the market’s needs (“Orange/Yellow”) who is able to explain these needs to his “Blue/Green” team in a sociable (“Green”) manner. The team’s “Blue” value profile guarantees that the work will be of a high quality and free of errors.

This knowledge of each other’s drives not only resulted in teams with a more appropriate membership and an improved division of the tasks and roles; it also resulted in improved communications and an improved working climate – and consequently, in improved effectiveness and efficiency.