Top leaders at the organization must not only budget for the change and leadership development initiative, they must also strongly believe in the initiative and model this behavior throughout the organization. Support from senior management has been identified by 88 percent of the contributors as a critical step in overcoming resistance to change.
GE Capital energized its business leaders by designing its program around its leaders’ behaviors and values, a focus that generated buy-in in high levels of the organization, and by having participants work on projects for the office of the CEO. Windber Medical Center’s patient empowerment program was driven by its CEO, Nick Jacobs. In his account of Windber’s organizational change program and what drove its emphasis for patient-centered care at the hospital, President Jabobs writes, “When a patient walks into the typical hospital, the overwhelming confusing signage, the smell of antiseptics, the curt and often unforgiving attitude of the employees, and the awesome power of the physicians are usually clear indicators that they should leave their dignity at the door.” Jacobs is passionate about patient care, and it shows in the programs that he has supported for years.
When Agilent first became an independent entity, its CEO made development of future leaders one of his first priorities. He drew on initiatives already in place to ensure buy-in and then improved on these processes by making them universally applicable. First Consulting Group demonstrated a strong sense of support from top-level executives through its creation of the Leadership Development Committee, which included the CEO, two vice presidents, and an eighteen-member task force of director and vice president-level staff, whose responsibility was to aide in conducting organizational assessment and benchmarking survey data to assist in the development of future organizational leaders. At Praxair, the change team recommended a four-step leadership strategy design process to engage Praxair Distribution, Inc.’s (PDI’s) top 175 managers in assessing the current state of the leadership practices and the changes required for PDI employees to become a sustainable source of competitive xx INTRODUCTION cart_14399_flast.qxd 10/20/04 12:36 PM Page xx advantage. Former chairman and CEO of Honeywell Larry Bossidy’s zeal for Six Sigma was without a doubt exactly what the company needed to get this initiative off the ground and on the radar screen of every leader and employee. FCG is unique in that the firm’s CEO and executive committee serve as facilitators to the Leadership First program sessions, and one member is required to be a sponsor for the participants.
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