Act Your Way to New Thinking: The "Campaign" Approach to Change

Jack Welch's call to "Work Out" marshaled GE's energies and unleashed local innovation at a time when the company could have gone under from the weight of personnel cuts of almost fifty percent. "Work-Out," with its double meaning of building organizational muscle and getting rid of unneeded work, sparked creative new practices of quite different kinds in local divisions such as aerospace, lighting, appliances and medical systems.

Why a Campaign?
Welch and GE had mounted a "campaign," whether they called it that or not.

The term is usually applied to political, marketing, military, and fund-raising enterprises. But it's just as appropriate to organizations setting out to transform themselves the way GE was. When other efforts have stalled, when there is too much to pay attention to or when the change is so complicated that people need to discover it as they go, leaders can draw on the same kinds of energies and action that propel political candidates or nonprofit fund-raising drives; they can embark on a campaign.

In any difficult change effort, the hardest thing to change — by far — is the behavior that in large part defines the organization. CFAR has developed a campaign approach to change that helps leaders transform behavior and practices on the ground, in ways both practical and profound.

A Campaign Makes Change Faster and More Effective. How?

• It Amplifies Energies — A campaign locates energies already in the system and connects, targets, shapes, and amplifies them.
• It Creates Movement — A campaign moves forward through strategic prototypes, probes, experiments, and events.
• It Offers Disciplined Flexibility — A campaign builds the infrastructure of incentives and support. It helps leaders locate the leverage points and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Consulting Services
CFAR offers consulting support to client organizations facing major change. CFAR helps clients clearly analyze the problems they're facing and use campaign strategies to move forward.

Getting-Started Workshop
CFAR offers a one-day workshop on the campaign approach to change. Participants make concrete progress on change efforts important to their companies, learning strategies and tools they can apply to their own set of challenges. The on-site, hands-on workshop focuses on four elements of a campaign:

• "Listening In" — To discover where innovation is already taking place in the organization and who is behind it.
• Creating a Strategic Theme — To mobilize people and give direction.
• Sweeping People In — To build critical mass.
• Building the Infrastructure — To support the people who are taking risks and to institutionalize the new practices they're creating.

The workshop arms participants with practical ways to leverage the energies of others and tap into the future as it is already beginning to emerge.

 

A version of this page, including phase descriptions and case vignettes, is available in pdf form.