What is the Role of Line Managers and Why Are They Important in Times of Change in Asia Pacific?
How Long Does it Take for a Company to Implement Change?
Obviously this depends on a huge range of factors such as type of change, the size of change impact, the readiness of the company to undertake this change, management’s resolve to drive that change, available resources and support structures, prevalent company culture, company’s size and geographical spread, complexity of the target audience etc. Therefore this is too general a question to answer.
However, I would like to try answering that question by taking reference from the most difficult change project that one can think of. That is installing a new set of core values in a multinational company with 10,000 people with plants and offices in various locations within one Asia Pacific country. Assuming it is a truly great company that wishes to run an awesome change program, it will take an average of 3 years to implement the first wave.
Plan. Follow-up. Institutionalise.
Let me break that down. One whole year for management alignment, planning and preparations. One year for launching the change and one more year for follow-up and for “institutionalising” the change (“institutionalise” means you make the core values part of the daily lives and that they become the both the written and unwritten rules on the wall for anyone who wishes to work in that company). And after that, if your management and you are happy with the results of the first wave, you can stop there. Else you can take the lessons learnt and discoveries made in the first wave as an input for a second wave which can be two years thereon, so on and so forth.
In my opinion, this is a very fair amount of time to implement something as hard as a new set of core values. Keep in mind that installing a new company culture – successfully – is a very tough business.
Is This Estimate Accurate?
No. It is not accurate. A company with a “veteran” badge for change, meaning with management and staff, hardened with past change experiences would be more equipped and matured to undertake new changes and transition a change in a shorter amount of time and therefore might not take 3 years. Whereas a company which is relatively new to changes with inexperienced management or insufficient support structures would struggle a little and will take longer than 3 years.
In my opinion, installing a new set of core values is the most complex and toughest change project that you can think of and if that takes 3 years then my hypothesis is that all other changes should take lesser than that. You also have to keep in mind that in most cases you do not have the luxury of time in today’s world of rapid change.
Now for the purposes of describing and explaining how to organise a solid change program that can be implemented in Asia Pacific, I will continue to use the core values launch project as a basis for the following sections.
How is a Manager’s Business Objectives Assigned?
Under normal conditions, this is how a manager’s business objectives for the following year and years is normally planned and decided. It starts the year before, where in a regular or special planning workshop or retreat, the board members of a company review the company’s business strategies and make adjustments. The business forecast for the following years are then adjusted based on that and the immediate 1-2 year’s business priorities are reviewed, adjusted and key action plans are proposed and discussed.
And from that big picture discussions, the business priorities are discussed at the next level management circles and the next and the next until it can be translated into business goals, targets and KPIs for each and every function and department of the company. And eventually that’s how a manager’s business goals and targets for a year are defined.
Of course, there is a also a bottoms-up planning, where the managers propose and recommend what could be the following year’s goals and objectives for their functions. It has to of course fit the company’s business directions and therefore you can expect some dialogues and discussions back and forth before a final decision is reached and a manager can confirm his business goals and targets for the following year.
Enter the Real World Complications
But still, we are living in a very volatile business world which means even if we can’t predict everything we should be at least agile and flexible enough to react to unexpected changes swiftly.
Therefore, managers will be expected to change directions or take up new unexpected roles or projects with very short advance notices and sometimes even with insufficient resources. I know this sounds quite extreme but it does happen quite frequently in Asia Pacific. I recall one day my manager calling us to tell us that our “Change Management Department” will be changed to “Talent Management Department”. Talk about change management department going through change.
Sometimes some of the managers’ pre-aligned projects might swell-up during peak-time consuming all of their energies and resources. Some of the managers’ projects might go step into extended time and some even might end up in a crisis with flashing red traffic lights seeking management attention. Now add to that landscape resource issues such as lack of people or insufficient budget or “boss issues”. All these can make an average manager’s job quite challenging and tough every day, every year.
Now if you start handing him a new and additional change task without prior alignment the year before, I hope you can imagine and understand that not all managers will have the time or resources or patience to accomodate you.
Take One Year to Prepare the Board and the Managers
This is the reason that I recommend you to take a full year to plan. 6 months just to discuss and align the board and the senior management. I know that’s a lot of time for so few people. But these are very important people and they must be in absolute and complete agreement with what they want to do with this change for the next 3 years. And getting this alignment clarified and finalised with the leaders will take time.
Then add another 6 months for all the rest of the senior managers, managers and assistant managers. To brief them, to involve them and to engage them into the change. And from those interactions and feedback, the project team can draw valuable project objectives, directions, deliverables and action plans.
This planning and alignment with the board and the managers should be done in the first year. And when you roll-out the project plan in the second year, the managers are all ready to support your change project. They know what’s it about because their ideas have been incorporated into your project plan. They now just need to know the project’s specific requirements and what exactly they need to do to support it.
The Line Manager is Important Because He is the Gatekeeper to His Team
The line manager wields an incredible amount of influence over his direct team due to his positional power as their immediate boss. Whatever the needs are in one’s daily work life – be it a request for pay rise or a training application or a request for time-off to watch your son play football in school – staff always needs to talk to his immediate manager first, here referred to as line manager.
He does not talk to the middle management or the vice president. And its through these very important and very personal interactions day-to-day, the line manager becomes tightly connected to his team. In time, they share a strong and unique team culture shaped by their individual personalities and collective experiences. Therefore if you need to reach this closely knit team, you need to reach the line manager first. And that’s why the line managers are very important in any kind of change implementations.
Its not the board or the middle management or the project team that has the biggest influence on staff during change. Its the immediate line manager of a team who reigns supreme because he is both master and commander, coach and colleague, friend and confidant all rolled into one.
Why the Line Manager And Not Middle Management?
It is very important that the staff “see” that the entire management of their company, from the board to the middle management to their immediate line manager is completely aligned with regards to a change.
It will also be great for the change effort if the middle management is seen standing side-by-side with the line manager driving the change. The middle management can play a very strong role and be a pillar of support for the change with their words of encouragement and motivation for the staff.
However, end of the day, a line manager is clearly both the master and commander, coach and colleague, friend and confidant all rolled into one for his direct team. His influence and direction will be supreme and in most cases will be the only deciding factor that makes a change successful.
Best Practices & Takeaways
- The time it takes for a change depends on a huge range of factors and cannot be predicted without some careful analysis. However, from experience, a core values implementation project for a multinational company with 10,000 people in an Asia Pacific country can be estimated to take 3 years for the first wave.
- One year for management alignment and preparations, one year for launching and one year for follow-up with subsequent waves being shorter and more iterative.
- The manager’s business objectives are normally defined the year before and they will become his number one priorities. However, it is common that these priorities are subjected to constant and unexpected challenges in the business year.
- As such, managers will neither have the capacity nor the energy to take up additional change roles without sufficient pre-warnings and preparations. Therefore change projects should be initiated and discussed with managers a year before and set as one of the manager’s business objective for the following year.
- The line manager wields an incredible amount of influence over his direct team due to his positional power with his team members. Needless to say, a line manager is both master and commander, coach and colleague, friend and confidant all rolled into one for his direct team and his influence and direction in times of change will be supreme.
Note:
Gender references. Throughout this book I have used masculine gender references “He”, “Him” and “His” for the purposes of brevity and which completely and without any doubt also means “She”, “Her” and “Hers”.
Line manager. The term “line manager” used in this book not only refers to managers with responsibilities for production lines in plants but also refers to managers in offices who manages teams directly. The emphasis is on the manager who has a direct team.
For Those In-Charge of Change 