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Real transformation takes dedication, hard work

Posted on | November 4, 2009 | 721 views |

By Jeff McCallister

In the mid 1960s during the height of the space race, President Lyndon Johnson visited a rocket test center where he met a man and asked him what he did there.

The man, a janitor, told Johnson, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

Having that clear, elevating goal permeate the entire organization was a significant factor that contributed to Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the moon, according to Tony Rucci, senior lecturer of management and human resources in the Fisher College of Business — and it’s one of the things that must happen here if the university is to move from excellence to eminence.

Rucci has had a front-row seat for some of the most notable such efforts corporate America has seen. Before coming to Ohio State in 2006, he spent 25 years as an executive officer with three Fortune 100 companies: Baxter International, Sears Roebuck and Co. and Cardinal Health.

In fact, he led the transformation effort that brought Sears back from the brink of bankruptcy.

“Anyone can make changes and call themselves transformed; true transformation connotes a permanent change in the mindset and cultural values of an organization,” Rucci said. “When I read Dr. Gee’s six strategic imperatives, it’s clear that it’s about real transformation.”

Rucci said there are certain things that are absolutely essential to successful transformation efforts, and a clear, elevating goal is first on his list.

“In essence, there must be a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the current state of things,” he said. “Then leadership must be able to have a goal to point to, to say, ‘this is where we need to go,’ and be able to give everyone in the organization the sense that they are helping work toward that goal.”

Other factors in successful transformation efforts:

• Effective communication. As much as possible and at every level of the organization as is possible. “You can’t have too much,” Rucci said. “In my experience, when you think you’ve intellectually laid out your most superb communications plan, then triple it. Only then will you be even remotely close to the amount needed to affect large-scale change. When leadership is sick and tired of hearing themselves talk about it, that’s still not enough.”

• Leadership. “Leaders must sponsor the change,” he said. “President Gee and the senior leadership must be out there and visible, talking about it relentlessly everywhere they go. And this is critical, and I think one of the things he has going for him: The people you’re talking to must trust you and your intentions, and trust that all of our leaders, as a group, are committed to that change. If someone stands up and delivers the party line without conviction, people can smell that.”

• Accountability. “If no one feels accountable for affecting the dimensions of change, it just won’t happen,” Rucci said. “People know which of their leaders are committed to change and which ones are along for the ride. You can’t afford not to have every single leader committed to the changes that are taking place.”

• Simplicity. “Big organizations have a tendency to overcomplicate things, and that happens in the extreme here at Ohio State,” he said. “But that’s the thing I really like about the six imperatives: They pass the one-sheet-of-paper test. People at every level of the organization can see those six goals, and they get it. It’s not written by some Harvard MBA, it’s basic language that everyone can understand and be able to see themselves contributing to.

“The other thing is, President Gee set down those goals from the very start and has steadfastly championed them ever since,” he said. “Sometimes these things can have a flavor-of-the-month quality to them, but these really seem to have stuck.”

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