EMBED & GROW

DESIGN

DIAGNOSE

LEARNING

LEARNING

ENGAGEMENT

ENGAGEMENT

CHANGESELFTEAM

ORGANISATION

IMPLEMENT

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Earlier this year, the East of England branch of APM and the Enabling Change specific interest group

(SIG) held a joint event where project management professionals learned about GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) programme to improve its business performance.

Jacqui Alexander, vice-president of GSK’s Accelerating Delivery & Performance (ADP) approach and her colleague, lead consultant Margaret Huggins, explained why GSK had adopted the ADP approach and how it fitted with Lean Sigma, project management and organisational development principles.

BACKGROUNDPharmaceutical companies face continual external challenges including regulatory issues and pricing restrictions. In 2008, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) appointed a new CEO, Andrew Witty, who proved to be a catalyst for change. Witty, and other senior GSK executives, realised that the company needed to do something different to enhance its ability to face challenges and execute strategy.

GSK was already using three disciplines to good effect to manage change within different parts of its business. These disciplines were Lean Sigma, project management and organisational development. So, with the sponsorship of the new CEO in place, it was a short step to combine these three disciplines in order to create greater impact across the

organisation. Together the three disciplines became known as the Accelerating Delivery & Performance approach.

STARTING OFFThe journey began in mid-2009 when a small team drew some simple approaches from each of the three disciplines in order to produce a structured and consistent approach to change. This became known as the GSK Change Framework (see diagram, right).

The team facilitated 10 projects in the first phase, which developed the approach, demonstrated the benefits, and created a ‘pull’ from the business that resulted in more than 40 projects starting in 2010. But by the summer of 2010, it became apparent that one of the target metrics – the development of a large number of ADP practitioners – was at risk, so the team pulled together a ‘Kaizen Event’ to identify what needed to be done differently. For those unfamiliar with a Kaizen Event, it is about bringing everyone involved in the process together to find a better way of doing it.

Out of this was born the second component of the ADP approach: the GSK Fundamentals of Delivery. This is a fusion of components and behaviours from Lean Sigma, project management and organisational development.

In 2011, the focus of the ADP team shifted to applications at business-unit level, rather than more contained projects. Key requirements for success included generating sufficient self-motivated development of expertise across the business and the delivery of tangible, quantifiable business benefits.

By 2012, more than 350 expert practitioners across GSK, as well as more than 3,000 employees who were actively applying the approach in their day-to-day work, were supplementing the central ADP team of 20 people.

The programme has continued since, and the plan is to further expand the approach across GSK, while continuing to adapt and improve it.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT: CASE STUDY

31DECEMBER 2014

ELISABETH GOODMAN leads the Capabilities and Methods pillar of the Enabling Change SIG

By 2012, more than 350 expert practitioners and more than 3,000 employees were applying the approach

ENABLING CHANGE AT GLAXOSMITHKLINEHow does a pharmaceutical giant transform itself in order to overcome all the challenges that it faces? Elisabeth Goodman reports on an Enabling Change SIG event

DESIGNING ADP

Organisational development (OD), Lean Sigma and project management principles were key to the overall design of ADP and were drawn from a number of sources. These principles include:

1. Co-creation of the ADP components with specialists, internal customers and sponsors.

2. Involving and building working relationships between team members with a diversity of skills, practices and mindsets. For instance, Lean Sigma and project management could arguably epitomise logical-rational and critical thinking, whereas OD comes from appreciative, socio-emotional thinking with a focus on behavioural and human systems. Being open and receptive to each other’s different ways of thinking was critical to the success of ADP.

3. Applying the ADP way of working to the ADP team’s own work, and applying the GSK Change Framework to each project built credibility and trust.

4. Building leadership belief and trust through the use of visible and impactful ‘beacon’ projects.

5. Adopting an appropriate style on the expert-teacher-coach-consulting continuum to build capability within the business.

6. Working with leaders together with their teams to embed the new ways of working.

7. Applying a ‘forum, fieldwork, feedback’ approach so that the new practitioners are applying what they learn as they learn it, and so retain it most effectively.

FURTHER INFORMATIONTo find out more about the GlaxoSmithKline event, see www.apm.org.uk/news/changing-how-we-change#.VEjh3r64mX0A follow-up webinar will take place on Tuesday 13 January 2015 from 12.30pm to 1.30pm. To find out more, visit tinyurl.com/p28po7v

Full details of the ADP approach, which GSK has been adopting since 2009, can be found in the publication OD Practitioner, Vol 44 (4), 2012, pp4-10

The GSK Change Framework consists of the following steps:

DIAGNOSE – understand the current situation and what needs changing;DESIGN – establish clarity on what is to be achieved and how;IMPLEMENT – execute the plan, supported by testing and trialling;EMBED AND GROW – to ensure that the change is sustained and continuously improved; andENGAGE AND LEARN – to ensure that individual, team and organisational learning and engagement are part of the change process.

The goal of the framework is to be simple and accessible to leaders and their teams, and also to reinforce the principle (number one of six below) that change begins with the individual.

The six core principles are:

1. All change starts with self;

2. Active, committed and visible sponsorship by key stakeholders;

3. Simple, time-bound measures tied to financial/business results;

4. Involvement of people as owners who are affected by the change;

5. Focus on the few vital things that can be changed; and

6. Fit-for-purpose solutions that address customer needs (rather than wants).

WHAT IS ADP?

ADP combines the GSK Change Framework (a set of six core principles of change), the GSK Fundamentals of Delivery (which are synthesised from Lean Sigma, project management and organisational development) and a focus on metrics – all of which are driven and supported by the central ADP team.

© GSK 2011

THE GSK FUNDAMENTALS FOR DELIVERY ARE:

DIAGNOSE I seek the voice of the customer to understand what

they really need and value. (Typical tools and practices: Gemba, interviews, strategy deployment)

I ‘go and see’ to understand processes, accountabilities and performance. (Typical tools and practices: Gemba walks, process mapping)

I carry out problem-solving in order to identify root causes and implement sustainable solutions. (Typical tools and practices: change framework, problem statement, root cause diagnosis)

DESIGN I effectively define the benefits and scope of work

to ensure alignment with strategy. (Typical tools and practices: project charter, project mural, key performance indicators, return on change)

I make a conscious decision about the ‘approach to change’ to ensure successful implementation. (Typical tools and practices: change approaches, change curve)

I carry out implementation planning to accelerate execution and deliver benefits. (Typical tools and practices: joint planning session, risk and issue management)

EMBED & GROW I take responsibility for

continuously improving my part of the business. (Typical tools and practices: sand-pebbles-rocks, standard work, change framework)

IMPLEMENT I carry out visual performance

management to engage and align teams. (Typical tools and practices: key performance indicators, communication cells, accountability boards)

LEARNING (Change self, team, organisation)

I am personally accountable for my own effectiveness, learning and development. (Typical tools and practices: reflection, journaling)

I coach individuals and teams to improve performance. (Typical tools and practices: feedback, coaching, inverted triangle)

I focus on our ‘ways of working’ in order to increase team effectiveness. (Typical tools and practices: input-process-outputs, advocacy/inquiry, ‘fist or five’, after action review)

ENGAGEMENT I effectively engage the right

stakeholders and sponsors to accelerate delivery. (Typical tools and practices: stakeholder map and management plan)