Strategies for CHROs to Lead an Organizational Reset

No matter how successful your organization is, there will come a time when an HR initiative doesn’t get the results you’re looking for. These are the moments to find untapped leverage points to help you chart a new course, author Dan Heath told attendees of the Executive Network Experience (ENX) at SHRM25.

“The boulder in the path is a byproduct of the system we have built,” Heath said during his June 28 session. “If we want to move that thing, we’ve got to start looking for leverage, we’ve got to change our lens.”

Heath shared steps that CHROs can follow to find their leverage points and successfully lead an organizational reset. 

Understanding Your Leverage Points 

Leverage points are interventions you can make to significantly shift how your company functions. When considering what to change in your organization, it’s important to find something that’s both feasible and impactful. “We aspire to move boulders, not pebbles,” he explained. 

Heath’s Steps for Leading an Organizational Reset

• Consider the goal of the goal. No matter what method your organization uses to track performance, it’s critical to take the time to continually review the data that you have. “We must continually assess the alignment of our measures and our mission,” Heath advised. However, be wary of falling into the trap of only focusing on data and losing sight of your long-term vision.
• Study bright spots. Identify what is working well and replicate it. Perhaps one thing your organization does well is recruiting or engagement. Observe the processes around those successful tasks and see if you can replicate those processes in other areas of your organization. 
• Recycle waste. Stop doing what’s not working. If your employees are talented and have the capacity, but are underperforming, something is likely in their way. Personal fears or organizational policies are two common blockers, he noted.
  “If there’s a span between where they're capped and what they're capable of, that's waste,” Heath said. “By avoiding underutilized talent and access processing, we can repurpose that time and money and energy toward our leverage points.”
• Restack resources. Reallocate how your employees and teams spend their time. Now that you’ve identified the “waste” areas, you can instead focus your time, resources, and energy on the things that need to change. 
  

The 3 Fundamental Lanes of Change

How are you motivating your teams to take part in organizational changes, and how early are you including them in the adoption plan? 

Heath listed three types of organizational change: 

• Incentive-led change, which is focused on reaching a goal. While successful, this form of change can cause employees to hyper-focus on the short-term goal and forget the big picture and long-term vision.

• Compliance-led change, which focuses on adhering to a new standard and requires leaders to model by example. Compliance changes are often critical but can be difficult if leadership isn’t able to embody the changes first.

• Motivation-led change, which involves using what drives employees to incentivize their transformation. This type of change tends to be the easiest because it plays into what employees want.

“Motivation-led change is where you’re going to have the lasting impact,” said ENX attendee Debbie Barrett, SHRM-SCP, vice president of work life and culture at ITHAKA. “If you can get to what’s underlying the things we’re doing and the decisions we’re making, we can make better decisions.” 

Change in Practice

One of CHROs’ biggest challenges continues to be executive buy-in. Understanding your leaders’ motivations is critical to getting their support.

“It’s easier for us in HR to understand why certain things need to be implemented and the necessity for it, but explaining that to higher levels that don’t operate in the HR realm on an operational daily basis is tough. Trying to get over that hurdle is something I’m tasked with daily,” said ENX attendee Trinae Saenz, SHRM-CP, vice president of HR at the American University of Antigua College of Medicine.

Involve your C-suite stakeholders early in the initial conversations regarding your HR initiative. That way, you can learn what does and doesn’t resonate with them. Pay attention to what metrics they focus on, learn their motivators, and consider if there’s a way to incorporate this information into your plan.

“It’s about making sure that those who are going to be in the change are part of the conversation early and often,” said ENX attendee Shannon Mullins, SHRM-CP, vice president of HR at TruckPro LLC. “But even if there’s some pieces that you can’t focus on or impact because the decisions come from a level above you, make sure that you’re identifying and celebrating those changes that you are a part of.”

Once you’ve listened to the C-suite feedback, be open to shifting your mindset. 

“We get in our own way, in terms of making things more complex than they need to be, because we’re thinking about them from the wrong angles,” Barrett noted.