Adapt or die: why successful organisations like H&M are investing in learning as part of their transformation.

Take a look at the org chart below. Any guesses what year it’s from?

Aaron Dignan asked this question during a talk at Google HQ, and answers from the audience spanned the decades from the 1960’s to as recent as 2015. 

None of them were even close. Believe it or not, this org chart is from 1906. Yet it still basically resembles the organisational structures many of us are so familiar with today.

Now take the diagram below. Any idea what this is?

No - it is not a diagram which represents the miracle of life. 

It’s actually a new type of organisational structure, adopted by H&M (one of our clients) as part of their Business Technology transformation in the past 18 months. 

Products are placed in the centre of the organisation, with teams clustered around them. Support roles and management structures sit around the outside. Placing products (and indeed customers) at the centre of the process empowers autonomy, fosters innovation and breaks down organisational silos. 

Many companies I’ve worked with in the past 5 years have undergone a similar type of agile or digital transformation.To be honest, the ones that didn’t probably don’t exist anymore.

But a company can’t just switch from a top-down hierarchical model to a fluid and ambiguous model overnight. Even implementing agile practices and ceremonies will only get you so far. There is a huge disconnect between “doing” agile, and actually “being” agile. 

At the heart of their transformation was learning and development, of which we at Coteam were able to play a part. If you are facing a similar challenge yourself, here’s three golden rules to help to guide you.

1. Have a compelling vision

Saying “change is hard” is a misnomer, as positive change is actually quite easy. The reality is that when change is hard, it’s easy for us to give up. Having a clear vision and communicating why the change is happening is half the hurdle of getting people to buy in and commit to things, even if they feel a little messy to begin with. John Kotter outlines this accurately in his 8-step model for change management.

2. Learn to learn

It is highly unlikely that you will know all of the answers at the beginning of this journey. Adopting an entrepreneurial mindset and encouraging others to learn to lead and develop themselves takes a new kind of management approach. 

HR is one example The role of HR is shifting dramatically. As a core function of the business, they play a critical role in supporting individuals and teams through the transition and beyond. As much as I could tell you about how to play the violin in a classroom, it doesn’t mean that when you pick one up you’d be able to play even a single note. HR needs to play a role of helping to break apart the silos, and foster peer learning through experience. 

3. Create the right environment

It goes without saying, but soft skills development is particularly important when it comes to this new operating environment. From our experience, there are three important factors to an effective training intervention. 

Firstly, the characteristics of the trainees themselves. As much as we need smart creatives or T-shaped people in our teams, we really just need to focus on individuals who have high cognitive ability, self efficacy and a willingness to learn. Allow for self-nomination, rather than mandated compliance. 

Secondly we need to consider the design of the training, and how we move it out of the classroom. Start to think about the learning as a long journey, with adequate time for participants to apply the knowledge in the workplace. When onboarding nearly 500 people into new product management roles, H&M created a 6 month journey with various interventions, spaced apart with periods of time for application.

Lastly, we actively need to create the right environment. Creating a psychologically safe culture where people aren’t afraid to fail or take risks outside of their comfort zone will fuel empowerment, and in turn, learning. . The sooner you recognise that culture really does eat strategy for breakfast, the better.

If you want to find out even more on the above, why not watch our webinar with David Blank from H&M as we explore this transformation further