Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has been running Gallery Furniture since 1981 and knew a change was needed after the housing market crashed in 2008 and a fire destroyed their primary location in 2009 causing over $30 million in losses. The organization’s transformation (OT) was coincidentally influenced by a book Mcingvale read aptly named “Influencer: The Power to Change Anything” and it set the foundation to change their 30-year-old sales process. Brown (2011) states OT is “drastic, abrupt change to total structures, managerial processes, and corporate cultures” in which “nothing is sacred, and there are few, if any, guidelines” (p. 399). There are two approaches to large-scale change programs: incremental and transformation. Gallery Furniture opted for the latter and implemented a transformational change through influencers discussed in the book. It’s evident McIngvale recognized that not only did the company’s sales techniques need to change, but the entire culture needed to be revamped. Luckily, McIngvale was willing to be flexible in changing Gallery Furniture’s corporate culture. According to Figure 15.4 below, a strong culture is achieved when member commitment to values is strong and the number of members sharing values is high.
The first thing he did was ensure employees were following up and contacting their customers which led to a $300-400K increase in sales. Next, the influencer program established ways to improve employee motivation and abilities which impacted them personally, socially, and structurally. The new program catapulted the organization into successfully building a strong culture. Additionally, the company achieved success because it was able to properly align its culture with its strategy. While its culture prior to its influencer program wasn’t terrible, it didn’t have anything close to the member commitment and value sharing strength after the program was implemented. Therefore, Gallery Furniture was able to fall into the Manage the Change quadrant found in Figure 15.5 since there was a high need for strategic change and the change was compatible with the existing culture.
Stanley McChrystal, retired U.S. Army general, gave an inspiring TED talk in 2011 about listening, learning, and leading. My vision of a four-star general’s leadership style is one that is commanding, direct, and maybe even a little close-minded because there is no way they could admit to being wrong. Sort of a my way or the highway approach. McChrystal’s speech reminded me of why it is not wise to make assumptions. He was used to the traditional way of doing business in the Army in which orders were given and people listened without ever questioning. But he found out after the 9/11 attacks that “instead of giving orders, you're now building consensus and you're building a sense of shared purpose” (TED, 2011) to be an effective leader in such a rapidly changing environment. He also found himself in an entirely new world with numerous generational differences, using an example of the Army Ranger who was in the sixth grade during on 9/11 while McChrystal already had years of Army experience under his belt. McChrystal stated that “it reminded me that we're operating a force that must have shared purpose and shared consciousness, and yet he has different experiences, in many cases a different vocabulary, a completely different skill set in terms of digital media than I do and many of the other senior leaders” (TED, 2011). He realized he needed to bridge all those differences to ensure his Army shared the same vision and values. Sharing the same values and strengthening member commitment to these values would create a strong culture as evidenced in the Figure 15.4 matrix. McChrystal also mentioned how he was “a lot more willing to listen, a lot more willing to be reverse-mentored from lower” (TED, 2011), he learned relationships “are the sinew which hold the force together” (TED, 2011), and he believed “that a leader isn’t good because they’re right; they’re good because they’re willing to learn and to trust” (TED, 2011). Those three resounding statements epitomize not only effective leadership but exceptional leadership as well. McChrystal realized a need for a strategic change to his leadership style in order to adapt to an evolving force and culture. I would say mission accomplished.
References
Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
TED2011. (2011). Listen learn...then lead. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
VitalSmarts Video. (2012, September 17). Influencer | Gallery furniture case study [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/E20RW75Fhu4
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