SwitchPoints is the inspiring story of how Canadian National Railway (CN) advanced from good to great in a few short years-becoming North America's top-performing railroad and a favorite with of corporate customers and investors. In it, the authors reveal how company-wide culture change propelled this aging transportation giant to become the profitable powerhouse it is today. Rich with insights and anecdotes, SwitchPoints offers lessons that can be applied to any organization seeking to improve the bottom line by improving their culture.
Autorentext
JUDY JOHNSON, PhD, a Partner with the Continuous Learning Group (CLG), applies behavioral science to help leaders create environments that dramatically improve organizational performance and profitability. Johnson coaches executives on personal leadership and executing strategies through pinpointing key behaviors that lead to success.
LES DAKENS, retired Senior Vice President of People for CN, was responsible for strategic direction of CN's Human Resources and Labour Relations in North America and worldwide. Prior to joining CN, Dakens was Vice President of Human Resources for the North American division of the H.J. Heinz Company.
PETER EDWARDS, Vice President of Human Resources for CN, is responsible for human resources, culture change, implementation, leadership, and organizational development. He assisted CN's CEO in writing two landmark books for employees.
EDWARD (NED) MORSE, a Senior Partner with CLG, offers three decades of experience helping Fortune 500 executives develop and implement business-critical strategies. Morse has worked with clients in transportation, petrochemicals, food service, healthcare, engineering, telecommunications, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and retail.
Klappentext
On a railroad, there are many decision points where trains are switched from one track to another to ensure they take the best route. These are switch points. Like a train in motion, corporate cultures encounter many switchpoints along the way—points where executive decisions create watershed change and define the organization's future route.
SwitchPoints is the inspiring story of how Canadian National Railway (CN) advanced from good to great in a few short years, becoming North America's top-performing railroad—a favorite with both corporate customers and investors. Decisions by CN's leaders at critical switchpoints were key, as was the commitment of CN's dynamic CEO in leading the change.
In SwitchPoints, the authors share how companywide culture change propelled this aging transportation giant to become the profitable powerhouse it is today. Rich with anecdotes, SwitchPoints offers lessons learned and demonstrates the powerful behavioral tools used to change the culture to drive outstanding results in any organization.
The authors—two CN executives and two consultants from the Continuous Learning Group (CLG)—describe their firsthand experiences of applying behavioral science to change CN's culture. They also share how they clarified CN's vision, selected critical switchpoints, employed management tools for change, assessed their impact on profitability, and "spiked the switches" to sustain the new culture.
The leadership practices presented here are directly applicable to any business. Even if your enterprise is non-industrial, or your company's culture is very different from CN's, what worked for CN will work for you, too—because behavioral tools apply to all people in any culture, country, language, or industry worldwide. The methods in SwitchPoints apply to any organization and will help enlighten leadership that seeks to improve the bottom line by improving culture.
Discover more at www.switchpointsbook.com.
Inhalt
List of Illustrations xvii
Foreword xix
Preface xxiii
Acknowledgments xxv
Introduction: A Broken Culture xxix
The Culture of Early Quits xxx
A New Trip Plan xxxi
Switchpoints xxxi
Spiking the Switch xxxiii
Part I Building One of North America's Top Railroads 1
Chapter 1 The Road to Best-in-Class 3
1830: Pioneering Days 3
1919: Nationalization 3
The 1980s: Deregulation 5
1992: Organizational Redesign 6
A Quick Change 7
1995: Privatization 8
The Right Leaders for the Job 9
1998: Precision Railroading 10
2003: Passing the Reins 13
Chapter 2 Culture Change on the Fast Track 15
Acquisitions 15
Buying Other Cultures 16
The Challenge 17
The Results 17
The Trip Plan for Culture Change on the Fast Track 18
Part II Clarifying the Vision 21
Chapter 3 CN's Five Guiding Principles 23
Chapter 4 The Culture of Precision Railroading 27
The Organizational Culture Continuum 28
The Spectrum of Employee Engagement 29
The Role of Organizational Leaders 30
Washing Out the Mud in the Middle 31
Part III Choosing the Right Switchpoints 35
Chapter 5 How to Change CN's Culture? 37
Culture Equals Behavior 37
Chapter 6 Creating a Culture of Discretionary PerformanceSM 40
What's in It for the Employee? 41
Chapter 7 Creating Q4 Leaders to Drive Change 43
Culture Change Begins with Leadership 43
The Q4 LeadershipSM Model 44
How Did CN Create Q4 Leaders? 46
Changing Your Style Isn't Easy 47
Building Leadership Fluency 49
Part IV Selecting the Tools for Change 51
Chapter 8 The Science of the ABCs 53
It's All about Behavior 53
The ABCs of Behavior 54
The ABCs Make Fundamental Sense 55
Chapter 9 The Commanding Power of Consequences 58
Timing 59
Importance to Recipient 59
Probability of Recurring 60
Where Does the Consequence Come From? 60
Which Consequences Should I Use? 62
Consequences and Culture Change 63
Authors' Note: Doing the Right Thing with the ABCs 63
Chapter 10 The ABC Toolkit 65
The Five-Step Model 65
Part V Aligning the Switches 73
Chapter 11 Finding a Champion 75
A Quiet Tryout in Capreol 75
I Hate Consultants! 77
Chapter 12 Testing the Business Case 81
Pilot 1: Partnering in Memphis 82
Pilot 2: Partnering in Capreol (Northern Ontario) 83
Pilot 3: Partnering in Transcona (Winnipeg) 84
Learnings from the Pilots 85
We Did What We Said We Would Do 86
A Skeptical Hunter Gives the Nod 87
Chapter 13 Gaining Visible Sponsorship: The CEO's Essential Role 89
How We Work and Why 89
Addressing the Naysayers 91
Chapter 14 Learning from a Strike 93
Spiking the Switch 94
Start with the Supervisors 95
Chapter 15 Planning the Trip 98
Going to Rome (and Paying for It) 98
Implementing the ABCs CN-Wide 99
Selling the ABCs to the Operating Regions 100
I Love Your Passion, But . . . 101
Managing the Pull 102
Deployment Wasn't All Rosy 103
Chapter 16 Making the Case for Change 105
The Case for the ABCs 105
Spreading the Word 107
Answering Four Basic Questions...