The Workbooks for Implementing the Tracks: Volumes I, II, III (Newport Coast, CA: Organizational Design Consultants, 1991-2007)

by Ralph H. Kilmann

 

WorkbooksTable of Contents

VOLUME I

VOLUME II

VOLUME III

PART FIVE: THE PROCESS TRACKS

VOLUME I

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

All organizations in all nations are struggling to achieve continuous—and, in some cases, revolutionary—improvement. During the twentieth century, countless remedies have been offered to transform, revitalize, and renew organizations of all ages, sizes, and types. But virtually every single effort has failed to make a lasting difference. Fads, quick fixes, Band-Aids, panaceas, shortcuts, and knee-jerk reactions are just some of the labels that have been used to describe the magic-bullet approach to managing organizations—as simple machines. Finally, after decades of trial-and-error efforts at improving organizations, astute executives are now turning to systematic, multifaceted, and professionally designed programs that can address organizational problems and opportunities—as living systems. As the world prepares for the next century of human endeavor, completely integrated programs—not more quick fixes—will renew our organizations, institutions, and nations for a global economy.

New YorkIn my 1984 book, Beyond the Quick Fix, I demonstrated a living systems approach to organization-wide improvement by viewing an organization (all its interrelated formal systems and all its informal dynamics) as existing in a symbiotic relationship with its external setting. Such a multidimensional view of organizational life is the foundation of the five tracks: a prescribed sequence of activity that enables an organization to transform all of its interrelated barriers to success into channels for success. In my 1989 book, Managing Beyond the Quick Fix, I presented the updated theories and methodologies that had survived five years of further testing and implementing the five tracks—in the United States and other countries. This latter book is still the most current discussion of what is now called a "completely integrated program" for improving organizations—along with its companion audio book (two cassettes): Escaping the Quick Fix Trap: How to Make Organizational Improvements That Really Last.

During the 1980s, I often encountered people (and organizations) who were searching for more detail on implementing the five tracks. People inquired: "But how do we do it, session by session, month after month? Where are all the packaged materials: the instruments, cases, exercises, lectures, discussions, slides, notebooks, assignments, schedules, surveys, hints, and all the other things that translate theory into action?"

During this period, I made a very conscious decision not to provide an integrated package of materials for organization-wide improvement to the public at large. I was convinced that any such comprehensive package—no matter how well designed and integrated—would be treated like a "cookbook" formula for organizational success and would, therefore, do more harm than good. I had heard too many stories about well-developed materials that were often used inappropriately—like all the programs that were purposely designed to foster participative management (or employee involvement) but were, in fact, implemented in an autocratic manner (for the benefit of top management, not the whole organization). And I had been asked on too many occasions to provide very improper shortcuts to complex and delicate activities—like the many people who requested the "five easy questions" for conducting diagnostic interviews in order to bypass the need for well-trained interviewers (and thereby avoid having to address their real organizational problems).

By 1990, however, I got in touch with both sides of the ethical debate: "to disclose or not to disclose." As a result of giving numerous public workshops on "Managing Organization-Wide Improvement," I met many executives who were responsible for implementing the five tracks in their organizations. While at times I was impressed by how well they seemed to understand the basic theories and methods behind the five tracks (as presented in my books), more often than not I was aghast at how they were implementing the completely integrated program. Their intentions may have been very genuine (and I have no reason to believe otherwise), but some basic things about implementing the five tracks got lost in the translation—like having participants attend only one session (lecture) on cultural norms on a Friday afternoon and then expecting them to put a new culture in place when they returned to work on the following Monday morning! In the very worst cases, I could not even recognize the core ingredients of my program. In these latter cases, I gracefully requested: "Please don't refer to that improvement program as the five tracks."

As a result of these experiences, I began to develop a concern about all the people (and organizations) who genuinely wanted to implement the five tracks—correctly and professionally—but did not have access to the necessary materials. Unless the full translation of theory into practice was completely spelled out, the chances for distortion, misperception, confusion, guesswork, and all sorts of errors were indeed high—despite the genuine motives behind the effort.

In hindsight, my earlier decision not to disclose packaged materials was entirely focused on preventing a small number of people from—willfully, perhaps—using an approach designed for long-term revitalization as an autocratic mandate for a quick restructuring. But without fully realizing it, I was also restraining a much larger number of people from getting the help they desperately wanted and needed: the materials to implement the five tracks as designed. Now, after a very thoughtful "assumptional analysis," I have come to the conclusion that providing the materials to translate theory into action—in the long run—will do more good than harm.

New YorkThis workbook, therefore, is my response to all the people who want to do it right: to use a completely integrated program for achieving long-term organizational success. I have taken the best of the materials I have developed—and have provided them here. While I have also developed a number of ethical safeguards to minimize the potential for abuse that will always be present, I do accept that I cannot manage (or regulate) everyone's behavior to suit my own goals. I do accept that people (and their organizations) may modify my integrated approach, bypass my warnings, and depart fundamentally from what I would have done if I were in the same situation. Perhaps in some cases, due to the unique forces operating on the organization, the effects of the program may still be satisfactory anyway: the program may actually work in spite of itself. But in other cases, because of significant deviations from the prescribed guidelines, the final results will not be beneficial to the organization or its key stakeholders. In the worst cases, perhaps, some people (and their organizations) will indeed be hurt by the inappropriate manner in which organizational change was conducted in the name of the "five tracks" (regardless of motive or intention). And I do realize that some of this damage will take place because I am publishing this workbook.

Ultimately, I hope that all members of an organization, including internal or external consultants, will do everything in their power to understand the key principles of the completely integrated program and shout when something important is being violated. With courage and dedication, we can resist the temptation to use the infamous quick fix and other such doomed shortcuts to managing organization-wide improvement. Let us all work together, then, to minimize the potential harm of using these packaged materials incorrectly, while maximizing the opportunities for using this workbook responsibly—and, hence, effectively. With such a professionally—and ethically—guided approach, all good things for the organization and its stakeholders can be achieved.

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DESIGNING THIS WORKBOOK

To determine what material should be included in this comprehensive workbook, I first surveyed all the documents I had saved from all my research and consulting work over the past twenty years. I looked to learn what was unique to just one or two organizations. Then I looked to find what was, instead, general across many different applications—because the lectures, exercises, or instruments I had developed seemed to address a common problem that most organizations faced, especially during the 1980s when the world became so dynamic and complex. It was through this painstaking—comparative—process that I came to the eye-catching conclusion that approximately 80% of what organizations reveal as their barriers to success is generic. This finding then became the guiding rule for deciding which material should be included in this workbook. All the enclosed materials, therefore, have demonstrated their usefulness to scores of organizations in different industries in several nations. Because "people are people" throughout the world and because most organizations are striving to compete in the same global economy, it is indeed possible to design (and provide) general workbook materials for continuous organization-wide improvement. The remaining 20% of what organizations reveal as their barriers to success is unique—and cannot be anticipated or removed with this or any other prepackaged workbook. This unique 20% represents the organizational peculiarities that must be diagnosed correctly before special workbook materials can be developed and utilized.

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Organization of Materials

As displayed in the table of contents, all the generic material contained in this workbook is organized into fifteen chapters, which are grouped into four parts: Understanding the Program, The First Three Tracks, The Last Two Tracks, and Evaluating the Program. (Any unique material can be organized into additional chapters, which can be grouped into a fifth part: Special Topics.)

In Part One, Chapters 1 and 2 provide the background knowledge that all participants should have for understanding the completely integrated program and the sequence of five tracks. In Part Two, Chapters 3 through 11 include all the materials for the first three tracks (culture track, skills track, team track) in three one-day sessions each, which are conducted for all participants in the program. In Part Three, Chapters 12 through 14 include all the materials for the last two tracks (strategy-structure track, reward system track), which are comprised of two task forces of about 15 to 25 persons each (with little or no overlap in membership between the two tracks). Since participants usually want to know what takes place during these last two tracks (even though they are being represented by their coworkers), the basic materials are included for all. In Part Four, Chapter 15 provides five surveys (and work sheets) that can be used to evaluate the results of the program—using the same assessments that were administered during the earlier tracks of the program. While every organization has the opportunity to evaluate its progress using various indicators (including short-term financial performance), reassessments of culture-gaps, time-gaps, and team-gaps are very helpful in examining what has improved, stayed the same, or become worse as a result of implementing the five tracks. (Any cause-and-effect conclusions, however, must be qualified by the complex nature of organizational change.)

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Distribution of Materials

This organization of the workbook into parts and chapters conforms to the way in which most organizations prefer to distribute these materials to the participants in the program. Part One (Understanding the Program) should be distributed before any of the formal sessions begin—as a total package of background material for all participants. Part Two (The First Three Tracks) can be distributed to participants one chapter at a time—at the start of each one-day session for a given track. Part Three (The Last Two Tracks) can be given to all participants when the two special task forces are about to be established—as a total package of materials on redesigning the formal systems in the organization. Part Four (Evaluating the Program) can be distributed when the organization is ready to readminister a set of five surveys to examine what impact the program has had on key aspects of organizational success. Lastly, Part Five of the program—the three process tracks—can be initiated when members are ready to improve their business processes within and across all work units.

ImagineTo assist this preferred approach for distributing the workbook, all the material can be packaged into each one-day session and can be printed on three-hole punched paper for easy insertion into three-ring binders: A large binder for Volume I can include Chapters 1 through 8 and another large binder for Volume II can include Chapters 9 through 15 (a fairly equal division of material). All the material in Volume III can be contained in a third binder. Another good reason for packaging the workbook this way is to enable unique materials to be interspersed freely between chapters and parts. These additional materials can be paginated properly as well, since each chapter is numbered separately. In sum, this flexible design for packaging and distributing a great variety of workshop materials into a complete three-volume workbook—based on the evolving needs of an organization—represents the best of both worlds: the general and the unique.

Note: Since these materials are normally distributed to the participants one part (or chapter) at a time while the program is being implemented, the index has been placed at the end of the Preface—preceding the contents of the workbook. There it can be used by the participants (session by session) before they have received the whole workbook. (A slight disadvantage of this approach, however, is that the index may at times refer the reader to materials that have not yet been distributed.)

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Design of Materials

This workbook has also been designed to be aesthetically functional. With more than 2000 pages to work through, it is well understood that participants will be able to obtain utmost benefit from all the varieties of material if they are provided in a friendly format with clear symbols to identify transitions from one activity to another. All the chapters that directly pertain to implementing the tracks (Parts Two, Three, and Five) contain at least six different types of materials: (1) cover pages for parts and chapters of the workbook, (2) overhead slides (the hard copies) for easy viewing and note taking, (3) work sheets for responding to exercises and completing homework assignments, (4) assessments for measuring both individual and organizational characteristics, (5) progress reports for examining what has changed and improved, and (6) presentations to share discussions and results with other participants in the same section (the "community"). The various formats used to identify each of these different types of materials are shown on the following pages (including the two types of boxes that distinguish key topics from main headings).

Furthermore, in order to distinguish each track and each session from one another, graphic keys are incorporated into the bottom border on each page in the workbook. For example, the five tracks are represented as five successive steps in the process of organizational improvement: The culture track is on the very top, next followed by the skills track, then followed by the team track, and so on. Regardless of which session is being conducted for a given track, these page borders provide clear signs for quickly finding related material in other sessions in the same track. Each chapter also has its own icon on its opening page, which is repeated for all sessions (chapters) in the same track. The page borders and icons for the five tracks are illustrated on the next pages (including, first, the all-purpose border for cover pages and basic material).

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USING THIS WORKBOOK

Creating a viable design for this workbook (including the organization, distribution, and packaging of materials) is one thing, but ensuring that people (and organizations) will use this workbook effectively is another matter altogether. Since the prime reason for providing all this material to the public is to facilitate responsible and effective organization-wide improvement, here I propose how this workbook can be used—ethically and logistically—for that purpose.

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Ethical Use

Since the decision to publish this workbook includes an appeal that people (and their organizations) use these packaged materials wisely, it is highly recommended that expert consultants from either inside or outside the organization (or very well trained managers) be selected to conduct all sessions in the program. The best that any workbook can do is to provide (1) the fundamental theories, methods, and principles of a completely integrated program, (2) the general materials that are known to apply in most situations, and (3) the hope that expert consultants will furnish the rest.

But who will ensure that the expert consultants do their job? And who will enforce the ethical guidelines for conducting organizational change and improvement—working with real people who may not only hurt themselves but also their organization's external stakeholders? Is it the author? Other social scientists? Professional associations? Top management? Or the participants in the program themselves? I strongly believe that the participants involved in the program are in the best position to ensure that all professional and ethical standards are being met while the program of five tracks is being implemented.

Let me suggest how Part One of this workbook helps all participants—acting as educated consumers—to judge whether the program is being implemented as prescribed. As will be seen throughout this discussion, I strongly urge all organizations to encourage the end-users of the workbook—the participants—to study the two chapters in Part One; and I vigorously implore senior executives to listen (and respond) whenever participants call attention to principles or methods that are being abused while implementing the five tracks.

Chapter 1, for example, outlines the completely integrated program that contains the five tracks (as the core) and the five stages of planned change (as the body). The case of the Eastman Kodak Company is used to show how the program is applied in practice—stage by stage in summary form. While the interested reader can study Managing Beyond the Quick Fix (1989) and Beyond the Quick Fix (1984), Chapter 1 is designed to provide sufficient background knowledge for all participants to understand the core ingredients of the program. As a result, if participants have reason to believe their program is being implemented contrary to what is expected to work, they are in the best position to find creative ways in which to bring their concerns to the right people in the organization. Certainly, it is more likely that such a collective judgment will be expressed (and heard) if participants are well informed about the program.

New YorkChapter 2, in addition, focuses on the all-important stage of diagnosing the organization—at the surface (formal systems and procedures) and below the surface (cultural norms and assumptions)—which drives the remaining stages of the program. Without an in-depth, comprehensive, and valid account of the organization's barriers (problems) and channels (opportunities) to success, on what basis will all the decisions be made on how to use this workbook to address all the generic problems of the organization? And without a valid diagnosis, on what basis will all the decisions be made on how to design and develop new material to resolve the unique problems of the organization? If the knowledge about the organization's problems and opportunities is simplistic, superficial, or, worse yet, inaccurate, the likelihood of improving the organization—long term—is slim.

To give the organization the best chance for a successful improvement program, Chapter 2 illustrates the "look and feel" of an actual diagnostic report—in complete form. While the actual organization in this case must be disguised (for legal and ethical reasons, due to such a detailed and complete exposure), the full diagnostic report provides all participants with an explicit benchmark to examine the quality of the diagnosis that was done for their organization. Needless to say, if no such diagnosis were ever conducted in the first place, or if the conclusions developed in the report are biased (for example, due to a nonrepresentative sample of persons who were interviewed), or if the report itself is very sketchy and rather superficial, warning signals should be sounded (and heard) throughout the organization!

Chapter 2 also includes guidelines on how to compose and develop the shadow track: the representative group of 5 to 25 persons (depending on the size of the organization) that is fully responsible for the program's success. Mobilizing the shadow track into action is, therefore, another major step in helping to make the whole program succeed. Presented in Chapter 2 are the core issues that most shadow tracks face at one time or another—which should help any shadow track benefit from what other organizations have learned the hard way. Again, as a safeguard, if the participants in the program sense that the shadow track is ignoring these core issues and therefore is not doing its work, the participants (equipped with Chapter 2) can find constructive ways in which to bring this serious matter to the attention of the right people.

Knowing that all participants will be able to make such well-informed judgments about how the program is being implemented (Chapter 1) and the quality of the diagnostic report (Chapter 2), including whether the shadow track is following through on its major responsibilities, should convince the leaders of the organization to proceed appropriately. Let us hope all of these ethical safeguards are effective so that the potential of this workbook will be realized!

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Logistical Use

Besides studying the background material in Part One, every participant will experience the program directly in the first three tracks: Part Two covers the culture track, the skills track, and the team track—in three sessions each. Since there is a mutual relationship between establishing a healthy culture and learning new skills, the first two tracks alternate sessions: Culture Track—Session One (Chapter 3); Skills Track—Session One (Chapter 4); Culture Track—Session Two (Chapter 5), Skills Track—Session Two (Chapter 6), and so forth. Then the team track is conducted in three consecutive sessions in order to facilitate the transition from learning new behavior in the workshop to applying it in the workplace (Chapters 9 through 11).

During the first three tracks of the program, organizations generally find it most convenient to conduct just one formal session per month for one full day. Each of the chapters in Part Two, in fact, has been designed for a one-day session (for example, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), with the next one-day session occurring about one month later. If this pattern is followed, the first three tracks can be conducted in nine months (three sessions for each of three tracks)—unless, of course, extra sessions are conducted due to the >unique aspects of the organization (revealed in the diagnosis and managed by the consultants).

In terms of scheduling all participants for these first three tracks of the program, note the following terms to avoid confusion: Tracks are broad topics pertaining to organizational barriers to success (culture, skills, teams, and so on). Sessions are subdivisions of each track into one-day workshops (say, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). Sections are the participants who are assigned to attend each session together—as one community (say, ten work groups all meet as one section on the third Friday every month, in the same room for each session). More specifically, usually about 50 to 100 participants are assigned to one section to attend each session in a track—led by one or two facilitators (or consultants). Just how many sections of participants are needed to enable all organizational members to go through the earlier tracks depends, of course, on the size of the organization (for example, 25 sections of 100 participants each allows for an organization of 2500 employees to proceed with every session in the first three tracks of the program.)

Since the main purpose of the earlier tracks is to learn (and then apply) better ways of managing people and problems in the workplace, every one-day session includes work group meetings (so that members can discuss the topics and practice the behavior with the same people they work with on the job). Similarly, since every session concludes with a homework assignment to be completed—on the job—before the next formal session takes place, it is especially important that actual work groups learn the materials at the same time and in the same way. For logistical necessity, therefore, all sections should be composed—as much as possible—with natural work groups intact. The only exception is the boss: For most applications of the program (based on the diagnostic report), only peer groups meet during the first two tracks in order to foster a safe learning environment. The bosses (from first-line supervisors up through senior executives) meet in their own peer groups during the first two tracks of the program. Even if several levels of management are meeting together in the same section for the lectures (due to logistical convenience), all work group discussions still take place in peer groups. (The president or chief executive officer, incidentally, usually works with his or her direct reports unless this arrangement is expected to limit the quality of the discussion, in which case the CEO is kept separate for the first few sessions in the program.) When the team track begins, however, the makeup of the sections is changed so that the immediate boss is brought back—reunited—in each work group for all group discussions (unless, of course, this separation of boss and subordinates was never deemed to be necessary via the organizational diagnosis).

After the participants have attended just a few one-day sessions, they discover the natural rhythm of continuous improvement: First learning about a key concept (for example, defining complex problems) through a formal lecture; then being able to ask questions and discuss how the concept helps explain a barrier to success that was revealed during the diagnostic interviews; next having an opportunity to apply the concept to a case or exercise individually and then in one's work group; making a "community presentation" on what was learned during the exercise (and hearing what other groups in the section experienced as well); then learning about another key concept (how false assumptions create errors in defining problems, for example), and so on. These recurring cycles (learning, discussing, doing) help participants enhance their skills for managing complex problems—including the highly complex problems encountered during the last two tracks of the program.

Part Three covers the strategy-structure track and the reward system track, which consist of two separate task forces of about 15 to 25 persons each—representing all levels, areas, and locations in the organization. (The shadow track manages the basic process for selecting participants for these task forces.) Because these last two tracks of the program are particularly unique to the setting and purpose of the organization, the objective is to get these later tracks off to a good start (Chapters 12 and 13); but it is not possible to provide the unique workbook materials that are needed until after the first session in either track takes place. The last chapter in Part Three (Chapter 14), however, does outline the essential process by which additional sessions should be conducted in order to apply all the skills learned during the first three tracks of the program. Depending on the time frame for redesigning the formal systems in the organization, one to two sessions per month for six to eighteen months should be sufficient to remove the strategy-structure and reward system barriers to success.

Lastly, Part Four provides five surveys to reassess important aspects of organizational success: beliefs, culture-gaps, influence, time-gaps, and team-gaps. Most organizations wait at least until the formal sessions in the last two tracks of the program have been conducted (even if the new formal systems are not yet fully operational), before they proceed with evaluating the results of the program. Some organizations wait even more than one year after the new formal systems have been established before conducting any such evaluations. What is the ideal time frame?

Evaluating the program's impact on the functioning of the organization should take place continuously. One of the major responsibilities of the shadow track (Chapter 2) is to monitor the program and recommend modifications. In most cases, the shadow track designs and administers its own standardized surveys in order to collect systematic information about participants' reactions to the program. Nonetheless, the surveys in Part 4 are provided for convenience and can be used at various times in a number of ways as part of a larger effort at regularly monitoring progress and continually making adjustments.

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THE CHALLENGE

This preface has not only summarized how all the materials have been designed for flexible packaging and distribution but has also outlined how the workbook must be used—ethically and logistically—in order to achieve continuous organization-wide improvement.

The rest is up to others: the executives who have decided to invest in such an extensive effort and to see it through, the shadow track that is given special responsibilities to manage the process during all its ups and downs, and the consultants who first must determine what special materials are needed to address the unique aspects of the organization's barriers to success and then combine these with all the materials in the workbook while conducting all sections for all sessions in all five tracks.

But a special challenge must be extended to all the participants in the program. They are the ultimate end-users of all the general and unique materials that are distributed to them in workbook form. They are in the best position to judge whether the program is being implemented for the right reasons in the right way. By studying the background materials and discussing the crucial ethical and logistical issues with one another, these people have the final power to make or break organization-wide improvement. If they remain in the dark about the program and become passive when trouble unfolds, the program (and the workbook) will fail. But if, instead, all participants take responsible and appropriate action on behalf of the future welfare of their organization and all its external stakeholders—success will be at hand!

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It was a immense pleasure for me to design the graphics and create the
ideas for this workbook: to concentrate on style as much as on substance.
For this workbook to be of exceptional value to organizational members,
I believe it must optimize on both of these qualities—simultaneously.
Many people and institutions deserve appreciation for enabling me to
pursue these two qualities in both my personal life and my career.


On Substance


It has taken me more than 20 years of research and consulting with different types of organizations in many nations to create and integrate all the materials contained in this workbook. I would like to give special appreciation to Dean H. J. Zoffer, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, for providing the leadership and support to make these past two decades so productive and satisfying. Many social scientists have also had a significant impact on this workbook, whether they realize it or not: Chris Argyris, Warren Bennis, Teresa Joyce Covin, Bernie Jaworski, Debbie MacInnis, Ken Mackenzie, Ian Mitroff, Mary Jane Saxton, Ed Schein, Denny Slevin, and Ken Thomas. And several enlightened executives have challenged me to continue improving the implementation of my theories and methods: Vince Barabba, Pedro Grau, Bill Lawton, Pete Lessek, Peter Mathias, Shafiq Naz, Karen O’Donnell, Bill Peace, Roy Serpa, Don Utter, and Kendra VanderMeulen.


On Style


My very first vocational interest was printing. In eighth grade, I learned to set movable type. By the ninth grade, I was running a small printing business from the basement in my home—using about 20 fonts of metal type and a small, hand letterpress. During my summers in high school, I worked in a printing factory. And in college, I majored in graphic arts management. Rather than pursue graphic arts as my career, however, I studied the organizational sciences and began writing words instead of printing them.

The boom in desk top publishing in the mid 1980s has brought me—full circle—back to my roots. With the aid of my Macintosh computer and a whole lot of other hardware and software, I can now do two of my very favorite things at the same moment: write and print. Bob Seitz and Barb Lipinski of Visual In-Seitz must be given special credit for helping me make the correct choices in selecting and using all the mind-boggling, rapidly-expanding technology that is being introduced almost daily. I also would like to extend to my publisher, XICOM, Inc., and especially Noreen Fennell, deep appreciation for the complete freedom to produce this workbook with my technology—in my way. Creating this workbook in my home from the very first word to the data files for producing the photographic film for the printing plates—has been a peak experience in my life. And, of course, special thanks to Camille Burgess, Jeanette Engel, Don Fink, Doug Jerum, Connie Lambeth, Mary Mallott, Rich Manley, Ben Robertson, and Don Yoder for providing such quality—and caring—support services.

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