Over the past three years, Catapult has experienced an extraordinary transformation. After our 2021 merger, the introduction of a new CEO, and the COVID-19 pandemic, we begin 2023 celebrating our ability to be a stronger, more powerful resource for others experiencing organizational change.
For our January 2023 Thinking Differently webinar, Catapult President and CEO, Cheryl L. Richards, Ph.D. sat down with our strategic change partners, Jessica Graham, APR, Fellow PRSA, President of Fionix Consulting, and Kristy Teskey, EdD, Innovation Catalyst at Faster Glass.
Their livestreamed conversation shares a tell-all journey of how they joined forces with Catapult employees to lead our organization through disruptive change with proactive processes that calmed the chaos. We are thrilled to share success in embracing evolution, unity, and innovation.
Why Transparency Builds Authentic Culture
Change management is defined as “the way company leaders manage processes, build systems structure, elevate overall morale, and assign employee responsibility during a transition.”
“On paper, it sounds easy,” says Kristy, our Faster Glass partner. “But every employer knows that organizations are also the products of how people within the organization feel and interact.”
“We have champions who love change, and there are the folks who are naysayers. Then you have that middle ground of folks that are kind of sitting on the fence going, I’m just going to see how this goes. We needed to make sure they all knew they’re each paramount to the change process.” — Jessica Graham, APR, Fellow PRSA
Kristy notes that “when presented with change, employees start bunkering into fight or flight mentalities.” She warns that these sentiments “trickle outward and can really create a mess.” To change from reactivity to proactivity, Kristy suggests presenting a controlled and transparent opportunity to employees to participate in shaping the company through change.
“Instead of leadership creating change behind closed doors, bringing employees into the process of change early gives them the opportunity to help guide it,” says Kristy. “That’s how they become invested in the effects they’ll be implementing day in and day out.”
She emphasizes that building internal partnership unites staff down to the individual level by communicating that “we’re in this together, and we’re listening.”
Leadership Takeaway: Kristy advises leaders to use “human-centered design methodology” to stay proactive and to help encourage employee personal investment. Position staff at the heart of your initiatives by actively involving them in the creation of your purpose and goals behind change.
How to Use Human-Centered Design
Employee-centered change management means creating a shared, organization-wide experience of evolution.
“Employees are the ones who understand the organization best, and they want to be a part of the change that they’ll spend their daily time helping to implement,” says Kristy. “When we started our journey with Catapult post-merger, we introduced integrated surveys and interviews to every employee at both legacy organizations, giving individuals the opportunity to perform one or the other.”
Welcoming all frustrations, praises, and ideas is the first step towards ensuring employees feel heard and that true organizational roadblocks are identified. The next step? Using that employee feedback to shape organizational strategy.
“There’s a difference between motivating individuals and inspiring individuals. Motivating people is getting them to do something you want them to do. Inspiring people is to get them to do things that they think are important. We strive to inspire every day.” — Cheryl L. Richards, Ph.D.
Our survey results were split into solutions-oriented, cross-departmental groups comprising of 40 employees across the organization. Each group was encouraged to review peer comments and share their subject matter expertise on ways to address this collective feedback.
Included in those 40 individuals was Cheryl, who sat in on meetings, created conversations with individuals, and truly listened. “Together, we all developed our strategic framework for Catapult using employee feedback to develop our Mission of why we exist, the Values to guide how we each operate, and the Vision of where we’re going as an organization in the next five years.”
The result? A stronger, more innovative system that addresses the concerns of employees across the organization. “We discovered key themes,” says Cheryl. “Staff was hoping that the integration would fuel a more innovative, future-forward organization. And we’re doing that together every day.”
Leadership Takeaway: When people are empowered to share input, the messiness and anxiety level out. “Building today’s Catapult took bringing together as many employees as we could within an organized process,” says Kristy. “That’s how the voice of the employee is in everything. That’s how we’re growing investment on the backend.”
Why Communication Builds Trust
Amidst changes brought by the merger and the pandemic, there was also the challenge of identifying and introducing a new CEO.
“All employees knew about me was that I was leaving the presidency of Johnson and Wales University to come lead an employer’s association focused on helping businesses overcome their obstacles,” says Cheryl. “I had to introduce myself over Zoom on a small screen with a lot of people on the other end, who I’m sure were texting each other back and forth. There was a lot of trust to build.”
“Instead of leadership creating change behind closed doors, bringing employees into the process of change early gives them the opportunity to help guide it. That’s how they become invested in the effects they’ll be implementing day in and day out.” — Kristy Teskey, EdD
Like most businesses, the Great Resignation impacted Catapult culture uniquely. “People were tired, and we’d even lost an entire department,” notes Cheryl. “I equate that to ripping off a bandage. In the moment, it hurts really bad.”
Plus, there were different perspectives post-merger with which to build trust.
“We dug deeper, and what we found is that we had to better communicate with our different employees,” says Jessica, our Fionix Consulting partner.
“We have champions who love change, and there are the folks who are naysayers. Then you have that middle ground of folks that are kind of sitting on the fence going, I’m just going to see how this goes. We needed to make sure they all knew they’re each paramount to the change process.”
Armed with surveys indicating shared desire for innovation and superb service, plus 30 years’ experience of leading higher education institutions, Cheryl and team quickly identified methods to build communication opportunities for two-way trust.
Catapult implemented weekly All Staff meetings where we regularly emphasize our collaborative Mission, Vision, and Values. During, we reward and recognize individuals committed to living our Values, focusing on building our common goal of accelerating a world of exceptional workplaces that drive business success. We also built our Workplace presence, a social media-type platform where “we each openly talk about what’s important to the organization.”
“There’s a difference between motivating individuals and inspiring individuals,” says Cheryl. “Motivating people is getting them to do something you want them to do. Inspiring people is to get them to do things that they think are important. We strive to inspire every day.”
Leadership Takeaway: Maintaining constant communication and involvement with internal staff is key to creating trust in leadership’s vision. “We learned that employees wanted to know: Were we going to stay true to the vision that had been created during the integration or was I going to come in and take us in a new direction?” notes Cheryl. “That gave me the opportunity to internalize and address those questions on the organizational level.”
What’s Next for Catapult
“The merger didn’t create something different. It created something better that’s building on the strengths of what was already there,” says Jessica. “We’re leading from a very positive standpoint that we’re not changing everything, and we’re communicating that across platforms often.”
“I’m just so moved at how far we’ve come as an organization and where we’re going,” says Cheryl. “I’m so proud to be part of Catapult.”
As Catapult continues to do this work internally, we look forward to sharing more of our successes and strategies.
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