Organisational Levers Model

When Should We Use this Model?

This model is extremely useful when applied to any significant change effort. It is applicable not only to HR transformation, but also to any organisational change. It is a foundation model and helps to explain the impact of change within the context of the broader organisational system.

Its value is to engage key stakeholders in a dialogue concerning 'current HR' and 'the future world of HR'. It is also a powerful way of capturing and presenting the outputs from discussions.

If you have not already familiarised yourself with the model, we strongly suggest that you do so now. We do not intend to repeat the description of the model in this section, but will instead focus in greater detail on its application.

You should note that you might come across other versions of this model with slightly different labels. This does not matter. Taking a systems perspective is the important part of this model, and we would encourage you to use whatever terminology fits best with your business.

How Do I Use the Model?

The examples below show how the organisational levers model has been used in a variety of ways (and alongside the other envisioning tools) to develop a 'whole system' approach to HR transformation and build a coalition of support around the new world of HR.

The two main ways in which the organisational levers model has been used to support envisioning are as follows:

1. As a pre-prepared input to an envisioning workshop

Prior to an envisioning workshop, a series of one-to-one discussions is held with key stakeholders to discuss 'current HR' and 'the future world of HR'. Interviews are structured using the organisational levers model (although some of the other envisioning tools presented above can also be used if appropriate). The outcome of the interviews is the preparation of a 'straw man' set of descriptors relating to 'current HR' and 'the future world of HR', linked to each of the six organisational levers, namely external forces, performance outcomes, technology, processes, structure and people/culture. These descriptors are displayed in a workshop environment, typically on large sheets of paper; one sheet for each of the six levers.

Participants (hopefully most, if not all, of the key stakeholders you would have interviewed) are asked to challenge any descriptor that they either disagree with or are unclear about. They are also given an opportunity to add anything they believe to be missing from the straw man descriptors.

In debriefing the exercise, focus first on those descriptors where there are most challenges and work through them to seek clarification and gain agreement on the wording. Then follow a similar process with the suggested additions.

The outcome should be agreement of a set of 'as is — current HR' and 'to be — future world of HR' descriptors. This approach is particularly helpful when working with larger groups, and we have found that in a workshop setting agreement is typically reached within a matter of hours.

2. Realtime in a workshop

For smaller groups, you can achieve the above-mentioned realtime.

Ensure that your room has plenty of wall space and is divided into two areas: 'current HR' and 'future world of HR'. Display the headings of the six organisational levers under each.

Give participants two colours of Post-it™ notes. Ask participants to write (on one colour) descriptors that best describe 'current HR' for each of the six organisational levers. Repeat the process for 'future world of HR' using the other colour. Cluster descriptors where you can. Then work through each of the Post-it™ notes to ensure that there is agreement on any new descriptors that have been written (or agree a change to the existing wording).

What Might an Output Look Like?

As you will see, the descriptors are succinct, but specific enough to enable the next steps in the process to take place — gap analysis and project planning. Just to illustrate that envisioning is not a one-off exercise, the example shown in the appendix was actually produced 1 year after the initial envisioning exercise as part of HR transformation review and taking stock.