IMA and BT (British Telecom) Successfully Implement Transformational Change

Situation

BT (formerly British Telecom), a $34.1 billion company with over 100,000 employees, was experiencing customer dissatisfaction.  With a dynamic competitive market, the organization could no longer operate at the slow rate of speed of the past.  As a result, a major item on the Chief Executive's agenda was the institution of new customer satisfaction measures that would impact 25,000 employees.  While there was a strong need for the change, there were also significant operational and environmental obstacles to overcome, including a silo organization and a history of slow-decision making.  In addition, there was actually too much change going on, choking the capacity and capability to make progress.

IMA's Role

Given a low probability of successful implementation of major change, BT partnered with IMA to apply the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) to this business-critical initiative.  With IMA's support, the project team developed a clear and concise Business Case for Action that was used to gain the support of authorizing and reinforcing Sponsors.  The team developed a prospective readiness strategy, along with a Reinforcement Strategy that would reward support for the change and strongly discourage the status quo.  These strategies and tactics, combined with a two-way communications plan, provided the organization with the structure and discipline needed to cascade the change down the organization. 

Project deliverables were developed with ongoing support of IMA, which provided skill-building in the AIM methodology so that the team held the responsibility for moving the project forward.  IMA consultants guided the team through the project steps so that activities were completed with rigorous follow-through.