42 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Sustainable change eludes most organizations. Not-

withstanding large investments in time and money,

fewer than 10% of businesses successfully execute

change initiatives.

As evidence of this, 65% of organizations have an

agreed-upon strategy for corporate change manage-

ment, yet only 14% of employees understand the strategy and

fewer than 10% successfully execute it.

What would it take for companies to achieve truly sustain-

able results? The answer lies not just in having the right skills,

tools and processes – as important as these are – but also criti-

cally on having the right attitudes, values and beliefs.

What intentions do employees have when they come into

work in the morning? What purpose or meaning do they de-

rive from their work? What attitudes do they have around the

organization and their co-workers?

Questions of such intentions are among the most impor-

tant any of us in business can ask. Intention is key to achieving

sustainable change management and competitive advantage.

Strategy, tactics, processes and systems are important, too, but

without intention, you have a rocket with no booster and no

way of leaving orbit.

Harnessing the power of intention

Intention concerns the attitudes and beliefs that management

and employees hold about their work, roles and relationships

with others and the values underlying them. Intention may be

conceptually abstract, but it can translate to real results, pro-

vided the right systems and processes are in place.

Too many organizations, unfortunately, get it wrong. Tradi-

tional change management initiatives often fail due to an ab-

sence or weakness of intention. Even when immediate objec-

tives are achieved, there may be larger lost opportunities.

Change management initiatives rooted in intention, how-

ever, can deliver beneﬁts far beyond stated objectives. They

can ramify cultural change throughout the business, positively

Achieve lasting

change through

a values-driven

workforce

Guiding employees’ attitudes,

beliefs can lead to sustainable results

By David Poirier

May 2020 | ISE Magazine 43

affect other groups and divisions and improve organizational

behavior and competitiveness overall. This is true change man-

agement.

In this article, we look closely at intention, what it is, the

values and beliefs underlying it and why it’s critical to long-

term sustainable success in any change management initiative.

Further, we’ll look at the steps companies can take to establish,

uphold, nourish and maintain cultures of the right intention to

create lasting change.

Traditional approaches

For decades, companies have been run largely as mechanisms:

their systems, processes, functions, departments and people

seen as so many cogs and drive belts in a giant machine. Busi-

nesses have been successfully built, restructured, reinvented,

combined and disassembled based on this paradigm. And for

many, this approach continues to be the default.

But in an age when there is greater worker mobility than

ever and a skilled and engaged workforce has never been more

valuable, that model is insufﬁcient.

Traditional change management is outmoded for the same

reasons. Whether in implementing new processes or technol-

ogy upgrades, too many businesses rely on models that focus

narrowly on systems, roles, responsibilities and hierarchies.

They may strive to gain buy-in and raise awareness of the need

for change but they do so without understanding how to tap

into what motivates employees. In such cases, organizations

have failed to ask why change needs to happen and what suc-

cess looks like beyond immediate objectives. Over the medium

and long term, most traditional change management efforts are

unsustainable.

The competency model that follows distills organizational

success and failure to three key ingredients: competency, inten-

tion and mechanism, seen in Figure 1. We’ll be returning to

this model a few times:

• Competency. This is the foundation of all change and

company success in general. You need people with the right

skills to effect desired changes. A nurse practitioner’s desire

to be a doctor is not enough; specialized training is needed.

• Intention. Employee attitudes and how they identify with

the organization in terms of service, goals and success – col-

lectively, an organizational will to succeed

• Mechanism. The tools, technology, processes, methodolo-

gies and systems that enable change and the achievement of

peak performance levels

In order to thrive, companies must be highly functioning in

not one or two but all three areas. Intention without mecha-

nism means organizations are highly motivated but have no-

where to go. Mechanism without intention, on the other hand,

provides a clear process for reaching a target state but no sense

of urgency, excitement or ownership. Combine mechanism

and intention with the right competencies, however, and you

can get extraordinary results.

FIGURE 1

The competency model

Organizational success and failure as summarized in three

key ingredients.

44 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Achieve lasting change through a values-driven workforce

Core values

Intention is anchored in values and beliefs, which

in turn impact attitudes and behaviors. Individu-

als who exhibit four core values in their behavior

best exemplify and attract trust. These values,

seen in Figure 2, are as follows:

• Serving. Finding fulﬁlment by helping others.

Ego concerns are set aside. Employees counsel

and coach each other.

• Excellence. The drive to perform a task to a

high standard. Results, though inﬂuenced by

external factors, depend on individual effort.

People who score highly in this area tend to

see mistakes as learning opportunities rather

than reﬂections of self-worth.

• Integrity. Keeping our commitments to oth-

ers and oneself. Valuing and treating others

well. Freely expressing views and feelings

while respecting the opinions of others.

• Learning. An individual’s desire to grow and

self-actualize. The quest for personal fulﬁll-

ment. A balance of realism and creativity.

Think of the core values (center column) in Figure 2 as be-

ing on a scale from 0 to 10. The behaviors associated with each

value on the left represent a 0 (e.g., arguing) and on the right a

10 (e.g., listening).

As Stephen R. Covey details in his book The Speed of Trust,

businesses with employees who exhibit 10 out of 10 behaviors

are more likely to succeed. Employees are more motivated, en-

joy greater work satisfaction and ﬁnd meaning in relationships

and teamwork. Further, they ﬁnd fulﬁllment in getting results,

whether in terms of quality, customer service, proﬁtability or

sales growth. Their positive behaviors lead to positive results.

Putting the concepts to work

This diagram can be facilitated working sessions with compa-

nies. It’s extremely useful in challenging each individual’s as-

sumptions about what they and, by implication, the business

are capable of achieving.

Almost everybody agrees organizations that exhibit behav-

iors on the right-hand side of Figure 2 produce better results

over the medium and long term. People are happier, feel more

engaged and are willing to contribute. They also understand –

and this is key – how the behavior on the far right is exhibited.

Almost everyone knows someone who is a 10 out of 10 in one

or more of the values in the graphic above who can serve as a

model for them to follow.

That said, there are impediments in people’s lives that pre-

vent them from being a 10 out of 10 every day. Organizations,

as a result, are hampered in achieving sustainable competitive

advantage. Removing these impediments is key to long-term

sustainable success.

Where do you and your organization fall on the scale and

what are the things preventing you from attaining a 10 out of

10 in each of these values?

Going through this process helps executives and employ-

ees gain clarity on the obstacles to reaching their own path to

full potential and begin to clear them away. Do that on a large

enough scale and – again, providing the mechanisms and com-

petencies are in place – the entire organization shifts.

This is not a one-off exercise. The process is reinforced

through practice. Organizations must manage intention con-

sciously from the top down and make it clear what must be ac-

complished. Otherwise, old habits will prevail and people will

snap back like elastic bands to what is familiar. Executives must

be prepared for the challenges they will face in the transition

by ensuring the vision of the long-term solution stays front and

center for everyone.

It could take a few years to build an organizational culture

like this, but once these values and behaviors are established, it’s

extremely hard for the competition to seize and replicate. You

can’t steal or copy a culture like this, but you sure can feel the

difference, and your customers will, too.

Too many leaders forget that their organizations comprise

people who yearn for purpose. They focus instead on change

strategies centered on mechanism. Change without vision is

FIGURE 2

Core values

The positive and negative behaviors that are associated with each key trait.

May 2020 | ISE Magazine 45

a Band-Aid ﬁx. The priority must be on leading employees

toward the behaviors associated with the four core values de-

scribed earlier, hiring new workers who best exemplify those

behaviors or both.

Sustainable change, change with the greatest potential to

beneﬁt the organization broadly, requires competency, inten-

tion and mechanism in combination. Intention must be about

much more than getting buy-in and support or building con-

sensus. It must be about shifting the organizational culture

toward both personal and organizational purpose and values.

This is what makes the fundamental difference. 

David Poirier is president of IISE and CEO of the Poirier Group

in Toronto, Canada. He is a licensed professional logistician and pro-

fessional engineer with more than 30 years of experience in industrial

engineering. An IISE Fellow, Poirier was awarded the IISE Medallion

Award for Exceptional Achievement, the IISE Outstanding Manage-

ment Award and the University of Toronto Mid-Career Achievement

Award. He served as chairman of CISE from 1995-97 and on the

board of trustees as vice president international. He was chosen to receive

the Fellowship of Engineering Institute of Canada for 2020.

A story of transformation

The following case study concerns a large Canadian retailer. The

president of this large retailer had observed that functional silos in the

organization lacked cohesion. The executive team, while possessing

the required tools and competencies in their roles, needed to be better

aligned around a common purpose and vision. He set out to make that

happen.

Executives were sent on a weeklong training session led by some

experts in personal development. During the workshop, executives

evaluated themselves and the organization relative to four assumed

core values of high performance: achievement, self-actualizing,

humanistic-helpful and afﬁliation. Executives left the experience

feeling changed and energized and were inspired to train the rest of the

organization on aligning to these values as well. A ﬁve-year strategy to

train the entire organization was then created.

The executive team met afterward. Each was handed a piece of paper

at the top of which read, “Each of us is fully committed to achieving

Vision 1998.” Underneath were 10 lines for executives to sign.

After each executive had signed the document, there was no

applause, no cheering – total silence. Everyone was left mute by the

weight of responsibility, accountability and tasks that lay before them.

The power of intention had carried the team to a pivotal moment, and

you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.

That strategic plan was executed with dedication and commitment.

The retailer exceeded ambitious sales, proﬁt and share price goals.

Further, the company trained thousands of employees on intention.

Employees were surveyed both before the training and again two

years into the ﬁve-year plan. Before the process had begun, employees

ranked the business at 7. Afterward, the same, 7. Initially, everyone was

dumbfounded. It appeared there had been no movement at all. But then

someone realized that a question had been omitted. Employees were

then asked, with the beneﬁt of two years’ hindsight, where they thought

the company had stood two years earlier. They said 2. Their perception

of excellence had shifted. The goal posts had moved.

2 case study examples

Building a strong connection

An aircraft training and manufacturing company had grown

rapidly but not invested sufﬁciently in business infrastructure.

A consulting ﬁrm was engaged to help put in place a new IT

infrastructure and strategy, travel and expense system and

various ﬂight operations projects. It was asked to architect

an overall communications and change management

strategy. It was clear from the outset that sustainable project

success would depend critically on shifting intention in the

organization, starting in the C-suite with management values

of trust and accountability. They would have to change the way

they spoke to and led the organization.

The project work involved:

• Holding a strategic planning and culture workshop to help

create and embed the company’s mission, vision, values

and ground rules

• Adopting and integrating a practice of active feedback and

accountability — both top-down and bottom-up

• Preparing training material for and delivering workshops

on the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology.

These were used to change how objectives were set, results

managed and accountabilities implemented

• Creating change management roadmaps (mechanism)

• Identifying change sponsors for all key organizational

projects.

One year later the company was operating at record capacity

and had gained millions of dollars in value. These exercises

enabled and supported the organization in implementing the

broader strategic objectives of the project. Management and

employees at all levels not only felt but demonstrated a greater

commitment to teamwork, accountability and the achievement

of results.