Change Management

Oliver Florschütz – To The Point

My biggest strength is to point out what really hurts. I believe it is right to say what I see and hear and make out of it. I love it to detect that the emperor’s new clothes, praised by everyone, are really nakedness. That is what I do as a consultant. And I do that facing board members or managers or sales staff or shop floor workers. Always in a target group oriented yet straightforward manner. The scope is to go towards the aspired state in an adequate but relentless way.

My Offer

Of course change is always and everywhere. Seen like this managing change is part of your everyday agenda as a manager. Right. And then often there is the need to push a whole organisation or large units of an organisation forward to new areas. This can be done in a way that people like it and are attracted to join the effort. Or at least, don’t do it in a demotivating or even destructing way. I support you to design and manage the transformation of your area of responsibility. That covers a broad range of speeches or impulses via training or education of change agents up to constant supervision of managers or management bodies.

Life in most corporates is still rooted in management methods and ideas which had been developed last century. Back then they were helpful. In today’s VUCA-world, most of them aren’t. The empowering management by objectives idea degenerated to a stiff performance management system in which people agree on objectives which they already know are unrealistic by the time they are signed. Budgets for the year are outdated and need to be reworked by March latest. Hierarchy as the model to run organisations was helpful as long as at the top of the pyramid was the only place where all information was bundled and transparency was there. In a complex world this is not the case anymore. So if you experience that the old model does not work anymore but you are not sure how to replace it… Let’s work it out together.

It is not difficult to write down a vision. Nice words come easy. What is rather difficult, though, is to develop your vision/mission statement in a way that a maximum of relevant stakeholder-groups (staff, managers, clients etc.) are involved. I help you to run this process in a way that a maximum of people feels that the vision is theirs and thus, live up to it with their heads, hearts and hands.

If mergers fail, then it is seldom the reason that IT was incompatible. More often the (potential) failure is rooted in cultural incompatibility. And the so-called ‘merger as equals’ or ‘blend of the best’ are sheer take-overs which create winners and losers. That does not help to create synergies or to meet the business case that was the idea behind the merger. I can help you with the cultural integration before, during and after the merger in a way that As and Bs collaborate and create something new, bigger and stronger.

You are fed up with conferences with only tone from the top, i.e. the stage? Research shows that most participant think that during conferences the coffee-break was the most valuable part. I can support you to design and facilitate conferences where hundreds of participants interact – not only during coffee. The results of such work of course bear a completely different level of commitment and potential to get things going.

Most teams fail because they focus rather quickly on what members have in common. Yet, diversity and being different are key to effective team-performance. If teams avoid conflict the seems-to-be consensus is rapidly achieved but does not help when the rubber hits the road. I can support you to really grow together as a team. That might be unpleasant at times. Usually team members leave my team-building session rather pensively than joyfully. And I am glad if they do so.

From time to time it might be helpful to have a neutral person with a fresh and unbiased view for an exchange. I offer not only my ear but also my mouth. I love to listen and ask questions and – unlike other coaches – if I consider it helpful, I will come up with my own view or recommendations with regard to what I have heard. You might not always like it but if you just want someone to nod and praise, then get a parrot.

You are in HR and you can observe that the acceptance of HR is declining? Spreading HR Development measures like butter does not help and managers know better anyway? Well, I think that strategic HR work always needs to be organisational development. I would love to help you to focus the whole of HR and especially HRD on the company’s business strategy. So that whatever you do in HR helps the business to achieve its strategic goals.

In many organisations internal trainers receive more and more demand to do teambuilding. The difficulty is that training and teambuilding are completely different animals, as far as approach, attitude and delivery is concerned. I have developed a training course which enables trainers to become team building facilitators. 3 modules of 2 trainign days each and in between phases of bringing it into practice, applying it with (your) real clients.

When HR colleagues hear talent management they often think in a series of trainings. I can support you in building up a meaningful and effective talent management system, reaching from purpose (why do we do this?) via selection (who should be a participant?) to a systematic succession management so that your pipeline is always properly filled.

Consulting Approach and Languages

Languages

  • I can work in German and English without any constraints.
  • My French and Italian are good. Depending on the scope of what we will be doing I would have to clarify whether ‘good’ is sufficient to do the job.

Approach

I do have a fully packed rucksack of intellectual and theoretical background. Yet I love it to work hands-on and with both feet on the ground. When working the categories of ‘helpful or not’ are much more important than ‘right or wrong’. And the metaphor for organisation is that of a mobile: You pull on one side and the whole thing moves and shakes. Cause and effect in organisational systems are not always linear or mono-causal or even rational. Most organisations have been founded by human beings to provide something for other human beings. So interests are much more powerful than pure ratio.

When observing kids I can feel that we are born curious, full of fantasy and of zest for action. And then I wonder what happened to those kids when they grew up. Adults usually hide this and play roles instead. I would like to contribute to a world, where curious exploring and joyful constructing is possible within organisations – rather than only in your leisure time in privacy or during weekends.

That is the other metaphor: Machines can be modified arbitrarily. Machines can be optimised. They can be described in a technical way and if something is broken, fix it or replace it. That does not work in organisations, as they are living organisms which need to be viewed and handled holistically and not as only the sum of its parts.

You buy a consultant’s performance selectively and time-bound. In most organisations there are loads of people who have been members for a long time, who know tons of stuff about the organisation, who have built up knowledge and expertise in their respective area. I cannot and do not want to compete with them. Remain two reasons, why you would buy me: 1. I have knowledge or expertise that was not needed before and there is a gap I can fill. Then I will do this in a way which transfers that knowledge or expertise to the organisation so that you do not need me anymore in the long run. 2. I can do or say something that an internal colleague would not be allowed to do or say. Then part of my job is to do or say this in a way that the organisation develops in a direction that in future no external person is needed anymore, e.g. to address taboos or the elephant in the room.

Experience and formal education

Experience

  • Since 1993 in the field of change management and organisation development (as internal consultant, external consultant and as a manager and leader)
  • More than 10 years of experience as a trainer and more than 20 years as a facilitator
  • Lecturer at universities since 1995 (Universität Hamburg, HTW Berlin, Hochschule Worms)
  • I have lead individuals and teams for more than 15 years. Out of which 3 years in Sales, 9 years in different HR functions and 3 years with project responsibility
  • I have been in charge of cultural integration after mergers of Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and Postbank, Postbank and Norisbank
  • 20 years of Deutsche Bank, a global and multinational firm with a matrix org chart. Amongst others I have been Global Head of Talent Management, Regional Head HRD EMEA, Global Head HRD Retail Banking, Member of the Board for the Region of Bavaria/Thuringia etc.

Formal Education

  • MSc, Master in Organisation Consulting, Ashridge & Middlesex University, England
  • Studied Economics, Education, Philosophy and Political Sciences at Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany
  • Training Course (20 days) ‘Professional Consulting of Change Management Projects / Organisation Development’ with Trigon, Fritz Glasl, Graz
  • Learnt Large Group Interventions from Harrison Owen, Matthias zur Bonsen und Marvin Weisbord
  • Been trained in ‘Group Dynamics’ and ‘Managing Conflict’ by Peter Heintel, Gerhard Schwarz, Traugott Lindner, Karin Lackner
  • MBTI-License

This is how to join me

Contact

Ring me on +49 17651846375 or send me an email.

Oliver Florschütz

These are partners who join me if necessary or appropriate

Ryschka

Ryschka

Die Transformationsgefährten

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Insquadrat

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Bernhard Vierling

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Inspired Executives

Inspired Executives