A635.8.3.RB - Transformational Strategies

Following a drop in the housing market and major building damage due to a fire, owner of Gallery Furniture, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, had to make major organizational changes (McIngvale, 2012). With help from Influencer Training, McIngvale implemented changes that positively impacted his company. For example, when contacting potential customers, McIngvale coached his employees in follow-up and prospecting practices; rather than let a customer/potential customer leave, never to be heard from again, McIngvale’s employees reached out to them (McIngvale, 2012). In addition to encouraging his employees to reach out to customers, McIngyale offered incentive and data-sharing (McIngvale, 2012). In Data-sharing, employees publicly share their client numbers and prospects won over (McIngvale, 2012). When McIngvale talked about using data-sharing to push performance, I thought about my organization’s practices. In order to create healthy competition among Worldwide campuses, our leadership team publicly lists each campus’ registration percentages so that we see which campuses made their term goal. If a campus is not listed, the campus did not make goal; this kind of incentive pushes campuses to “make goal” so that their campus may also appear on the “made goal” list.

Like my organization’s culture, Gallery Furniture culture had to implement a strategy change where the changes were compatible with the existing culture; this strategy is known as Manage the Change (Brown, 2011, p. 407). McIngvale pursued a strategy that could manage change by using the power of cultural acceptance and reinforcement; his change strategies emphasized a shared vision, reshuffling power, and reinforcing the new value system (Brown, 2011, p. 407). In managing around the change, McIngvale made strategic changes, but the changes were potentially incompatible with corporate culture (Brown, 2011, p. 407). However, in sharing and reinforcing the vision, the Gallery Furniture team embraced the proposed cultural changes and turned their company around. Stanley McChrystal (2011) noted that it is important for leaders to build a shared sense of purpose; a shared sense of purpose emphasizes the importance of relationship building and leader-follower trust.  No matter the issues within the organization, leaders must be transparent and willing to learn from others; transparency and humility build trust (McChrystal, 2011).

McChrystal, S. (2011, March ). Listen, Learn...Then Lead. Retrieved from TED Ideas Worth Spreading : https://www.ted.com/talks/stanley_mcchrystal

McIngvale, J. (2012, September 17). Influencer | Gallery Furniture Video Case Study. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20RW75Fhu4&feature=youtu.be