Transformation - Changing ahead of the curve

"Many companies wait too long to attempt transformations, doing so only when the signs of trouble have become obvious. But that's almost inevitably too late. High performers, by contrast, change before they must, knowing that the best way to transform is from a position of strength."

Accenture research into high-performance business has found that successful companies are able to change ahead of the curve by embracing four critical goals:
1. Increase the company's capacity for early change by deliberately fostering continuous renewal as part of its everyday operations.
2. Generate confidence in early change by sharpening the company's business acuity through the development of comprehensive market sensing and responding capabilities.
3. Overcome management resistance to early change by carefully and continuously evolving top management teams.
4. Accelerate the behavior changes needed to start and sustain transformation by using leading-edge tools and techniques for sensing and responding to organizational change barriers and opportunities.

On the last point in particular comes this emphasis:
"Social network analysis is another recent technology-enabled technique that allows managers and executives to track the effects of strategic initiatives on employee behaviors. It enables management to identify the effect change initiatives are having on the patterns of communications and influence occurring within the farthest reaches of the organization. In particular, social network analysis helps companies identify "energizers" who can be further leveraged as well as "de-energizers" who must be dealt with."


Full article here