Eliminating third-class mail to ensure U.S. Postal Service profitability

Adaptive Leadership Initiative at the U.S. Postal Service

Identify one significant adaptive challenge that you think the USPS should tackle first:

Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors should eliminate unprofitable classes of mail so that the organization operates profitably.

Discuss what characteristics make this an adaptive challenge and why it is not a technical problem. Include the impact the challenge will have on employees and customers priorities, beliefs, habits, loyalties and values.

The USPS has historically operated at a loss and the postal rate increases that have been implemented in recent years have been insufficient to cover operating expenses (Shields, 2008). One of the major contributors to these losses has been third class mail (Third class mail, 2008).

What steps will you take to diagnose the adaptive challenge in order to begin formulating your intervention?

The USPS suffers from a mindset that regards operational losses as an acceptable cost of doing business for the American public. The adaptive leadership model can help change this mindset by emphasizing the need to implement policies that will ensure the organization's survival while still offering the types of services that are still needed by the nation's consumers and businesses in view of the proliferation of email and instant messaging services (Glover & Rainwater, 2008).

3. What specific observation techniques will you use when "getting on the balcony"? Describe in detail what types of environments and/or situations will enable you to collect your observations?

The "On the Balcony" section described by Heifertz, Grashow and Linksy (2009) emphasizes the need for reciprocal feedback from superiors and subordinates in order to formulate informed change initiatives. Therefore, although historic accounting information can provide an adaptive leader with the information needed to determine which classes of mail have been consistently unprofitable and which generate revenues for the USPS, it will be vitally important to solicit feedback from other stakeholders who may have a differing perspective concerning the value of different classes of mail to the American public.

What losses seem to be at stake? What resistance will you likely encounter? Third-class bulk (or "junk") mail represents the unprofitable class of the four classes of mail used by the USPS that should be eliminated. Many businesses will likely resist the elimination of this class of mail because they rely on it for inexpensive mass marketing purposes (Third class mail, 2009).

4. What interpretation techniques will you leverage to ensure your "path to change and success" will work?

Although there will likely be resistance to change, there are some indications that most Americans regard third-class mail as expendable. For instance, the results of a survey of USPS employees, member of Congress and the media ranked third class mail (advertisements and catalogs) as the least important of the four classes of mail used by the USPS (first class mail consists of personal letters and bills; second class consists of newspapers and magazines and fourth class consists of parcels) (Third class mail, 2009).

What are the risks and is it worth the risks involved to lead this adaptive challenge? Given the enormous competitive represented by UPS, FedEx and other private operators, the USPS is faced with some difficult choices but eliminating third class mail is an essential step that will be needed to achieve profitability and ensure the organization's survival in the future.

How will you manage influences from your own biases? It will be important for the adaptive change manager to avoid allowing individual positive views about third class mail to affect the decision to eliminate the mail class.