Engine For Change

I slumped in my chair, closed my eyes and sighed under my breath, “Ugh!”

What else can you say when you watch a truly urgent plea for transformation closely followed by a detailed paper directing the recipients to perform typical incremental improvement behavior?

What can you do when a valiant call for new, purposeful action is weighed down under words urging you to wait until the teleconference, or next meeting, or some later date to report your thoughts (not your actions, your plans, your true passion…nope, just your thoughts)?

You could hire Kotter International.  According to Dr. John Kotter, quoted in a recent Business Wire article,

All around us, change is accelerating, but our ability to lead change hasn’t kept pace. Managers are trained to make incremental, programmatic improvements. They aren’t trained to lead large-scale change. Kotter International is about leading large-scale change, not just managing it.”

When you know where to look, you’ll start to find too many examples in your daily life where people plea for transformation and demand incremental change.

The church council knows it has an aging population and a negative bank account, but its congregation is happy to wait another month to consider all options before acting.  Transformation meets an incremental monster.

The volunteer group’s strategic planning session paints a lofty vision of their impact on their community, then they bicker over how to structure their strategic planning meeting minutes, never starting the strategic change.  Transformation eaten by the incremental monster.

The organization that has a true need to transform from one century to the century beyond next, bogs down early in wishes to discuss the group’s thoughts in incremental meetings with elaborate action approval processes (never written down of course).  Transformation dead before it even meets the incremental monster.

Perhaps I’m venting to much..what was my point again?  Oh, yes.

For someone passionate about driving change, a world in need of transformation but plagued with incremental action can be maddening, but there are at least five ways out of the incremental monster’s lair.

1.  Refuse to be incremental.  Someone once told me he was fiercely committed to always being rigidly flexible in the service of his goals.  Take his advice and be rigidly flexible regarding your transformation.  You’ll be driving change: acknowledging the concerns of those you pass, but not stopping to convince them to come with you.  You’ll just keep going.  Someday they’ll join along.  Sure, they’ll make faster progress because you’ve blazed the trail for them to follow, but you’re not in competition with them; you’re in pursuit of your transformation.

2.  Offer the transformation option.  If you’re not the one in charge (and no matter the organization, you’re rarely the one in charge), try offering transformation to the powers in control.  And, offer transformation with your promise to work hard along side them on the transformation.  Offer your service to the congregation, to the volunteer board, to the bureaucratic organization. You’ll be putting yourself out there, but it’ll be worth it, even if they don’t accept your offer.  Why? Because after you make the suggestion of transformation they can’t honestly say they didn’t know transformation was an option. And if they try to crush you after you willingly offered to be a servant to their transformation then you know exactly the type of people you are working with (and I’d recommend for your sanity you try to work elsewhere).  See. Either way you learned something essential to driving your change.

3.  Let others choose the transformation for themselves.  You’re likely right in the transformation you’re suggesting.  Being right doesn’t matter.  Unless you truly have the power to compel people’s passions and minds into your service (and I doubt you do even with the best of power structures), if you force them along with you you’re going to kill in them exactly what you need alive to make your transformation successful.  When they’re journeying with you, they’ll need to be thinking, breathing, feeling members of your transformation.  Indentured servants and beaten serfs rarely produce the genius required to keep a transformation moving.

4.  Give them hope in the transformation.  People fear the unknown (how cliche’ but true) and they’ll worry the journey to the transformation will be rough.  Why not just admit to them it will be?  “Yep.  This will probably be the hardest thing you ever do.  And, because it’s the hardest, it will likely be the most fulfilling.”  Pick your point on the horizon, your transformation.  Tell them you’re setting your course that way, ready for what the road brings you, confident you’ll get there in due time and you’d love for them to join you. Say that and mean it. Then, set out and see what happens.  Give them some hope both for the end and for the journey and you’ll be surprised who joins you.

5.  Measure something new.  If you work for transformation and all the signs (the metrics, the dollar figures, the graphs, the charts, the meeting and the status symbols) remain the same as the old route, you’re not helping anyone.   Keeping the old is the incremental change trap.  Break free by admitting up front that you’ll have to leave some of those signs behind.  When we travel cross country in the U.S. we can be sure that the sign that says California will shift to one that says Nebraska then Illinois then New York, but all the signs are in English.  The words are different, but the language the same.  Do the same thing with the numbers, the figures, the praised and rewarded facts.  Bring enough of the old, but tailor it first for the new.

Maybe I’m rambling after a long weekend away and a busy day catching up.  Maybe I’m making sense.  The point of the five steps is to give you confidence that there are some quick, specific ways of acting that will help you in turning a plea for transformation into actual transformation instead of a pit of incremental monster mud.

To recap:

1. Refuse to be incremental.

2. Offer transformation.

3. Let them choose.

4. Give them hope.

5. Change the measures.

Or, you can skip my ramblings and hire Kotter International. Either way, keep driving change.

On the days when I wanted to give up I think of a parable Admiral Rickover used to tell.

The parable goes something like this,

An ancient philosopher came to a city to save its people from their sins.  The inhabitants of the city, who at first listened to the philosopher, gradually turned away.  One day a child asked the philosopher, ‘Why do you shout when they do not listen?’  The philosopher replied, ‘In the beginning I shouted to change them.  If I still shout, it is to prove they cannot change me.’”

What’s the take away?

Be ready to shout even when no one is listening.

Always remember that if you stop shouting–if you stop driving–you’ll never get the change you want.

I still shout.

Will you shout with me?

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.” — John Wooden

A colleague recounted an experience implementing a company-wide quality initiative in a multi-national manufacturing firm. The initiative required employees to make significant changes not only in how they did their jobs, but also in their attitudes toward their responsibilities and the outcome of their work. My colleague was outlining to a senior executive the importance of affecting employees’ mindsets, and his plan for doing so. The executive cut him off, saying, “I’ll write them a memo to change their attitudes. Now, where is the project plan?”

We can hope that few managers would admit to such a simplistic belief in the power of a memo, despite how easy that would make change management. If there were a magic wand or a magic memo that could transform people’s attitudes, then the success rate of implementing new ways of working would certainly be greater than the 15-50% reported by researchers.* Getting people to use a new technology or process—not as an overlay to their “real” work, but as an improvement to it—is no trivial task.

When the failure rate for organizational change is more than 50%, apathy is the sensible, rational attitude for an employee who has just learned about a new initiative. If he or she ignores the change, there is a greater than 50/50 chance that it will go away. Strong change management has to correct this reality by recognizing that the best advocates for the merits of a new technology or process are employees with expertise in the area affected, who have experience with the change and appreciation for it. There is no substitute for their know-how and enthusiasm. Find those early adopters, and involve them in implementing the change. Give them opportunities to share their experience and reward their successes.

But even the best advocates cannot  take the place of leadership. No degree of enthusiasm can outweigh the apathy of an employee who lacks the tools to make the change initiative work or has only a vague notion of the business case for it. Employee apathy is increased by leaders who give lip service to the change, but whose attention and budget are elsewhere. Change is successful when everyone has a vision of the end state, the plan to get there includes the needed infrastructure, and results are rewarded along the way. Aligning the management team, the infrastructure, and the reward system with the vision is an ongoing process that is not for the faint-hearted. Perhaps there is some utopia where this sort of active leadership could be done with a simple memo, but I probably don’t need to tell you what happened with my colleague’s quality initiative.

[The ideas presented here are from my book Creating Contagious Commitment (ISBN 978-0-9741028-1-8, www.CreatingContagiousCommitment.com). *See Creating Contagious Commitment for more on success rates of change.]

On Wednesday I’m off for my first vacation in a very, very long time.

For all my Input strength readers (and all the rest), I couldn’t leave you without any delicious new content to devour, so I’ve made arrangements.

I’m pleased to welcome Dr. Andrea Shapiro, author of Creating Contagious Commitment, as the first Engine For Change guest blogger.  Look for Andrea’s first post on Thursday morning.

And though I’ll be gone all weekend, I’ve mastered the delayed publishing feature enough to ensure you still get your Quote of the Week late on Sunday.

Have a great week and keep driving change!

All my best – April

When I’m sitting around a table after work with my friends sometimes it’s fun to go around the table and tell our “the only one” stories about how one of us has been the only one who’s done something, knows something or has seen something at work.  A few of my favorites to tell are:

• Years ago a young officer claimed that I was likely the only person to ever bring a purse into the engine room of the USS Asheville (SSN 758).  He declared this to me in a rather shocked and bothered tone.  (In my defense, a purse seemed a perfectly ogical place for me to carry my pen and paper.  Am I right ladies?)
• You could maybe tell from my first story that I work in a shipyard.  Yesterday I painted my nails while standing just inside the turnstiles to that same shipyard.  By the end of the day I started to wonder if I may be the only person to have ever stopped there to paint their nails.  An entirely non-scientific poll of my friends suggests my assumption may be right. [If you’re wondering what would ever possess me to paint my nails on my way into work, well…I’m very busy at home and I’m nothing if not efficient with my time.  My walk to my office Is the perfect nail drying time.  I can’t let that time go to waste.)

These “only one” stories are fun after hours, but when you’re driving change in your organization you can’t afford for long to be the only one who has done something, knows something or has seen something.  Why? Because your change doesn’t depend on whether you can do it, know it or see it.

You have to get others to do it, know it and see it too. To get them there, I bet you’ll need to use stories.

You’ll need to create some “we were all…” stories.

How?

I can’t answer that question in a general sense, but I can point you to some good folks who’ll help you formulate how to tell the right stories.  Check out Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick.

Just last week I used the lessons they taught me to transform an executive’s title change from a dull, administrative choice into a story that people have been telling all week. The story I overheard was, “We were all in the meeting and on a card sitting on the table was his title, but his old title was crossed out with thick black marker.  Now it says…”

Who’s telling stories about your change?

Don’t be the only one.

Jesus was telling them, “A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own home.” – Mark 6:4

Don’t worry if your work group, your boss or your friends don’t understand the change you’re driving. Someday they will.

For now, look for others who share a passion for your change.

If your co-workers won’t listen…

Maybe you’ll find a kindred spirit in another division.

If you boss blows off your ideas…

Maybe your mentor’s been looking for an idea just like yours.

If your friends dismiss your passion…

Maybe you need new friends.

Keep driving.

Today I attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new local child development center.  Just a year ago, hardly anyone thought building a center would ever be possible.

Yet years ago when a few gathered to discuss if, when and how to gain a new child development center, there was a unifying thought that gave our words weight and our actions purpose.  We could say one short statement comfortably about our desire to obtain a child development center: It’s possible.

When you believe in your change you’ll be surprised what you can accomplish.

How within your grasp would your desire be if only you could say to yourself, “It’s possible.”

Can you say it?

Yes?

Then why not try?

You can’t drive change alone.  You’ll need help.  You’ll need to find your Ando.

On the TV show Heroes, Ando is the loyal friend of hero Hiro.

Ando’s special ability is called supercharging.  Ando’s presence allows other “evolved humans” to elevate their powers, sometimes by 1,000 times.

Imagine what you could do with 1,000 times your own abilities!

In the show, Ando got his strengths multiplying ability after injecting himself with a crazy formula.  Please don’t encourage/trick a loyal friend into any injections!  There’s a better way.

Instead, take Gallup’s Strengths Finder 2.0 assessment and encourage your loyal friends/indifferent co-workers to do the same.

What’ll it cost you?

About $14 and an hour per assessment.

What’ll it get you?

Words to describe your strengths, details on your friends/co-workers strengths and a new opportunity to find your strengths match, your Ando.

What’ll it look like?

Say you’re a strategic thinker (the assessment will tell you if you are).  You know what changes need to be made to make your work group to be more effective, but you can’t get anyone to listen to your ideas.  You need to partner with an influencer, someone who can sell your ideas to the people in power.  If you’re a “get ‘er done” executor-type that happens to get ‘er done so well sometimes you lose team members along the way, you’d benefit from having a relationship-building partner that keeps the team together while you all get the job done.

When you pool your strengths finder results you’ll have all you need to find someone who matches your strengths and amplifies your potential.

I know your Ando is out there.

Why not try for 1,000 times your strengths?

Or:

Have you found your Ando already?  Tell us how.  Comment away!

Thanks to the ten people who joined me for the first world-wide Linchpin meet-up day.  We had a simple, enjoyable time relaxing over pizza and beverages.  I meant to take photos and forgot.

Now that I’ve got a taste for how easy it is to put a meet-up together, I may just have to make local meet-ups a quarterly affair.  I know some people out there prefer a few minutes of actual conversation intermixed with quality electronic communications.

In this grab bag post I’ll send out my best wishes for my good friends attending the Edward Tufte one day course in Seattle this Tuesday or Wednesday.  I know you’ll have a blast and can’t wait until Thursday when I can hear all about how much you liked the class.  Remember to watch not only the content of the course, but how Tufte delivers the content.  He’s giving you a lesson in teaching that he’s thrown for free.

Never to leave a post without one great link, enjoy this article on leadership from the American Scholar.  I’m finding myself recently drawn to the speeches given to the men and women in our service academies.  Perhaps its the implied purpose of the cadet’s life that makes the speaker want to say something meaningful.  Whatever it is, we’re all benefiting.

Wishing you a fabulous week of driving change – April

In honor of world-wide Linchpin meet-up day (Monday June 14th), here’s a favorite (of many) Seth Godin quotes from Linchpin:

“Not My Job”

Three words can kill an entire organization.

As the world moves faster and engagement become more fluid, the category of “not my job” keeps getting bigger and bigger…

…The bathroom at New York’s Museum of Natural History has insufficient wastepaper bins, so the one that’s there is always overflowing.  It’s the janitor’s job to empty the can as often as he can, but who has the job of installing a second can?

In a factory, doing a job that’s not yours is dangerous.  Now, if you’re a linchpin, doing a job that’s not getting done is essential. [emphasis mine.]“

Don’t forget to join me at Cloverleaf Tavern and Pizza at 5:30 on Monday for world-wide Linchpin meet-up day.  Not near Bremerton, Washington?  Find a meet-up close to you at Meetup.com.