Illustrate an Effective Change Management Strategy

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Chapter 6 Overcoming Resistance My first week on the job as the CIO of Medtronic, I set into motion a change that, at first glance, seemed like an easy way to save the company a lot of money. Little did I know, I was kicking off the first scuffle in my dealings with a man—we'll call him Stymie Stan—who was determined to be my adversary. This would be the first of three times in my first 90 days that he would act unilaterally against a team decision. He was the worst, but he wasn't the only resistance I faced at Medtronic. All change leaders need to expect resistance—whether it be from individuals or entire business units—and be prepared to overcome it.

The trouble started when, the day I arrived at Medtronic, I sat down at my new desk and booted up my shiny, brand-new, company-issued PC. I was amazed: Here was the Maserati of computers. It was perfect for someone in R&D, engineering, or quantitative analysis who needed real horsepower. Trouble was, my top driving speeds, like most people in the company, would be e-mail, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint slides.

I asked around and found out that everyone in the company got the same computer. IT had set the standard based on the needs of the highest-end users, which comprised about 15 percent of the company. Making matters worse, I found out we were paying through the nose for these machines. They were the same ones I had used at Georgia-Pacific, purchased from the same supplier for more than twice the cost.

After trying and failing to negotiate with the supplier, I raised the issue at my first council meeting. First I explained that 85 percent of the company could and should do their jobs with much less expensive computers. Then I suggested we put our business out for bids from new suppliers.

By this time I knew that this change, like any, would involve some politics: It would require the various business units (BUs) to give up some of their autonomy and align with each other and corporate over buying decisions. They were used to having total control over their equipment budgets, and they had tight relationships with the old supplier. This would be another step in the larger shift toward integrating IT services across the organization, a move that was already meeting resistance among the BU CIOs, who weren't used to having to take direction from the corporate CIO (me). As I've mentioned, the effort preceded me, but it was also a large part of my mandate.

Despite all that, at the council meeting my suggestions seemed welcomed. They all listened to my arguments, agreed that we should find a new supplier, and we adjourned. So you can imagine my frustration when I got word that Stan had placed a large order with the existing supplier at the same price we'd always paid. When I got him on the phone, he told me he had “changed his mind” about the need to find a new supplier. Although it was only Stan who had outright mutinied, the truth was many of the business unit CIOs were chafing against an

Dallas, H. J. (2015). Mastering the challenges of leading change : Inspire the people and succeed where others fail. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from ncent-ebooks on 2020-07-22 13:39:19.

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initiative that they felt threatened their turf.

The Many Faces of Resistance As I've already written, people resist change that threatens their boundaries. Change can create generalized uncertainty, which no one likes, or it can create clear winners and losers. Guess who resists?

What's more unique is how people channel their opposition. Most folks take their responsibility toward the organization seriously. Still, they can be unconsciously influenced by their personal stake in the change, which affects how they interpret and prioritize the facts at hand. Their resistance takes the form of reasoned arguments and legitimate points of view. In my experience, I see four typical types of rational resisters:

1. Those who propose some alternative to your vision of the future (which often, but not always, conveniently preserves their boundaries).

2. Those who accept your vision but believe they have a better way of achieving it (see previous parenthetical).

3. Those who don't have their own solution but have legitimate arguments against the one you've proposed.

4. Those who have higher priorities and don't have the time or resources to invest in the change you are proposing.

I've found that people who fall into one of these categories are generally willing to engage with you. Either you can win them over to your point of view, or they'll help you find an even better solution, if you communicate successfully. Here's my strategic approach, broken into five principles, to working with dissenters rather than against them.

1. Drop the word compromise from your vocabulary. You're looking for middle ground. Compromise suggests that each party has to give up something. Middle ground suggests you're merely finding the place where your positions overlap and everyone's priorities are respected. The focus is on progress, not sacrifice.

2. Take the time to thoroughly understand alternative points of view. It shows respect, and in picking apart their positions, you'll either strengthen your rebuttal or find opportunities to strengthen your own vision with their suggestions.

3. Meet with influential objectors one-on-one to hear them out. It's very hard to find middle ground in group meetings. Work through the details one-on-one, then bring the result to your teams separately. Once that's done, the entire group can meet together for further discussion.

4. In your initial meetings, listen carefully for shared feelings and beliefs. If you can first get alignment on the “what,” you'll have an easier time agreeing on middle ground concerning the “how,” the “who,” and the “when.”

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5. Don't try to rush to get to middle ground immediately. Spend time up front building relationships, preferably over meals. Wait until at least the third or fourth meeting before setting any timelines.

The Fifth Type of Resister: The Machiavelli Most people fight fair, focus on the facts, and can eventually be persuaded. But then there's the worst kind of resisters, the ones who are so driven by their need to preserve their control, status, and safety that they ignore reason and hold their ground by any means necessary. Determined to fight, they use dirty politics and ad hominem attacks to support a nakedly personal agenda. My adversary at Medtronic, at least at that time, was that kind of player.

I've found that no middle ground can be reached with this camp. Your goal is to contain, not convert. People who fall into this category should never, ever be underestimated. They are very skilled at politics, willfully deceptive, and experts at finding ways to attack your credibility.

Because they're experts at hiding their true agenda, they often at first seem like they're among the fair and rational. Even Stymie Stan kicked off his resistance to the changes at Medtronic with a detailed white paper arguing that diminishing the autonomy of the business units would have dire consequences for the company going forward.

Following are three stalling tactics that Machiavellis use to work against you, and solutions for dealing with each.

The Rope-a-Dope The boxer Muhammad Ali developed the rope-a-dope to defeat a much younger, larger, and stronger opponent, George Foreman. For most of the fight, Muhammad laid against the ropes while George whaled away at him. George wore himself out in the process, and after eight rounds, he was so tired that Muhammad knocked him out. In the corporate version of the rope- a-dope, you're asked to do analysis and more analysis until you just give up. I got rope-a- doped at the outset of the initiative to consolidate Medtronic's data centers. Some of the VPs ran their own data centers, and they wanted to keep things that way. They had fought the change by requesting study after study to refine the cost-savings projections. When they asked for an eighth study, I put my foot down.

“What percentage of the benefits are in question?” I asked them.

“Twenty percent,” they told me.

“Alright then, let's start consolidating and get that 80 percent that you feel sure about—and then do a separate analysis on the remaining 20 percent.”

They were ticked, but what could they say? We started the process by working with the business units that supported the consolidation and circled back once success was inarguable.

If you find yourself up against the ropes, ask for clarity: Exactly what aspects of the existing Dallas, H. J. (2015). Mastering the challenges of leading change : Inspire the people and succeed where others fail. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from ncent-ebooks on 2020-07-22 13:39:19.

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study are questionable? Send a team to walk the resisters through it, point by point. If they still are unsatisfied, find a way to move forward anyway. Start in an area that doesn't require their approval. Acknowledge their concerns, but let them know that you're getting started where the costs and benefits are clear. Whatever you do, don't get trapped into another study.

The Moonwalk Remember Michael Jackson's signature move? The person doing this dance is making all the motions of moving forward, and yet glides backward. You'll see this with people resisting change, too. They nod and say yes and go through all the motions of supporting your efforts, but they're not your allies. For example, you meet with “Bob” several times and he gives you the strong impression that he's with you. Soon you're in a meeting to win more people over to your initiative. You turn to Bob and say, “Hey, tell them all about how things are going to be better.” You hear silence. You then again say, “Bob?” The next thing you know, Bob has left the building. He's moonwalked on you.

The way to protect yourself from moonwalkers is to get people to give you their thoughts in writing whenever possible. It's easy enough to do. After a meeting, outline their response in an e-mail, saying, “I'd like to confirm what I thought I heard during our conversation, and lay out the next steps.”

If you can't get the person to commit in writing, or if the answer is that you misunderstood, don't panic or get frustrated. Apologize for getting it wrong and suggest another meeting to clarify it. In other words, block and bridge.

Friday the 13th In every single movie in the Friday the 13th franchise, the heroes think they've killed the villain, Jason, and then Jason comes back to life to terrorize them once more. Likewise, resisters will find some past issue they can use to put you on the defensive and shake people's confidence in your leadership. And every time you think you've put it to rest, they'll trot it out again, like Jason surging out of the lake. You're forced to spend more time explaining and selling, instead of moving forward and making things happen.

At Medtronic, “Jason” came in the form of a bad decision I made when transitioning our field sales group to smartphones. The plan was good: Smartphones would allow sales reps to access customer, product, and shipment information instantly without having to call customer care. In certain markets reps were already using the phones, and everything was working great. Very sure of ourselves, we picked a name-brand provider and rolled the phones out nationally. Very quickly we were in crisis: the phones worked fine in some regions, but in others they dropped calls right and left. Both the reps and the customers were furious. It was a huge mess. We resolved it quickly by changing phones and providers, but it didn't matter. Every time we announced a new initiative, resisters brought up the phone debacle as a way to question my judgment.

The way forward in such a scenario is via the block and bridge technique I introduced earlier.

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First, acknowledge and take accountability for what happened (i.e., block), then bridge into the lessons you learned, how those lessons have been applied successfully since, and how they will be applied again with this new initiative. When an opponent to change brought up the phones, I'd say to him or her, “Yes, that was then.” Then I'd bridge by shifting my gaze to everyone else in the room/audience and saying, “What do you think of the new phones and applications that are on them?” Everyone in the room would give a thumbs-up, since the crisis was in fact long past. I'd then mention that as new applications were being introduced, they were tested by people in every region: “Once they give us the thumbs-up, we start rolling it out to everyone.” I ended by pointing out two sales people in the room who could answer any further questions about the testing and the benefits of the new applications. By shifting the conversation to the present and future, and my attention to the entire room, I essentially confined Jason to the past. Sometimes, you might find someone isn't just rehashing your mistakes, but embellishing them to make you look bad. When that happens, stay calm. Don't get defensive or call them liars. Instead say, “I really learned from that, and let me tell you how.” Use that introduction to tell the story exactly as it happened, correcting the facts without calling the other person out.

Removing a Toxic Player To protect their agendas, Machiavellis will often resort to personal attacks on your credibility, particularly if you are moving forward despite their efforts to stymie change. For me, that's often the point where I stop trying to manage the person and instead find a way to remove him because he is toxic to the progress.

That's where things landed with Stymie Stan. After I interceded to make a decision in the case of the two technology suppliers, he wrote me an e-mail accusing me of taking a bribe from the winning supplier. It was a direct attack on my character and integrity. It confirmed that he would do whatever it took to continue operating in a silo instead of being part of the overall team. Ironically, he could have been a very effective leader for the company as a whole, and potentially the next CIO, if he thought broader and was able to wear both his BU hat and the enterprise one.

When dealing with a toxic adversary, protect yourself. First, build a coalition of hubs. They will speak for you when you are not in the room. Nothing is more powerful than having someone who is respected come to your defense. The hubs will neutralize people with personal agendas faster and more effectively than you ever could, because no one questions their motives.

Second, keep your ear to the grapevine. If adversaries are making personal attacks to your face, you can bet they're repeating them to others behind your back as well. Develop your defense so that you can respond quickly and effectively when you hear that negative gossip is circulating. Timing is key: If you wait too long, the rumors and personal attacks will get stronger in the retelling, and the lack of rebuttal from you or others will seem to confirm them.

Once you have support, you can make a resource change. When it came to Stan, I first met with Dallas, H. J. (2015). Mastering the challenges of leading change : Inspire the people and succeed where others fail. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from ncent-ebooks on 2020-07-22 13:39:19.

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Medtronic's CFO and a top HR person, both of whom were hubs and people whose advice I valued and trusted. I then met with the CEO and COO. Finally, I met with the senior vice president of the business unit Stan was in. All understood and supported the decision I made to remove him from the team.

I didn't fire Stan; I removed him from his IT leadership position and the IT organization. The BU he was in gave him another, much smaller position in the business. He left the company within a year. I strongly believe that he learned from the experience, because I heard reports that he improved his leadership style considerably after he left.

Cleaning Up the Sludge Firing or demoting someone requires a thoughtful and proactive communication strategy to move forward. You may understand why the person had to go, but it may not be immediately clear to the people he managed; they're still stuck in the toxic sludge. Stan, for example, was an extremely popular leader within his business unit. Once again, it's your job to help people understand how things will change—or otherwise put, to help people rebuild their boundaries. Start with these three steps:

1. Identify interim leadership. Name the interim leader at the same time you transition the person out. You can't afford a void in leadership while you search for the permanent replacement. Don't act as the interim leader yourself; you can't run the person's group and also lead the entire organization. Choose someone who reported to the person who was removed and who is trusted by her team. When prepping the interim leader, don't talk about the specifics that led to the change if they are behavior related. As the leader, you have to operate in confidence and keep the personal out of the discussion, even when others don't.

2. Announce the transition. Within an hour of informing the transitioning parties, hold a town hall meeting with everyone who works under the interim leader. News will spread even faster than an hour, so don't wait. Expect people loyal to the removed person to be frustrated, angry, and confused. They've likely heard a very one-sided version of the story. After announcing the transition, your focus will be on the future. Instead of talking about the reasons the change was made—remember, you're not going there—instead let people know the direction the organization is headed in. Emphasize the core behaviors that should guide everyone in the organization, including their new leader.

Don't be surprised if a person or two crosses the line with his or her comments and becomes disrespectful. Have HR in the room to address such comments. Don't ask the interim leader to speak. You want people to direct their frustration at you, not at the new leader. You don't want the new leader perceived as a traitor. Let everyone know what the process and timing will be to select a permanent leader.

3. Stay positive while the hubs whisper. After the meeting, let your presence be known by visiting the person's site often and walking through it. Meanwhile, let your hubs work the informal channels. They can say what you can't. They'll know the full story not because you told them, but because they are so well connected. Hubs know organizational history,

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including who the office bullies are. Chances are you're not the first person who has incurred a bully's wrath. Led by hubs, the water-cooler and grapevine talk will quickly change from how you did the person wrong to what the person did wrong—not only to you but to others in the past.

As for you, you'll keep it positive. Everyone will respect you for communicating proactively at the town hall meetings and taking the high road and not getting into the personal specifics. That's what leaders do. In a month or so, the toxic sludge will subside. By the time you select and announce the permanent leader, the halls will be clear.

That's exactly what happened at Medtronic. Ultimately, we got our new computers and the supplier offered prices even lower than what I had paid at Georgia-Pacific; this was a huge win that I was able to credit to the people who managed the bidding process, making them the heroes.

Those computers were an important win beyond the cost savings. Now even the most skeptical of people were becoming believers that quality and low cost weren't mutually exclusive.

Influencing the Narrative on the Front Line Front-line personnel are what I call the “last mile” of change initiatives, where the rubber meets the road. They're the ones making the products, shipping them, accepting payments, and interacting with customers. If they don't adopt the new processes and behaviors you're leading, the disorder tends to land directly in the customer's lap.

Consequently, it is very important that the leader keeps his finger on the pulse of how personnel are feeling and what they are saying, stepping in when necessary to influence the narrative. These days, information readily flows up and down, especially in this age of social media, in which remarks—both positive and negative—can go viral in an instant. Controlling messaging is impossible, so exactly how do you influence the narrative? No amount of propaganda will silence the rank and file, who have no reason not to tell it like they see it. Given that, I suggest you do the exact opposite. Instead of trying to talk louder, I want you to listen.

Go to the places where the front line works and hold listening sessions, both in groups and one-on-one. By spending time with people, you will learn how they feel. You'll get valuable information and be able to discuss their concerns directly. But again, you're mostly listening; they're the ones who will influence the narrative. While you're visiting they're not only talking to you; they're also texting, posting status updates, and tagging photos, letting others know that you are there with them. The message to everyone is loud and clear: You care about what they have to say and how they are being effected. Their leaders are listening. That's a message you want to go viral.

Listening to the front line has an additional benefit: You'll emerge from these interactions with some close relationships. Those people become your communications front line, shooting you texts if they see issues or resistance as the changes unroll. You'll be able to troubleshoot

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quickly, before problems hit the customer or negative information flows up to the top.

Information Flows Up

Receptionists and security guards can be incredibly valuable sources of information if you take the time to have good relationships with them. They are practical hubs, well positioned to observe everything that's going on. They are very perceptive, and with that broad view, they can connect dots faster than anyone. They can give you a heads up such as, “I saw so-and-so in the building today.”

Take the time to build relationships with these people. Greet them in the mornings and say good-bye in the evenings. Find out what's important to them, professionally and personally. And if they ever ask, “How is everything going for you?” stop dead in your tracks. That question often means that they heard something negative, so listen carefully.

Visiting the front line becomes increasingly difficult as you move up the ladder. It takes time to interact in person, and the higher up you go, the more crowded your schedule gets with meetings in the corporate headquarters. You'll need to prioritize in order to make front-line visits possible. Enlist your executive assistant to help. Mine used to schedule “walk around” time for me several hours each week. Those times consisted of me just walking around the campus, chatting people up. I always learned a lot that way. In scheduled meetings, people have rehearsed and are on their guard to say things in the most politically correct way. When you can catch them on the way to the restroom, the information you get is candid—and incredibly succinct.

Of course, the information you get is only as good as the relationships you have. Part III, People, is all about how to make your relationships stronger.

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Chapter 6 in Tweets

Engage people who oppose change with rational arguments; they may improve your plan.

Don't let your change initiative get stuck in another study. Start small and show results.

Get people's positions in writing to protect yourself from moonwalkers.

When people fight change with personal attacks, the best use of your energy is to let the attacks go.

Don't wait to announce a personnel change; you've got an hour before the grapevine does the job for you.

Spending time with the front line creates a message that goes viral: You care and they matter.

Coaching Moments All “no” answers need to be addressed.

Question Answer (Yes or No)

1. Have you developed relationships with receptionists, security guards, and others with a broad view into the organization?

2. Have you identified, categorized, and developed a plan for engaging those who are resisting change?

3. If you have a “Stymie Stan” on your team, have you engaged HR and developed a plan to remove the person and transition to new leadership?

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