Before the client pulled the limo’s door closed he looked up at
me and said, "I’ll send the steps to your phone. Give me about 15 minutes."
He then looked at the candidate standing beside me and said, "Welcome aboard!
Work it out with him," he said nodding toward me. He added a quick "Thanks!"
then smiled and waved to a couple of passersby that recognized him. With that he
drew the car’s door closed as it pulled away from the Four Seasons toward Chicago’s
Midway Airport.
The candidate and I stood on the windy sidewalk watching the
car. It had been a long interview. I hadn’t been hired to find the candidates for
the job. This time I was sent a short list of high profile managers to entice into
possibly working for the fellow in the car. Most of the people on the list receive
this newsletter so it was pretty straightforward. I did the video screening interviews
then set up and facilitated the final interviews like this one. This was all done
quickly, with no fanfare, and with the hermetic confidentiality my clients expect
from me.
Leaning against the wind the tall candidate looked at me. "I
guess that means I got the job." He paused and added, "Right?" he
said with a hint of laughter.
I put out my hand and shook his. I'd been through this oddness
before. He hadn't. I nodded. "Oh, yes," I said, adding, "Congratulations!
You’re in for an interesting 48 months." I looked around him and signaled the
doorman. A cab materialized almost out of thin air. As the candidate climbed in
we shook hands again and I said, "We’ll get the letter over in the morning.
You'll like the final terms."
A moment later he was headed toward O’Hare. I turned and went
back into the hotel. Taking the elevator up to the Seasons Lounge, I ordered a drink
and fell into one of the cushy chairs.
The conversation that afternoon had ranged from Little League
to the Army’s concept of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity)
to the difference between action and change. "Action is often meaningless,"
the client said in his well known, matter-of-fact manner. "Change is what counts."
We explored the importance of getting inside your competition’s decision cycle,
the value of "ground truth" and the importance of empowering all your
teams with what he (and the Army) called an electronic, real-time RCP, or Relevant
Common Picture "so that everybody makes decisions from the same information"
(the candidate had implemented a similar system with such granularity he could predict
what his competition was going to do often even before they knew themselves—awesome).
Like I said, it had been an intensely engaging afternoon. There was a reason my
head throbbed.
The phone in my jacket pocket vibrated. I took it out and downloaded
the note. Here is what it said: (Note: Some of the text was in a different font
and I could see I wasn’t the only person to get a version of this particular missive.
The list is reproduced here with his permission and it can be forwarded by any Corpwar
reader that wants to do so.)
Tal, I have found there are typically at least 7 stages to making
a change in an organization. I always try to do all of them since over the years
I’ve found skipping any of the stages reduces the chances of eventual success. This
isn’t just for the big glory moves either. It works at all levels. All my senior
managers understand, and use, some version of the list.
1. Time. The change has to happen soon. Make
sure you get across why it’s a good thing. If you have communicated the benefits
properly you shouldn’t need your boot tips.
2. Team. I get a team together, preferably
where everybody knows and has worked with each other, to see the thing through,
soup to nuts; from the beginning all the way through to the eventual consumer, whether
internal or external. Pick the team wisely. Make sure there are some dissenters.
You don’t want everybody thinking alike. You need the idea to be rigorously challenged
internally. I use that Gen. Patton quote you sent out. ("If everyone is thinking
alike, somebody isn't thinking." -General George Patton, Jr.)
3. Vision of the future. Convey your vision
to your teams. If you don’t have a vision, work with your trusted resources to develop
one. If you still don’t have one, do your equity holders a favor and help find your
replacement.
4. Communication. Make sure everybody in the
enterprise/group knows what the vision is.
5. Empower. Make sure everybody can move their
area toward the vision. This way you can converge on it on multiple tracks. There
should be a lot of work in parallel. Think digital. Analog is yesterday.
6. Interim goals. If the vision is too far off people may not be sufficiently motivated.
Dial in sub-goals so they can occasionally taste their own momentum toward the ultimate
prize. People prefer to reach for what they can actually touch; it’s ok to keep
it beyond their grasp, just not too far or too often.
7. Reinforce. When the change has been achieved
keep it high profile until it is assimilated into the organization or group. Get
it organic as soon as possible. It has to be part of the walls. Part of the mindset.
The culture.
Get the paperwork to that guy ASAP. I like him. As you said last
night, “He gets it.”
With that I dropped the phone into my pocket, paid the bill and
left for home. Interesting day.
