The Basic Dynamics
- 1. Resistance to change.
- 2. Process versus content.
- 3. The role of culture.
- 4. We’ve heard every objection.
1. Resistance to change.
There is a generally accepted myth that holds that people resist change. I’ve found that to be totally untrue. Every day, people adapt to, adjust for, and anticipate change in the form of roads closed, surprises from their family (good or bad), organizational shifting of priorities, cancellations, abrupt requests, and so on. If people were reluctant to change, we’d all be on heavy medication. Change is the universal norm, and it is both omnipresent and accepted.
What people do resist, however, is ambiguity. Some changes do not involve ambiguity, such as a highway detour that puts one on familiar, though less-traveled streets, or a work shift that involves a sudden trip, but to a site often visited. Other changes produce significant ambiguities: a road detour that takes one to completely unfamiliar territory or a sudden trip to a new country, new client, or new problem.
In organizational change work, most people can relate to the picture painted of the future organization, and all people are intimately familiar with where they are today. But the journey to that new future is likely to be highly ambiguous and unclear. William Bridges calls this The Neutral Zone and I’ve called it The Ambiguous Zone.
Work with your client to establish not only the future state desired, but also the details of the journey. For example, delineate the details of the transition, the numbers of people affected, what the universe of stakeholders looks like, likely obstacles, and so on. You’ll find that the implementers are far more comfortable following a game plan—and even deviating from it, if necessary—than proceeding with no game plan at all.
People don’t resist change. They resist being thrust into the unknown. Or, as my son put it once when much younger, “I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of what might be in the dark.”
2. Process versus content.
Almost everyone reading this is a process consultant. By that I mean that the work you do (in negotiating, facilitating, training, conflict resolution, retention, succession planning, strategy, career development, ad infinitum) is applicable over vast acres of the corporate landscape. Just as good external consultants can readily work crossindustrially and cross-culturally, good internal consultants can readily work cross-functionally and cross-culturally.
In other words, “You don’t know our business” is never an applicable phrase!
Processes (such as the previous examples) are applicable in any environment with any content. While it’s important to be conversant in the organization’s content, it’s not important to be expert in it.
Now here’s the beauty of the internal consultant: At least you are living in the environment and, the longer you are there, presumably, the more you do become a content expert in the organization’s work, to a greater degree than an outsider like me ever could. But don’t be tripped up internally. Just because you’ve worked primarily for sales doesn’t mean you can’t work for finance, and merely because you’ve been working domestically doesn’t mean you can’t provide your expertise internationally.
Many internal consultants make the mistake of believing that they must become as expert as the people they are trying to help, and that’s just crazy. Consultants who work with medical practices can not perform surgery, and jury consultants don’t attempt to try cases themselves in court (because they can’t). In fact, the very power that you bring is that of someone untainted by the content and able to bring the best practices from a diverse array of internal units and operations. Whatever you do, don’t become the content expert for actuarial services, or call center response, or building security.
The more processes you master, and the more agility with which you can apply them, the more potential customers you gain.
3. The Role of Culture
This is one of the greatest red herrings to land in the boat. If I can change culture from the outside, you can transmogrify it from the inside.
What is culture? I’ll give quick definition, which has made more than one executive stop short.
Culture is simply that set of beliefs that governs behavior.
That’s it. There are civic, organizational, school, neighborhood, family, and all kinds of cultures. Sometimes we move through several in the course of a day, adjusting our behaviors accordingly. (Did you ever hear the refrain, “Watch your tone—you’re not at work now!”)
My point is not to allow the dreaded cultural gambit to thwart, undo, or sabotage you. “It’s just our culture in this department” really means that the current belief system leads to those behaviors, and not that the behaviors are ingrained from the middle of an obscure reptilian brain of 30 million years’ development hidden deep in our cerebral cortex. My response is always, “Well, what do you say we change it tomorrow?”
Culture is changed when belief systems change, and belief systems change when key exemplars establish a different set of beliefs through their behavior. If you want to change behavior, culture notwithstanding, then change the beliefs of the most visible and respected exemplars.
Don’t feel handcuffed by “culture.” Cultures change all the time (if you don’t believe that, look at Continental Airlines before and after CEO Gordon Bethune), based on the actions of leaders. As a consultant, don’t try to change behavior from the ground up. It usually doesn’t work. Start at the top. That’s why I stressed earlier the need to establish partnering relationships with the economic buyer.
4. We’ve heard every objection.
There is no objection you haven’t heard, assuming you’ve been on the job for longer than 20 minutes. I’m serious. If you hear a new objection from a line customer as to why a project can’t proceed, or why he can’t support it, or why she can’t live up to her original commitments that you haven’t heard 100 times before, then you either haven’t been listening, or have the memory capacity of a fish.
It is absolutely negligent to be thrown by an objection from one of your buyers, implementers, sponsors, or other stakeholders. You should be prepared to deal with the objections overwhelmingly.
For example,prospects always ask something like this. “We like you, but would it be wise for us to use you when we could be hiring a larger firm with more resources?” My reply is rapid and to the point. “No, not wise at all, because here are 10 reasons why you’re better off with me:
- 1. You’re always dealing with the principal.
- 2. I’m far more responsive.
- 3. I’m not juggling dozens of clients and hundreds of requests.
- 4. And so on.
Here are typical client objections, pre- and post-implementation, which you’d better be able to handle immediately and forcefully. How many are you comfortable spontaneously rebutting?
- - We don’t have the time.
- - The operation can’t absorb the disruption right now.
- - HR (or whoever) doesn’t have credibility with the sales force (or whomever).
- - I can’t afford the resource commitment.
- - We don’t have the money.
- - The clients will hate it.
- - We tried it before and it didn’t work.
- - I won’t proceed unless you give me some guarantees.
- - You don’t have the expertise to do this internally.
- - In retrospect, I promised too much support and have to
withdraw. - - We need to delay this for a while due to other priorities.
- - Things aren’t happening as rapidly as I had hoped.
- - We’re experiencing more resistance from our people than I’d
anticipated. - - Let’s see how things work out at this stage before moving
forward. - - My priorities have just changed.
Sound familiar? You need a response to every one, and others like them. But that’s not difficult, because we’ve heard them all so many times. For example, take the fourth one. Here are some responses:
- - Why do you think it failed previously?
- - True, but four key conditions have changed.
- - Actually, it worked, but was abandoned in the cost-cutting initiatives.
- - It failed here, but worked for other departments (or the competition). Why do you think that occurred?
- - And so on.