13 Dumb Things Execs Say About Change

Kissing and change management

“To learn one must be humble. Life is the great teacher.”

— James Joyce, Ulysses

There are two families of change myths and unhelpful metaphors. There are some the change expert community believes - we will give those a free pass for now. The others are believed by the at-large executive population and are often ridiculous. Those myths are based on inexperience; urban legend or folklore; intuitions; folk psychology (“common sense”); from pop psychology; and from bad books on leadership (what I call pop leadership).

Part of the problem is that changing a business involves changing people (duh). However, the people domain is where there is the biggest gap between confidence and competence. Part of our ego wants to be “really great with people”—95 percent of people believe they are above-average kissers. In that area—and in driving, listening, and other day-to-day people skills—many leaders have the confidence of Zeus with the navigational skills of Icarus.

This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect in the image above.

This article is an excerpt from the newest book on change - Impact - 21st Century Change Management, Digital Transformation, Future of Work, and Behavioral Science https://amzn.to/2XvZdNc

A baker’s dozen of the dumbest things change experts hear

Here is a somewhat-tongue-in-cheek summary of what change experts hear and some ripostes.

1. “We can get them on board later.” No, you probably can’t. The longer you leave it, the worse it’s gonna be, and the more resistance you’re likely to find. Amazon and the government of New York thought 25,000 tech jobs and HQ2 was a layup and failed to engage communities, unions, activists, Washington politicians, and other stakeholders. When the resistance became too intense, Amazon pulled the deal with time and money wasted on both sides.

2. “They will be fine with it.” Maybe. Usually not. Power, culture, politics, and resistance are the rule in real businesses. I’ve constantly been amazed and frustrated (including as CEO of a small business) at how “obvious”-looking decisions can become contentious.

3. “We are on the clock; we haven’t time for endless discussion.” You have to go slow to go fast sometimes. Involvement early and thoroughly saves time and headaches further down the road.

4. “Hey, we are one company, and we need people to be team players.” Much as we’d like to believe otherwise, a shared, common interest cannot be taken for granted. People see, feel, think, and are affected differently. Both Google and Microsoft have run afoul of employee dissent at hundred-million-dollar military projects.

5. “They need to stay in their lane.” This is perhaps the stupidest of contemporary business jargon. Veering from your lane in traffic is dangerous, and there are clear white lines. In business, the lines are blurry, people have different ideas about where their lane is, and other words for being in someone’s lane are collaboration, feedback, and accountability.

6. “We can’t afford to take any dirt roads—stick to the plan.” This never works in complex systems and complex change. Traditional planning is not useful in complex, fast-changing situations. In a complicated system, analyze then act. In complex systems test, act, then analyze. (More on decision-making under uncertainty and in complex systems is found in Volume III.)

7. “If things head south, we’ll worry about it then.” Too late, bro. Once people react to being left out, it’s difficult to get them back in. Once a project brand is damaged and trust is broken, repairing both is tough.

8. “We just don’t have a budget for change management.” In competitive consulting proposals, the first thing to go is change management, and next comes user-skills training. After that is the program management budget—best of luck.

9. “We don’t want touchy-feely stuff on this project.” British Petroleum’s (BP) Global Head of HR said of the change management plan of a $100 million project: “I certainly do not want my people sitting in beanbag chairs, next to lava lamps, talking about how they feel during this project.” Change management isn’t about yoga and patchouli; it is about people producing results with each other, for each other, and through each other.

10. “People problems are what makes change hard.” True, but it’s not helpful to frame people as problems in the first place. One executive remarked, “I used to think that people at work were the problem until I realized that working with people was my job.” Alternatively, recalling Vonnegut, “If it weren't for the people, the god-damn people,” said Finnerty, “always getting tangled up in the machinery. If it weren't for them, the world would be an engineer's paradise.”

11. “I don’t need to do this. It’s what I hired you guys for.” Leadership cannot be outsourced. You cannot hire people to lead for you.

12. “We don’t have to worry about change management. The people will go where we kick them.” Yes, people still say things like this. It’s a direct quote from a senior executive that merits no further attention.

13. “I’m far too busy. I’ve delegated this to . . .” There is a distinction between delegation and dumping. If you cannot muster sufficient attention to the program, how do you expect your followers to do so? You will achieve some sort of passive acceptance rather than passionate fans.

#digitaltransformation #changemanagement #futureofwork #changeleadership #behavioralscience

Impact is on beta release - there is a discussion forum on Slack with CDOs and others part of the book's research. To join the discussion, email me paul AT paulgibbons DOT net.