Overcoming Resistance
CEOs can improve their strategic effectiveness by converting disagreement walls into bridges to alignment.
Why It Matters: Conflict can activate the fight instinct, prompting the use of authority power, which in turn triggers the flight instincts among the rest of the leadership team. This dynamic creates a fa?ade of alignment that ultimately fails the execution test.
The Big Picture: There is wisdom in our direction and wisdom in the conflicting direction. If we choose one direction over the other, we're not optimizing our strategic effectiveness.
Advocating for change
We usually face resistance when we advocate for change, and others don’t want to.
The threat to the value system of both sides and the fear of the consequences create a wall you experience advocating your position. Each side sees the other side as na?ve.
Instead of overwhelming the resistance, try including the resistance. Don’t try to patronize somebody to join your side. Instead, reach a greater purpose by leveraging polarities.
Polarity Management?
Dr. Barry Johnson developed the Polarity Management? framework to think, see, map, and leverage polarities in complex situations.
Polarity Resistance Story
Chad, the CEO of an enterprise software company, wants to change the sales force comp plan because the cost of sales went off the roof in the last quarter, reducing profitability despite the sales growth.
Stacy, the CRO, strongly rejects any change in the comp plan, especially not at the beginning of the year. ?Hell NO! She claims the sales team outperformed the goals and deserves to earn more. She claims that the drop in profitability is a product mix issue. It's not a sales performance issue. The shift of products should not punish her team.
Is it a Problem or a Polarity?
When you hear ‘OR,’ the alarm bell should go off.
“Is that true? Can I replace ‘OR’ with an AND?
领英推荐
Polarity thinkers find hidden polarities in what looks like flat-out problems.?
Naming the Poles
The key for Polarity Thinking? is to name the polarity's poles. The easiest way to name hidden polarities is by trying to identify FROM?(Current State) TO (Desired State).
From a high-cost comp plan to a newly modified low-cost comp plan.
Well, that explains the change, but it’s not a polarity.
The polarity appears when you identify the values on each side of the conflict.
If we use Polarity Map? to describe the upsides and downsides of each position, it will look like this:
Effectiveness at Play
Highly effective leaders don’t hit the wall of resistance. They don’t lock themselves in their advocacy. They dance around the Polarity Map? in an unorthodox order:
Bringing It Home
If Chad leverages the upsides of CHANGE AND STABILITY, he won't hit the downsides of any of them.
If Chad pursues CHANGE and neglects STABILITY, he will face the downsides of that pole.
When you face resistance, embrace both poles' upsides and minimize the downsides.
You can learn more about how to expand your capacity to identify and manage polarities by subscribing to this newsletter and reading my book,?CEO Potential: Transcend Self, Team, and Organization for Lasting Success in the New Age of AI.