Gerry Riskin, in his article entitled “The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management” does bring up some thought-provoking and valid points:
In summary, these are the 7 laws:
- Propose imperfect change initiatives. The point here is that in life, the outcome of an initiative is not always guaranteed, e.g. you won’t know the outcome of the initiative until you have actually executed it. Therefore, you won’t know what the “right thing to do” is except in hindsight — and hindsight is too late.
- Create a vivid picture of where the initiative leads. The appeal of being vague is that you are not committing to anything — which means that you can’t be held accountable for any outcome, cleverly avoiding scrutiny and criticism. However, that also means that it’s tough to get people to support your idea, because they just can’t picture it.
- Paint the “first step” in vivid colours. Get the ball rolling! Define what the first step is (define action items), and decide what the outcome of the first step should be for the first action to be considered complete.
- Create cult-like internal promotional communications. “Selling” internally within the company. Advocate to others why the initiative will benefit the company.
- Ask for commitment — not agreement. “Commitment and Doubt“: Commitment does not require the absence of doubt; often commitment means acting despite your doubt. This is the “leap-of-faith” component, if you will. e.g. My company’s CEO has more experience in being a CEO than me, therefore I will execute the tasks I am assigned, doubt or not, because I have committed to the CEO’s initiative.
- Tell the world. Why do couples say their vows in front of friends and family? To let the world know about their commitment (and to be held accountable).
- Turn a spotlight on your initiative and leave it on. Often as a side effect of time and absence of any visible accomplishments, people forget about what the initiative was about, or worse, naysayers begin an “I told you so” compaign. The solution to this is to constantly monitor for progress, find out what others are struggling with and help them move ahead (including delegating tasks), and sharing problem solving knowledge within the company, so that nobody has to reinvent the wheel.
Here’s an interesting analogy from Law #1 –
As a result, most good firms are paralyzed by the tedious, never-ending and totally ineffectual process of divining the perfect strategy accompanied by the perfect tactics. These firms are ships tied so firmly to the pier that no matter how well steered, they go absolutely nowhere. In fact, their biggest claim to fame is that they hit no icebergs — few ships do from the pier. Such firms may do “industry-average†well, but they are not going to consistently break out of the pack.
The question is, are you happy with being “just OK”? I know I’m not. “Just OK” is just not enough for me.
