Issue
#13 - December
1, 2002
1.
Thanks for Your Phone Calls, Emails and Warm Wishes
Regarding the Business Week Article
We would like to thank the many of you who called
or emailed to make note of Dean’s mention and
picture in the article on “CEO Coaching”
in Business Week’s November 11, 2002 issue.
We appreciated the collegial jostling, the warm wishes,
and congratulations. And for those clowns out there
– and you know who you are – thanks for
making us laugh with your funny messages!.
2.
The Inner Dynamics of Optimal Performance
A number of you noted that you did not know that Dean
did Executive Coaching. Well, Dean has always done
Executive Coaching, as has Linda, but we do not advertise
that fact very much because most of their coaching
is with change leader clients.
Dean’s
coaching always includes teaching the inner dynamics
of high performance. Not widely known, Dean was a
world-class swimmer and swam for the U.S. Team in
his youth. He founded the Optimal Performance Institute
in 1980 to teach people how to optimize their internal
state for maximum success. Dean taught this course
throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s,
but since then has only offered it in-house to our
organizational clients as a key component of his executive
coaching.
In 2003, Dean will offer a public presentation of
Optimal Performance Training for the first time in
nearly a decade. This course
teaches high performers how to produce “the
flow, or zone,” as performers call the internal
state of high achievement. If you would like to know
when this program is scheduled, please send an email
stating so to beingfirst@beingfirst.com,
and we will notify you once the dates are determined.
Many of you have taken advantage of our offer to use the feature articles from these e-newsletters as FREE Content for your own publications, company newsletters, or websites (Click
here to learn how...)
Here is another way you can add value to your own clients, employees, change teams or staff: you can now create a web link directly to any or all of our Free Change
Tools or Feature Articles from your own company website or intranet. For more information, contact Ernest Griffin-Ortiz.
How to Build a Critical Mass of Support to Accelerate Your Change
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_________________
Introduction
Support from stakeholders
is essential to the success of every change effort. Building the necessary support
is often one of the most difficult challenges change leaders face. One key strategy
that works effectively – and even increases the speed of change –
is consciously creating a critical mass of support for the change among key
people who can influence others into tangible positive action. In this article,
we will first define critical mass, and then outline how to develop a critical
mass strategy.
_________________
What is Critical Mass?
Webster defines “critical”
as being a turning point or especially important juncture, and “mass”
as a large number of people viewed as a whole. Said simply, critical
mass is a large enough number of people who collectively are able to
influence your change effort from being something needed or wanted
to something actually happening. The concept of critical mass is taken
from nuclear physics, and when applied to organizational change, identifies
the "right" number of supporters in an organization needed to mobilize
change and bring it to fruition.
So, what is the "right"
number, and who are these people? There is no exact formula for the
numbers needed. It is more like creating a snowball of support that
grows as it rolls, regardless of the amount of snow in your initial ball. Ultimately,
the rolling ball takes on a life of its own, gathering mass and culminating
in successful change. Simply put, the number in this collective “ball”
must be large and forceful enough to overcome the inertia of the past and the
resistance to the future.
When critical mass is reached,
it sometime feels like magic, but it is actually a scientific phenomenon of
mobilizing and directing enough energy, in this case, human energy. With
a critical mass of support behind the change effort, implementation occurs naturally,
with greater speed and ease.
_________________
Building a Critical Mass Strategy
Building a critical
mass strategy begins with a scan of the people in your Project Community.
Start by identifying the people who currently have significant trust, influence
and authority in the organization – people with referent power, positional
power, the thought leaders, overt or covert opinion leaders, and people who
are popular or have a recognized following. Scan the entire organization (all
levels and locations) being changed, including executives, stakeholders, management,
key decision-makers, grass roots advocates, administrative personnel, special
advisors and experts, important customers, key employees, and any individual
or group who, for whatever reason, is better off included rather than excluded
from this collection of “influencers.” In essence, these are the
people who carry the most “energy” in the organization (aka, the
ability to influence other peoples’ thinking and action).
Next, rate each
of these people or groups as either: 1) supporters of the change, 2) uncommitted
to it, or 3) resistors. Do not get bogged down over analyzing your
ratings. Your initial gut reaction is likely best. If you do this work as a
group, you can average your collective assessment, which will prove accurate
enough. Also, assess the political dynamics among these people, since those
"for" the change will clearly be a part of your critical mass, while
those "against" it will have to be dealt with to minimize their blocking
power. This initial assessment will provide you with a map for building critical
mass.
You do not have
to reach or identify all of the people in your organization, nor do
you need to have a certain number of supporters per function, location or level.
Any number is ok, as long as collectively you have enough “weight to the
snowball” to move the change forward effectively. Keep in mind that people
with far-reaching position power or charisma may be more influential than those
in small, somewhat removed pockets in the organization. Getting the “movers
and shakers” to support your change effort, regardless of their role,
is key to your success. Be sure to identify not only the people who already
support the change, but those who can influence others to support it as well.
Since you can be largely in touch with your supporters electronically, you do
not have to be bound by time or space in identifying them.
Your next task is
to figure out how to reach and work with your supporters, in all of
their various roles, to overtly enroll them as mobilizers of the change. To
be effective, your supporters will require care, feeding, and support throughout
the change process. Some of the activities that will help start and sustain
this network in positive ways are:
- Decide the best way to
invite each participant into the collective and what to tell them about their
role in creating critical mass.
- Decide how you will
communicate with them over time and what media and vehicles you and they will
use.
- Determine what initial
information about the change you will share with them and what they can or
need to do with this information to influence others to support the change.
- Determine what feedback
and input you want from these people throughout the change process and how
you will get it.
- Clarify how you will
reward the supporters and motivate them to fulfill this role.
- Identify how they will
interact and communicate with the sponsor, change leaders and change consultants.
Your supporters
can play many active roles – in communications, giving and obtaining
feedback on change scenarios, inputting to key studies, being information sources,
trouble-shooting, advocating for their functions' needs in the change, busting
rumors and other barriers, or being new culture/behavior advocates and models.
Above all, they should be enrolled as motivators of others so that the snowball
of support grows through their communications and actions, eventually catalyzing
critical mass.
One critical responsibility
of critical mass participants is to play “water cooler conflict resolver.”
Often the conversations in the hallway or coffee room, or those during lunch
or casual meetings, are laden with negative emotions of people feeling victimized
by the change, or about how poorly the change is being run. Your supporters
can play key roles in assisting people to vent their negative perceptions, then
provide accurate and truthful information about the change that might help resistors
take a different position. This requires specific training of your supporters,
but will pay off handsomely by significantly reducing resistance and increasing
commitment.
Your collective
of supporters should remain an informal network, NOT be made into a formal publicly
acknowledged structure. If made into a formal structure, their potential
for impact with their colleagues will diminish. You can certainly use a large
meeting format to bring the group together and startup their activities, but
we strongly suggest that you use electronic communications and other means to
keep things simple and informal. The power of this strategy is not in creating
one more formally chartered change structure, but in people talking to people
(as colleagues) about their real feelings and perceptions.
Your supporters
will require attention at key phases during the change. This special
attention might involve:
- A personal invitation
or request from the sponsoring executive and/or the Change Project Leader
to support the change
- An initial briefing about
the new direction, including concerns and danger points needing careful attention
- Human interaction training,
including communications and conflict resolution
- Privileged information
- Participation in problem-solving
sessions, assessments, special assignments, review meetings or development
programs
- Public acclaim for support
of the change; political backing
- Regular information and
updates to disperse into the organization
- Requests for input, feedback,
and issue identification
- Additional consulting
or management support to ensure success in the phases of the change process
which they can influence
This list of strategies
is not meant to be comprehensive. Each situation will call for unique treatment
and approaches. Ask yourself, “How can we build critical mass, and what
would our supporters need to be successful?"
_________________
Working With the Resistors and Uncommitted
What about the resistors
to your change effort? Once you have identified your resistors, you may be tempted
to try to immediately overcome all of their resistance so that they become supporters.
While this is an understandable urge, it is actually better to focus
your attention on the people who have the most negative influence rather
than on the bulk of the resistors.
Identify the primary resistors,
and then develop strategies to influence them. The best strategy is
usually to go talk to them and ask them exactly what needs to occur
for them to support the change. You will often find their input incredibly valuable.
Even if you cannot meet all of their needs, the mere fact that you asked
and listened is often enough to lessen their resistance. Such direct,
personal contact creates a foundation of trust and relationship that in the
end often turns resistors neutral, if not positive about the change. The larger
bulk of resistors, who are generally less negative, will be positively influenced
over time as the support for the change builds.
Another very effective
way to deal with resistors is to ask them to be on benchmarking teams.
As they get exposed firsthand to other companies who have done what you are
attempting in your change effort, their attitude often changes very quickly.
While impacting your resistors
is important, your “middle of the roaders” are equally, if not more
essential. In critical mass terms, it takes less energy and resources
to get the people in the organization that are uncommitted to any position about
the change to become positive supporters than it takes to turn all of your resistors
around. (Read that again...it's important!) So, focus action on the
key resistors, at least until your critical mass phenomenon
starts to take off, but also diligently plan how to influence your middle-of-the-roaders
– with repeated communications, participation, town meetings, e-conferences
on change issues, benchmarking studies, application sessions, etc.
_________________
Summary
A critical mass network
can greatly expedite your change effort if you apply forethought and concerted
attention to nurturing it. You will find that the ROI from investing
in this group of people will be returned many times over. You will
especially enjoy seeing the resistors and uncommitted people join the growing
snowball of support for your change. And, because your focus is in on supporting
positive action rather than forcefully overcoming resistance, your modeling
will have tremendous positive effects throughout your organization.
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See you next issue, and the best in change to you!
_______________________________________
RESULTS FROM CHANGE is written by Linda Ackerman Anderson and Dean Anderson, and is published by Being First, Inc., www.beingfirst.com,
1242 Oak Drive, DW2, Durango, CO, 81301, 970/385-5100.
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