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Slacker Manager

10 ways to avoid disaster during change

by Bren on October 23rd, 2006

This is straight out of Warren Bennis’ An Invented Life. I swear, between that book and On Becoming a Leader (also by Bennis), there’s enough good thinking and creative leads on leadership to last a career. Anyway, on to the list:

  1. Recruit with scrupulous honesty. This means that you should play it totally straight when recruiting. Allow recruits to see the flaws as well as the excellence. Don’t mask or oversell.
  2. Guard against the crazies. Bennis warns about being able to discern between genuine change agents and agitators.
  3. Build support among like-minded people regardless of whether you recruited them. There can be no change without history and continuity.
  4. Plan for change from a solid conceptual base. Have a clear understanding of how to change as well as what to change.
  5. Don’t settle for rhetorical change. Significant change can’t be decreed.
  6. Don’t allow those who are opposed to change appropriate basic issues. Make sure the “old guard” isn’t freaked out by the change. The moment they are, is the moment they begin to fight dirty.
  7. Know the territory. Become a master of the domain in which you operate.
  8. Appreciate environmental factors. Any change that creates more discomfort than benefit is likely to fail.
  9. Avoid future shock. If the boss’s eye is always on the future, employees who live in the here and now are probably getting neglected. If they’re neglected, they’re less likely to embrace the change.
  10. Remember that change is the most successful when those who are affected are involved in the planning. Nothing makes people resist change more than the belief that it’s being forced upon them.

Good stuff.

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