How to be a legitimate agent of change

The overall philosophy about creating organizational change is the same for internal and external consultants. The additional problems, however, for internal consultants, are generally these:

? Poor credibility and/or history within the organization

? Lack of broader-based perspective from other organizations

? Embrace of faddish instruments and approaches

? Fear of "pushing back " a senior manager (career implications)

Based on a presentation I made for NEHRA last May, I've been asked to elaborate on how to pragmatically and rapidly effect organizational change. Since we all love lists, here are my seven top priorities, having worked with more than one thousand organizations during my consulting career, including world-class companies, in scores of countries and nearly every state.

1. Focus on "need " and not "want "

Every single client or prospect I've ever encountered knows exactly what he or she wants: a training program, employee survey, improved communication, better teamwork, etc. Unfortunately, they are invariably wrong for two reasons:

1. They are usually focused on an alternative (sales training) instead of an objective (increased sales).

2. The seldom understand that the want (better telephone techniques) really reflects a deeper need (solve the customer's problem on the first call).

When I was first asked to work with Mercedes-Benz North America, I was confronted with very strong and intimidating senior executives who promptly informed me exactly what my consulting intervention should look like. (The internal staff at the time was frightened into passivity.) After some rather assertive language on both our parts, I finally offered this compromise: "Look, I won't tell you how to design your braking systems, and you won't tell me how to sample customer reactions in your dealerships. " After that, we got along just great.

We are the change agents and, presumably, know something about that discipline. Consequently, we need to focus our clients on the "why " of the initiative, which will get us to actual need. When a consumer products company asked me to help them improve new business acquisition?which was already at an enviable 25% annually?I asked why this was so urgent. They told me that most of the new business was currently merely replacing their "uncontrolled attrition " rate of over 20%. I convinced them that the attrition rate was the real need, and soon found that lousy customer service?much easier to fix than increasing new business acquisition beyond 25%?was actually the cause.

After that, I was a hero, and could do no wrong during a five year relationship on a variety of projects.

2. Eschew the fads and the magic potions

I have never seen as much sloppy thinking, patent oil sales pitches, and "one trick ponies " as I've seen in training, organizational development, and management development. There are two major problems.

First, even the legitimate approaches can't effect change in and of themselves. Coaching key executives is a fine and time-tested idea, but if you also don't work on the culture, subordinates, feedback systems, and so on, you've trained someone to speak Latin in a Greek-speaking world. I've always had to laugh at narrow attempts to teach improved delegation skills, for example. Unless the people being delegated to are willing to accept accountability, and unless the culture supports a "freedom to fail (more than once) " philosophy, providing one person with better ways to delegate is folly.

Take your pick: balanced scorecard, 360? assessments, strategy facilitation (with the ubiquitous and simplistic "SWOT " analysis), diversity training?the list goes on and on, and there are vendors eager to sell each magic pill separately. I can make a strong case that almost any 360? intervention that is "off the shelf " and not created expressly for a given culture is shallow and ineffective.

Worst of all is the "touchie-feelie " brigade, who will tell you that rearranging the tables in a room will redistribute power, or that mirroring a manager's speech patterns and body language will help you relate better. This is pure stuff and nonsense, never ever proved in any research at all. (In my upcoming book, Life Balance: How to turn professional success into personal happiness [Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer: 2003], I make the case that even Abraham Maslow's cherished hierarchy of needs has never been validated in the workplace and, indeed, no longer applies to modern organizational culture.)

It wasn't all that long ago when I observed a Myers-Briggs analyst in a large bank asking questions on the instrument to an executive vice president who was attempting to respond in his deceased mother's words, so that the analyst could eventually tell him why he had such a poor relationship with his mother! I managed to get the guy fired eventually, and never had any regrets. (The MBTI can be a fine instrument when used with intelligence with a variety of other tools and observations, but is seriously deficient when used in isolation and with the attitude, "Well, what can you expect from an INTJ? " I know the MBTI people believe that as strongly as I do, yet a certain cult-like labeling nevertheless too often prevails.)

3. Walk, talk, and think like your client

If you can't read a balance sheet, don't know the organization's abilities to commercialize R&D, and don't read The Wall Street Journal every single day, then you don't belong in the big leagues. None of these things requires advanced degrees, silly certifications, or huge investments of time.

I've sat at conference tables with a better understanding of my client's business than the internal HR people in the room. Human resource strategy has exactly one unequivocal criterion: It must be 100% congruent with and in support of organizational strategy. Yet it seldom exists at all, much less as a solid support platform.

The sequence for strategic organizational change is simple, is descending order from the top priority:

1. Desired strategic results (e.g., ROE, contribution to the environment, acquisition of synergistic businesses, etc.)

2. Performance required to achieve those strategic results (e.g., higher sales margins, manifestations of corporate citizenship, analysis of competitors, etc.)

3. Competencies needed to achieve that level of performance (e.g., better proposal writing, improved financial analysis, presentation skills, etc.)

4. Developmental activities to achieve the competencies (e.g., training in presentation skills, consulting to assess acquisition targets' viability, coaching to improve media use, etc.)

The lesson here is simple: Focus on the strategic results and work down the line to your level of contribution. Think in terms of strategic outcomes, and not training programs, coaching assignments, or customer surveys. At minimum, your line clients are evaluated on their performance goals, and often on achievement of strategic goals. If you can convince them of your direct help and support in those accomplishments, you'll do a lot better than trying to lure them to attend an arbitrary development program.

4. Good proactivity surpasses great reactivity

Most internal change operations I've seen remind me of the fire fighters who keep in shape through physical activity and are omnipresent at the firehouse, awaiting the alarm and the slide down the bar to the engines downstairs. Similarly, internal consultants and trainers keep in shape attending conferences and check in to work each day, ready to answer the phone call that sends them to the next consulting emergency.

The trouble, of course, is that an external consultant would starve merely sitting by the phone, so we have to aggressively seek business. Therefore, we're a lot better at it than internal people.

Proactively approaching line clients and suggesting ways to improve the business (remember, never simply promoting an alternative) is what change agents should be doing. What can you contribute to your colleagues' success, even if they haven't asked, haven't considered it, and don't really know that they need it?!

Here is what superb external consultants should be doing to market well, and you'll find that you can do this internally just as easily (or even more easily, being on site and knowing the culture and key players):

? Regularly send something of value to buyers (an article, web site, idea, etc.)

? Establish a portfolio of success (references, testimonials, etc.)

? Create one or more "brands " (business accelerator, career catalyst)

? Become an authority recognized by others (publish in trade journals, speak at conventions)

? Aggressively pursue opportunity (request that you facilitate the strategy retreat and recommend the preparation work and follow-up)

? Diversify (don't worry about "certifying " in specialties?this is not the medical profession?and be concerned about a breadth of abilities)

Get out of the firehouse and into the community. The fire marshal actually saves more lives, property, and money than do the fire fighters.

5. For goodness' sake, get out of HR

One of my favorite fights (as a writer of 21 books and 500 articles, you have to enjoy mixing it up) was with a reader who lambasted me for suggesting that a career exclusively in HR was folly, and produced inferior professionals. He was outraged (a careerist, as you might expect) but I'm convinced he was venting at me out of his own frustration knowing that he should have heard that many years ago.

I've seen one too many senior and executive vice president of HR who came to the position through those ranks, dance out in front of a group at a company meeting, tell a few hackneyed stories, deflect any tough questions with a politician's arabesque, and side-step away again perfectly groomed in a $2,000 suit.

The problem is that the person I depict does not have the proverbial "seat at the table. " He or she is in position not because they represent HR so well, but rather because they don't rock the boat in representing HR. If you don't believe that, ask where HR was during the ghastly events over the years at Texaco. Astra, Enron, AT&T, and other organizations beset by racism, harassment, cruel mass layoffs, and other executive misdeeds.

The very best internal change agents have spent parts of their careers on the line, leading profit centers, managing people, dealing with customers, improving operating efficiencies, traveling to distant offices and, in general, obtaining a broad-based corporate exposure (even if that exposure is in different companies as one's career progresses). The narrowest people I know are those who have spent an entire career in IT, finance, or HR. They may be nice people, and are often competent people, but they can rarely initiate or innovate very convincingly and, by nature, tend to protect rather than expose the operation to change.

6. Raise the bar, don't just "fix " things

You can't afford to get better and better at what was needed yesterday. You have to become at least proficient at what is needed tomorrow.

Your organization is no different.

Seek to raise the bar. Help to create new standards. Don't agree to any course of action merely because "it's always been done this way. " People who are on the front line, under pressure, will seek to fix things quickly in order to maintain momentum. They rarely have the time to think beyond the fix, and to examine new and better ways to achieve results.

One of the greatest assets of the internal change agent is the position and perspective to be able to calmly and creatively think outside of the box, Instead of more sales training, perhaps contract sales through alliance partners makes more sense. Rather than adding people to the field repair staff, maybe "expert " advice available online or through the call center would help customers solve their own difficulties faster (for them) and far less expensively (for you).

The key here is to focus on output and not input. What is it you want to achieve (e.g., faster but less costly resolution of customer complaints) as opposed to what's wrong with the current system that appears to need "fixing " (e.g., not enough staffers to handle current call volumes). You are in a unique position to take that larger view (even if you have to help with the temporary fix first).

Every time you are moved to action?either proactively or as the result of a call for help?make sure that you also examine how to radically and dramatically improve the current outcomes. If you're not doing this, the probability is that no one is.

7. Take prudent risks, and this includes your career

In my early life as a consultant, I watched the guy named Klopman, who was then CEO of Burlington Industries, berate his top management team obscenely in front of outsiders, eventually sending his CFO racing out of the room like an errand boy. I knew immediately that these men were inferiors, because no one of stature or talent would accede to such belligerent and cruel treatment.

It's easy to shrug your shoulders and say, "What can I do, this is the culture here, and it's supported by very powerful people. " That's particularly true when you have a mortgage, family, obligations, and uncertainty about the future.

Nonetheless, life is short.

Do you really want to build a career in an organization in which you can't speak your mind, can't oppose inappropriate policies, can't risk offending someone in a corner office, and can't do the right thing on a daily basis? I know I can't. I've "fired " clients when I found that they would not abandon unethical and/or illegal practices, and I know for certain that I would have resigned had I been an employee.

I would admonish you that "job security " is actually at its most tenuous when you're are in an environment that is threatening, militaristic, and/or inflexible. Attempting to walk find lines in such as place is the equivalent of working hard to maintain your place in line for the gallows.

In fine organizations, prudent risk is appreciated and even failure in a good cause is applauded. (The CEO once organized an annual prize in Calgon for "the best idea that didn't work, " after we talked about the need for more innovation and risk-taking.) In poor organizations, innovation is resented, and risk is avoided.

By definition, why would you want to be a change agent in that environment anyway?

These seven parameters aren't meant to be the "royal road, " but if you follow them you'll be in a superb position to effect internal change and to do so on a sustaining and reinforcing basis. Transactional HR is being outsourced away every day. If "transformational " HR continues to be the private realm of external consultants, internal change agents and HR will disappear within this decade.