The Hindu Business Line : Three barriers to change

The low success rate and conversely high failure rate of any change effort is due to three strong barriers, viz. see, move and finish, says a new book by two INSEAD experts, J. Stewart Black and Hal B. Gregersen. “If we can understand the nature of each of these three barriers, we can make the needed adjustments to achieve breakthrough change,” they assure in It Starts with One ( www.pearsoned.co.in).< /p>

An example of failure to ‘see’ is that of Motorola which, blindsided by the surge of Nokia, lost 50 per cent value between 1997 and 2002. “During the same period, Nokia shareholders watched their value increase by 300 per cent,” the authors narrate. But the story did not end there: Between 2002 and 2005, when Samsung surged ahead by putting cameras into phones, Nokia shareholders lost nearly a quarter of their value.

To get your people to ‘see’ you need to combine ‘contrast’ and ‘confrontation,’ advise Black and Gregersen. “The longer a given mental map has been in place and the more successful it has been, the greater the shock needed to break free from it.”

When contrast and confrontation are low, change efforts will likely be a ‘waste’ of time, money and energy, the authors rue. “If what is different today versus tomorrow is not clear and there is just some email about it,” don’t expect anything to change.

A case of contrast but low confrontation is like a ‘passing parade,’ reads an analogy. “People will ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at the difference , but when the parade passes, they will go back to what they were doing before.” The opposite, that is, high confrontation but low contrast is like ‘an old smelly shoe,’ because “it smells and looks worn out, so you notice it, but it is still the same old, comfortable shoe that has been there day after day, so what’s new?”

The second barrier, of failing to move, can stare in your face even after your people ‘see’ the need for change, because they do not see the new direction. More perplexing is when people fail to move even after the new vision is clearly presented and understood.

Paradoxically, the clearer the new vision, the more immobilised employees become, the authors find. Reason: “They understand that they will go from doing the wrong thing well to doing the right thing poorly,” even as ‘a silly leader’ shouts for change!

Most of us do not like to be bad at something, especially if we are already good at something else, reason Black and Gregersen. “Going from being competent to incompetent is a very unappealing proposition… The clearer the new vision, the easier it is for people to see all the specific ways in which they will be incompetent and look stupid.”

Simple but telling messages from start to finish.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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