Deciding to Change or Not to Change

The Trouble with Disruptive Change
By Jeffrey Pfeffer | September 10, 2009

As my wife is fond of commenting, “change is seldom for the better.” A new chef at the highly rated San Francisco restaurant Ducca decided to make his mark by adding chili to some pasta dishes and grapes to others — with bad results. Mozilla’s latest browser version seems to crash more than their last. There is a company that sells software so that Microsoft Office 2007 works like 2003, for those that preferred the former version. A former senior official at an important federal government agency told me that each time a new head took over, that person undid what the previous person was doing and began something different — regardless of what was working.

The tendency for new leaders to want to put their “stamp” on the organization and its products is a natural result of the desire to self-enhance — to want to feel good about ourselves by showing what we can do. Continuing what has been successful in the past doesn’t feed our egos nearly as much as making a change that will be identified with us.

The problem is that all too frequently, change for change’s sake is harmful or worse for organizational performance. You need to know the data: although there is a lot of emphasis on the benefits of change and innovation in much of the popular press, the evidence shows that change is most often bad for all concerned. First of all, most new ideas — like most new products — aren’t very good, which is why there’s such a high failure rate for innovations in virtually every industry. Second, change, even change to a better way of doing things, is inevitably disruptive to existing routines and demanding of new competencies and skills. While a company is making the transition, things can go wrong and costs increase, literally threatening the survival of the organization.

A study of 150 entrepreneurial start-ups in the Silicon Valley by organizational behavior professors Jim Baron and Mike Hannan illustrates this phenomenon nicely. Baron and Hannan found that companies founded with a commitment model for managing their people were more likely to reach an initial public offering or be acquired at a good price and were much less likely to fail than companies managing their people using other approaches. But — and this is what’s important — companies that shifted to this more effective way of managing people were actually more likely to fail than companies than had begun with a different, less effective way of managing but stayed with it. That’s because the benefits of changing to a better way of doing things did not outweigh the disruptive consequences of the transition. There is a great deal of evidence in this intellectual tradition — the population ecology of organizations — showing the same thing: change, in leaders, in strategy, or in organizing models, almost always leads to a higher risk of failure.

Change for its own sake also causes cynicism and resistance on the part of the rank and file. Since employees know that management approaches come and go as leaders transition in and out, they don’t take the new initiatives very seriously. At a large bank Bob Sutton and I studied, branch managers and other executives knew that new initiatives would pass as leaders moved to new positions — so they never bothered to implement anything. Why should they, when the next person to take over would just undo it and try something different? Consequently, good ideas could not get traction and the work force was largely disengaged, watching the comings and goings and the initiatives of those in charge with bemusement.

Smart leaders understand these dynamics. They focus on changing only what needs to be changed because it isn’t working — the recipes that aren’t up to snuff or the product features that bother customers — and they keep what works, even if it’s a legacy from the past. Second, they understand the costs and risks of change and losing focus, so they don’t overburden the company by trying to do too many new things at once. Every business has a few core elements that make it successful, and the shrewd leader focuses on the minimum amount of change needed to improve those things, not making a bunch of other disruptions in activities that matter less.

The evidence from numerous studies shows that the aphorism “change or die” is incorrect. It’s more likely to be “change and die.” The best companies know this and act accordingly. As is often the case, keeping leaders’ egos in check is crucial for avoiding the “change stuff to make my mark” problem.

MY THOUGHTS

very timely. a reminder that not all change is good.look at our country. everytime a new administration takes over, people can hardly cope with the changes. because people are clamoring for change. and the new president and his team is all set to prove their "mark" and show that they are better. there's hope yet for this new government. you don't feel too many changes. yet. i hope they are using this time to assess what needs to be changed and what needs to be changed.

10 Things That Good Bosses Do

10 Things That Good Bosses Do
By Steve Tobak | October 22, 2010

As we discovered in 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager, bosses aren’t usually aware that they are bad bosses. The fact is that nobody wants to believe they’re the problem. Nevertheless, there’s a bell curve for all things involving people, which means there are few really bad bosses, few really good bosses, and most of you fall somewhere in the middle.

To me that says, for the vast majority of you, there’s lots of room for improvement.

So, if you’re not exhibiting any of the 7 Signs, that’s great, pat yourself on the back. Still, if you really want to up your management game, maybe even vault into the executive or ownership ranks someday, you’d better start doing at least a few of these 10 Things That Good Bosses Do.

Incidentally, this isn’t from some academic study. These are real attributes of real bosses, culled from decades of observation, which motivate and inspire employees to perform at their best.

1.Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.

2.Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.

3.Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news. To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.

4.Manage up … effectively. Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.

5.Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.

6.Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers, i.e. s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.

7.Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.

8.Build team spirit. As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.

9.Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned, and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.

10.Inspire your people. All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.

All this adds up to an environment where people feel appreciated, recognized, challenged, and appropriately compensated. So what do you think? How do you measure up on the good boss scale?

MY THOUGHTS

one of the things i will never forget about a leadership training i attended is the principle shared by a great Christian leader - that you have to have the right people on board first. all these 10 things that good bosses do are doable. and effective. except if you have the wrong people - people who do not have the right skill nor the desire to learn, people who are only there for the paycheck and passion for them is a fruit, people who cannot be inspired because despair is so ingrained in them,they need a shrink, people who think they are better than anyone else including the boss. when i'm hiring people, i take my time. it's very easy to have someone sign an employment contract. but it's so much harder to let them go.