Page 227 -

Before working around a straggler, see if you can bring him around. One good way to do
this is to have a respected team member talk to a straggler so that, instead of ignoring or
working around him, you’re putting him in a situation in which he can learn to be more
productive. Unfortunately, not all people will be convinced, even by those they respect.
The way to handle stragglers who refuse to adopt your changes is to work around them.
Build consensus among everyone else on your level in the organization. Don’t worry too
much about people who oppose you for reasons that can’t be dealt with: if your changes
eventually become part of the organizational culture, they will either come on board or
leave on their own.

Again, the idea of consistency is very important in this situation. If someone takes a public
stand on an issue, she feels an enormous psychological need to remain consistent with
that opinion. This means that if you push someone who is initially opposed to your ideas,
she will feel pressured to fight harder and harder against you: the more she argues against
the change, the less she feels like she is “allowed” to change her mind without losing face.
On the other hand, if you leave her alone initially, you give her an environment where it
could be much easier for her to come around later.
You can also use consistency in a positive way. It is very important that you have gained a
real (and written, if possible!) commitment from the people around you before you try to
pitch your change upward. Not only will this help you show senior management that you
have real support, but it will also help people to stay committed, because they feel the
need to remain consistent with their past decisions.
It is important not to go to senior management too early. If you do, you are essentially
going over the heads of everyone around you who has not already committed to your
change. This is counterintuitive: you have a solid case for change, and you know that you
can convince your boss to make it, so why not just go there first?

The problem is that the ideas you are pitching are very powerful and often very convinc-
ing. It is often possible to implement wide-reaching changes that affect many people in
your organization without actually involving them at all, simply by going over their heads.
The minute that one of those people sees additional work that you have managed to get

assigned to him without first asking him, he will turn against the change. Had you given
him a chance to come on board first, he probably would have seen the benefits and sup-
ported you; now he’s working against you, simply because you backed him into a corner.

This isn’t about the personal aspects of them supporting or not supporting you. If the
changes that you are making are good ones that will increase productivity, then people
will probably jump on your bandwagon once they recognize the value of the changes.
Everybody wants to be part of a winning team, and the key is to make it easy for them to
join your team. If people have an adverse reaction to what you are saying, let it go—
they’ll come around later.
Once you have a real consensus, you can go to senior management. It will be clear to them
that the entire culture is asking for this. One of the most important principles of organiza-
tional change is that changes do not stay in place without support from senior management.
UNDERSTANDING CHANGE 219