Lead Others Through the Desert

Friday Reflection (No.51)

Paul Atreides: “Is it true that sand [in the desert] can blow at 700km per hour?”

Dr. Wellington Yueh: “Yes. It can render flesh to dust in minutes.”

This line from Dune¹ metaphorically encapsulates the risks of initiating a major organizational transformation. While each person you lead may experience a period of confusion and doubt (i.e., in the desert), you want to create the conditions to overcome resistance (i.e., 700km winds), so that the project is successful (i.e., isn't rendered to dust).

Leadership principle: When leading change in the face of resistance, move fast, but don’t hurry.

“Leading through the Desert” (Created with DALL-E-2)

One of the main reasons why change initiatives fail is that they focus on implementing new strategies, systems, and processes as quickly possible by planning for “headwinds” based on robotic, linear logic. The reality is that the emotional aspects of change are often the gale force winds that can derail an initiative.

At the same time, in light of the turbulent macro environment, competitive threats, and stakeholders' impatience, leaders can't wait for everyone to be in harmony before taking action. This is unrealistic and could take an eternity.

So what does it look like to address the human aspect of driving change?

I often advise leaders to turn to William Bridges’s Transition Model. This model focuses on the human aspect of change - addressing the emotional and psychological. He defines three phases of transition that mirror the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land²:

1. "Endings" stage (Egypt): people grieve the loss of the old way of doing things and say goodbye to the past.

2. "The Neutral Zone" stage (the Desert): people feel a sense of uncertainty and confusion as they adapt to the new way of doing things.

3. "The New Beginning" stage (the Promised Land): people embrace the new way of doing things and move forward.

To increase the odds of success, leaders need to help their people navigate through all three of these stages.

That said, most change initiatives stall in the “Neutral Zone” or “Desert.”

Consider the example of a company planning to modernize their international network of 50+ manufacturing plants. The business case for a simpler network with fewer and more specialized and automated locations was quite favorable, so the leadership team “aligned” on a plan to execute the network simplification. Six months into the planning phase, after months of 80-hour weeks on the part of the project teams, one of the commercial leaders raised a concern about how one new technology decision could adversely affect product availability for customers. As a result, he refused to provide funding for the team resources from his function, causing the project to pause. Unfortunately, this one decision had domino effects on the other important investment decisions, and the entire network transformation fizzled out.

This project never made it out of “the Desert” because the accountable leader, in his hurried desire to get to the finish line, delegated the emotional part of building buy-in for these transformational decisions. As a result, he left the door open for key leaders to second guess decisions while in this planning phase.

This is a common fatal flaw for even the most senior leaders - presiding over change versus proactively driving change, especially the human part of change.

Similar examples abound as companies undergo digital transformations. While there is high level understanding that modern technology has limitless potential, many digital efforts stall out, because executives lack conviction about specific use cases and choose to optimize near term profit by clawing back planned investment.

So how can you move quickly through “the Desert” without hurrying?³

Though there are several considerations, the most important thing is to proactively anticipate and thoroughly address resistance.

This starts with having a compelling case for change and a vision of the “Promised Land” - one that key stakeholders want AND need.

That said, vision is necessary but insufficient to keep people motivated through “the Desert.” The uncertainty and potential for loss that people feel can create resistance even in the face of a compelling vision.

For this reason, leaders need to overinvest in diagnosing and addressing specific sources of resistance from specific influential leaders. What I find is that the underlying causes of resistance fall into four categories: lack of understanding, conflicting goals, lack of skill or pessimism.

While the tactics to address each of these four causes of resistance may differ, the key is to build targeted plans to guide the influential leaders through the Desert to the Promised Land. Once they have seen the benefits of the change, the buy-in of these influential leaders has a multiplier effect on your ability to remove resistance and build support for the change deeper in the organization.

Take Action: Practical and Proven Steps

1. Make a list of the 10 leaders/colleagues that are most essential to achieving success with your initiative. For each person, identify five things: 1) where they are in the change journey (Egypt, Desert, Promised Land); 2) the strength of your relationship (1=low, 5=high); 3) their biggest obstacle to getting to the Promised Land (e.g., lack of knowledge, conflicting goals, lack of skill, or pessimism); 4) the experiments you will try to address this obstacle; 5) who you can rely on to help/support you with overcoming their resistance. Review this list monthly to assess each leader’s progress and the effectiveness of each experiment.

2. Ask key leaders in “the Desert” to serve as a sponsor of a pilot. Partner them with leader(s) that are further along in their journey. Design pilots so that they enable specific learning opportunities to close some knowledge gaps AND that the potential results will increase their confidence in the likelihood of success of the broader vision.

3. Over-communicate progress in a novel (and fun) way. Provide regular updates on the progress of the change, and give recognition and feedback for small wins. Inject fun and creativity into these communications. For example, one leader did a monthly update where she spotlighted how a key leader in each region was driving progress on a new digitally-enabled commercial model. Instead of showing only their picture as an adult, she got access to a picture of them as a kid or a baby, which her team flashed on the screen next to their corporate headshot as she shared about their achievement.

Reflect: Some Questions to Consider

1. When I think about the most critical leaders to a change initiative, what is the primary source of resistance for each individual (e.g., lack of understanding, conflicting goals, lack of skill or pessimism)?

2. What will it take to move each leader from Egypt to the Desert? From the Desert to the Promised Land?

3. Who can I enlist to help me move each leader from one stage to the next?

1. I’ve quoted Dune (the book not the movie) in a couple other posts. It’s quite the investment to read it (400+ pages) but it’s SO GOOD - entertaining and full of thought provoking allegory. It’s also great to listen to as an audiobook.

As a side note, a couple responses to the subscriber survey encouraged me to get rid of the pop culture references, because they may not appeal to as broad of an audience. It’s valid constructive feedback, so thank you! At the same time, coming up with these pop culture links is one of my favorite parts of writing these reflections, so for now, I’m acknowledging but not acting on this feedback in the name of joy.

2. This is a powerful metaphor, especially since the Neutral Zone consisted of 40 years of wandering for the Israelites, but could have been shorter had Moses and other leaders taken a “different path.” To read a more in depth article on Bridges’s Transition model, you can go here.

The metaphor is also a really good one for understanding why the uncertainty of change can be such a difficult obstacle to overcome. Some of the Israelites were so afraid and uncertain about the Promised Land that they literally preferred the certainty of remaining in bondage in Egypt. Consider that for a moment when you are “flabbergasted” that certain leaders are resistant to a new idea you bring that you think is a slam dunk.

3. I borrowed this turn of phrase from the Wizard of Westwood, the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. His line was “be quick, but don’t hurry.”