presenting the transformation story.
In “Leading change: An interview
with the executive chairman of
Telefónica de España,” Julio
Linares says that, for him, the most
important and hardest part of the
transformation was “to convince
people of the need for the program.”
N. R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of
the board and former chief executive
of India’s Infosys, agrees and says,
“The first responsibility of a leader
is to create mental energy among
people so that they enthusiastically
embrace the transformation.”
His view matches the experience
of Banca Intesa’s Passera, who
spearheaded communication efforts
to get the story out to 60,000
employees by traveling the length and
breadth of Italy. Passera says, “It is a
long process, but you have to put your
face in front of the people if you want
them to follow you.”
Once the story is out, the CEO’s
role becomes one of constant
reinforcement. As P&G CEO Alan
G. Lafley says, in “Leading change:
An interview with the CEO of
P&G,” “Excruciating repetition and
clarity are important - employees
have so many things going on in the
operation of their daily business that
they don’t always take the time to
stop, think, and internalize.”
Paolo Scaroni, who has led three
public companies through various
chapters of change, likes to find three
or four strategic concepts that sum up
the right direction for the company
and then to “repeat, repeat, and repeat
them throughout the organization.”
Reinforcement should come from
outside as well. Passera notes, “If
everyone keeps reading in the
newspapers that the business is still
a poor performer, not contributing
to society, or is letting the country
down, people will not believe you.”
‘‘ CEOs who take time
to personalize the story
of the transformation
can unlock significantly
more energy for it than
those who dutifully
present the PowerPoint
slides that their
working teams created
for them. Personalizing
the story forces
CEOs to consider
and share with others
the answers to such
questions as “Why are
we changing?”; “How
will we get there?”; and
“How does this relate
to me?’’
Spotlight success
As the company’s transformation
progresses, a powerful way to
reinforce the story is to spotlight
the successes. Sharing such stories
helps crystallize the meaning of the
transformation and gives people
confidence that it will actually work.
Murthy of Infosys describes how
high-performing teams were invited
to make presentations to larger
audiences drawn from across the
company, “to show other people that
we value such behavior.”
Ravi Kant, the managing director of
the integrated Indian auto business
Tata Motors, deliberately identified
people who would serve as examples
to others. In “Leading change: An
interview with the managing director
of Tata Motors,” he talks about how
he highlighted the achievements
of one young man whose success
on a risky project and subsequent
promotion showed colleagues that
talented and determined people can
rise through the hierarchy.
Emphasizing the positive, behavioral
research shows, is especially
important. In 1982, University of
Wisconsin researchers who were
conducting a study of the adultlearning process videotaped two
bowling teams during several games.
The members of each team then
studied their efforts on video to
improve their skills.
But the two videos had been edited
differently. One team received a video
showing only its mistakes; the other
team’s video, by contrast, showed only
the good performances.
After studying the videos, both teams
improved their game, but the team
that studied its suc cesses improved its
score twice as much as the one that
studied its mistakes.
Evidently, focusing on the errors can
generate feelings of fatigue, blame,
and resistance. Emphasizing what
works well and discussing how to get
more out of those strengths taps into
creativity, passion, and the desire to
succeed.
Role-modeling desired mind-sets
and behavior
Whether leaders realize it or not,
they seem to be in front of the
cameras when they speak or act.
“Every move you make, everything
you say, is visible to all. Therefore the
best approach is to lead by example,”
advises Joseph M. Tucci, CEO of
EMC, the US-based information
storage equipment business, in
“Leading change: An interview with
the CEO of EMC.” Ultimately,
employees will weigh the actions of
their CEO to determine whether
they believe in the story.