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Trying to create change without the engagement of key stakeholders is as risky as a one-man band trying to imitate an orchestra.
Don’t kid yourself. The change you try to orchestrate in your workplace does not occur in isolation. No matter how brilliant your ideas may be, no matter how compelling your case for action, no matter how much personal credibility you believe you have, your change cannot succeed without the engaged and collaborative involvement of others. Period. You must build a coalition.
The CEO made the classic mistake of failing to engage people with the desired change rather than merely announcing the change.
If you expect your people to “make it happen” with your proposed change, consider following these five steps.
Champions are people who favor the change but lack the power to sanction it. As advocates for the change, Champions must willingly work to gain commitment and resources for it.
Agents are people who plan and execute the implementation of the change. This includes diagnosing potential problems and addressing the problems strategically.
Sponsors are people who authorize, legitimize, and demonstrate ownership for the change. You can (and should) have different kinds of Sponsors. Authorizing Sponsors have sufficient organizational power and/or influence to commit resources like time and budget. Reinforcing Sponsors help promote the change at the “local” level. Sometimes a single person can fill both of these roles, but successful change efforts usually involve multiple Sponsors. In short, Sponsors are responsible for creating an environment that enables change to occur.
Targets (or end users) are people whose knowledge, assumptions, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors must be altered for the change to be sustainable. Targets play a critical role in both the short- and long-term success of the change. They must be educated to understand the changes they are expected to accommodate, and they must be appropriately engaged in the implementation of the change.
It’s probably obvious by now that a person can fill multiple roles, even simultaneously. It’s common for a Champion of a change to fill the role of change Agent for the same change at the same time—promoting the change while managing the details of execution and implementation. In some instances, that same person may also be a Reinforcing Sponsor.
Nearly every member of the CAST of Characters starts out as a Target. Before you can engage someone as a Sponsor, for example, you must understand and address his information needs, assumptions, and attitudes.
Organizational black holes result from poor messaging and anemic buy-in.
An example of sponsorship failure was seen in the story of the manufacturing company CEO who assumed his unilateral command would automatically produce the change he wanted. His change got lost in an organizational black hole.
The term “black hole” is borrowed from the field of astrophysics where it’s used to describe those regions in space from which nothing – not even light – can escape. There’s a frustrating equivalent to the black hole in the corporate universe. Management “announces” a change initiative, then all traces of the change vanish in the bureaucracy. Akin to the black hole in space that consumes everything that travels in its vicinity, various players in the middle of the organization either distort or withhold information so it simply disappears. And it’s not necessarily deliberate. In many organizations, these black holes are a major cause of the “change du jour” mentality.
Most successful change is accomplished through an effective coalition of players. To ensure clear communication along the way and to improve the likelihood of stakeholder engagement, the Authorizing Sponsor (likely with the help of Champions and Agents) builds a network of Reinforcing Sponsors. This cascading sponsorship is an important key to any successful change effort. It’s so critical, in fact, that its absence virtually guarantees failure.
After doing their data-gathering homework, smart leaders first make their case for change to their senior colleagues. Then, if the case for change survives the checks and balances of honest dialogue, the leader dispatches this first layer of Reinforcing Sponsors on “listening tours” throughout the organization. Good dialogue can turn resistance into commitment. (Of course it can also alert a leader to speed bumps he didn’t anticipate.) The next wave of Reinforcing Sponsors can then take the change message deeper into the organization and help create the right atmosphere for effective implementation.
The primary message here? Cascading sponsorship develops an infrastructure of people who continue to reinforce the integrity (business case and psychological case for action) of the change.
Take time to cascade. It’s easier to prevent a black hole than to fill one in. Also, remember that black holes can prove fatal to leadership credibility. Any time there’s a discrepancy between leadership pronouncements and the reality experienced by your stakeholders, a black hole forms and you lose twice. First, you fail to get the change you want. Second, you teach people to ignore you in the future.
Literally create a “map” of your coalition showing each of the key members of your CAST of Characters.
Although a role map resembles an organization chart, it's not about titles. It's about roles in your project or change effort.
Because this key role map will change from time to time, you may prefer to create it electronically. Computer software like PowerPoint and Keynote can do the trick, as well as other programs specifically intended for mind mapping. The “map” may look a bit like a standard organization chart, but in this case the emphasis is on roles, not corporate hierarchy or rank. A visual representation of roles and relationships is much easier to work with than a mere list of people. Remember that your coalition must be constantly monitored and managed.
Unclear expectations are a common problem with change efforts. Contracting provides the needed clarity, and it’s one of the most important things you can do to boost the likelihood of success for your change.
I’ve found it helpful to commit the contracting to writing, literally. Call it a Memorandum of Understanding or anything you wish, but it’s still a contract – an explicit agreement on mutual expectations.
Because cascading sponsorship is so critical to every change effort, let’s consider how you might contract with a Reinforcing Sponsor.
To what extent does this potential Sponsor . . .
Have credibility with the Targets you want to influence?
Clearly understand the impact this change will have on targets?
Communicate in a way that encourages direct feedback?
Demonstrate ownership and personal commitment to the change?
Walk the talk – personally behave (privately as well as publicly) in ways that are totally consistent with the change message?
Have good relationships with people who are implementing the change (the Agents)?
You get the idea. Effective sponsorship is about specific behaviors, not about titles or position. Even though your Sponsor authorized the budget or gave a nice kick-off speech, don’t assume he will instinctively do and say all the things you need to keep the change effort on track.
When you sit down with your Sponsor for the contracting sessions, it’s imperative that you’re well prepared. Use a specific list of behaviors you need from the Sponsor. This is not the time to tip-toe around. The Sponsor behaviors should be clear and explicit, with no hint of doubletalk.
A signed sponsor agreement brings clarity to expectations.
Your contracting document can begin with something like “Because (name of your change effort) is so important to the future of our organization, (Sponsor) and (You) agree on the following mutual expectations.” Then you list – in very explicit terms – the actions you expect from the Sponsor, and the actions the Sponsor can expect from you. Again, it’s important that the language be explicit. Also, it’s a good idea to talk in terms of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound).
This contracting document needn’t be notarized because that might imply mistrust. But it should be signed by both parties. Simply emphasize that the purpose of the document is to calibrate and align mutual expectations. Drafting this document often requires a second meeting with the Sponsor. That’s okay, because it’s critical to get this right. You want to be sure the Sponsor gets no surprises on the requirements of sponsorship, and the Sponsor certainly has a right to clarity on what to expect from you.
Building a coalition is not a particularly complicated task. But it’s absolutely imperative. You will simplify your life (and probably improve your sleep) if you go about this work strategically. It makes all the difference.
Credit: Flickr/Eli Duke. CC BY 2.0.
This year also saw the publication of Giorgos Kallis’ landmark book Degrowth,which opens with three bold statements. First, the global economy should slow down to avert the destruction of Earth’s life support systems, because a higher rate of production and consumption will run parallel to higher rates of damage to the environment. Hence, we should extract, produce and consume less, and we should do it all differently. Since growth-based economies collapse without growth we have to establish a radically different economic system and way of living in order to prosper in the future.
Such a transformation is meant to re-embed the economy within society. And securing conditions that enable everyone to have enough will ensure that nobody faces scarcity – even if society produces less than today – by providing all the basic goods essential for human wellbeing free from payment.
Riccardo Mastini is a PhD candidate in Ecological Economics and Political Ecology in the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
As I commented yesterday, the theory of Economics is a self-designed and -perpetuated ’isolationist’ theory, whereby any complications such as realities are excluded, and any crises are explained away post facto, such as 1929 and 2008.
The worst aspect is that it has been institutionalised as part of World Reality, so that the Demos has no inclination or idea of how to change it short of a revolution.
The absence of a plausible and acceptable mechanism of reaching the Degrowth Sustainable status is what stymies the growth of the Degrowth Movement and only very rarely dies an economist or politician latch onto anything of the sort. Yes we have Happiness measurements, but no Degrowth and according to a very large scientific concensus, time is of the essence.
Colombia’s electoral authority announced Wednesday it would be canceling this year’s political parties’ primaries, previously scheduled to take place in late September.
The internal referendums in Colombia are votes held within political party structures to determine candidates and vet policy decisions, coalitions and other organizational matters.
The practice has come under widespread criticism, however, because of the high costs it presents for the State and the lack of tournout.
This year’s referendums were set to be the venue to test the electronic voting system Colombia hopes to implement ahead of next year’s presidential elections, but after the Citizens’ Option and Conservative parties announced they would not be participating, the electoral authorities gave in to popular sentiment and decided to cancel the referendums outright.
With a week to go until Christmas, ski resorts are breathing a collective sigh of relief as snow finally falls across many parts of the Alps.
However, low level resorts face a bleak future with scientists increasingly concerned about global warming.
It's been one of the most worrying build-ups to the season on record with poor snow levels across Europe. Earlier this month, the slopes of Tignes in France, one of Europe's highest resorts, were bare.
I was there last week when the first snow fell and to say the resort was delighted would be an understatement.
"This is always a very worrying time of year for ski resorts", says Fiona Sweetman from The Ski Club of Great Britain. "If there is poor snow then the multi-million pound ski industry suffers badly."
Austria has the best conditions in Europe with more snow set to fall this weekend. Obergurgl, Kaprun and Solden have near record amounts for this time of year.
The most popular resort with the British, St Anton, does not have quite such good conditions but it has been very cold, -13C, so the resort has made large amounts of artificial snow.
Snow cannons have been the saviour of many ski resorts as the warmer winter temperatures have meant less snow.
All resorts now make artificial snow and pride themselves on how many cannons they have. However, they come at a huge environmental cost, blighting the landscape and using up large amounts of water and power.
The Swiss resorts of Zermatt and Sass Fee now have thousands of people on their slopes. Many are professionals within the ski industry - instructors, guides and racers.
"Quite frankly it's been a bit of a struggle these last few weeks", Julian Griffiths, a trainer with The British Association of Snowsports Instructors (BASI) told me out on the slopes of Zermatt.
"Our students need reasonable conditions to pass their exams and we haven't had it. But now we have the snow it's changed everything."
Hundreds of British instructors now teach in the European Alps - both in national ski schools and British run ones.
In the Pyrenees, Andorra has had another good start with snow falling during the past few weeks. The principality has had an enviable snow record in recent years and now more British skiers go there than the USA, Canada and Switzerland combined.
British tour operators have also thanked the snow gods as resorts now resemble the blue sky and powder snow pictures that adorn their brochures.
The companies are blamed by some for selling as many holidays as possible for Christmas without pointing out to clients that often the low resorts receive little snow.
"It's always nice when the first snow of the season arrives but this year it's particularly welcome as the snow is definitely later than normal and the worries about climate change and global warming have increased our anxieties", says Marion Telsnig from Crystal Holidays, the UK's largest tour operator.
Many people book their Christmas holidays up to a year in advance to secure discounts and guarantee a place so they are taking a large risk on conditions.
The latest UN report on climate change warns that within 50 years over 200 ski resorts may have to close due to lack of snow so it is easy to see why the snowsports industry is concerned about winter's late arrival.
Helped by a strong first-quarter report but hampered by a softer outlook, Adobe's shares fell as much as 6% Tuesday night.
"Adobe HQ" by Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) just reported results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015. Despite beating analyst estimates across the board, Adobe shares fell as much as 6% in after-hours trading before stabilizing at a more modest 4% loss.
Led by surging subscriptions fees amid fading one-time license sales, Adobe saw total sales rising 10.9% year over year to $1.1 billion. Analysts would have settled for 8.5% growth on the top line.
On the bottom line, Adobe's adjusted earnings rose 47% higher to land at $0.44 per diluted share. Here, the Wall Street consensus pointed to $0.39 per share.
The company also exceeded its own guidance ranges for both sales and earnings.
The transition to a subscription model also yielded big changes in what kind of revenues Adobe is collecting. In the first quarter, 70% of the company's total sales came from recurring sources. In the year-ago quarter, subscriptions accounted for just 52% of the overall till.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Source: Adobe.
"Adobe Marketing Cloud and Creative Cloud continue to be growth engines for Adobe," said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in a prepared statement. These are the subscription-based versions of Adobe's biggest sellers, including cloud versions of moneymakers like Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
Looking ahead, Adobe's management set the midpoint of its second-quarter revenue guidance at $1.15 billion. Adjusted earnings should land near $0.44 per share again.
For this period, analysts currently expect sales and earnings just above the top end of Adobe's new guidance ranges. Combining the somewhat soft guidance figures with strong first-quarter results works out to a mixed report overall.
Don't cry for Adobe's shareholders. The deepest after-hours dip on Tuesday brought share prices back to levels not seen since last week. The subscription-based payments model has helped Adobe shares just about doubling in value over the past two years. Running a bit hot lately, the stock could use a splash of cool water right here.
Thai authorities warned the public on Monday against Godzilla, a mosquito repellent brand imported from Myanmar, following reports that three puppies had died after inhaling its fumes.
A team of health officials led by the district chief raided the Pa Charoen market in Tak’s Mae Sot district and seized a total of 75 boxes of the repellent.
The items were seized on grounds that the Food and Drug Association (FDA) had not certified the product.
Mae Sot district chief Chaiyaprukti Chienthanarak said the raid’s aim was to hunt down the source of the brand after learning that it was dangerous for humans and animals.
The seized repellent, sold in coil form, will be handed over to health authorities for further examination.
Though officials did not find the repellent at the district’s Rim Moei market, he said, shop owners have been warned against selling this brand. Officials will hold random checks from time to time, he added.
The brand is reportedly popular among Myanmar migrant workers, and is sold in Bangkok’s Suksawat Market for Bt25 per box. The brand was also found to be popular in Samut Sakhon province, where there is a large community of Myanmar workers.
Pakapun Inlee, 46, from Nakhon Pathom’s Sam Phran district, said the product was sold out in her area so she had come to Samut Sakhon to buy it. She added that though the product made her dizzy, she continued using it because it was good at chasing mosquitoes away. However, the authorities should step in if it is found to be unsafe, she added.
Sorapong Homcham, 45, said this brand had been recommended by his younger brother, and though it was not certified by the FDA, he continued using it because it kept his home mosquito-free.
He also confessed to Thai Rath online that about a year ago his three puppies had died from inhaling the fumes, adding that his family members have been advising everybody to not light the coils indoors or near people or pets.
The Godzilla brand has become so popular that a copy, Godzilna, has hit the markets.
Minnesota Wild coach Bruce Boudreau cautioned his team in the hours leading up to Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. He knew with the NHL all-star weekend right around the corner, there was a potential for a letdown.
Heck, the 62-year-old coach already had seen it play out twice this week as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks — two top-tier teams — both came out flat in the days leading up to the break and promptly got blown out.
Well, the Wild were at their best, especially Nino Niederreiter, as they coasted to a dominant 5-1 win over the Blues to enter the break in style.
It was indeed a nice feeling for the Wild, who enter the unofficial midway point to the season with 69 points. They are firmly in the driver’s seat in the Western Conference, as well as four points clear of the second-place Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division.
Niederreiter finished the night with a team-high three points, making huge contributions on a pair of goals midway through the game and scoring a goal of his own late. He is now fourth on the team with 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists), as he continues to prove himself as an integral piece to the future of the franchise.
It wasn’t only Niederrieter, as every line scored for the Wild en route to the rout.
“I thought that was our most complete game in a long time,” Boudreau said.
In the wake of a sleepy first period, Erik Haula gave the Wild the lead 23 seconds into the second, burying a shot from the left circle after a pretty pass from Zach Parise. That marked 10 goals on the season for Haula as the Wild have a league-leading seven players with 10 or more goals.
Blues right winger Vladimir Tarasenko leveled the score a few minutes later as Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba fell asleep on the back end. That allowed the Russian sniper to slip unnoticed behind enemy lines before beating Devan Dubnyk five hole.
In that moment, something clicked inside Niederreiter — and he took over.

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