What can we learn from a “Make it So!” leadership style in change management?

As we continue with my Star Trek does change series, we consider the famous quote from the Enterprise captain Jean-Luc Picard, ‘Make it so!’.  There is something appealing about strong decisive leadership, but what can we learn here that we can apply to our change management? 

There are some great aspects of this leadership style that ticks many of the boxes across various leadership models. 

Do we need to worry about change management if the Leaders say ‘Make it so!’ ?

I am sometimes told by business leaders that they don’t need to apply change management as in their company, people will follow the leaders. In the world of change this is rarely that simple, clearly, at first view, this seems to be true in Star Trek supported by the famous ‘make it so!’ command. However, there is a very key difference when in that rare situation of life and death on the battlefield or in deep in space fighting the Klingons, then yes, the Star Trek crew have learnt, as do all military perosnell that they have to 100% trust their captain/leader and their commands in that battle situation. There is no time for debate and concensus, they must simply ‘make it so’.  However, when not on the battlefiled, in all of these military/defense orgnaistaions around the world, there is an even greater need for Chanage management to bring people along on the change journey. Captain Jean-Luc Picard recognises this, when not in a battle situation his style is much more empathetic, understanding his crew’s needs and working with them through their resistance of the change.

Mismanagement of the people side of change, ignoring their resistance will cause significant issues to the misison or project, reducing significantly the effectivenes of delivering the expected value and benefits.  

Let’s consider each of the three Prosci core leadership/sponsorship characteristics in relation to this Star Trek capatain Jean Luc Picard, and see what we might be able to learn and apply to our change projects.

1. Active and visible leadership

Throughout the Star Trek franchise the captain has played one of the fundamental roles; in fact could you imagine any single eisode working without the captain being in it, unthinkable!  the Star Trek captain understood the importance of active and visible leadership. We see that in every one of the ten Prosci surveys (since 1998) into best practices for change management that active and Visible executive sponsorship is consistently the most important factor, in fact it is light years ahead of anything else!  We see in the research from Prosci that when we have a truly active and visible leader/sponsor throughout we are much ore likely to achieve the mission, the project objectives.  

We also know from our experience that many sponsors/leaders abdicate this role, partly because they’re busy but ultimately because they don’t understand the importance of their role of a sponsor, and it’s a huge mistake as their role really matters. In fact the research shows that when there is a highly engaged and effective sponsor at the helm then the project is 73% more likely to achieve the project objectives,  but this drops dramatically down to 29% with an ineffective leader of change. 

It’s clear that the Star Trek captains understood this, in our world back on Earth, as a change managers we often find ourselves having to persuade the business sponsor to fully understand their role and be equally active and visible. The Prosci research really helps us build this case and supports the stories we can tell of projects with both effective and ineffective sponsors!

Throughout…

This word ‘throughout’ is really important. Whilst there are key activities that we need from our sponsor at different points in the change journey, we also need to some of them repeated many times to really reinforce that this matters right to the end. The sponsor builds passion and excitement for the change, they explain why it is happening, why it is happening now and equally important they explain the consequence of not changing.  Without a full understanding of this, we will lack full awareness for the reason for the change and the imperative to deliver it now. I have found too often when reviewing a change program near the go live date where there are perceived concerns over adoption, that there are large groups of people who lack this full understanding of the reasons for the change. This matter as we see from the Prosci research that this is the number one reason for resistance in Employees and needs to be well managed.

2. Building a sponsor coalition

It’s very clear in Star Trek who the leadership team are, they clearly have the key acting roles, they are very much the ace of the change and depending on which Star Trek series you are thinking about will associate different names to each if the roles for chief engineer, medical doctor, head of communications, first officer etc. it is also clear that they don’t always agree with the captain and with each other but the captain understands that he has to get them onside. In exactly the same way, in our change projects we need to help the primary/executive sponsor build that coalition for the change.

Using the Prosci research we can help evaluate the leadership team on two keys dimensions, which we use very sensitively to help our Primary/Executive Sponsor to build a strong coalition for the change. We are not looking to embarrass anyone but help them become more successful as a leadership team for change.  The great news is that whilst this may feel like a very hard sell on a project, if you can encourage the leadership team to take a step back and consider all the changes that they are currently leading and the others in the pipeline for the next year or so, then this is much more a capability discussion. Establishing this competency for leading change is actually building a core leadership capability and they are much more likely to make time when they consider that bigger picture.

The two dimensions are whether they are openly for or against the change, that seems simple enough.  But as the research shows such a strong correlation between effective sponsorship of change and meeting the project objectives that being neutral is treated as bad as being against the change.  The other dimension is literally an assessment in their competency in leading change, not whether they are good leaders; I’ll leave that discussion to the coffee area.  We can assess how effective a leader in leading change and this information whilst sensitive is very helpful if we are able to then coach and support them at getting better in leading change. I am pleased to say that the character of Captain Jean Luc Picard shows the genuine openness and willingness to learn, to be coached and therefore become better in their role of a leader through change.  

3. Communicating directly

When you watch Star Trek, the captain is always very quickly aware of the issues from their crew and find ways many to communicate directly with them, whether via open broadcast across the ship, updates via the ships log and frequent face-to-face conversations in meetings and often the ship’s elevator! You never see the Captain trying to cascade communication to the crew, and we should be cautious of that in our change projects because it allows too much interference or withholding of the message. The research shows very clearly that for the big business messages for the change, only direct communication from leadership will be heard.

How you can support effective leadership during change:

• Help leaders understand the importance of their role as sponsor, and emphasise that being seen and heard regularly will remind people that the change is still a priority.
• Coach your sponsor and the leadership team on how to be more effective in leading change.
• Provide them with clarity on the key issues with specific advice on what you want them to do.  The clever trick as a change manager is identifying actions that take a small amount of their time, as they are phenomenally busy, but give the greatest value of being active and visible.  In star Trek, often the captain will give a short all crew directive, on your project can you add an exra slide to an exisiting leadership townhall to mention the project. The star trek captain would often stop on their walk aroin the ship and talk to the crew about the mission, can you your sponsor change the route to the meeting room and go via a different floor to simply take 2 minutes and talk about the project. These type of small actions create a large and strong impression of being active and vsisible.

Consider inviting your leadership team to attend a Prosci Sponsor Briefing, which equips Executives and Senior Leaders with the skills and techniques to lead and sponsor successful organisational change.

About the Author

Alan Kendall has a vast experience leading complex global transformation programs and building change management capability across small, medium and very large organisations (with over one hundred thousand employees) and across all business verticals. Leaning on his considerable experience he helps Customers to achieve maximum benefit and de-risk the overall change management programs. As a global Prosci Certified Advanced Instructor blended with his thirty years of business and IT leadership with Microsoft and Mars Inc, he knows how to quickly deliver great business outcomes.