How to influence organizational change from the middle
Seth Godin’s podcast, Akimbo, posits an intriguing premise: the relationships between and among us, what we call culture, is “way stickier than we’d like to admit” and can be the driver for our entire enterprise. To illustrate this, he has his listeners remember Blockbuster, who had a chance to demolish Netflix. The year they voted whether or not to go after Netflix and create a subscription rental business, they turned it down. Why? Because that year, they had made $800 million in late fees, or 16% of their profit. They had a culture of late fees, and they couldn’t see that the platform was changing. As it turns out, consumers hate late fees.
Seth’s main point is that we get hung up on “the way we do things around here”. Though we often laud the axiom to “think outside of the box”, we often have no idea what constitutes “the box” in the first place. What are the parameters? What are our limitations and blind spots? It’s actually really challenging to be flexible enough to see the opportunities in front of us. Yahoo could have bought Google. AOL could have bought Yahoo. Prodigy could have bought AOL. But they didn’t. Companies, professional fields, and even academic disciplines forget to examine their own culture to identify the drivers of what “we” do and how that might one day be a losing path.
However, if we are confident in what we know, and when we are attentive to the needs of the people we serve, we may have the opportunity to pivot when the platform has shifted. If we are like Netflix, we change the platform to meet the needs and the desires of our customers. If you aren’t examining every aspect of your business with a skeptical lens — from the experience of the customer, to the needs of the user, to the frustrations of your workers — you are probably missing something.
In fact, you can probably unearth evidence of cultural misalignment almost immediately. Maybe you’re a middle manager conducting routine operations built upon precedent and empirical knowledge. You know there is a better way, but you feel powerless to change the course of the organization. So what can you do about it? Well, certainly the best option is for the organizational leadership to be able to see the writing on the wall and pivot. But if you are buried within an organization’s hierarchy, you may also have the ability to be an “intrepreneur”, or of at least trying to influence change from the middle. How is this done?
Make micro-changes in your sphere of control
We often believe we aren’t capable of taking the bull by the horns. We likely even complain about “Leadership” and their unwillingness to take action. Imagine instead that you just start implementing small changes where you are positioned. What do have you control over? Maybe it is the way photocopies are made. Maybe it is how servers are built. Start with working to influence the culture of the group you manage or work with directly. There is no bigger advocate for your cause than having a motivated, powerful, productive team that shines in the organization. When those who work for you are gunning to expand your mission, you become impossible for others to ignore, especially when the comparison perennially comes up short on the part of other teams. People may not like the way you push forward with gusto, but if you focus on the areas over which you have control and you stay above board in every way, eventually, someone will notice. Micro-changes might include adopting new project management strategies, agile principles to guide your work, a new focus on the experience of the customer or user, or a leadership strategy that empowers and enhances the talents of your team members. These changes might not feel impactful to the entirety of your organization, but they will certainly affect the productivity — and the product — of the people who surround you and work for you. Authors of The Progress Principle, Amabile and Kramer, write about how critical these small wins are to employees, and ultimately, to your organization. By learning these lessons now, who knows? Maybe you’ll be in the CEO’s seat someday.
Learn to manage up
Your boss may not know how to be a leader. This is a tough one, because sometimes managing up is possible and sometimes it is not. Much of your ability to successfully influence your supervisor may depend on the personalities in your hierarchy, but there are behaviors and actions you can adopt that will help. Whether influence is dampened because of political forces, inexperience, or other issues, you may have to realize that patience may be your only option (apart from finding a new position). However, I have also found that bosses who lack experience or leadership skills may be grateful when you begin to craft programs and initiatives that are based on your own conviction about the best course of action. Instead of waiting for direction (which means you may be waiting forever), create a proposal that is thoughtful and thorough, determine what resources you will need to implement it, and then bring it to your boss when you are ready to take action. It will help you meet your goals if you first understand what your supervisor’s concerns are and then find ways to help them see viable solutions. Once people know that you care about their objectives, and that you see your job as making them successful, they may become more open to your ideas and perspectives. If your boss comes to embody the paradigm shift necessary to pivot the organization, you are potentially on the path to real culture change.
Understand the art of influence
A true master of the science of persuasion is Robert Cialdini, who wrote the seminal book Influence, and has often shared his 6 Principles for Persuasion. Among other things, Cialdini points out that it is important to signal your authority or subject matter expertise before trying to persuade. If your authority is still a bit shallow, or if you are more of a generalist than a subject matter expert, you may need “champions” to get your mission accomplished. We all depend on others to carry out at least some of our objectives, so it can be helpful to seek out those in positions of power who are willing to listen to you and help you meet your goals. These champions can become powerful advocates for your ideas. More informal “influencers” may not appear high in the hierarchy but already wield effective communication and connection skills that may have an out-sized impact. Align yourself to these champions and influencers, even if they are positioned in a wholly different part of the organization, and nurture those relationships. When it comes to others who are more skeptical about your goals or don’t see them as something that concerns them too, you may need to patiently prove yourself over time. Are you consistent? Reliable? As leadership expert Jim Dethmer cautions, be sure to honor your commitments and agreements. Reciprocity, it turns out, can be a powerful tool in leveraging your agenda. I learned this lesson when I realized that one of the sole reasons I found myself vaguely resentful of a colleague was that I often left interactions feeling as though I was often asked for help or favors, but that she did not honor that subtle expectation of reciprocity. That said, a reciprocal “gain” can amount to little more than praise of a job well done, a show of appreciation, or volunteering to help a colleague during an important event or meeting. It is important that such interactions do not feel merely transactional, but rather a contribution to shared purpose and community. My lesson here is to ensure that when I am engaged with a negotiation of any kind with a colleague, I will do my best to ensure those working with me feel that they too benefit from our interaction or work together.
Be patient with the seeds you sow
A university president once said “it takes institutions a long time to ‘think’”. Taking a long time to think in a make-it or break-it environment may be unacceptable, but I have seen minds pivot 180 degrees over a four to six month period. True, that is pretty slow in some respects, but if the rule of thumb is that culture change can take 2–3 years, maybe that is a reasonable time frame. What may take six months in one organization may take only two in another, especially if the leadership is committed to the shift. It may feel uncomfortable if a colleague or boss comes to believe that one of your ideas was their own, but in my view, that is rarely a real problem. Let me also be clear that coming around to your point of view and co-opting an insight and taking credit for it are really too different things. In most cases, as long as your objectives are met, the entire company can advance. If you propose something radically different from the current practice and within six months the leadership cannot even conceive of doing it the “old” way, consider it a Win. Smaller shifts may add up to substantive change overtime, especially if there is some strategy to the shifts you are attempting to make .
Remember that as you attempt to shift a culture from within, do your best to share your thinking with leadership, create a space for small wins, leverage the assistance of champions and influencers, make good on your agreements, and be patient with the time it will take for big things to happen. If you take these steps, you may not save your company from all of its cultural blind spots, but you will learn invaluable lessons along the way and likely influence a new generation of more insightful leaders. The 2nd century philosopher-king and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius famously wrote, “the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Instead of seeing only obstacles, see opportunities all along your path to success.
