If all organizations were really good at expecting the unexpected (and preparing for it), we wouldn’t need people who specialize in helping organizations to change successfully.  The reality, however, is that few organizations are good at this. 

I continue to encounter client organizations for whom “expect the unexpected” is still a common phrase yet they really don’t live by those words in their every day.  And that’s a real shame because I think, as human beings, we’re actually pretty darn good at living by those words in real life.

I’d like to look at an every day example of how people deal with the unexpected – the weather.  Most of us check the weather forecast whenever we’re planning to go outside… for a bike ride, to walk around downtown, or head out of town for a long weekend getaway.  And if the forecast looks less than ideal, we plan for it… we wear a jacket, bring an umbrella or pack rain gear.  And if the forecast turns out to be correct, well, we deal with it.  Expecting the unexpected is key to life.

I’d like to share a story about a camping trip in Bar Harbor, Maine that featured a tent and an unexpected rain storm. The year is 2009 or 2010 and as I recall, we had delayed our trip by several days because the forecast expected thunder showers for most of the week but was calling for clear skies with a 10% POP for the next four days. My brother and his family went early anyway (they have a pop-up trailer) and the weather turned out to be fine for them… until we arrived.

Our drive down was a stormy one and we were a bit concerned about what we’d find at our destination. We found cloudy but not rainy (that’s good when you have to set up a tent and a kitchen shelter).  The next day was a beauty – we spent the day in Acadia National Park.

It was a perfect day – sunny and hot.  We played soccer, paddle ball, dug holes and body surfed in the chilly North Atlantic. At about 3pm, however, the weather turned cool and cloudy (quite quickly) so we decided to pack it in.  Within minutes of hitting the road, there was rain on the windshield.  I’m thinking “This is great, just great!”  We got back to the campground and the rain didn’t seem too bad so we got cleaned up and headed into town to find dinner and a movie at Reel Pizza (a movie house that serves pizza).  By the time we arrived it was absolutely pouring.  Crap!  And Reel Pizza’s feature had changed from G-Force (guinea pig spies… great for kids) to Public Enemies (for kids? Not so much).  Crap again!!

We managed to find parking and then a pizza joint (Epi’s)… when you have 5 kids in tow (that’s both families not just mine) and it’s coming down in buckets (and you’re re-setting expectations — “sorry, guys, no movie tonight”), you’re looking to find cover and food quickly.  The pizza was good and the atmosphere authentic New England pizzeria.

After we finished (it was only 6 o’clock) so we decided maybe we’d find a movie in a neighboring town.  But first a stop at the campground to commiserate.  We decided to skip the movie (showtime was 8:00 – not great for the 3- and 5-year olds in our clan) and returned to our sites.  I was concerned about the state of my tent anyway — and for good reason.

When we got back, the kids settled into my brother’s trailer with the portable DVD version of Finding Nemo and I checked the tent.  Crap, yet again!!!!  Water pooling in the corners, duffle bags moist, sleeping bags and pads soaked.  Thanks to Coleman for that awesome rainfly.  After much effort, my bro and I got it taken care of — we bought a 10×20 tarp, covered the tent, pegged it down… Wendy took the sleeping bags and pillows to the on-site laundry facility and the rest, as they say, is history.  In the end, we responded well and managed the situation successfully.  The Shipyard IPA, Gritty McDuff’s Vacationland Ale, Miller Chill and Geary’s Summer Ale didn’t hurt things.  Our final couple days in Bar Harbor were perfect.  We can’t wait to go back.

Our reason for success – (1) we have lots of experience camping, (2) cool heads prevail, and (3) it helps to have a sense of humour.  Although we didn’t expect rain, it’s camping and we understand anything can happen.  We expected (sort of) the unexpected even if we weren’t fully prepared for it.

Did I mention that on the way into Bar Harbor (on day 1) I said to my wife “Maybe I should pick up a tarp”.  I had tossed mine a few years ago after it had gotten beat up after years of use (I’ve been tempting fate ever since and this weekend, fate made me pay).  And then I said those famous last words “Nah, we’ll be fine.”

Sound familiar?  How many times have executive sponsors made that statement when deciding whether or not to invest some project dollars in much-needed but often under-valued activities like communications, stakeholder engagement, training and good long-range planning?  “Nah, we’ll be fine.”

And how many times has that turned out to be a good decision?…

That’s what I thought you’d say.

“You wanna learn the first rule… you’d know if you ever spent a day in your life… You never open your mouth till you know what the shot is.” – Ricky Roma

If you’ve seen the movie Glengarry Glen Ross*, you may remember that one.  True, it’s not as legendary as Alec Baldwin’s speech but it points out a valuable lesson when it comes to transformation and change.  It’s an excerpt from a rant by sales rep, Ricky Roma (played by Al Pacino), to his business manager (John Williamson played by Kevin Spacey), after Williamson blew a sale by jumping, uninvited, into a conversation Roma was having with a prospect.  Williamson thought he was helping but in truth he didn’t know enough of the background or the relationship to know what really was going on. Watch (note: explicit language)

“Knowing what the shot is” is critical when making decisions in your organization, especially those which will have an effect on people… so you know, pretty much every decision you make.  When you’re starting a new project or venturing into any new territory, it is important to make sure you get a lay of the land before you dive in.  I know this sounds like common sense but do you really do it?  I’m going to say “probably not.”

Yeah, you think about it – you might even talk to a few others in the “decision-making” pay grade to see what they think.  But the answers are usually the same.

“Well, there’s never going to be a perfect time to do this so let’s just get going.  We’ll close the gaps as we go.”

Sound familiar?  This is what decision makers say all the time, right?  Unfortunately, it’s a cop out (and I’m not sure you realize it).  They’re right that there’s rarely a perfect time for change (whether it’s the introduction of new programs, products, or services or the deployment of new technologies, policies, processes or the restructuring of something that exists already).

I’m not suggesting for a second that we put our ideas on hold so we can put together a blue ribbon panel to spend more time investigating.  Not at all.  What I am saying is that you need to be smart about what you’re doing and being smart means “knowing what the shot is.”

Maybe you know your organization really well already.  Yes?  Then use that knowledge and insight as a lens for your planning.  It’ll help you to figure out how to get things done successfully.

And if you don’t already know the shot.  Spend some time and effort right now to get that figured out.  It’ll pay you back in spades down the road.  Trust me.  When you know what the shot is, then you’ll know what moves to make, and not to make.  And that’s key to getting things right.

* I haven’t seen the play so I can’t confirm the specifics of the Roma Rant on stage.

Not kidding.  A client said this to me one time.

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Have you ever been on a project where you had budget, people, ample time and seemingly the will to kick some serious ass, but the client or sponsor was constantly saying… “not yet…”??

A number of years ago, I was doing work for a government client – I was the change management lead for a major system implementation.  I was brought in on the late side of early, which is to say we still had a couple years to go but the project was already a couple years old (maybe it was the early side of late).  Bottom line – there was still plenty of time to  get ready but the horse was already well out of the barn.

One of the first things I wanted to do was an organizational assessment – I wanted to get an understanding of both the culture that existed within the user community and the state of any communications-to-date (which were extremely limited) … had they had any impact (positive or negative).  Within a month, we were ready to rock and roll.  The Project Director, Executive Sponsor, Business Owner had all okayed it and we were about to get going.

Then the stall tactics came.

The only thing we were waiting for was for a senior-level bureaucrat to push out a communique to launch the assessment.  It was drafted and approved.  Literally waiting to hit “send.” And this was the process we had to follow to launch this program — as a consultant, I really couldn’t do it myself and neither the PM nor Project Director were willing to break protocol.

Not yet.

For those of you whom have worked in a government environment, you can appreciate how decisions are made and how slow the pace can be.  Did I mention an election was coming too.  From what I’ve seen, a pending election drives one of two main behaviours:

(1) everything stops until after the election

(2) everything is jammed in before the election

I was in scenario (1).  But no one was saying that.  Anything that required communication was basically put on the back-burner, unofficially of course.

Not yet.

A big part of managing change is communicating so obviously this was frustrating for me and my team.  For the next several months, we did a lot of planning but very little execution.  There was a lot of stalling and growing concern that we were not doing the things we needed to be successful in the long term.  And this was being brought to our steering committee’s attention on a regular basis.

Not yet.

One day, I pulled the Project Director aside and asked him what was going on.  His answer?

“We’d like to do Change Management in stealth mode.”

I was blown away.  “Stealth mode?” I asked.

“… just for a couple more months until the (new) Government’s first budget is passed,” he added.

Holy cow! (these weren’t my exact thoughts)

So what did I say?  I told him that change management is anything but stealth.  We need to talk about what’s happening and why.  We need to spend time asking people what they think and how they feel about the new direction.  We need to observe and listen… and answer questions.  We need to brag, we need to get people on board, we need to lead. He needs to lead.

When I finished my rant, I calmly reminded him that delays will pose great risk to the success of this project and that if he was willing to take that risk, it was his call.  But my advice was to not take that risk, for his sake or for the organization’s.

We had a major communication out the door within 2 weeks of that conversation… and the rest is history, fortunately.

Going into “stealth mode” is the enemy of change.  And that makes it the enemy of success.