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Executive Interviews: Interview with Michael Roberto on Change Management
June 2007
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
How do you identify the key
constituents of a change
management program (in the course
of a turnaround plan) and convince
them?
You have to understand who has the
power and the status in an
organization, as well as who are the
key influencers. In the hospital, Levy
learned the dynamic of the culture.
He learned how the department
chiefs had a great deal of power and
status, that they had largely been
lords over their fiefdoms in the past.
However, he also learned how the
nurses were the glue that really held
things together. They influenced a
great deal of others throughout the
hospital. So, he worked hard to get
their buy-in early on.
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You have highlighted four phases
of persuasion campaign. Can you
briefly tell us about those four
phases?
I think that we described these in
quite a bit of depth in the article. I
think I would simply highlight one of
the phases which often is
overlooked. Levy was very effective
at "managing the mood." He kept his
finger on the pulse of the
organization and he seemed to know
precisely when to give people a
morale boost, as well as when they
might be becoming complacent and
thus needed to be challenged a bit
more. A good example of this is
Interview 5
when the layoffs had taken place.
People were feeling a bit down. He
let them grieve a bit, but then he
knew that he needed them looking
forward, not back. So, he crafted a
letter to all employees, just after the
local football team won the Super
Bowl. It was an uplifting message,
likening the hospital's ability to
tackle the obstacles ahead with the
unlikely victory over a much more
acclaimed opponent by the local
football team. Levy's turnaround success clearly
demonstrates his leadership style.
What if earlier leaders also followed
the similar approach and leadership
style and yet were unsuccessful?
What options do you think Levy
would have had?
I think the key is that Levy studied
what earlier leaders had done,
diagnosed why they had failed and
then "explicitly" chose "not" to do
what they had done. He knew that
repeating their mistakes would be
fatal. He not only chose to be
different, but was very upfront with
employees as to why he was
choosing a different approach. What is the best way to go about in
implementing a change management
program during a turnaround plan—
(a) A top-down approach, (b) A
bottom-up approach or (c) A
combination as it happened in the
case of BIDMC's turnaround?
It's always a combination. Much too
much has been written about topdown
vs. bottom-up. It's always best
to avoid the extremes and use a
skillful combination. What is "managing the mood" all
about? Why is it important?
Good question! I answered that a few
moments ago. It's a critical phase in
any turnaround. You have observed that,
"Dysfunctional routines (by contrast)
are barriers to action and change.
They are persistent but are not
unchangeable." What are these
dysfunctional routines? How
important is their understanding to a
leader during a turnaround plan?
One example of a dysfunctional
routine is the "culture of no" that
Gerstner discovered when he arrived
at IBM. A culture of no is when
everyone in the organization seems
to feel empowered to say no, to reject
ideas, but no one seems willing to
say yes, to commit to a plan and take
ownership for its implementation. A
culture of no is when a culture of
cynicism has emerged. You often
find it when there are powerful unit
heads in an organization, who use
their power to exercise veto power
over key initiatives. Gerstner showed
that the key to building a successful
change program is to dismantle the
culture of no, but not to replace it
with a culture of easy agreement.
Instead, what you want is a culture of
constructive conflict, one in which
tough decisions are made in a timely
manner once an open dialogue has
taken place. What lessons can be learnt from
Paul Levy's successful turnaround at
BIDMC?
So many lessons! As we have seen,
the biggest lesson is that leaders need
to "till the soil" before embarking on a
transformation. They shouldn't
announce their plans and then begin
persuading… but instead, they must
begin the process of persuasion before
they even announce their plan for the
future.
1.
Change Management Case Studies
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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