Saboteurs, sheep and heroes

One of the strongest messages we hear from clients undergoing change is how essential it is to get your people on board. There is no doubt though that it is difficult and many managers lose hours of sleep pondering the best way to convince people that the change being considered is essential, good and in most cases painless.

Nevertheless, irrespective of seniority, people generally fall into one of three camps when it comes to implementation.

These split roughly into 60%, 20% and 20%.

60% of the organisation will follow the loudest voice. They won't actively drive change but they won't prevent it either. These are the sheep.

20% of the organisation will resist change. Most of these people will resist verbally, either amongst themselves or to whoever will listen. A small proportion will actively try to undermine it and research has shown that some of these could be quite senior and therefore influential. These are the saboteurs.

The remaining 20% will embrace change with enthusiasm. Most will support it verbally but some will actively seek ways to be involved and a small group will drive it. These are the heroes and most are usually found in middle and lower management and in the front line.

What makes this interesting is watching where directors and managers invest their energy. Most will spend a good deal of energy on trying to convert the saboteurs which has an unwanted side effect. In doing this they send a message to the sheep that these people are important and that what they have to say matters. This isn't the intended outcome but the sheep will follow the loudest voice and by promoting the value of the saboteurs they add weight to their argument. This also makes the heroes feel completely exposed and neglected.

What they should be doing is throwing their weight totally behind the heroes, demonstrating that their behaviour is the one which matters to the organisation. In every case the heroes should be supported, protected and invested in. The objective is to get the sheep to follow the heroes. If they do, the saboteurs will become exposed and either join in or leave and in terms of the overall success of the change programme and the prosperity of the company, it doesn't much matter which option they take.

So have a look around your organisation and analyse how much you invest in the heroes and the saboteurs. Invest time and energy in the heroes, the sheep will follow and the momentum for change will increase. Invest in the saboteurs and your change program will slow down.