Harvard Business Publishing

Hi Marshall,

Compelling article - you had me jumping out of my seat a few times, making me think I don't have my head screwed on tight enough yet.

It is quite timely that I am currently reading a "research methods and design" text right now. In it, the text discusses a typical effect where people see a lot of change right away when they decided to make a change.

Unfortunately, the immediate and gratifying change tapers off over time and requires much more time and personal effort to achieve even better results. I think the (30%) of people who "give up" have difficulty jumping the trickier hurdles or taller mountain peaks - the summit is just too high or too far away - so to speak.

I am amazed the the 70:30 ratio is not reversed. My intuition tells me that more people are opposed and resistant to change. I think the greater proportion of the population abides by the Freudian principle of "avoiding pain and seeking pleasure", but I suppose it is different for the leaders you work with. If they drop too many balls, a new juggler is quickly found.

In terms of instituting effective change, I do have a couple of ideas that will help individuals make positive and lasting change or "quit dreaming".

1. Chose Friends Carefully: be able to select friends who are reliable, display relatively consistent behavior, and have your best interests in mind. Such people will infuse more positivity than negativity into your life.

2. Limit Time With Friends: Even very good friends should not be overinvolved in each other's lives. Sometimes we end up spending way too much time with friends and we get caught in the blizzardy "familiarity breeds contempt" conundrum. This reality is unavoidable. The more time you spend with someone, the more you know how to unnerve one another. Know when enough time has been spent together and reconnect at a future date.

3. Maintain & Ensure a Happy Marriage/Partnership/Relationship: Almost nothing is more debilitating than an unsatisfying, counterproductive, or destructive relationship with your most intimate partner. Make sure that your most important relationship is positive, lively, and healthy. This requires effective use of time and a mutual understanding of each other's busy lives. In the long-term, a happy marriage requires warmth, financial responsibility, validation, emotional connection, and an unwavering commitment to each other. It things are not okay on the homefront, you might as well knock all of the blocks over and start rebuilding.

4. Believe & Respect Yourself: Make sure to give yourself a pat on the back from timt to time. If you are going to make changes, acknowledge the reality that actual long-term change is no easy feat. As you see yourself making positive change, let yourself be happy for the improvements you have made - reward yourself and seek recognition from those who will encourage you - not deconstruct you. Deconstructors are everywhere - avoid them like the bubonic plague.

Great article! Thanks for kicking up my motivational level.

Fantastic article Marshall!

I agree that 70% doing follow-up is a huge success! The reason leaders are leaders is due to execution and having a "can win or will win" attitude that helps them be engaged, continue to be effective and drive themselves to new heights!

For the other 30% who "do nothing", in addition to what you wrote, I also believe they are trying to build a huge buffer in their mind which will eventually attribute to a "one time" solution.

Continually thinking "Alright, if I keep thinking about how I want to enhance my career, get life on track, have a happy life, get my finances in order ....one day I will get it done ALL at once!"

And you're right Marshall, that ineffective buffer keeps building and building...the buffer gets larger while the execution gets smaller.

Begin one step at a time and turn that continuous daydream into reality! That's how that 70% become even MORE successful!

Hello Dr Goldsmith,

This article is brilliant.I smiled to myself when you said that you go a step further and find out whether students do what you teach them. I wish everyone l know in executive education could read this article.

Just last week l did a presentation where l urged the participants to follow up on students and find out how they implement their duties after they have been through some intense workshops.I keep wondering why would you stand there and teach and teach and have people go back and not implement?I know the argument from the students side is usually they are not picking up the bill. From the educators angle it is more like l am just teaching and it is up to you what you do with this info. Oh well...there goes the possibility of measuring impact.

I serve in a non profit organization. One thing l know the industry needs is to ask itself, "so what if l run a workshop?" There are too many workshops and executive learning sessions that that achieve little impact because no one is following up. I know not everyone will agree with strong follow up on students. But to have meaningful impact, we must be kept accountable.

Again...brilliant article.

Maria Wanza, Nairobi, Kenya

Matthew - I love your creative suggestions. I have not done enough research on how our friends can help us improve. This is a wonderful idea! Thank you.
Jorrian - I agree. We all want the 'quick fix' or the 'one time solution'. All change is like staying fit. The 'quick fix' doesn't last.
Maria - Thank you for sending in a note from Kenya! Part of the lack of follow-up by educators is due to our own lack of courage. It is hard for US to face the fact that WE may not be making a real difference.

The best advice I ever got was "You can't think yourself into new behavior; you have to behave your way into new thinking." The best thing I ever did was set down the leadership books, my calendar, and to-do lists and make a list, regardless of hours, of what I would like my day to resemble. Then, just like you said, I gave myself a week or two to start them or remove them. You have to ask yourself, is the result worth the time & effort I give to this task? It's interesting to see what really sticks.

WRT the 30%, I am convinced it comes down to a rather simple step wise process very similar, if not identical, to drug/alcohol addicts:
- a conscious decision to change, something (ie YES I want to change)
- a conscious commitment to that change (stating this outside of your own head helps)
- a written plan to change, if it isn't written down it doesn't count!
- follow-up to track change and if possible help

I would also suggest that you can't change everything effectively all at once and thus should focus on a very few or possibly only 1 change to make (do 1 very well vs 12 poorly).

I used this simple process after "dreaming" for a few years and being "awakened" by a 360 feedback report. I shared the plan with my direct reports, made changes, got approval, follow-up and have requested to be challenged when they see me slipping. I was rewarded after 6 months with an exceptional comment from a direct report on the change.

Commit, commit, commit...

Carl ;-)

Great post! Of particular interest is the “speak the same language” point. I believe this is problem goes beyond the CMO and much deeper into the heart of corporate organization. Many CMOs and corporations are still thinking advertising and measurement of that advertising in terms of one-way campaigns that have a beginning and end. Traditional advertising can still be effective, however a relationship building approach, such as social media marketing, is needed to reach the empowered consumer who demands and expects interaction. This approach requires a company wide commitment to adjust to the consumer of the future (and present). Perhaps the verticals of marketing, sales, customer service, communications/PR and product development take a more holistic approach and work as one unit speaking the same language.

Hi Marshall,

A really good article.

I am 26 years old and have lived my entire life fighting in a highly competitive environment in India. With engineering and management being the most coveted careers, pursuing other areas as a career/hobby is really tough. Most of the students like me keep 'planning' to do things that they really like but the moment to execute the plan never comes.

Your article and comments by Matthew are quite opportune. Since the last few months having understood this way of life i have started to improve myself and live everyday the way I always wished.

Regards,
Prashant Gangwal

I have made many sustainable changes. I make myself accountable to others...better at doing this than just being accountable to myself. I also take on partners...strength in numbers.

I also daydream. Sometimes I think perhaps I could pull a few all-nighters. That worked at a university student but at 53 it doesn't work anymore so I will just have to get the things done in the time I have available for them.

Marshall –

I’ve tried all kinds of techniques over the years to get leaders to follow-up on their development plan commitments. Writing them down, follow-up emails, making commitments with a partner and agreeing to following up, going back to work and making a public declaration, and others. All with mixed results – not as good as your 70/30, more like 50/50.

Lately I’ve I started reading your story “The Best Coaching Advice You’ll Ever Get” at the end of workshops and presentations. It’s been powerful – people are writing me and telling me it was a wake-up call for them and their lives have changed.

Maybe if I somehow combine the power of that story with your “one tough question” I’ll improve my batting average.

Marshall,

I am a student at IIT Madras, India. I have been reading up your blogs and I must commend you on the inspirational quotient of this blog.

I think I can relate to myself when it comes to day dreaming, but now it is high time I stop doing that and get to work! Thank you for this post for I believe I would not have noticed the flaw until it had been pointed out to me.

Thank you again.

Looking forward to many such posts.

Hi Marshall,
I like the simplicity of your ideas. We all need more simplicity in our lives! Recently I have been reading up on the work of Prof. Albert Bandura, Univ of Pennsylvania, and if you haven't yet crossed paths with him, perhaps now might be a good time. His research and work with others in translating his theory and the research underlying it into actions has caused many people to make substantial changes in their lives. There is a YouTube video available (90 minutes) where he gives a speech explaining his work, with many illustrations, and for me it is quite compelling. Definitely worth a look, if one is helping leaders, and those they lead, to make positive changes in their lives:

http://www.excellence2.com/strategy/How_to_Lead_Change_Successfully.shtml

(Note: I am the editor of this website)

...or just go to YouTube and search for Albert Bandura.

Cheers,

Holly - There is more research that shows 'behavior change leads to attitude change' than the opposite. Great point!
Carl - Our reseach on behavioral change confirms your points.
Dennis - Thank you!
Prashant - Congratulations! Keep it up!
David - Good point. Getting others involved helps.
Dan - Thank you for this update. I am glad that my articles helped!
Abhishek - Thank you for being a regular reader - and, more important, - for applying what you are reading.

Hi, Marshall ! It has been a while since I responded to your blogs but I had been a bit too busy with teaching.

Having taught students who were working adults at my university, I can sympathize with your sentiments. People attend classes and seminars for different purposes. Some attend purely for the social aspect (misery loves company), others seek to reaffirm their convictions (cherry picking those opinions and ideas which match their own), while the rest come simply to obtain new ways to improve their productivity at their workplace. The tragedy is that since most of the above types of attendees leave with a "feel good" frame of mind, one usually (and erroneously) assumes that the seminar (or class) had been a smashing success.

The way I ensure that my classes or seminar actually helps the attendees, I ensure the following:
1. At the beginning of the class/seminar I ask each one why they are there and what they hope to achieve. I write down their goals on the board. In case there are too many attendees (always a bad idea) I ask them to forward their goals on pieces of paper, which I collect during the class/seminar.
2. I inform the attendees of the goals of the class/seminar and try to match it with their goals. In case of a large class, after every topic presented, I pick up a few of the goals written by the attendees and demonstrate how they are relevant with respect to the topic discussed.
3. At the end of the class/seminar, I recap the salient points of the topics discussed and distribute a simple a daily worksheet for the next two weeks for each attendee which would help them in implementing at their workplace, some if not all the topics discussed at the class/seminar.
4. I also collect their e-mails and give them mine so that they can contact me if they have any questions or opinions while trying to implement the ideas they learned. I also warn them that if I do not hear from them within 3 days, I will be contacting them for feedback.

Although not a 100% foolproof system, it nevertheless seems to work and keep the student/attendees focused and motivated.

Raj Bose
Faculty - Marketing
University of Phoenix

Raj - My 'hats off' to you! You can not be sure that your work will really matter, but you are doing your best to make sure that you are making a real difference. I have the highest respect for educators like you - who really care that what you are doing matters!

I really appreciate your willingness to look at the effectiveness of training, not just the number of people trained. I recently attended a conference of “educators” who had a production model of training that I found appalling. All they talked about was the number of people that jammed through their programs. When I asked them about the impact of their training, at best I got a blank look and at worst I got open hostility.

Having said this, I am astounded at the level of responsiveness you got. In my experience, executives leading change initiatives within their organizations rarely give change initiatives more than minimal attention. So why would 70% change when it involves a personal change? Perhaps, if a change is more directly tied to their personal growth, they become more involved than when is in something of an organizational abstraction. However, presumably, their future success is tied to the organization’s performance, so why then are they so unwilling or unable to sustain their focus on an organizational change initiative? Something doesn’t make sense here. How can 70% of executives willingly follow-through on a change for themselves, but almost never follow-through on changes they initiate in their organization?

Finally, while you focused on what prevented the 30% from not following the program, I am far more interested in what made the 70% follow the program. In my experience, there are two reasons someone follows through on a change. First, there is some compelling personal and/or social reason for making the change; that is, their personal motivation overcomes their inertia. In the case of the 30% that didn’t change, I would look more for the absence of a compelling reason to change than to the presence of inertia. Second, there is a clear, specific achievable way to make the change. When people don’t see a feasible way to make a change they will resist changing because they think there is a substantial chance that they will fail in the effort, which, of course, becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I must assume with the response rate that you got that you are extremely successful at both getting each of the executives you train to develop a clear personal motivation and that you lay out an explicit path to achieving it. Is this correct? How do you create drive them to be motivated and guide them into success?

Hi Marshall,

Just an insight from a French OD consultant. I picked up an idea from Jim Collins "Good to Great" : building a "Stop Doing List". When I run activities around leadership & change, I always ask leader to build the stop doing list. This is a prerequisite, otherwise the natural trend is to try harder the same thing which is doomed to fail.

All the best,

Franck

There are an infinite number of reasons people don't seem to be an effective leader. You cannot possibly begin to analyze such a complex subject in a few paragraphs.

I have been thinking quite a lot about effective teaching. In fact that has been the main question on my mind for the past year or so. I may have a blast teaching a course, but if the students are not learning/changing, then I am just giving a lecture. I might as well talk to an empty room. My challenge is finding ways to stimulate make my students think, rather than filling them up with facts and theories. I love the article and the ideas presented in the discussion as well.

Thanks, Marshall. A fantastic, straight to the heart of the matter article. I work in the Commercial Fuels business - there never will be that golden time of being "caught up." As a result of your article I have abandoned several wish list items that have little chance of seeing the liggt of day. What I have done is explored the Values & Behaviours that underpin those lofty dreams. Honesty, Integrity, Respect - it is the belief and focus on these are assisting me. My focus Inwards is driving my success Outwards.

Dear Marshall,

By reading your amazing article, I felt like sharing my experience with you and your readers.

It was January, 2007. I worked for one of the most successful Coca-Cola bottlers in Brazil as an Innovation and Six Sigma senior manager. And I really enjoyed working there, partnering with my team – formed by enthusiastic and committed guys.

It is worth mentioning that contrary to the most entrepreneurs, I never had the itch to start my own business.

But unexpectedly changes started in the company, people were moved from one place to another, new departments were created, other were extinguished and later on, recreated.

As a consequence, a thing turned out to be clear for me, something much more important than the changes that the company was going through: I was not setting the rules, I was not the one behind the wheel and my career was being driven by a group of c-level executives. This was a bit scaring for me, and when I realized that, I knew some big movement would come up as a reaction.

I thought that it is better to risk and to be fully responsible for my decisions in life than try to blame someone else if things do not happen as expected.

Well, if I wanted that level of independence the sooner I started; the sooner things would work properly. So I decided to quit and to start my own business. That is where I am right now, in the very beginning of a new journey called "Floripa Angels".

You dear reader may be asking to yourself: and what is special about that? The special thing is not about the business itself, or even the product or service this new company will supply to the market. In fact, for me it is the business purpose and the values we are adopting. I understand that values - above all – need to be inspiring and therefore simple. They reflect who we are, how we face life and where we increasingly intend to be. Our core values are five: integrity, discipline, humility, curiosity and humor. We think that a strong determination to pursue these virtues will ultimately take us to excellence. Remember Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

All the best,

Marcelo
From the sunny Florianopolis - Brazil

William-Thank you for your questions! Follow-up is the missing link. It makes the difference. If you would like to know more, read "Leadership Is a Contact Sport: The Follow-up Factor in Management Development" (Goldsmith, M, Morgan, H). You'll find it in Strategy and Business, Fall 2004.
Franck-Thank you for this insight!
Don-I agree with you. This is a very complex subject!
Curtis-Thank you for reading!
Jeff-This sounds like a great plan… Let go of the lofty dream of being “caught up” and live for today.
Marcelo-Thank you for this great and uplifting story!

VALUELESS PEOPLE DON’T HAVE GOOD VALUES

With due apology to Marshall, the world's leading executive educators and coaches, I differ with him on two points made in this valuable piece of article on Change management. The first, when he stated at the very beginning, "I may be the only executive educator who actually measures whether the participants in my leadership development courses actually do what I teach--and then measures if they are seen as becoming more effective leaders."

The fact is that he is not the only one executive educator who does so. There may be thousands in number like him in the world. Particularly, I constantly measure the effectiveness of the leaders having been coached by me. In fact, if the proposed change is well thought of, genuine, calculative, and is proposed for the benefit of the management without causing harm to the workers’ interests.

In fact, the proposed change needs to be objective and not subjective.

The other point of difference is, when he said—
“The 'do-nothings' were good people with good values. They were intelligent people who felt bad about not following up with their co-workers."

Here, I feel Marshall needs to rethink his viewpoint. I can agree that the 'do-nothings' can be good enough people, but the other point of having good values becomes questionable. The question arises, if the 'do-nothings' have good values, their values may be more effective than the proposed changed, which desisted them to introduce change. They definitely would have found some defects in the proposed change, but would not have been able to express properly before Marshall. The other reason may be that they would have adopted restraint to vindicate their views with the fear of higher management who wanted change. The reason of their feeling bad for not following up can well be understood, as they don’t want to come forward with their difference of opinion out of the fear of the higher management. Of course they can be treated as intelligent enough not to vent their difference of opinion to face the ire of the top management.

Contrarily, if the proposed change was good enough and beneficial from the point of view of management as well as the workers, the values of such 'do-nothing' type of people cannot either be good or do not possess the capability to appreciate the values of change. In fact they failed to value the change in its right perspective either way.

I INVITE MARSHALL TO GIVE HIS VALUABLE COMMENTS ON MY OPINION WHETHER HE AGREES OR DIFFERS WITH MY VIEWS.

THE READERS ARE ALSO WELCOME TO PLACE THEIR VALUED AND WELL THOUGHT OF OPINION IF THEY AGREE OR DIFFER WITH MY VIEWS.

PS-You make some interesting points. Please don't apologize for differing with me! I appreciate that you share your opinion.

Hi Marshall,

Thanks for the appreciation of my point.

PS - Another reflection on your post. Please accept my apologies on the 'only person that measures' comment. You are probably correct. Could you please send me an email with actual published research references that document the impact of executive education on behavioral change? In terms of my comment about 'do nothings' who are good people, I beleive this. My theory on people is that the huge majority of us want to do what is right - we lack discipline more that we lack values. For example, people who are in shape (in my mind) are not 'better' people than others - they just work out more! Your reply is appreciated.

This discussion thread has been very interesting and is very much needed today.

This is a subject very close to my heart. I am a corporate trainer and coach, specializing in Leadership Development and Project Management training and coaching. I am very passionate to add value to both the participants of my training and their organizations that send them to my trainings. I have developed a simple but powerful model that shows the ROTI (Returns on Training Investment) of the participants.

This model helps participants document the changes they want to implement based on the training, to define an accountability partner, and optionally can also define their supervisor, and it expects participants to list out the small steps they are going to take in the next week toward each change they want to implement, and the progress they made in the previous week against their plan for the previous week (this takes just approximately 5 minutes per week). It sends out reminders during the week, and progress and returns scores. It sends a management report summary of scores to the training department and/or management. It helps the trainer/facilitator to give weekly feedback at the level of each planned change (or goal) to the participants.

This model was initially implemented in manual form, and I have now made it an interactive tool that can be accessed on the internet. It is now in beta version and will be launched shortly.

In case any of you is interested in using this Online Goal Achiever tool beta, I will be happy to give you FREE access for a month to use the tool if you send me an email with the subject line “ROTI – Online Goal Achiever”.

Binod Maliel, ValYouAdd Consultancy
Helping You Succeed EVEN More

Binod-Thank you for sharing your insight model with readers.

Hi Marshall,

I had made a point to an earlier blog relating to the financial crisis… John, the author, provided some thoughts and to me they were just a set of ‘motherhood statements’ with no real application to the ‘common’ person… Your article plus all the other contribution provides the mechanism that I was speaking about in my retort which is as follows…

…. At the end of every fire there is an opportunity to spell out the obvious and feel important!... there will be many more instances and still more…

What is required (one of the factors) is to unravel the mechanics of reflection, we require a plan and a set of activities to make this process a part of our work life

Some of the activities will be to actively ask for and get feedback, institute peer review when the impact of an initiative is not well understood. The peer review panel should have the responsibility similar to that of the ‘board of directors’… this way, the day to day actions are continually aligned to the short and medium term initiatives… priorities get continually reset based on relevant information and bounds… and the organisation moves in the intended direction… everyone is part of the decision and everyone takes responsibility because there are more wins, few losses and very few catastrophes

This may sound familiar to most of the Japanese executives and some of the smart ones who have instituted the philosophy of “Hoshin Kanri”… some may say that this process adds time to the decision making process… well I would argue that executives (worth their salt) can be ‘involved’ and ‘contribute’ meaningfully to an initiative ONLY at the planning phase, that is, before the decision is given the ‘go ahead’… there is very little anyone can do once the initiative is steaming ahead and heading in the wrong direction… towards a sure catastrophe that is bound to happen!

It is not by chance as the executives from Citi or even the auto giants (fast turning into dwarfs) want us to believe… it is not a fundamental problem for which a solution is hard to find… it is similar to lethargy and procrastination… executives will just not ask for feedback… there will be many more instances and still more…

A book that has helped me become a better leader for my group at work, A Dog's Advice to Leaders is a fun book to read, yet nevertheless offers great advice on how to lead – or just live – better.