Changing Chairs
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As a kid you probably played musical chairs a few times. It’s exciting and competitive. And it also taught you that change is risky.
For most organizations change is almost the same as playing musical chairs.
Since everyone is quite comfortable with his current chair, nobody moves. While some chairs are better, the group prefers the certainty of the current one over the possibility of failure when moving to a better one.
Of course, there’s much dissatisfaction in the group concerning who should get the best chairs though.
In general there are three ways how this can be managed:
- Playing Safe
- Try New Things
- Beat The System
1. Playing Safe
Most managers spend their time by only keeping the group pleased. It’s by far the safest option, but has the lowest chance of getting the group to come up with something that matters as well.
2. Try New Things
Some managers choose to ‘put the music on’, i.e. they initiate a change.
On one hand this feels comfortable to the group as everybody is moving at that moment. On the other hand there’s this issue when the music gets shuts off: you have the risk of getting a chair which is worse than the previous one. Or even worse: losing your chair at all.
This feels uncomfortable and scares the group off. The manager probably experiences resistance. And since he had to stand up to put the music on he might be the one losing a chair.
(Most of the time you’ll see external consultants or interim managers who initiate this kind of change. The reason why they have to get in is simple: they can’t lose a chair.)
3. Beat the System
Leaders play the game different.
How? They simply change the rules. Why struggle for chairs if there’s enough space on the couches?
It takes leadership to create a movement which will follow you to the new seats, mostly because you have to go through the dip to get to the unknown.
What kind of manager are you?
