3 Myths That Underlie Transformation Theater
In March of this year, Bill Anderson, pharba giant Bayer’s CEO, wrote in Fortune that the 160–year old company was at a “crossroads.” He outlined steps he was taking to battle the bureaucracy that’s plaguing the firm, such as slashing red tape, eliminating levels of hierarchy and decentralizing decision making.
Many cheered his stand against the status quo, but I was skeptical It seemed more like transformation theater than a real transformational initiative. In particular, I was struck how Anderson’s plan reflected telltale signs, such as a false sense of urgency, a rushed process and an over-publicized launch.
I was surprised to find that many agreed with me. We’ve seen so many “celebrity CEOs” like “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap at Sunbeam, Bob Nardelli at The Home Depot, and Eddie Lampert at Sears, talk big and then fail miserably, that it seems that we’re not as likely to be taken in. Yet just as important as noticing the pitfalls, we need to acknowledge the underlying fallacies.
Myth #1: Change Is Linear – The Faster You Start, The Faster You Will Go
Successful managers tend to look at change initiatives as they would ordinary projects: You start with an objective, identify milestones along the way and develop a timeline in order to keep things on track. Then they evaluate progress against that timeline, seeing advances as positive and setbacks as failures.
Change doesn’t work that way. It’s not linear but follows an s-shaped curve, meaning that it starts out slowly, but if it gains traction it can eventually hit a tipping point that triggers a cascade and unlocks exponential acceleration. So the job to be done is not to try and convince everybody all at once, but to hit that tipping point.
Consider the case of Gandhi and the struggle for Indian independence. Soon after returning to India from South Africa, he called for nationwide strikes in response to the repressive Rowlatt Act. The people rose up, but things quickly spun out of control and ended in tragedy. A decade later, he learned from his mistake and set out on his Salt March with just a small, disciplined cadre, which would inspire the world and help lead to Indian Independence.
Similar strategies have proven highly effective in organizational transformations. When Wyeth Pharmaceuticals began its shift to lean manufacturing, it started with a single team in a single plant, but success there led to a transformation involving 17,000 employees. When Experian sought to shift to a cloud-based enterprise, it started with internal APIs that had limited effect on its business, but helped lead to a competitive advantage for its business.
What makes successful change leaders different from those who fail is that they learn from their mistakes, which becomes very hard to do if you’re trying to adhere to a timeline. If you recognize that change is nonlinear, however, you won’t hesitate to pause along the way, regroup and ensure you’re on the right path. You often need to go slow in order to go fast.
Myth #2: You Need To Create A Sense Of Urgency Around Change
Managers launching a new initiative often seek to start with a bang. They work to gain approval for a sizable budget as a sign of institutional commitment. They recruit high-profile executives, arrange a big “kick-off” meeting and look to move fast, gain scale and generate some quick wins. All of this is designed to create a sense of urgency and inevitability.
Yet, although this has long been a basic tenet of traditional change management methodologies there is no real evidence that this is a good idea. Even when famous advocates publish supposedly scholarly articles, their rationalizations tend to be a mix of random anecdotes, leaps of faith and non-sequiturs.
Consider a 2014 report by PwC that revealed that 65% of respondents in corporations cited change fatigue, 44% of employees complained they don’t understand the change they’re being asked to make, and 38% say they don’t agree with it. A more recent study by Gartner in 2020 suggests that propensity for change fatigue doubled during the pandemic and a 2022 survey by Capterra found similar results.
Wise leaders create a sense of safety around change. When someone promotes a false sense of urgency, rushes the process in a manner that quells dissent and seeks out publicity before any real results have been achieved, you have someone pursuing transformation theater rather than genuine transformation. They are not pursuing a solution to a genuine problem, but preying on our bias for action in order to glorify themselves.
Myth #3: Things Will Get Easier After A Big, Splashy Win
Change management pioneer John Kotter, who first started writing books about organizational transformation in the 1970s, has long advised to establish short-term wins. He stressed that these must be unambiguously successful, visible throughout the organization and clearly related to the change effort.
The concept is problematic for a number of reasons. If we are only looking for projects that will be unambiguously successful, it is doubtful that these will be meaningful and relevant. So inevitably leaders go for some “quick and easy wins,” and tout them widely, which makes the initiative seem more like window dressing than a serious effort.
Although it is always difficult to understand what’s going on behind the scenes at an organization in the moment, this appears to be the situation at Bayer, in which Anderson has embarked on a massive reorganization during his first 10 months. He expects the process to encompass tens of thousands of people by the end of the year (Bayer employs 100,000).
That seems impressive and I’m sure it took an enormous effort to achieve. However, an enterprise is far more complex than its organizational chart would suggest. Often, its underlying informal networks are more significant and, by moving quickly you are likely to sever important connections that link together employees, customers and partners.
There will also be those who will work to undermine what you’re trying to achieve and going too fast will give them more opportunities to throw sand in the gears. Trying to overpower the organization with speed and a lot of publicity is the worst kind of transformation theater. It almost guarantees you will fail to survive victory.
We Need To Take A More Evidence Based Approach
It’s tough to imagine how anyone who is familiar with the evidence would ever assume that change is linear, that it is a good idea to “create a sense of urgency around change,” or that you should move quickly to publicize an early win. Yet, more often than not, that’s what otherwise smart, accomplished people set out to do.
There are a few reasons that this is the case. The first is that change itself has changed. Consider that research shows in 1975, 83% of the average US corporation’s assets were tangible assets, such as factories, machinery and buildings. When your assets are tangible, change is largely about communicating strategic decisions made from above. There’s little anybody can do to resist them anyway.
However, the very same research finds that by 2015, 84% of corporate assets became intangible, such as licenses, patents and research. Change is no longer about making decisions about strategic assets, but about what people think and do everyday. You can’t try to force or overpower that kind of change, you need to attract and empower.
Yet today’s cult of disruption often favors those who make a lot of noise. CEOs who are able to create a lot of hoopla in the media can often keep the stock price up long enough for their options to vest and cash out. Even more junior managers can make a name for themselves with big, splashy initiatives and then switch jobs before it all comes crashing down. Some have made big careers that way.
That’s what makes transformation theater so destructive. It seeks to ennoble the change leader rather than the enterprise or its mission. It is, quite simply, how incompetent managers attempt to take on the appearance of a high-performance culture, without ever doing the hard work needed to actually build one.
Greg Satell is Co-Founder of ChangeOS, a transformation & change advisory, an international keynote speaker, host of the Changemaker Mindset podcast, bestselling author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change and Mapping Innovation, as well as over 50 articles in Harvard Business Review. You can learn more about Greg on his website, GregSatell.com, follow him on Twitter @DigitalTonto, his YouTube Channel and connect on LinkedIn.
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