I worked with an insurance company that was trying to create a workplace that encouraged healthy conflict. Now that kind of behavioral stuff is a really hard thing to measure. But we got the company to design a series of interventions that would allow people to experiment with conflict in different ways. By setting up some intermediate milestones, we could track whether people were really making progress.

How can you distinguish between the knee-jerk resistance that comes with any transformation effort, versus a wall of resistance that's ultimately insurmountable?

You need to be absolutely clear about where you stand with the senior-level people who are backing up your effort. I'll often have change teams develop sponsorship maps, which track whether key stakeholders continue to provide them with the level of cover that they need to make the effort succeed. If that protection starts to crack, you need to do a reality check and reassess things. Losing your sponsorship is a pretty strong signal that you should figure out why, regroup, and live to fight another day.

Coordinates: Mark Maletz, mark_maletz@mckinsey.com

Change Manual: Real Change Leaders

Change Agent

An online professor at Babson College and an independent consultant affiliated with McKinsey & Co., Mark Maletz has helped lead change efforts at scores of global organizations.

Change Manual

"Real Change Leaders," by Jon R. Katzenbach and the RCL Team (Times Business/Random House, 1997).

Change Lesson

"One of the traps that change agents fall into is having too limited a set of role models," Maletz says. "It's important to have lots of different templates for leading a change effort." He recommends "Real Change Leaders," which gives in-depth advice on all of the elements of change, from shaping the vision to instilling a no-excuses mind-set. The new edition also includes a "Handbook for Action," which includes ideas and tools for leading change. Best of all, Katzenbach and his six collaborators give plenty of real-world examples of how a variety of leadership styles can get the job done.

Coordinates: $16. "Real Change Leaders: How You Can Create Growth and High Performance at Your Company," Times Business/Random House, www.randomhouse.com