Your Job Is Change

"One of the first things that we did when I came to Scripps was start a matriculation ceremony," Bekavac says. "We opened these great wooden doors on the east end of the library. The first-year students walk in through the doors and sign a book, writing down their hometown and their year. And when they graduate, we have another ceremony in which they walk out through those same doors. Think of it as just one handle for dealing with change. Yes, we're going to be different from now on. For example, we're going to have computers everywhere. But we're still going to have our ceremonies. We're still going to sign in at the library with a pen on handmade paper. The biggest job that I had at Scripps was convincing people that change doesn't mean loss."

The point, says Bekavac, is to show people that you value them -- and that you value what brought the organization to this point. After that, you show people that change is constant. Providing context, as much as content, is the job of the change insurgent. Russ Pillar, 35, president and CEO of the CBS Internet Group, offers a different angle on this rule. "For a lot of people," he says, "facing corporate change is like getting an email that's written all in capital letters: It's difficult to read, because nothing is differentiated. When you come into a situation that requires dramatic change, there always seems to be so much to do. But if you boil it down, you realize that there are only two or three very important things to do."

In other words, as a change insurgent, it's important to pick your battles and to set the right pace. Don't try to change everything at once. If you have the luxury of time, setting a pace that lets even change resisters find a way to fit in can produce an organization that continues to function well, even as you introduce a new mind-set and a fresh way of working. Once resisters discover that change isn't nearly as threatening as they had feared, you can quicken the pace. Sometimes, a gentle hand is the way to go.

Except, of course, when the situation requires firmer measures (in which case, see rule 7).

7. Use tough love.

There are times when you can nurse the change resisters along. There are times when you can convince them that change is inevitable. And there are times when you simply have to lay down the law: The game is changing, and they can either play within the new rules or play somewhere else.

John Urban, 58, IT support manager at Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, one of the nation's largest farmer-owned agricultural co-ops, got tough in 1990 when the company switched over to a new computer system. "We were getting a lot of push back from our dispatchers," he says. "There was this sense that if enough of them balked, we wouldn't change the system. And we had to say, 'Look, if you won't do this, we'll find people who will.' We had to be that blunt." Urban says that the company sent a memo to all of the terminal personnel, making it absolutely clear what the new technology required. The company also set up a series of meetings between terminal personnel, tech people, and managers who were working on the new system. The message got through: Out of 55 people, only one employee failed to make the switch.

The most hard-core resisters are often found at the most successful companies -- because prior successes give them an excuse for resisting, even in the face of mounting evidence that change is required. For important people doing important work in important companies, gentle suggestions to join the change insurgents won't ever be enough. Under such circumstances, you have to be prepared to fight power with power.

"You're either blessed with assets or cursed with them," says Jake Winebaum, 41, cofounder of eCompanies LLC and former chairman of Disney's Buena Vista Internet Group. At Disney, Winebaum was in charge of bringing the company -- some 30 divisions, including ABC News and ESPN -- onto the Internet. But it's hard to get successful people at a traditional company to embrace the Internet, because it means taking a chance -- and risking showing a lack of familiarity with or competence at the new technology game. Change resisters at Disney protested that they simply didn't see the need for the sudden transition. What they meant, Winebaum says, is that they were afraid of the technology, afraid to venture into an arena where they couldn't be in control, and afraid of a situation in which their leadership would be questioned. Small wonder that they were change resisters.

In those kinds of situations, says Winebaum, you have to rely on the highest authority that you can muster to back your agenda as a change insurgent. "If you're an insurgent, you have to strike very high in an organization, or you'll fail," Winebaum says. At Disney, the fact that he reported directly to CEO Michael Eisner -- and that he had Eisner's ear and his support -- was a critical factor in Winebaum's success. He was able to take his message to people in various divisions knowing that if he took a tough stand on change, Eisner would back him up.