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biography Elephants Can Dance, Gerstner highlights how he achieved cooperation as
follows: “Our greatest ally in shaking loose the past was IBM’s eminent collapse.
Rather than go with the usual impulse to put on a happy face, I decided to keep the
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crisis front and center. I didn’t want to lose the sense of urgency.”
Building a Coalition
To convince people that change is needed, the change leader does not
necessarily have to convince every person individually. In fact, people’s opinions
toward change are affected by opinion leaders or those people who have a strong
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influence over the behaviors and attitudes of others. Instead of trying to get
everyone on board at the same time, it may be more useful to convince and prepare
the opinion leaders. Understanding one’s own social networks as well as the networks
of others in the organization can help managers identify opinion leaders. Once these
individuals agree that the proposed change is needed and will be useful, they will
become helpful allies in ensuring that the rest of the organization is ready for
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change. For example, when Paul Pressler became the CEO of Gap Inc. in 2002, he
initiated a culture change effort in the hope of creating a sense of identity among the
company’s many brands such as Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Gap. For this
purpose, employees were segmented instead of trying to reach out to all employees at
the same time. Gap Inc. started by training the 2,000 senior managers in “leadership
summits,” who in turn were instrumental in ensuring the cooperation of the remaining
150,000 employees of the company.
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Provide Support
Employees should feel that their needs are not ignored. Therefore, management
may prepare employees for change by providing emotional and instrumental support.
Emotional support may be in the form of frequently discussing the changes,
encouraging employees to voice their concerns, and simply expressing confidence in
employees’ ability to perform effectively under the new system. Instrumental support
may be in the form of providing a training program to employees so that they know
how to function under the new system. Effective leadership and motivation skills can
assist managers to provide support to employees.
Allow Employees to Participate
Studies show that employees who participate in planning change efforts tend to
have more positive opinions about the change. Why? They will have the opportunity
to voice their concerns. They can shape the change effort so that their concerns are
addressed. They will be more knowledgeable about the reasons for change,
alternatives to the proposed changes, and why the chosen alternative was better than
the others. Finally, they will feel a sense of ownership of the planned change and are
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more likely to be on board. Participation may be more useful if it starts at earlier
stages, preferably while the problem is still being diagnosed. For example, assume
that a company suspects there are problems with manufacturing quality. One way of
convincing employees that there is a problem that needs to be solved would be to ask
them to take customer calls about the product quality. Once employees experience the
problem firsthand, they will be more motivated to solve the problem.

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