Patty Azzarello

This is a book whose density of good ideas belies its less-than-300 pages.

Even when change efforts are initiated successfully, many efforts get stuck in the middle. This book discusses the practice-derived MOVE model which looks at how defining the Middle of a change effort, setting up the right Organization, having the Valor to be committed to change, and making sure Everyone is involved can lead to effective change efforts.

A good strategy needs to keep people engaged by letting everyone know what should change. You need to create an action based strategy with specific, concrete, executable outcomes. Focusing on outcomes narrows the space of next steps and helps everyone focus on the long term gains. Working on a series of concrete goals will accomplish more than focusing on a large goal that is too vague to execute. Focusing on concrete actions helps focus the conversation. It may create some conflict, but is the type of conflict that means things are getting done.

Even concrete outcomes are often too large, vague, and far off to drive action. Work backwards from those outcomes to define concrete milestones: "If we want X done in 12 months, what visible outcomes do we need at nine months? To achieve that, what needs to be done at 6 months? 3 months? Right now?" Unlike many lists of milestones, these ones are chosen because you believe that if they slip, the overall target date is at risk. Use milestones can be used to communicate a tangible sense of progress. Use them to structure progress timelines.

Look for the bottlenecks that are preventing scaling today. Work toward scaling those bottlenecks 10x. Don't take on too many of these at once. Focus on 1-3 most important things. Whittling down this list requires shifting from asking "How important is this?" to "How bad is it if we don't do this?" Communicate these priorities at every turn. When a conflict comes up, use them to help resolve the issue. When the conflict is between priorities, escalate. Once priorities are identified, leave some slack. Slack allows you to reprioritize when the inevitable distractions come up.

Metrics are important. However, many metrics are either too high level (impossible to move) or too low level (they don't measure what matters). Control points are metrics that measure intermediate outcomes that directly influence the high level goal while being detailed enough that they can be influenced directly. A good control point can drive improvement in multiple areas and coordination across groups.

Uncertainty is expensive. When people make critical decisions but are uncertain about direction, they will generate inconsistency and churn. Real clarity must get down to the level of concrete resources and timelines: how do goals break down? who is responsible? what changes from before? etc. Getting to this level of detail may cause conflict, but it is productive conflict which moves things forward.

To align, use unstructured conversations early and often. Ask people "What do you really think?" Let people express why they think the change is happening, whether or not it aligns with their priorities, and whether or not they think it will be successful. These conversations create are a place where important concerns can be raised early.

You'll know a new strategy has really stuck when people discuss the key ideas even when the leader is not in the room: the audience has heard, understood, and is engaged with the message. The way to make this happen is to have lots of 1:1 conversations, talk about the strategy in day-to-day work conversations (such as stand-ups), and to encourage discussion of the strategy in the team's natural communication forums.

Leaders to have the honest (and often painful) conversations about staffing changes. Start by showing the importance of the journey to persuade people to invest in the area. Second, show the true cost of improving. Help others understand what could be achieved with different amounts of budget and staffing. Sometimes, despite your best efforts to be realistic, leaders will not accept anything less than a unrealistic goal. Be willing to set ambitious goals, but don't give into the temptation to promise the impossible. This sets everyone up for failure.

Most likely, the organizational will need to change. Go through the exercise of creating a "blank-sheet" org chart. Start with the desired outcome, draw the ideal org chart, clearly define roles, get input. Once this structure has stabilized, map individuals onto roles. Hire where there are gaps and help people who no longer fit the team's needs move into better roles. Make sure that everyone understands their new role.

This requires high quality people managers who can help people move forward. Good managers use tools such as clear communication, support, good planning & resource management, clear decision making & accountability, and stable organizational direction. They make sure their reports have the information they need to discuss the business strategy and how they and their individual strengths fit into it. They also make sure their reports feel supported at the right level. They seek out development opportunities. They may delegate their work: not just the fun stuff, but also the hard work, the meaningful work, and the relationship building work.

Teams can be successful with hybrid or remote work if they are intentional about it. Individuals can be more productive working from home but teams generally are not, so figure out which work is better in which setting. Make sure that there are clear expectations about when people should be in the office in person. Fully remote teams and individuals should be given opportunities to bond with the team, both in person and virtually. Emphasize the importance of being present in virtual meetings. People who are fully remote will need to make extra effort to be seen by others. They should focus on getting some face time, being present and visible in calls, participating, stepping forward to lead, building relationships, and sharing expertise. This will help others know who they are.

Always be looking for the right people. Even if you are not hiring now, build relationships so you can recruit those folks when you need them. Eliminate people who have a negative influence on the team. However, before removing them from the team, see if they can't do the job or won't do the job. If they can't, give them the opportunity to learn what they need.

When critical information is not shared, important tasks are dropped. Work is duplicated. Motivate is low. Bad calls are made. The wrong work is done. Effort is wasted. And yet, organizations are addicted to time wasting detail. Effective organizations focus on moving insight and action plans up and keeping detail down. Status meetings waste time. However, staff meetings and status tracking are critical. Instead of detail, talk about strategy, control points, and outcomes. Have teams create reports which briefly summarize insights on decision, changes, what's finished, results, and open questions (~5 key points). Everyone should pre-read and comment on these reports. Unresolved comments become the basis for staff meeting discussion. Other discussion topics include key outcomes, risks, business data, industry data, culture, improvements, what to learn, who to thank, talent development, team brand, and opportunities for bonding and laughter.

Making decisions is hard, so it's easy to fall into the trap of continuing to study and collect data. Ask yourself, "Why not pick now?" See if there is something concrete and impactful that you expect to learn from further decision making. Moving to execution can get you real feedback more quickly, and that is always going to be more valuable than more theory. Don't fall into the false dichotomy of consensus vs command. Instead, follow a process where the decision maker listens to everyone to get the most robust and complete input, makes a decision themselves, and moves forward.

Once decisions are made, delays will happen. All deadline slips must be addressed to create a culture where people can trust deadlines and depend on each other. This requires enforcing consequences. The goal is not to punish but to build a culture where deadlines are taken seriously. Have the hard conversation: "What happened? Do you realize the consequences? How do you plan to finish and address the consequences? How will you prevent this from happening again?" (And track the information necessary to know when deadlines are missed.)

Although top down communication is not the whole story, it's still important to do it right. You need to show that you are personally committed to the transformation. As the old marketing advice goes, communicate your message 21 times. Informal updates, such as a short weekly newsletter or blog post, can help people understand what you are thinking and what decisions have been made. Once the core communication is in place, "decorations" can help keep both the change and its impact visible. Ritual, such as coming together in a visible, joyful, celebration is one way to keep a change alive. Beyond ritual, internal social media forums which engage others in conversation can also be useful. Celebrating milestones, both large and small, also helps create a sense of meaning and momentum.

Filtered information is never sufficient. A leader needs to listen across a whole organization to understand what is going on — not just those adjacent to them. Dedicate time every week to listen to people doing the work, either 1:1 or by creating listening opportunities that everyone can observe and participate in. Be open to learning from anyone, no matter their role — and especially if they think differently from you. Talk to people early. Even in areas where you have knowledge, understand how people do things differently.

To build genuine loyalty and an effective organization, a leader needs to share power. You are a steward for the power of your role; it is not yours. Your personal power comes from how you treat others. It comes from engaging with and respecting others as individual humans with their own lives and their own sources of purpose and meaning. Help them thrive; promote them over yourself. Be curious. Be open. Be respectful. Ask others what they truly care about. Be open to surprising answers. Even if you cannot give them what they want, give the support you can. Be flexible. Recognize the good things, both large and small. Make people feel like superheros. Always be building trust.

In summary: share power, hire great people, give them big work, support them, step back, and let them be amazing. Build trust by being concrete and consistent about outcomes, control points, measures, and timelines. Be clear about resources, making the right organizational and people decisions, communicating clearly about performance, eliminating uncertainty, supporting the transformation with valor, communicating consistently, and fostering conversation.

Finally, always be building trust. Trust cannot be taken for granted, and if you're not working on building it up, then it's bleeding out of the system. For people to be engaged, motivated, and productive, they need to feel safe, they need to trust and be trusted. This is what will get you through the long Middle of a transformation.… (meer)