If you have a candidate for something that’s harder to achieve than large-scale organizational change—transformative change, not reforms or trim-tab adjustments—let me know. And yet, if your firm is to remain relevant in changing marketplaces, sooner or later you’ll find yourself confronting the need for just such radical change.
As McKinsey drily puts it, "leaders seldom meet greater demands on their skills than they do when they embark on a major change effort." Indeed, when surveyed last year about the most recent radical change effort they were involved in, 10% admitted it had been "mostly" or "completely" unsuccessful, and just over one third deemed it "mostly" or "completely" successful. I feel confident predicting you would find that low rate of success unacceptable with practically any other serious organizational initiative.
So let’s talk about how to drive radical change. Many things can go wrong, of course:
- A confusing proliferation of issues under the umbrella of the mandate for change, where focus on the essential impetus is lost.
- An indisputably needed and worthy aspirational goal, supported by clear communication as to its urgency, but undermined by lack of follow-through and sustained support.
- A starry-eyed focus on the desideratum with insufficient regard for the organization’s actual capacity to get there.
First, here’s McKinsey’s conceptual map of what’s involved. Then, we’ll unpack its component parts:
I’m congenitally allergic to formulaic approaches such as this, but I present this because I think there’s genuine value here. This one is best read from the inside out.
Start, therefore, with aspiration. What must we achieve? What is the goal? Why is it worthy? Why does it beat the status quo? Why, indeed, is the status quo unacceptable in the long run? Most important of all, perhaps, why now? What that we treasure and value will be threatened or undermined if we do nothing?
Next comes—this is the good news and the bad news—leadership. Leadership, as usual, has two faces, two components, two phases. The first is simply to identify the aspirational goal, the justification for the transformative effort. Sometimes this takes no "leadership" at all; it’s simply obvious. How much "leadership" does it take for the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates to determine that dealing with the Iraq war is a focus of their policy? (Real leadership would be bringing up an issue that’s not top of mind for most voters, but which could actually have a tremendous impact in the long run, such as the entitlements burden, the dysfunctional tax code, or the plethora of well-intentioned regulations that cumulatively undermine our international competitiveness.)
Assuming you’ve identified the menacing problem, and the desired future state that would enable your firm to triumph over that problem, the second phase of leadership becomes a relentless, impassioned, clear-eyed, and unrelenting campaign of communication. At every opportunity—and sometimes with no obvious opportunity—you need to preach (I use the word "preach" because there’s an imperative to this campaign) the need for transformational change, the unsustainability of the status quo, the virtues of the future state, and your stout confidence in the firm’s ability to navigate from here to there.
Behind the "communication" campaign is a far more demanding intellectual and institutional task: Mapping the plan of battle to accomplish the transformation. For one thing, it may have to be done in steps. For another, you yourself may find the question, "Where to start?" daunting. If your firm is in something of a crisis, these questions are both more pressing and more difficult of satisfactory answers. But this "battle plan" is essential in order to:
- make the change seem attainable, through a series of small steps each of which is indisputably achievable
- reduce anxiety; "where will I fit in?" should be answered by the plan
- and not least, give people a vision of the value of the transformation, and the rewards for sacrificing the comfort of the status quo.
A useful trick McKinsey suggests as part of the battle plan is to envision what the firm will look like at the halfway mark.
Psychologically, this has the truth of embodying a goal we may feel is more attainable than the ultimate goal, while also describing a firm that is not unrecognizably dissimilar to the firm we know today. Further, it has the virtues of acting as what negotiators like to call an "anchor:" A set place in the bidding that serves to focus attention away from extraneous and outlying possibilities.
Let’s make this concrete with an example. Suppose your firm is 75% litigation and you want to bring the practices more in balance towards 50/50 litigation and corporate/transactional. The "halfway point" might not be 62.5% litigation and 37.5% corporation (an arbitrary splitting-the-difference type of halfway point), but it might be something more concrete and readily achievably, such as getting 50% of your summer associates to opt for the corporate department, or ensuring that 50% of your lateral partners are corporate hires.
But metrics and measures will take you only so far. To "win hearts and minds," you need to tell a story. The story needs to be one you write yourself—and in plain English forming complete sentences: No bullet points.
Use metaphors and analogies, and loudly celebrate examples of the new type of behavior you want to encourage. The story also must:
- be true to your firm’s heritage;
- explain the need for change—especially critical if business as usual seems like an option (and indeed may be an option, at least in the short run);
- describe individuals’ contribution to that change, and why it’s in their best self-interest;
- and, most important, outline an inspiring and energizing vision of the future, making people want to be there and participate.
Even with all these stars aligned, your task of course has just begun. Driving to the successful end state you envision is going to take a sustained campaign supported by a high level of energy. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just glance at this striking graphic:
This tabulates the percentages of respondents who had experienced a performance transformation in the past 5 years who were completely or mostly successful (yellow bars) or completely or mostly unsuccessful (blue bars), when asked the critical question: How good was your organization at sustaining energy during the transformation?
McKinsey points out that 57% of those who experienced successful transformations maintained high energy while on 15% of those who failed at transformation did the same.
To my eye, the most vivid contrast emerges if you aggregate all the positive responses ("successful" at some level) and all the negative responses ("unsuccessful" at some level). Here, the booster rockets to success of the transformation process that sustained energy-behind-the-effort provides is unmistakable:
- 86% of successful transformations were supported by high sustained energy, whereas
- 64% of failed transformations were accompanied by low energy levels.
What does this abstractly laudable notion of "energy" mean?
Presenting visible results. You can’t turn around the whole firm at once, so maybe you should start with a laboratory of a practice group or a client team. If their transformation becomes visible and emblematic, it will have inspirational power.
Another option is to recruit evangelists to the cause: Practice group leaders, main-line partners, or conspicuous associates and staff who have bought into the vision and whom others will perceive as ambassadors of the firm. Enlist them as your apostles for the change and get them preaching on the road.
Finally, have and display great faith in the people of your firm. My own experience is that people rise (or fall) to the level of expectations you have for them. Add to this that people—especially people in high-performing organizations such as sophisticated law firms—are ambitious, curious, and want to learn and be capable of doing more. The transformation effort is one way to enable them to do just that: Learn and become more capable.
So if you’re facing the challenge of radical change, you may be tempted to temporize, stand back, procrastinate, aim low, or doubt your firm’s ability to pull it off.
Doubt not. Challenge your colleagues. Tell them why; tell them where. Aim high.
