How To Spread Critical Behaviors Across Organisations

A few years ago we were studying a dozen front-line supervisors at a large telecommunications company in North America. These supervisors had been selected because of their widely recognized ability to motivate the people they worked with — emotionally as well as rationally. Their people simply did not ever want to disappoint them. The managers counter-intuitively simplified the guidance they received from HR into a singular focus on making people take pride in their day-to-day work. As we came to understand what they did that most "good managers" did not do, we realized that this was a learnable skill. What they did could be captured in a few simple behaviors.

When we shared these behaviors with the CEO, he became impatient. "This seems pretty straightforward — so why don't more supervisors do this stuff?" he asked. At first we suggested the obvious: faulty recruiting, selection, training, incentive and performance management programs. His response stopped us in our tracks:

"We just finished revamping all that, and it isn't working. I really don't have time to try a another bunch of formal programs. What these motivating supervisors do is straightforward and clear; I want at least a thousand more across the company doing this by the end of the year".

Since we didn't exactly know how to make that happen other than "programmatically", we reconvened the original dozen motivators, and asked for their help. At first they were surprised, because they thought that most supervisors would already be "doing this". In addition, since their motivational instincts had long ago become integral to their way of life, they were even more surprised that the CEO (or any senior leader for that matter) was suddenly interested. They certainly never had been before!

Quickly, however, their surprise turned into avid interest — in fact they morphed into emerging zealots. If most other supervisors were not doing what these few knew worked, it was high time to do something about it. But their strong recommendation was counter-intuitive. They argued for a kind of "viral" cross-organizational exposure and interaction. No more programmatic confusion. Instead, simply get groups of supervisors together with respected counter-parts to share experiential "tricks of the trade" in ways that would promote self-discovery. Simply put, set up small "cells of energy and insight" — that is, credible people telling credible stories of how to get people emotionally committed to the few behaviors that matter most. They revolved around getting to know people at a personal level, providing frequent recognition, creating stretch opportunities, making decisions based on facts, and translating the organization's goals into their day-to-day work.

Much to everyone's surprise, this viral spreading approach actually instilled new motivational capabilities across more than1500 supervisors in less than 18 months. A re-designed programmatic effort would have taken more than twice as long — and been much less effective. Of course not all or even most of the 1500 were as good at motivating as the original dozen — but they had learned a handful of things that were already making a significant difference in the emotional commitment of their people. And the front-line behaviors that mattered most were changing and producing the performance results expected.

Lessons to Consider

We have seen this story replicated in many places over the past five years. It never happens quite the same way, but it always relies as much on "viral" spreading as it does on programmatic change. There are a handful of reasons why this is true:

• Formal programmatic efforts to change behaviors work mostly on the rational side of human behavior
• Informal experiential efforts can capture the emotional side as well
• Programmatic change usually takes more time, costs more and encounters more resistance than "viral" change
• One without the other, however, is likely to fall short over time
• A "viral" effort usually begins with a few "master motivators" who are already well known and well respected by those who work with them.
• The insights and approaches of the master motivators are best learned in experiential settings where stories can be shared, and the views of credible colleagues can be openly explored.
• The momentum that starts experientially usually needs to be sustained with both informal and formal mechanisms.

The most important lesson, however, is simply the importance of cross-organization energy - much of which is dependant on the informal organization. We believe it is integral in most peak performing enterprises. We also believe it warrants a purposeful integration of both formal and informal elements of organization.

Have you experienced a "viral spreading" effort that you can share?

Jon R. Katzenbach is a senior partner at Booz & Company. and founder of the Katzenbach Center at Booz & Company. Zia Khan is vice president of strategy and evaluation at the Rockefeller Foundation and a senior fellow at the Katzenbach Center. The two have collaborated on a new book, Leading Outside the Lines. This is an entry in a series of blog posts related to the book about the ways that managers can lead outside a company's formal boundaries.