"I would prefer not to"

One of my favorite movies is the 1987 Rob Reiner film "The Princess Bride".  The movie is based upon a book by the same name by William Goldman (perhaps best known for writing the screenplays for the films "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President's Men" (he also wrote the novel The Marathon Man, which was made into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman).  What is unique about Goldman's novel is that the story is presented as an abridgement of an earlier work by a fictional author named S. Morgenstern (a literary technique known as a frame story).  

In his footnotes, Goldman states that he used to love when his father read the story to him as a little boy.  When he became an adult, he by chance found the book and re-read it, though he didn't enjoy the book as much.  The original novel was actually a political satire on the author Morgenstern's native city, Florin rather than an adventure story.  Goldman then claimed he re-wrote the novel, keeping just the "good parts" and removing all of the political satire.  Both the author Morgenstern and "the original version" of the novel are entirely made up by the author (and even some of the footnotes when Goldman describes his personal life are fictional).

Personally, I remember having a similar response to the literary classic, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.  If you just focus on the "good parts" and skip the extraneous parts discussing the biology of whales and/or literary symbolism and political commentary, it's actually a very entertaining book.  Unfortunately, my high school English teacher forced me to focus on the non-interesting parts for my literary analysis essay assignment!  

I actually have read several novels and short stories by Herman Melville, most of which are adventure stories (White Jacket, Redburn, Typee, and Omoo).  For the purposes of this leadership blog, I want to focus my discussion on his short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener".   In this story, a Wall Street lawyer (from the 1850's or so) hires a "scrivener" (defined as a clerk or a scribe, but in this context an individual who makes copies of legal documents) named "Bartleby."  Bartleby initially works hard and seems to show up before and stays later than everyone else working in the office.  One day, the lawyer asks Bartleby to help him proofread his copy, who responds simply "I would prefer not to."  Eventually, as the story progresses, Bartleby refuses to do even the job that he was hired to do, always responding with "I would prefer not to."

As you can imagine, the lawyer was very frustrated with Bartleby.  How many times have you, as a leader dealt with a similar situation?  Organizations can get derailed, and progress forward can be blocked by employees like Bartleby (see my post on "Organizational Enemas").  I won't spoil Melville's short story other than to say that managing the members on your team or in your organization who resist change the way that the lawyer managed Bartleby is not recommended! 

So how do you deal with the members on your team who are resistant to change?  There are countless books and articles on managing change.  Most MBA programs have entire courses devoted to managing change.  Unfortunately, change is never easy, and it's almost always necessary!  And despite all of the attention being paid to how to manage change well, most organizations still aren't successful at it - the common adage is that only about 1/3 of all change initiatives are successful.  

One of the best articles that I've found on managing change is a 2003 McKinsey Quarterly article by Emily Lawson and Colin Price entitled, "The Psychology of Change Management".  Lawson and Price suggest that there are four conditions that are critical to the success of any organizational change initiative:

1. A compelling story - employees must see the point of the change and agree with it

2. Reinforcing mechanisms - systems, processes, and incentives must be in line with the desired behaviors

3. Role modeling - employees must see their leaders changing too

4. Capability building - employees must have the skills required to make the change

As a preview, I want to dive a little more into these four conditions, as well as some additional insights provided by Carolyn Dewar and Scott Keller (again writing again in McKinsey Quarterly).  These four conditions and additional insights may not always assure the success of your change initiative, but they will certainly help you deal with the Bartleby's in your own professional life!