How Do You Know When It's Time To Go
Fellow organizational change management (OCM) consultants, have you ever had a “bad” assignment? Have you thought about rolling yourself off a project because the client did not understand your value proposition, you encountered resistance to your role, or the environment was simply too toxic for you to succeed? How do we find ourselves in this position and how DO you know when it really is time to GO?
The Uninformed Client
“Why are you here?” Your client is simply uninformed about organizational change management, your role, what it entails, and the value it can bring. This is typically the easiest barrier to overcome. With patience and education, you can create awareness and understanding of your role and given your skills and experience begin to demonstrate value.
Very early in my career, I started a new project and as the OCM lead and scheduled a meeting with the client project manager to introduce myself and understand and align with his expectations for my role. I went to his office, sat across from him at his desk, and he said, “Why the %$#@! are you here?” Luckily, I was experienced enough to have the wherewithal to take a deep breath, gather myself, and simply answer his question. It took time, but eventually he came to understand how the OCM work integrated with the project plan and enabled our overall, shared objective.
The Threatened Client
“Don’t talk to my team!” Your client understands your role but is threatened by you. This situation is much more difficult to overcome as power and insecurity are at play. These situations can be messy and complex to navigate and it can be time consuming and treacherous to identify the root cause of resistance to you and your work. Ultimately, you may not have access to the information, people, and tools that you need to be successful.
As an independent consultant, I was once the OCM lead on a project led by a consulting company that had never worked with OCM professionals before. My team tried to integrate with the project team by attending project team meetings and design sessions with stakeholders, but met with resistance from the primary consulting firm at every turn. Finally, the relationship came to a head during a trip to one of the client locations. The OCM team had to fight to get approval to travel along with the project team and once there, resistance to our participation continued. Finally, during a team dinner and a few drinks, the lead consultant of the primary consulting firm shared his concern: “We are afraid that you’re spying on us and reporting back to the client.” Over time, we were able to build trust, however, were always held at arm’s length and are ability to add value was limited.
The Toxic Client
“Welcome but good luck.” Your client understands your role and is excited to have you there, but just does not have their own act together. In some cases a company may be so poorly run that no matter what progress you are able to make in your role, you recognize that you will unable to make a meaningful impact within the larger context. Or in another case, your client contact may be so ineffectual as a leader or team member within their own organization, that you’re unable to be effectual in partnership with them.
I was a junior consultant with a very large consulting firm on a very large client program that was supported by multiple large consulting firms. Every week we were given tactical assignments with little to no context. Every week we did great work and delivered what was requested. Slowly, we began to realize that our work was never used nor implemented. The client program was so large and had so many parts working in an uncoordinated fashion, that it struggled to be effectual as a whole.
When To Go
So, you have educated, advocated, pushed and struggled! As consultants, we pride ourselves with being able to work well with anyone in almost any situation; after all, that’s one of our consultant superpowers! So how do you know when it’s time…to call it quits?
Top 10 Signs It’s Time To GO!
You retreat to the bathroom to cry more often than the typical once every 6-12 months
You’re irritable and short-tempered with family and friends and you don’t know why
Your eating and/or drinking habits have changed in a negative way due to work related stress
You bring your problem client “home with you” and the topic dominates the nightly dinner table conversation week after week
You’ve talked about your stressful client situation at home so much that even your young children check in with you to see how it is going
You find yourself repeatedly defending your role and your work by explaining “what you are doing” and “why are you doing that” to the same client leaders or project team members over and over again
You receive negative client feedback through the grapevine, but not directly from your client
Client employees or your project team members undermine your work or your efforts publicly, such as in a large meeting
You’re frequently angry or frustrated at your inability to “gain traction” at your client workplace
You feel that you’re doing great OCM work but you know in your heart you’re not moving the needle
OCM Is Too Valuable to Waste
Some argue that organizational change management consultants are a commodity, however, true full-lifecycle OCM professionals are a rarity. There are many people who are excellent at communications, or training, or even both, but seasoned OCM professionals who are experienced and well-versed in all aspects of OCM, and who have the requisite skills from strategy through execution are a very unique commodity: upfront organizational analyses, the identification of primary, secondary, and tertiary change impacts, strong writing skills with the ability to tailor the messaging to multiple audiences, the ability to speak in front of groups with confidence and credibility, the self-assurance and gravitas to coach executive leaders on sponsorship behaviors, the knowledge and skills to help the organization align its infrastructure to support and sustain the change…the list of required skills for a truly effective, comprehensive OCM professional goes on and on. In addition, many of these individual skills are rare!
OCM skills are needed more than ever in today’s world. For those of us who have this skill set, not only is it frustrating to be in a role where you are not permitted to use those skills to succeed, but also it also represents a market inefficiency. There are too many organizations who truly need organizational change management and our unique skill set to waste our time with organizations that do not understand nor value our skills. If you have patiently made an honest effort to educate and overcome resistance at a client and you are still met with resistance such that it affects your ability to be effective and to take joy and pride in your work…it’s time to work on an exit strategy and find a client where your skills will be valued, appreciated, and put to good use.
More often than not people stay in bad assignments for far too long; six months and more too long. For most of us it is very hard to…well, quit. But why? Why stay to continue to push a boulder up a mountain when you can leave and go to a client that values your skills and experience, allows you to practice your craft, and most importantly, to make a difference.
Contact ChangeStaffing for organizational change management opportunities with clients who understand and value our unique craft.
A special thanks to Lesa Lozano, organizational change management coach and consultant, for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.