FIND YOURSELF SOME SPONSORS
We often tell leaders in the midst of changing things in their organization that they “don’t have to do it alone.” After assembling and framing the details of what’s happening and why, we work with the leadership team to pick out a small group of people in the organization to help them polish, amplify, and reinforce the story for the rest of the team.
First, we hold a formal enrollment session with this “next level down” group. The session is designed to accomplish three goals:
Formally enroll the group into the “inner circle” of the upcoming change. We spend about half of this initial session telling the group about the process we used to select them and bring them in. As Dr. Edmondson says, “A critical feature of enrollment is communicating to others that they are being specifically selected for a project or role.”[7] This important step also draws on the influence tactic of consistency: If we’re inviting you in to this special group, the expectation is that you’ll participate in the change – not simply be a victim of it.
Engage with the story and surface risks. Crowd-sourcing a strategy or message is one of the most common and most harmful mistakes a leadership team can make. Aiming to make sure that everyone is heard, a leadership team can suffer death by a thousand cuts as the strategic “oomph” of what they’ve put together is ground down and rendered toothless by the well-meaning masses inside the company. While we don’t recommend meaningfully amending or editing the story during this sponsorship session, we do suggest leveraging them for another purpose - surfacing risks. By discussing the potential stumbling blocks in the story or plan - both for the company and individual teams and employees - the leadership team can not only head off questions, but mitigate real dangers that might not be easily seen from the board room.
Clarify roles and goals. Be clear on what you’re asking for. Do you expect the team to help reinforce the messaging with their direct reports? Surface problems as they come up? Commit to taking other specific actions? Tell them what you want, have a plan to follow up, and schedule time over the 4-8 weeks following the enrollment session for office-hours sessions where people can drop in, share what they’re noticing, and (most important) be reminded of what’s expected of them as part of the change efforts.
Selecting who to invite to these sponsorship sessions can be difficult. At ParkerGale, we’re lucky to have a group primed for just this purpose. Our L6 program, an intensive 6-month management training and coaching program delivered by Wind + Sail Leadership Partners, not only creates more skillful, mindful, and aware managers – it also creates a cohort of tight-knight potential sponsors who are primed and excited to shape the future direction of the company.
But what if you don’t have a group like this?
What if you’re starting from scratch?
Our advice is to look around at the “teams within your teams.” Leadership development programs, cultural committees, or a selection of high potential employees (identified from your last round of performance reviews) can all be great choices for hand-selecting a group of trusted sponsors.