CBODN: About - Interview

CBODN Member Spotlight: Rick Maurer

Member since 1989

Rick Maurer is a leading OD consultant, author and speaker who specializes in helping leaders turn a resisting organization into one that embraces change. His web site is www.beyondresistance.com .

Q. On your website, you describe the phases of change management. Would you elaborate?

RM: I think most of the work of change falls into four major buckets: making a compelling case for change, getting started on the right foot, keeping the change alive, and getting back on track. When a potential client calls, I find that they usually are asking for help in one of those four areas. Since each of those areas has its own challenges and opportunities, it helps me focus on the types of strategies that I think might work best. Of course, it's important to first make sure that the client's assessment of where things are is accurate.

Q: In which phase do your clients most often get stuck?

Failing to make a compelling case is by far the biggest problem. Leaders move to "how" - how are we going to do this - way before stakeholders see "why" this change is important. The problem is that the leaders often don't see that their failure to make a case for change is the reason they are getting resistance. So they either blame the so-called resistors or they redouble their efforts at the Getting Start phase. So they put up posters, hold motivational meetings, and give coma-inducing PowerPoint presentations. These presentations often cover "why" is about three slides and then the next 147 mind-numbing slides deal with how we are going to forge ahead. It doesn't work. They've got to go back to "why" and make a case that something different is needed.

I conducted a research study two years ago and found that in most successful organizational changes, the people leading those initiatives did a good to great job of making a case. For those who didn't make the case, they spent more time trying to Get Back on Track. The results of the study are available on our website.

Q. You've said that if leaders understand resistance, they can often avoid it before it occurs. What would you say is the most important thing to understand about resistance?

A. I believe there are three levels of resistance. Simply put: I don't get it. I don't like it. I don't like you. Any of those can kill a change. I use these levels as lenses to look at what's going on. What are the Level 1 information issues that are either helping or hindering work? What are the Level 2 emotional issues - like fear? To what degree do people have trust and confidence in those leading the change (Level 3)? So you see, each level can either work for you as support or against you as resistance. I like to think of each level as a sliding scale.

Q. When a leader contacts you for the first time, are they usually pretty clear about what needs to be done in their organization? How much do you lead, and how much do you follow?

RM: They are usually quite clear about where it hurts or what they aspire to. Often, they are not as clear about why things are the way they are. So part of my job is to use the spirit of Lewin's force field analysis: what are the true forces that are moving in the direction where they want to go? What are the forces hindering that movement?

And I lead to the extent that I use my models to frame conversations. So I teach the Cycle of Change (which I adapted from the cycle of experience used at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland), and my model of resistance. I inflict my thinking on them because I want to make sure that we are interested in similar things. If they show no interest in what hinders or supports change; or have no time to examine resistance in themselves and their organizations, then we are probably not a good fit for each other. As my friend, Edwin Nevis says, our job is to educate, not to save our clients. So I find that it is better to know upfront if we are philosophically aligned. It will save us all a lot of headaches. Yes, I risk getting less work, but the work I get these days is better.

Q. What is the best piece of advice you can offer external OD consultants who want to build a practice around helping organizations through change?

RM: Be pleased with tactical successes. I believe the notion of sustained transformational change in organizations is largely a myth. By the way, that's what I'll be covering in my presentation for the chapter in January. Also, the more we understand resistance - our own and our client's - the more we can connect with the client and offer something useful. If we don't understand resistance, then we may contribute to the problem by trying to push some part of the system to come into alignment with others. Or blame some individual or group for having the audacity to resist our client or us.

Q. What are some of the challenges that internal OD consultants face when supporting change initiatives? What advice can you offer them?

RM: Internal consultants have one huge advantage. They often know the organization's culture and its unique ways of working better than any outsider ever could. And they've got a real opportunity to build strong alliances with their clients over time. They can anticipate problems and opportunities. They can be a real asset to the organization. That's the good side. The bad side: that they may be too close to the organization to see themes that emerge. Or they may be too caught up in the political part of the organization, fearing to take a risky stand or say something that might harm their own careers.

Q. What are clients (internal or external) looking for in an OD consultant?

RM: Many of my clients don't really know what OD is. And to the extent they do have a picture of what we do, it's not all that flattering. They sometimes see us as the ones who are way too interested in process and Up with People events. So I'm not sure that many are out there looking for OD skills in particular. However, clients are looking for consultants who can help them solve tough business problems.

I am working with a general manager of a large organization right now. He has little interest in the very types of things that we are trained to do, but he is keenly interested in finding ways to make sure his organization is successful. As long as I suggest methods that support his goals, then he is more than willing to seriously consider my ideas.

A common problem for those of us in the field is that we tend to love theory and new cool methodologies. At least, that's true of me. Sometimes our excitement over the latest or "best" intervention gets in the way of giving the client what they want or even need. We should be more interested in finding ways to understand what keeps our clients awake at night and then suggesting things that help them sleep a little better. And I think our suggestions should be free of our professional jargon.

Q: Your website includes a lot of free tools. Please tell us about what's on your site.

RM: We pulled together a lot of articles and assessment tools I developed in the four area of change and posted those. For example, I asked readers of Tools for a Change (our online newsletter) how they kept change alive in their organizations. I turned that into an article with lots of great advice from them. The article, "The Middle Manager's Dilemma" is one where I asked readers to talk about leading change successfully from the middle of the organization.

And something that is brand new is our Change without MigrainesT Forum. This is a place where anyone can go to ask questions, provide suggestions, or just read comments from others on change. This is quite new, but my hope is that it will become a rich resource for a lot of people - including me. And the forum is free as well.

Q. Where do you find your clients? How do you build relationships with them?

RM: There was huge shift a couple of years ago from word-of-mouth to my writing. Almost all of my major clients this year came as a result of something I wrote. Sometimes it was a book, but in one case, a large company hired me based on a four-page article that appeared in OD Practitioner. A friend gave it to the director of learning in the company. She liked it at and referred me to others. And so, for the past five years I have done a significant amount of consulting and speaking for that company.

Q. What books have you read lately that's helped you in your practice?

RM: I've gone back to some books on mindfulness meditation. One is written by Madeline Bruser, a concert pianist, titled The Art of Practicing and the other is Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace is Every Step . (I am a musician, so Bruser's book has a special appeal since it relates directly to mindfulness when I am trying to play jazz.) Last month I used Bruser's book as a resource when I was teaching mindfulness in the Organization and System Development Program at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and non-musicians could easily relate to her work.

Because I am so immersed in Gestalt psychology, I have re-read The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy by Lynne Jacobs and Richard Hycner countless times. It is a tremendously rich resource for me. Lynne, Rich and Gary Yontef are doing exciting work in using Martin Buber's I-Thou philosophy as the foundation for their approach to therapy. I believe their approach is just as valid in organizations. But, there is a downside to the I-Thou in organizations and I am going to cover that at the January meeting. How about that for shameless promotion of the CBODN event?

Q. What's one activity or icebreaker you use a lot with clients?

I am terrible with icebreakers. I think they can be a good idea, but I never sound believable when I am asking people to do one. I'm sure a therapist could help me get to the bottom of this aversion, but in the meantime, I just skip them. However, I do often start a meeting by saying, "Hello." Pause. And then following up with, "That was my ice breaker. You can use it if you want to." I'm not sure, but I may have stolen that from Peter Block.

When I do work with someone else who is more adept at icebreakers, we work together to make sure the activity links directly to the topic of the meeting or training session. I think Ken Blanchard's "change five things about your appearance" activity is quite good since it goes to the heart of people's reactions to change - feeling alone, reverting back when the pressure is off and so forth. And it leads right in to a discussion of change.

Q. How do you still get in your own way?

RM: When I forget the very stuff I teach and say that I support. You know, things like being open to others, a commitment to dialogue, stuff like that. That occurs when I get too excited about something - a vision, a direction -- and that allows me to disconnect from others. This happens with colleagues, clients, and at home. I'm a mess. Actually, it's that disconnect that can be a major cause of resistance, and learning about that in others and myself is a bottomless pit of possible learning. And in my better moments when I am actually willing to examine the reason I moved so quickly, I can learn a lot about the nature of our relationship in that moment.

Q. You've mentioned briefly the January CBODN workshop called "People Want Decency, but Organizations Breed Deceit: What Do We Do?" What's the basic idea behind the workshop?

RM: The workshop explores two polarities that are alive in organizations. On one end is cunning and deceit and on the other openness and transparency. Many of us try to support the openness end of that continuum and risk ignoring the strong need people have to protect themselves through cunning and deceit in the workplace. My argument is that organizations are a fertile breeding ground for Machiavellian behaviors. In other words, cunning and deceit are not anomalies, but a part of the environment of most organizations. We can't change that since it stems from very basic survival instincts. Sometimes our OD strategies ignore this reality and put our clients (and ourselves) at risk. My thinking on this topic is a work in progress, so I hope people will come and join in a lively discussion.

Rick Maurer

Join CBODN for Rick Maurer's Workship, "People Want Decency, but Organizatins Breed Deceit. What Do We Do?" on January 24, 2006.

About Rick Maurer...

Rick Maurer works with leaders who want to lead change without migrainesT. Through Maurer & Associates, he provides expertise to help clients identify even deeply hidden resistance, overcome it rapidly, and thereby implement even the most difficult strategic and tactical changes.

Rick works closely with clients to develop and adapt change management strategies that will work in their unique culture. His clients have included Deloitte & Touche, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AOL, IBM, Syngenta, Charles Schwab, Verizon, National Education Association, NASA, Tulane University Hospital , Kaiser Permanente and many government agencies.

Due to the popularity of his books, Why Don't You Want What I Want?, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Building Capacity for Change Sourcebook, and Feedback Toolkit, Rick's opinion has been sought by CNBC, NBC Nightly News, The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, Fortune, USA Today, The Economist, Industry Week, Nation's Business and many trade publications and wire services.

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CBODN Member Spotlight is a new monthly feature, offering members an opportunity to learn from, and about, each other. If you are interested in being profiled in an upcoming Member Spotlight, please send an email to Nancy Bauer, Membership Co-Chair, at Nancy@NBCconsulting.com.