if they don’t want to, why keep them?
by august j. aquila
what makes a great partnership
do you ever wonder why your best plan is never implemented? why some of your partners sabotage what you are trying to do in the firm?
more: the seven building blocks of a great partnership
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over the years i have seen firms develop great strategic, operational and compensation plans and then nothing ever happens. the plans are not implemented for a myriad of reasons. one managing partner told me he had too many other issues to address, another was waiting for the management team to give its final blessing and still another just blamed everyone else in the firm rather than looking at himself in a mirror. and, another managing partner even told me the firm could not afford to make the changes!
if you are planning to tackle an issue in the firm and make a change, the first thing you need to do is clarify what the real problem is. next, describe your overall approach by creating a roadmap. then you need to gather facts and work together with other partners in the firm. finally, develop your recommendations and identify the next steps.
“firms are better at planning than executing.” – august aquila
there is also one more thing you must do. ask yourself this: “what will make my partners change?” by change, i mean behaving differently. because we know as a fact that if partners do not change their behaviors, nothing in the firm changes.
your first step is to understand the driving and restraining forces in your firm. while you may or may not be able to see them, you can surely feel them. kurt lewin, who is universally recognized as the founder of modern social psychology, developed force field analysis. force field analysis is a management tool for analyzing the opposing forces involved in change or in team-building efforts. it can be used at any level – individual, team or firm – to identify the forces that may work against change initiatives.
lewin viewed organizations as systems in which the present situation was not a static pattern but a dynamic balance of forces working in opposite directions (see exhibit 1 below). in any situation there are both driving forces that push for change and restraining forces that act against change. for any change to be successful, the driving forces must exceed the restraining forces.
the best way to start using this technique is to visualize the issue on a white board. first, state the current situation.
second, determine the ideal situation or where you would like to be. this will tell you the distance you will have to move.
to get people to move, it’s necessary to get them to view the ideal situation as better than the current one. one way to do this is to describe what will happen to the current situation if nothing changes.
now, start listing all the driving forces – the forces that will carry you to the ideal situation. sample driving forces may be team competition, bonuses, new initiatives, etc. these are on the left side of the white board.
on the right side of your white board, list all the restraining forces – those that will stop you from achieving your goal. some examples are apathy, open or hidden hostility, fear, outdated technology, etc.
not all forces are equal or valid. determine which ones are the most important and then allocate a score to each force using a scale from 1 to 10 – 1 being extremely weak and 10 being extremely strong.
once you have both the restraining and driving forces rated, you can determine whether the change you are trying to accomplish is feasible and if movement toward your goal can be achieved. when looking at these forces, you have two options – increase the strength of the driving force or decrease the strength of the restraining force. beware of the danger that if you increase a driving force too much, you will also increase the corresponding restraining force.
to understand the unique forces in your firm, consider the following types of questions:
- why is it that certain niche or practice groups are so ineffective in getting things done in the firm while others are extremely effective and efficient?
- how do individuals within the groups communicate?
- how is the group affected by the way it is perceived in the firm?
- what are the dynamics of intergroup relations?
- how are leaders trained so they can actually improve the functioning of the group?
as a firm leader, you must understand the nature of both driving and restraining forces and the impact that exerting too much or too many driving forces may have on your desire for change.
case study
thomas was assigned to take over a niche area in the firm. the area had had high productivity in the past. upon gaining some history from the current team members, thomas found out that while productivity was high his predecessor drained the niche of its human resources. the former partner-in-charge of the team had upset the equilibrium by increasing the driving forces, by being autocratic and keeping continual pressure on all team members to bill excessive hours. thus, he was able to achieve increases in productivity, at least in the short run.
by doing this, however, new restraining forces developed. team members’ hostility toward the partner and the firm increased. eventually, the members of the team began to suffer from low morale and high turnover. when the former partner retired, the restraining forces were beginning to increase and the results manifested themselves in high turnover, absenteeism and lower productivity.
the situation was not tenable and thomas realized that he had to do something, but what? he was faced with low morale and a significantly lower productivity. these were the two major restraining forces. if thomas followed in the footsteps of his predecessor and increased the driving forces, he would merely make matters even worse. thomas decided not to increase the driving forces but to reduce the restraining forces. he did this by acting less autocratic. he even lowered the production goals. and finally, he looked at the current processes and discovered there were better ways to get the work done.
in the short run, the team’s production suffered. but its morale improved and turnover lessened. thomas was committed to developing the technical knowhow of the team and setting more realistic production gals. these two items became the new driving forces. in the end, thomas was able to lessen the existing restraining forces of high turnover, hostility and low morale. within a few months he noticed a trend toward a higher level of output and profitability.
exhibit 1: force field analysis – current situation
| driving forces | current situation | restraining forces |
| production | low productivity | hostility toward firm |
| autocratic leadership | too autocratic | low morale |
| eat what you kill | silos | absenteeism |
| lack of trust |
exhibit 2: force field analysis – desired situation
| driving forces | current situation | desired state | restraining forces |
| less emphasis on only production | low productivity | team members feel respected and valued | hostility toward firm |
| authentic leadership | too autocratic | good morale | low morale |
| team approach | silos | absenteeism | |
| lack of trust |
firms and practice group leaders are frequently in positions in which they must consider not only achieving short-term and long-term goals but also intervening variables. it can be seen that force field analysis provides framework that is useful in diagnosing these interrelationships.
however, if we look back over our lives we realize that we are not the same person today that we once were. new experiences change us, we learn new skills, we grow in wisdom and patience, and sometimes we change because of a life-changing event in our lives – a death of a loved one, a serious accident or a change in our health. we can draw two conclusions from this.
one is that change comes slowly and two, we tend to change when a catastrophic event happens in our lives. one would think that there must be other ways to implement change.
david maister in strategy and the fat smoker notes that there are two elements needed in order for us to change. the first is a willingness to do it. the second is determination. but alas, we know the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
there are a multitude of platitudes about change. but unless we change we don’t grow and the skills that got us to where we are won’t get us to the next level. none of us can achieve more unless we become more. if i fail to change, i will not produce different or better results, but only the same thing. this is extremely dangerous because the world around us – our clients, our employees, the marketplace – continues to change.
take a quick acid test:
- what do you know today that you did not know five years ago? ten years ago?
- what things are you doing today that you didn’t do five years ago? ten years ago?
- how have your behaviors changed over the last five years? ten years?
if your list is short to the above questions, you haven’t changed much. if your list is long, congratulations! the longer the list is the better.
is there a change process?
there are a lot of books and groups that will help you change. and they all will work if you follow the process, and are willing and determined. the key, as david maister pointed out, is willingness and determination. but process is just as important. having a change program within the firm can help partners become more willing and more determined.
there is more than one process to use. so what should you do? find one that you like and your partners will like. i have found that weight watchers has an excellent process that professionals can use to implement a change process in their firms. it contains all the necessary steps. let me show you what you can learn from their process.
- education. if you join weight watchers they educate you on good eating habits, how many points a specific meal contains and they make you aware of what you did not know before entering the program. we must do the same thing with our people. continual learning is critical in today’s world. firms are beginning to have book clubs for their employees in addition to the regular cpe classes. coaching and mentoring is about helping people in the firm grow, not just having lunch once a quarter.
- personal development plan. every participant must have a personal development plan and make a personal commitment to its outcome. we cannot force someone to follow the change plan; they must want to do it. we can encourage them and even provide them rewards, but they must have the discipline to follow the plan. we must quit babysitting people who do not want what the firm wants.
- accountability. there is accountability in the weight watchers program. every week people in the program weigh in. they know they will be evaluated on their progress. we need to create the same type of personal accountability programs in our firms.
- a brighter tomorrow. whether it is weight watchers, alcoholics anonymous or any other change program, individuals have to want to embrace it because they feel their lives will be better if they change. firms are made up of strong-willed individuals and those individuals must want to achieve the firm’s vision and plan. too often partners and even employees become too comfortable with the current situation and themselves. they have no desire to change. hence little, if any, determination or willingness.
- it’s a new way to operate. change does not happen overnight. the process is not something that one does for a month or year. it needs to become part of the daily routine and it’s important to work on it every day, not just at the end of the year. in short, it’s about changing your daily behaviors.
learnings
i once worked with a firm that had a very strong culture of what they expected from their partners. in fact, if an individual was not willing to be part of the culture, he or she usually did not last long at the firm. what i learned from that firm was you can’t make someone do something unless they want to and feel that they will be successful.
many managing partners fail to recognize this simple fact! i see them trying to work with partners who really don’t want to be engaged in the firm. i also learned that it’s easier to work with partners who really want to be part of your vision.
discussion questions
- what do i need to learn so i can be better at my job?
- what do i need to do differently?
- what current behaviors are keeping me from achieving my goals?
- what did i learn today that i can use tomorrow?
- what are my personal restraining forces?
- what are my personal driving forces?