Transformation Success Mantra from a Tourist Guide

My family and I were waiting for the tourist guide, though I was already happily lost in the grand structure, beauty, and historic importance of the Colosseum. Soon we were with a big group following our guide… and even sooner I was more impressed with the guide than the monument. The way he was managing our super diverse group was not less than a magic… smartly selecting questions (and ignoring some), laughter in between, keeping all of us equally engaged, ensuring we all are on the topic, so on and so forth 

During the break, I asked him.. what’s your mantra… how do you handle this extraordinarily diverse group with such ease. A smile accompanied his answer… in first it sounds very simple, then I realized there is a great piece of learning, rather a success mantra for the transformational leaders, facilitators, and change agents. 

In this post I am using agile transformation to illustrate the learning & success mantra; however, it applies to any type of transformation.

Agile transformation always starts with all good intentions and purpose, and it ought to bring many changes. Despite the good intentions, those changes are very painful for few. Either there is a loss of political power for some (like 50 people were reporting me, now there are none or only a very few) or a feeling of demotion (most of the time it’s not a real demotion, it’s re-org or flattening of organization structure, that perceived like demotion). All in all, its always painful for few.  

Most of them overcome the initial disappointment and find a new challenge, purpose & meaning and progress in a positive way; though for few (typically 8% people) the disappointment persists and unknowingly they start turning negative towards every new change, and finding mistakes in transformation strategy, new process, roles, artifact, etc. becomes their life mission. And it’s all unintentional, most of the time they are not even aware of it. And they are also very vocal about negative sentiments in a group set up – when a new ceremony is happening, or new idea is being presented.  

This noise often creates doubt on transformation progress among the leaders and the change agents; they start to think that ‘maybe the new process is not apt for specific context’ or ‘its-just-a-theory-and-far-from-practically’. And because on that noise, transformation agent starts to revisit their plan and try to fix it. However, in the absence of a real problem there is no real solution, changes in process cannot fix the problem of perception; so, the situation worsen further. Soon leaders start to doubt the capabilities of transformation team & strategy. And eventually, it derails the whole transformation. 

The solution to this problem is simple – Ignore the 8% (well it’s not that simple)… thankfully there is a learning from travel guides. 

In tourist spots, you often see a travel guide with a flag in his hand guiding a large group about the place, its significance, history, and all. in the group, there are always around 8% people who unknowingly attempt to spoil the tour, either by asking unwanted and too many questions or trying to show their knowledge about the place and start to act like a proxy guide or simply arguing over facts & figures. A good travel guide identifies that 8 % and ignores the distractions (while continues to guide them) and focuses on the remaining 92 %. If the guide will ignore everyone, then it will be a super boring tour, and if he involves everyone then it will be a flop one for sure.  

The mantra is in awareness that there are these 8% of people everywhere who unknowingly make noise. So, we need to ignore them while keep on engaging with the remaining 92% as much as possible. 

It’s very important to understand two things about the ignoring part 

1. You never ignore people, you are ignoring the noise and the distraction
2. You ignore only in group setup and never in-person 

Remember, that person is not an obstacle to change, we are human, and we express our emotions. It’s very important, not to ignore that person, rather provide them more coaching and support. So that slowly they start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and start to align on the transformation intention. But such coaching and support should never be in the in the group setup.