For a project, I’m reading, “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail,” a 1995 Harvard Business
School white paper. It lays out eight distinct stages of a successful
change process. For each stage in the process there is a corresponding
pitfall. Applying the HBS pitfall list to newspapers and the Internet,
here’s what I get:
Establishing a sense of urgency. After 10 years of slogging
through the marshlands, it looks like we’re finally there. The newspaper
industry is in a state of near panic. That panic may be an overreaction,
but let’s use it.
Not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition. In my
judgment, this continues to be a serious problem in a lot of companies:
The online operation is a distant junior partner that’s still not taken
seriously enough by the so-called core. That has to change, and where it
exists, that change has to be led by CEOs with vision and onliners with
backbone.
Lacking a vision. Where do we stand on this? I continue to
encounter 20th-century visions and huge interdepartmental disconnects.
This is a serious weakness.
Undercommunicating the vision by a factor of 10. Oh, yeah. We
haven’t even succeeded in communicating the fact that we’re making money
online to the majority of people employed in the industry.
Not removing obstacles to the new vision. Read Jeff Jarvis‘ post about “clueless,
destructive, and snobbish territoriality between print and online.”
It’s time to change your people, or change your people.
Not systematically planning for and creating short-term wins.
This is a business basic. A grand vision goes nowhere unless it’s broken
up into discrete steps that can be tightly managed as small projects,
each leading to a victory that can be celebrated and overcommunicated.
Declaring victory too soon. It might seem that we’re not in
danger of doing that, given the recent round of woe-is-meism. But I
think we are far too smug as an industry about the depth and breadth of
our online successes. Close examination shows that the reach and
frequency of newspaper online products is insignificant when compared
with the opportunity.
Not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture. We’re a
long way from victory, folks.
