Executive War Games (Lash 7)

BONUS - A FIRST CHAPTER OF MY eBOOK TO BE PUBLISHED IN JANUARY.
Title of the book "THE 39 LASHES OF A FRENCH TURNAROUND EXECUTIVE"


LASH number 7 - War Games
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One of the key issues of controlling a company is to control and master the different power fields in a company. It is complex to do it continuously but it is key to master it at key turnaround moments like the moments when you announce a big change or when you introduce a new IT system.

Powerplayers are not the people that are visible or can be heard in every meeting – they are people that control…..

Reading sociodynamic studies or THE ART OF WAR of Sun Tzu can give you some insights but you have to master each detail of it.
You have to detect the people that will help you with the different actions in your mission and those that will not act. There are the ones that will help you but are negative towards you and those that will not help you but are positive towards you. A very complex situation that does not makes things easier.
The most important group you need to control is the “wait and see” group. They are waiting to take a decision and it is important that they hear and see things moving. Once they take the decision to move, you have won your turnaround mission.

But constantly watch out for foxes, disguised wolves and spies.

Field experience one: who’s spying who?
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Information technology makes it complicated to track all discussions and underlying communication channels. Do you know what happens with instant messaging inside your company ? Did people create their own mailing lists so they can send mass mailings around against your initiatives?
So I got my spy. A person that forwarded me all mails that were against me so I was aware of a lot of issues and could act accordingly.
But everyone knows you can not trust a spy so I took a second person as a spy and indeed, he transmitted me mails of my first spy who was also sending messages around against my initiatives.
Roughly said, everyone was against me – but at least I knew what was going on and their discussion items.
To disable these rumours, I intensified all informal discussions by spending more time at the coffee machine to announce and explain them in detail my action plans. I also spend more time at the photocopy machine to pass some messages to the assistants.
People were nicely surprised to see me handle basic issues that were important for them and that I was open to discuss simple issues.

Field experience two: bombarding resistance
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In one of my missions, I had to deploy an important project and I needed a maximum of resources available. As one of the business units was also using our IT services and their manager was against my deployment, I could not ask this unit or its boss to lower down their business activity. I also knew the female boss of this unit would take the time to criticize me intensively during this deployment.
So I created a devilish action plan with the implementation of new quality procedures and forms to fill in. As everyone saw immediately the benefits of this initiative, it also slowed them down for some weeks giving me the availability to use some of my resources for my project. I also launched a new business initiative on group level and asked the CEO to have the head of this business unit (the enemy of my deployment project) to head that team as she was a good resource for the project and I would join her afterwards once my deployment finished. The second advantage of this project was that it would create intensive discussions between a lot of my opponents. The CEO accepted and it worked out fine as she was more than 100% occupied with this project. During the next 4 weeks, she didn’t had the time to call our services so we could execute our job with a smashing success as the whole team got a congratulation bonus for our excellent deployment.
Two weeks later, I joined the group initiative and became project leader some weeks later.

Field experience three: Annual Salary Review
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Annual salary reviews are hell as you have to negotiate with everybody and especially as you are working under a very difficult situation. As turnaround executive, you are handling several cost-cutting initiatives and suddenly, you have to dedicate the so-hard gained cash to salary increases.
Because I knew the opposition was strong and rumours were starting, I decided to act. In a first wave, I got the results of a very recent market survey on the salary levels and after verification; I knew 95% of the staff was slightly above the market value. So I arrived extremely early in the morning in the office and I putted copies on all desks so everyone had the information.
The second wave came the next day with a pamphlet that I put on some bulletin board indicating the average salary increase in our industry was 2% - while people were expecting 5 to 6%.
One week later, I got the financial report of the accounting office confirming on one side the major performance improvements we made but it also included a phrase we needed some urgent extra cost-cuttings to make the company secure. Of course, I gave a copy of his report to the unions with the message I was going to present a consistent plan for the company. I also forgot (that’s how we call it) some copies of his conclusion at the copy machine so some bypassing people could distribute the rumour around. My final proposition to the unions was to keep their social advantages and not to create a layoff plan as cost-cutting initiative.
My game allowed me to finish the annual salary review with a limited increase of 1%, completely focused to align some underpaid people.