Tipping Point Leadership

How can you overcome the hurdles facing any organisation struggling to change ?

Take lessons from US Police Chief Bill Bratton who has achieved it many times and most famously he transformed New York City from the US’s most dangerous city into its safest.

Bratton used Tipping Point Leadership to make unarguable calls for change, concentrate resources on what really mattered, mobilise key stakeholders commitment, and silenced doomsayers.

In February 1994, William Bratton was appointed police commissioner of New York City. The odds were against him. The New York Police Department , with a $2 billion budget and a workforce of 35,000 police officers, was notoriously difficult to manage. Officers were underpaid relative to their counterparts in neighbouring communities , and promotion seemed to bear little relationship to performance. Crime had got so far out of control that the press referred to the Big Apple as the Rotten Apple.

Yet in less than two years, and without an increase in his budget, Bill Bratton turned New York into the safest large city in the nation. Between 1994 and 1996, felony crime fell 39%,murders, 50% and theft, 35%. Gallup polls reported that police confidence in the NYPD went from 37% to 73%.

The changes have outlasted their architect, delivering a fundamental shift in the department’s organisational culture and strategy.

Bratton has not only transformed NYPD but has delivered successful turnarounds in now fewer than five other major US cities.

W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne are management researchers and have done work to find common elements underlying transformations of ailing organisations. Bratton deserves special mention as he succeeded in record time despite facing all four of the hurdles that managers consistently cite as blockers to high performance: an organisation wedded to the status quo,limited resources, demotivated staff, and opposition from powerful vested interests.

Kim and Mauborgne have concluded that all of Bratton’s turnarounds are textbook examples of what they have termed ‘Tipping Point Leadership’. The theory of tipping points, which has its roots in epidemiology, is well known – it hinges on the insight that in any organisation, once the beliefs and energies of a critical mass of people are engaged, conversion to a new idea will spread like an epidemic, bringing about fundamental change very quickly. The theory suggests that such a movement can be unleashed only by agents who make unforgettable and unarguable calls for change, who concentrate their resources on what really matters, who mobilise the commitment of the organisation’s key players, and who succeed in silencing the most vocal naysayers.

Tipping Point Leadership is not just a matter of personality but also of method. Tipping Point Leadership is a learnable and an applicable approach for managing change.

The Four Steps to the Tipping Point

1.Break Through the Cognitive Hurdle

To make a compelling case for change, don’t just point at the numbers and demand better ones. The abstract message won’t stick. Instead of that – Make key manager’s experience your organisation’s problems.

New York Example: New Yorkers once viewed subways as the most dangerous places in their city. But the New York Transit Police’s senior staff pooh-poohed public fears – because none had ever ridden the subway. To shatter their complacency, Bratton required all NYTP officers – himself included – to commute by subway. Seeing the jammed turnstiles, youth gangs, and derelicts, they grasped the need for change – and embraced responsibility for it.

2.Sidestep the Resource Hurdle

Rather than trimming the ambition of the change (dooming the organisation to the status quo or mediocrity) or fighting for more resources (draining attention away from the underlying problems), concentrate current resources on areas needing most needing change.

New York Example: Since the majority of subway crimes occurred at only a few stations, Bratton focussed manpower there – instead of putting a cop on every subway line, entrance , and exit.

3.Jump Start the Motivational Hurdle

To turn a mere strategy into a movement, people must recognise what needs to be done and yearn to do it themselves. But don’t try reforming the whole organisation – that’s cumbersome and expensive. Instead motivate key influencers – persuasive people with multiple connections. Like bowling kingpins hit straight on, they topple all the other pins. Most organisations have several key influencers who share common problems and concerns – making it easy to identify and motivate them.

New York Example: Bratton put the NYPD’s key influencers – precinct commanders – under a spotlight during semiweekly crime strategy review meetings, where peers and superiors grilled commanders about precinct performance. Results ? A culture of performance, accountability, and learning that commanders replicated down the ranks.

Also make challenges attainable. Bratton exhorted staff to make NYC’s streets safe “block by block, precinct by precinct, and borough by borough”.

4. Knock over the Political Hurdle

Even when organisations reach their tipping points, powerful vested interests resist change. Identify and silence naysayers early by putting a respected senior insider inside your top team.

New York Example: At the NYPD, Bratton appointed 20-year veteran cop John Timoney as his number two. Timoney knew the key players and how they played the political game. Early on, he identified likely saboteurs and resisters among top staff – prompting a changing of the guard.

Also, silence opposition with indisputable facts. When Bratton proved his proposed crime reporting system required less than 18 minutes a day, time-presurred precinct commanders

adopted it.

Break Through the Cognitive Hurdle

In many turnarounds, the hardest battle is simply getting people to agree on the cause of current problems and the need for change. A Tipping point approach does not rely on numbers to break through the organisation’s cognitive hurdles. Instead put key managers face-to face, on the shop floor with the operational problems so that managers cannot evade reality. The problems requiring change becomes something they witness rather than hear about. Communicating in this way means that the message - the problem needing to be changed – sticks with people, which is essential if they are to be convinced not only that a turnaround is necessary but that it is something they can achieve.

Sidestep the Resource Hurdle

Once an organisation accepts the need for change and more or less agree on what needs to be done, leaders are often faced with the stark reality of limited resources. It is at this point to turn to the numbers. Take a cold look at what precisely is wrong with operating practices. Do analysis of the problems and where they occur. Assess the current resource pool and assign resources to the areas that are most in need of change and have the biggest possible payoffs. Careful examination of facts and correct data to identify with empirical evidence where to target resources or investments.

Jump Start the Motivational Hurdle

Enthusing and motivating employees over the need for change and identifying how it can be achieved with limited resources are necessary for reaching an organisation’s tipping point.

If a new initiative is to become a movement employees must recognise what needs to be done and also want to do it. Getting key influencers onside and then motivated frees an organisation from the potentially long and costly process of directly trying to motivate everyone. Get a cohort of evangelists for the change initiative across the organisation to help reach out to all. Make the change manageable in bit size chunks across the hierachy of the organisation. Unless people believe the results are attainable a change initiative is unlikely to succeed. Give responsibility for the change with specific, achievable actions at each level of the organisation.

Knock over the Political Hurdle

Organisational politics is an inescapable reality in public and corporate life. It is essential to build a stakeholder engagement plan using stakeholder analysis to understand the plotting and political environment the change initiative will be operating in. Understanding the wants, needs and influence of the key stakeholders is essential. Build a broad coalition of supporters for the change initiative is imperative for its success.

References

W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne – Tipping Point Leadership - Harvard Business Review April 2003