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MayJune2015

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70 BizEd MAY | JUNE 2015 people+places When you talk about change in Stack- ing the Deck, you ask, "What will people resist? What will they embrace? What can you do to allay their fears?" What are the answers? There's a tendency for leaders to under- estimate the level of resistance that will meet bold, breakthrough change ideas. Most leaders fall in love with their new ideas and think, "Everyone's going to love this! I just need to come up with a fabulous presentation, tell people why I'm so excited, and they'll be thrilled!" And people are not thrilled. Actually, they're quite resistant. What leaders fail to understand is that they need to look at change from the vantage point of the person in the au- dience. That person is thinking, "What does this mean to me? To my job? To my level of expertise? Does this negate the 20 years I spent learning how to be- come an expert in my field?" If you're a travel agent for a large corporation, and everyone in your company starts using Expedia and Travelocity, suddenly all your contacts and sources of informa- tion don't matter any more. The switch might be good for the company, but it's not great for you. How do leaders convince workers that change really is necessary? They have to be credible, trustworthy, and vulnerable. They have to tell their own stories in intimately personal ways. Leading through change is really about someone's ability to be an inspi- rational leader. How can business schools teach the es- sential skills of change management? They have to bring in people who have been in the trenches, who can explain why change is so hard, and who can make the process realistic and human. When I teach change management, I bring in outside speakers—such as the protagonists in some of the cases I teach. I also talk about my own experiences. Change Guru LESSONS ON ACHIEVING BOLD BREAKTHROUGHS BY SHARON SHINN Long before he became CEO of Charles Schwab, David Pottruck had a job overseeing the branch network for the investment firm's 75 o'ces. At the time, Schwab di'erentiated itself from competitors by adhering to a "no sales" philosophy—clients simply came to Schwab when they had money they wanted to invest. Pottruck proposed a soft selling approach in which employees would invite new accounts to come to the o'ce and learn about Schwab's additional financial services. Employees would earn bonuses as clients invested more money, and Schwab could grow beyond its current level of US$5 billion in client assets. Pottruck saw the plan as a win-win-win for clients, employees, and the company. "Employees hated the idea," he says now. Although Schwab ultimately achieved a trillion dollars in assets as the plan was implemented, "we could have gotten there faster and with much less pain if I'd known then what I know now about leading breakthrough change." Today, Pottruck is a chairman of the wealth management firm High- Tower Advisors and an adjunct faculty member at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches students how to lead through breakthrough change. His recent book, Stacking the Deck, gathers a career's worth of insights on the same topic. Here he o'ers his thoughts about how any institution—including a business school—can implement and benefit from far-reaching and di'cult change.

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